Spiritual Archaeology

Could we learn anything about God's overarching plans by tracking evil in the world? A "yes" to this would require a few assumptions: (1) The forces of evil are in a good position to know God's plans (2) the forces of evil expend most of their resources to thwart what they take to be God's plans (3) we can determine where the forces of evil expend most of their resources. So, we look around and determine where the forces of evil have been most active. Someone could point to the Holocaust and terrorism against the State of Israel and her allies and conclude that evil is most pronounced in destroying the Jewish people, satisfying (3). Then, by (2) we conclude that the forces of evil believe that the Jewish people figure in God's plans in some way. Finally, by (1) we conclude that the Jewish people really do figure in God's overarching plans. If true, this spiritual archaeology could be witness to a source for theological truth.

I don't like the "new" in the "New Perspective"

It's too bad the "New Perspective on Paul" is saddled with the term "new". If there is one way to make Evangelicals squirm is to call something "new" ("New Age"). The irony of course is that the "New Testament" is immune from this prejudice. In the case of Paul, new-phobia is unfortunate because the New Perspective is really aimed at recovering the old Paul, the Paul before the newer Pauls of Augustine, Luther, Calvin et. al.--which to 2000+AD Evangelicals appear to be the old, true Paul. The New Perspective particularly hits home in Evangelical circles because the issues involved do not hinge on presuppositions that Evangelicals would necessarily disagree with (unless of course the issue is whether Paul truly wrote this or that letter--but even here the New Perspective usually concentrates on those letters which are not in question). This is not true with Historical Jesus research. We could call the movement the "True Perspective" but that comes across as arrogant. Anyway, we seem to be stuck with "new", so maybe we need some new strategies to overcome new-phobia.

Welcome

This is the first blog of the Gospel Beyond Belief. We hope that you will strengthen your relationship with God and help advance the Kingdom. Please visit our official site: http://sites.google.com/site/gospelbeyondbelief We want to keep the Gospel Beyond Belief as positive as possible, but it is an alternative to a version of Christianity that needs to be reformed. Ironically, the Gospel Beyond Belief is in large part a reaction to the Protestant Reformation. Many Evangelical Christians do not realize how their picture of Christianity is the product of the Protestant Reformation, good or bad. But the time has come for Evangelicals to start critically thinking and not turn Christianity into a war of propaganda. God bless all of you!