Confusing Violence, Scapegoating, & The Cross - Vince Brackett

If Jesus’ death on the Cross is just a confusingly violent picture of a God that requires punishment for his plan to work, Vince feels unsettled. But if Jesus’ death on the Cross is a picture of a loving and self-sacrificial God that chooses solidarity with scapegoats instead of solidarity with the powerful, then Vince finds himself pulled out of his small life and into a big and inspiring story. And he needs that!

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The Bible As A Resource, Not An Obstacle: Abraham & Isaac - Kyle Hanawalt

Insisting that millennia-old stories can speak plainly to a modern day context is one of the major reasons many people find the Bible an obstacle. Take the story of Abraham & Isaac, for example: to modern readers, this is a troubling story about a God who almost had a child sacrificed. Its’ really hard to get beyond that. BUT, to its original audience, this story communicated something very different. Could that communicate something different to us modern readers too?

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