Redeeming Theology Archives - Page 32 of 74

My new book on the Non-Violent Atonement was released yesterday. It is called The Atonement of God, and you can (#AmazonAdLink) buy it on Amazon.

The book begins with a summary of three views on the atonement, and then I define and defend a fourth view, which is a Non-Violent view of the atonement.

The basic idea of a Non-Violent view of the atonement is that God did not want or need the death of Jesus in order to offer grace or forgiveness of sins. Yes, Jesus died a violent death, but it was not to satisfy an angry God. Instead, Jesus died for completely different reasons (which are explained in the book).

(#AmazonAdLink) Following this explanation of the Non-Violent atonement, I provide 10 areas of theology that are affected by the Non-Violent atonement.

Here they are with a brief summary of each.

1. The Non-Violent Atonement Brings Continuity to the Life of Jesus

Everything Jesus did was Non-Violent. Yes, Jesus was aggressive, but He never harmed another human being, or encouraged others to do so. A Non-Violent atonement helps us see that Jesus what Jesus accomplished on the cross was right in line with the way He lived the rest of His life as well.

2. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about God

Does Jesus fully reveal God to us or not? Jesus claimed that He did, and other New Testament writers believed so as well John 1:14, 18; 14:9-11; 2 Cor 4:4; Php 2:6; Col 1:15; Heb 1:2-3.

But if God is violent, and Jesus does not reveal the violent side of God to us, this means that Jesus is a faulty revelation of God. The better option is to believe that Jesus does reveal God to us, and God looks just like a Non-Violent Jesus.

3. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Scripture

But if God is Non-Violent like Jesus is Non-Violent, then what are we to do with all the violent portrayals of God in Scripture? I do not write them off as hopelessly in error. I continue to hold to an inerrantist position on Scripture, and argue that the violent portrayals of God in Scripture accurately reveal the heart of man instead of the heart of God.

4. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Sacrifice

If Scripture reveals the heart of man instead of the heart of God, then this helps us make sense of the conflicting statements in Scripture about sacrifice. God does not want sacrifice and never did. We wanted it.

5. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Humans

The truth from Scripture is that God is not violent, but humans are. We are the violent ones. And we justify our violence by blaming it on God.

6. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Sin

The reason God tells us not to sin, is not because He is angry at us about sin, or will be angry with us if we sin. No, God tells us not to sin because in hurts and damages us. He loves us and does not want to see us hurt.

7. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Forgiveness

God’s forgiveness has always been completely free. There have never been any conditions for God’s forgiveness. God does not need sacrifice in order to extend forgiveness. He simply forgives, just as Jesus does on the cross.

8. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Justice

Christians often teach that “God is a God of love and forgiveness, but He is also a God of justice.” This chapter shows how wrong that idea is. Unconditional love and forgiveness are incompatible with justice. You can have one or the other, but you cannot have both.

9. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Violence

As we begin to bring the book to a close, this chapter shows why God inspired a book (the Bible) which is so full of violence. The reason is because violence is such a huge human problem, God wanted to reveal that we humans are the source and cause of violence. We are in desperate need of this revelation from God, which is why God gave us the Bible.

10. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Way to Peace

But if the violence is the problem, then peace is the cure. The Bible doesn’t just tell us that we are violent, but also shows us the way to peace, which is the way of love and forgiveness.

I am really excited about this book. Studying about the Non-Violent atonement and writing this book transformed my theology, and I know that if you read it, your life and theology will also be transformed. (#AmazonAdLink) Get your copy today on Amazon.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!

1 Year of Redeeming God

By Jeremy Myers

5 Comments

RedeemingGod.com is One Year old today! Yay!

And over the past year, do you know what I have realized?

This:

You are the BEST readers in the theology blogging world!

Seriously. I love you! Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for supporting this site. Thank you. You are great.

I wish I could sit down over a cup of coffee to get to know each and every one of you.

Of course, that would take quite a bit of time since RedeemingGod.com had over 2,000,000 pageviews this past year from 1,279,414 readers.

That’s right, over 2,000,000 articles were read on RedeemingGod.com in the last 12 months.

