think about the way God rules. He doesn't do it by sending in the tanks. He does it by calling servants.

Heard in full sound, the Gospels tell about the establishment of a theocracy, and portray what theocracy looks like with Jesus as king.

Arguments about God are like pointing a flashlight toward the sky to see if the sun is shining.

God's plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was "very good." Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does he will raise all his people to new bodily life to live in it. That is the promise of the Christian gospel.

Death is the ultimate weapon of the tyrant; resurrection does not make a covenant with death, it overthrows it.

Funny but, for me, the Bible was a hobby before it was a serious study. It was the thing I'd sneak off and do on the side, feeling rather guilty because I wasn't doing my real school homework or whatever... and never thinking I would make it a life's work.

Fortunately, Paul is much more interesting than most of his interpreters, myself included.