I don’t say this to boast in the blog, but to boast in you. I am extremely grateful to have you as a reader of this blog. Whatever success this blog has, YOU have a big part in making it happen. So thank you!

But you know what I appreciate about you even more? That this isn’t a site for you to just read articles, but it is also a place where you share your own ideas and interact with each other. We have a growing and vibrant and diverse online community here.

I mean, there are over 26,000 comments on the blog.

While we don’t always agree on everything, we still discuss it and learn from each other. That’s why I love you!

So I am humbled and grateful. Thank you again!

I think that what this shows is that people are hungry for insights into the character of God and how to understand Scripture which do not chain them ever more tightly to religion.

If you are like most people in the community here, you love God, love Scripture, love theology, and love to follow Jesus in loving others, but are tired of the rules and lies and manipulation of religion.

Thank you for being part of this growing movement of God in the world, and for joining me on this journey out of religion and into a closer relationship with Jesus in which we learn to love others as we have been loved.

Some highlights from this past year

I actually reduced the frequency of my blog posts.

For several years I was publishing 7 days a week. Then I reduced it to 5. When I started this blog, I dropped down to 2 per week. Recently I have been averaging only 1.

The reason for this is some of you mentioned that I was writing too much for you to keep up. I know you are busy, and it was too much to read 5-7 posts per week. Since I know you don’t want to miss anything, I reduced my publishing frequency.

But this enabled me to do other things.

Reducing my blogging frequency also gave me more time for writing books. In the past year, I wrote 4 full-length books. I hope to publish all 4 this year… My book on the atonement is coming out next week…

I also started a podcast. Actually, two podcasts. One is the One Verse Podcast, in which we are studying through Scripture one verse at a time. We are currently in Genesis 2, and I have over 500 years to go before we finish with the Bible. The other podcast is on Theology.fm. One of the Theology.fm episodes last week received 129 comments. Of course, about 120 of those were from one person…

Things to look for in this coming year

I want to publish several books:
–The Atonement of God (Coming out next week!)
-Genesis 1 (100% written)
-The Unforgivable Sin (Revised and Expanded, 80% written)
-The Gospel According to Scripture (80% written)
-Pastoral Leadership (100% written)
-Close Your Church for Good (100% written)
-The Bible Mirror (20% written)
-Commentary on Esther (100% written)
-Jesus among Other Religions (10% written)
-A “Redeeming God” book series on the topic of divine violence (30% written)

I will not be able to publish all these in one year. I wish I could, but I simply don’t have the time or resources. Hopefully I can get out the 100% written books as they just need to be edited, typeset, and published.

I am also going to making some online theology courses available. Teaching is something I love to do and I want to share with you some of the things I have learned over the past 30 years of reading, studying, and teaching. I am going to start with a course on the Gospel. I am about half way through recording this course. So far, it includes 10 classes that average about 45 minutes each.

To get notified of these books and online theology courses, make sure you have signed up to receive my email newsletter.

Thanks for a great first year of RedeemingGod.com. I am looking forward to whatever God has for all of us in the year ahead.

We do NOT serve a bloodthirsty God

By Jeremy Myers

12 Comments

My new book on the atonement is almost out! One week to go…

I have about 30 people reading through portions of my book on the atonement right now. So far, the feedback has been encouraging. Nobody has the whole book (except my wife) and everybody who has read portions of it says they cannot wait to read the rest.

Though there appears to be blood all over the cover, the message of the book is that God does not demand or want blood, and Jesus did not die to appease a bloodthirsty God. In fact, the cross of Jesus reveals that God has never required blood to offer forgiveness of sins.

If you are curious how God can forgive sins and rescue us from death without demanding the bloody death of Jesus, you will want to read this book.

I have been reading, teaching, and writing A LOT these past several years on the violence of God in the Bible, and this book also provides the beginning place for understanding these violent, bloody texts in Scripture.

If you want to read a brief excerpt, Brad Jersak posted a bit of it on The Clarion Journal, his online theology blog. Click that link to go read it.

The book officially is released on March 21, so stay tuned for more information as we get closer!

This is my BEST book yet!

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

I have sent my next book to the printers… The book is called The Atonement of God, and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.

And I am SO excited, because I believe this is my best book yet.

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I have been struggling with the violence of God in the Bible. About 5 years ago, I thought I had a solution to this problem, and started writing a book to present it. I wrote 200,000 words before giving up.

But in the process, I developed a different solution. I am not quite ready to publish a book on THAT solution, but this book which is now available for pre-order from Amazon contains a large part of the solution. This book forms the foundation for that future book.

If you sort of read between the lines of the book, my solution to the problem of the violence of God in the Bible is in this book, but it is not really stated explicitly.

Instead, this book really just presents Jesus as the solution to it all, and shows how a proper understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus helps sort out a lot of other areas of theology as well.

The book ships on March 21, so order your copy today!

The 100 Top Christian Blogs

By Jeremy Myers

454 Comments

Below is a list of the 100 Top Christian Blogs. If you made it onto this list of top Christian blogs … congratulations! Please let others know with the sharing buttons above.

About this list of the 100 Top Christian Blogs

To make this list of top Christian blogs, I gathered and inspected about 500 Christian blogs and ranked them using a variety of factors. Some of the blogs I inspected are listed below the list of the 100 Top Christians blogs.

I will update this list occasionally, so if you want your blog to be considered for future ranking, and your blog is not listed below the list of 100 Top Christian blogs, please include a link to your blog in the comment section. Thanks!

Oh, and do I need to say it?

I guess so… sigh…

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily endorse all the views or perspectives of the bloggers on this list. The list contains many Christian bloggers who write from theological perspectives with which I have some disagreement.

Like who? (Let’s see who I can offend…) Calvinists, Charismatics, Conservative Baptists, and Catholics, just to name a few. Remember, I, Jeremy Myers, am the ONLY correct blogger in the world. (I’m KIDDING!)

Anyway, if someone is on the list of Top Christian blogs and you think they are a heretic, don’t burn me for it! Go be a troll on their site… (I’m kidding again!)

How I Created the List of 100 Top Christian Blogs

Below is an explanation of how I went about ranking these 100 Top Christian Blogs.

First, I gathered the list of Christian blogs using these sites:

Kent Shaffer’s Top Christian Blogs
Jared Moore’s List of Christian Blogs
Top Christian Blogs ranked by Twitter Followers
Top Christian Blogs ranked by Facebook Likes
NewsMax Top 75 Religious Blogs

Second, I removed all “Community Blogs” which had multiple authors. This caused all blogs from Patheos, the Gospel Coalition, and other similar blogs to be dropped from the list. The reason I did this twofold. Many of these community blogs are not accurately ranked by Alexa and SimilarWeb, which are two of the ranking factors I used (see below). But more than this, I wanted this list to honor the individual blogger who started his or her blog from scratch, and has labored away at it for years, slowly building an audience and faithfully writing quality posts which get read and shared. Those huge mega community blogs often overshadow the quality writing and hard work of individual bloggers. So if a blogger was writing on a community blog, I kept them off my list.

Finally, once I had my list of individual bloggers, I ranked them using a variety of factors. These factors include:

Traffic Rank on Alexa
Traffic Rank on SimilarWeb
Back link Count (shows people are linking to your content)
Pages Indexed by Google (shows that the blogger is writing a lot)
A variety of other traffic and social signals

The ranking number in the list below is a compilation of these ranking signals. The lower the number, the better the blog ranks.

How to get on this list of Top Christian Blogs

If you are not on this list and you want to work toward getting on it, or if you are on it and want to know what you can do to rise in the ranks of these top Christian blogs, here are six recommendations:

If you are are on a “free” blogging platform (like Blogger.com or WordPress.com), move over to a “self-hosted” site with Knownhost or Bluehost. It’s only a few dollars per month, and you will be set up for success. If you already have a blog, both companies can help you migrate.
Once you have your blog set up properly, make sure it loads fast and looks good. If you don’t do this, people won’t read it. I recommend WP Rocket to help it load fast and StudioPress themes to make it look good.
Write regular blog posts with great content. I recommend 1-3 blog posts per week, with at least 500 words each. Use the free Yoast SEO plugin to help you write your posts.
Read and leave comments on popular blogs (like this one!). By reading blogs you learn how to write a blog, and commenting is a great way to gain readers for your own blog.
Get a WordPress plugin like Social Network Auto Poster to help your posts get listed on social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others.
One of the primary keys to getting traffic is to get links to your blog from other blogs. One of the best ways to do this is to join the Synchroblog. You will get several backlinks each and every month that you participate.

Here then, are the 100 Top Christian Blogs

100 Top Christian Blogs

Rank	Score	Blog Title and Link	Blogger Name
1	217,403	Challies	Tim Challies
2	311,841	A Holy Experience	Ann Voskamp
3	312,177	Fr. Z’s Blog	John Zuhlsdorf
4	480,359	LifeChurch.tv : swerve	Craig Groeschel
5	483,757	Albert Mohlers Blog	Albert Mohler
6	543,006	Thom Rainer	Thom Ranier
7	555,477	Redeeming God	Jeremy Myers
8	569,004	Storyline	Donald Miller
9	639,219	Rachel Held Evans	Rachel Held Evans
10	708,606	Blog and Mablog	Doug Wilson
11	716,321	Alpha & Omega Ministries	James White
12	771,432	James MacDonald	James MacDonald
13	822,726	Insight	Grahame Knox
14	908,354	XXXChurch.com	Craig Gross
15	912,195	Mark Driscoll	Mark Driscoll
16	930,966	Jarrid Wilson	Jarrid Wilson
17	932,673	Ron Edmondson	Ron Edmondson
18	987,589	Moore to the Point	Russell Moore
19	1,009,976	Living Proof	Beth Moore
20	1,040,981	Biblical Studies	Rob Bradshaw
21	1,180,360	Red Letter Christians	Tony Campolo & Shane Claiborne
22	1,185,542	Jen Hatmaker	Jen Hatmaker
23	1,242,598	The Naked Bible	Michael S. Heiser
24	1,267,270	Beyond Evangelical	Frank Viola
25	1,323,223	ReKnew	Greg Boyd
26	1,344,629	Denny Burk	Denny Burk
27	1,465,513	Christianity Cove	Mary-Kate
28	1,494,946	Liturgy	Bosco Peters
29	1,508,259	Experimental Theology	Richard Beck
30	1,515,386	Head Heart Hand	David Murray
31	1,584,527	Frame & Poythress	John Frame & Vern Poythress
32	1,612,339	Reclaiming the Mission	David Fitch
33	1,658,756	Worship Matters	Bob Kauflin
34	1,660,143	Perry Noble	Perry Noble
35	1,672,051	Canon Fodder	Michael J. Kruger
36	1,707,579	The American Jesus	Zack Hunt
37	1,749,053	J.D. Greear	J.D. Greear
38	1,766,833	Andy Naselli	Andy Naselli
39	1,797,475	What’s Best Next	Matt Perman
40	1,862,063	Tony Morgan Live	Tony Morgan
41	1,891,059	Margaret Feinberg	Margaret Feinberg
42	1,963,329	Lifestream	Wayne Jacobsen
43	1,985,895	Zwinglius Redivivus	Jim West
44	2,035,457	Blogging Theologically	Aaron Armstrong
45	2,112,811	Sarah Bessey	Sarah Bessey
46	2,304,695	Faith and Theology	Ben Myers
47	2,309,572	Communicate Jesus	Steve Kryger
48	2,310,092	Reading Acts	Phillip Long
49	2,318,301	Growing Kids Ministry	Lindsey Whitney
50	2,407,916	Stuff Christians Like	Jon Acuff
51	2,541,554	The Very Worst Missionary	Jamie Wright
52	2,617,350	Borrowed Light	Mike Leake
53	2,755,792	Courageous Christian Father	Steve Patterson
54	2,769,134	Larry Hurtado’s Blog	Larry Hurtado
55	2,808,869	Sayable	Lore Ferguson
56	2,864,393	DJ Chuang	DJ Chuang
57	2,873,396	Stuff Fundies Like	Darrell
58	2,937,119	Brian McLaren	Brian McLaren
59	3,023,294	Unsettled Christianity	Joel L. Watts
60	3,026,191	Matthew Paul Turner	Matthew Paul Turner
61	3,061,236	Skye Box	Skye Jethani
62	3,069,675	Living By Faith Blog	Steve Fuller
63	3,217,964	Everyday Theology	Marc Cortez
64	3,249,355	Sam Luce	Sam Luce
65	3,280,570	Counseling Solutions	Rick Thomas
66	3,326,531	Adam McLane	Adam McLane
67	3,327,471	Kingdom in the Midst	Marty Duren
68	3,345,392	DashHouse.com	Darryl Dash
69	3,402,962	Pastor Joe McKeever	Joe McKeever
70	3,455,879	Anita Mathias	Anita Mathias
71	3,472,536	Curious Christian	Matt Stone
72	3,485,259	For His Renown	Jim Hamilton
73	3,486,291	Church Leader Insights	Nelson Searcy
74	3,649,485	Nathan W. Bingham	Nathan W. Bingham
75	3,660,524	Cerulean Sanctum	Dan Edelen
76	3,710,383	Redeemed Reader	J.B. Cheaney & Emily A. Whitten
77	3,716,394	Thinking Out Loud	Paul Wilkinson
78	3,745,997	Hip and Thigh	Fred Butler
79	3,765,303	Claude Mariottini	Claude Mariottini
80	3,785,440	RJ Grune	RJ Grunewald
81	3,819,892	Religious Affections	Scott Aniol
82	3,918,927	Christian Apologetics	Maryann Spikes
83	3,974,189	John Shore	John Shore
84	4,015,635	Istoria Ministries Blog	Wade and Rachelle Burleson
85	4,087,774	NT Resources	Rod Decker
86	4,096,481	Daniel Darling	Daniel Darling
87	4,116,167	A Place For the God-Hungry	Jim Martin
88	4,117,044	Pomomusings	Adam Walker Cleaveland
89	4,134,643	RPM Ministries Blog	Bob Kellemen
90	4,150,303	Will Mancini	Will Mancini
91	4,160,043	Daniel Wallace	Daniel Wallace
92	4,234,680	Counseling One Another	Paul Tautges
93	4,285,168	Ragamuffin Soul	Carlos Whittaker
94	4,339,169	Joe Thorn	Joe Thorn
95	4,349,304	Chuck Warnock	Chuck Warnock
96	4,504,781	Eugene Cho	Eugene Cho
97	4,544,392	WithoutWax	Pete Wilson
98	4,554,264	Kathy Escobar	Kathy Escobar
99	4,620,367	Fundamentally Reformed	Bob Hayton
100	4,668,710	On the Box	Ray Comfort

Previous Lists of Top Christian Bloggers

This is the second annual list of Top Christian Bloggers. Below is a link to the Previous list:

How to get on this list of Top Christian Blogs

I mentioned these above, but let me reiterate it here:

Hone your blogging skills by watching my free Blogging Tutorial Videos
Add the Alexa Traffic Rank Extension to your preferred web browser.
Read and leave comments on popular blogs (like this one!). By reading blogs you learn how to write a blog, and commenting is a great way to gain readers for your own blog.
Get a Premium WordPress blog theme that is mobile responsive. Most blog readers are reading on mobile devices these days. I only use StudioPress themes.
Get a WordPress plugin like Social Network Auto Poster to help your posts get listed on social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others.
Write, write, write, and write some more!

10 Ways the Non-Violent God Changes Your Life and Theology

1. The Non-Violent Atonement Brings Continuity to the Life of Jesus

2. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about God

3. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Scripture

4. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Sacrifice

5. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Humans

6. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Sin

7. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Forgiveness

8. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Justice

9. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Truth about Violence

10. The Non-Violent Atonement Reveals the Way to Peace

1 Year of Redeeming God

Some highlights from this past year

Things to look for in this coming year

We do NOT serve a bloodthirsty God

This is my BEST book yet!

The 100 Top Christian Blogs

About this list of the 100 Top Christian Blogs

How I Created the List of 100 Top Christian Blogs

How to get on this list of Top Christian Blogs

100 Top Christian Blogs

Previous Lists of Top Christian Bloggers

How to get on this list of Top Christian Blogs

Theological Study Archives

Bible Study Archives

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