Not only does he have his blog, he has spent a lot of time and effort in creating and maintaining three other websites. Greek, Aramaic and Theological German.

I am trying to (re)learn Greek from scratch and Michael’s site has helped immensely.

And for the brave, there is Aramaic.

And those who hate beautiful language, there is theological German.

On each site is a variety of tools such as diagrams, podcasts, songs and even flashcards.

Free.

So, if you get a chance, visit him.

By way, please pass this along, as these sites are really helpful and should be utilized by more people.

On of the Board members, Mariah Blake, recently wrote an article for Washington Monthly that takes a look at just how the board works.

The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.

Also from that article:

The ultraconservatives argued that they were too light on basics like grammar and too heavy on reading comprehension and critical thinking. “This critical-thinking stuff is gobbledygook,” grumbled David Bradley, an insurance salesman with no college degree, who often acts as the faction’s enforcer.

(thanks to Ken for that)

From the New York Times:

Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)

“The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Ms. Dunbar said.

From the HuffPost article:

Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a “constitutional republic,” rather than “democratic,” and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

…..

By late Thursday night, three other Democrats seemed to sense their futility and left, leaving Republicans to easily push through amendments heralding “American exceptionalism” and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.

…..

Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).

….

In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.

……

Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students “explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.”

If this comes to West Virginia, we will be homeschooling.

Yesterday Alternet published an article by Bill Berkowitz including an interview with me about the New Apostolic Reformation, or the “largest religious movement you never heard of.” Despite the growing political clout of its leadership, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) continues to operate under the radar of the mainstream press as well as most progressive media. Hopefully this interview will prove to be another stepping stone in making the movement more recognizable to the public.

via Talk To Action | Prayer Warriors of the New Apostolic Reformation Getting Some Exposure.

“May a school district censor a high school teacher’s expression because it refers to Judeo-Christian views, while allowing other teachers to express views on a number of controversial subjects, including religion and anti-religion?” posited U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez in his judgment. “On undisputed evidence, this court holds that it may not.”

He continued, “That God places prominently in our nation’s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson’s public high school classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God.”

Read the article here:

via Teacher wins major victory for God in school.

By the way, one of the things that the judge did say was:

“Fostering diversity,” Benitez ruled, “does not mean bleaching out historical religious expression or mainstream morality. By squelching only Johnson’s patriotic and religious classroom banners, while permitting other diverse religious and anti-religious classroom displays, the school district does a disservice to the students of Westview High School, and the federal and state constitutions do not permit this one-sided censorship.”

An expedition of Czech archaeologists has found remains of an about 150,000-year-old prehistoric settlement in Arbil, north Iraq, which has been the so far oldest uncovered in this part of northern Mesopotamia, team head Karel Novacek told reporters Friday.

The archaeologists revealed a high number of items, mainly prehistoric stone tools, about nine metres under the ground in Arbil, capital of the Kurdish autonomous region, said archaeologist Novacek, from the University of West Bohemia in Plzen.

The eight-member expedition returned from Iraq at the end of last year. The team comprised experts from the University of West Bohemia, academic and university institutions in Prague and two companies.

Read the rest:

Czech archaeologists find oldest settlement in Arbil, north Iraq | Prague Monitor.

I have some questions, but I’ll wait to see how it pans out.

An international panel of pastors and theologians is drafting a ‘manifesto’ on church unity and social justice for a new global organisation of Reformed churches.

The text is to be presented in June to the Uniting General Council (UGC) of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) in Grand Rapids, United States.

At the conclusion yesterday of a four-day consultation in Cartigny, Switzerland, the group representing churches in eight world regions approved a text calling for a clear commitment to church unity as the basis for joint action on economic and ecological justice concerns.

“What we are preparing is in effect a theological manifesto,” says Ofelia Ortega of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba who chaired the consultation. “Our intent is for UGC delegates to discuss and accept the theological foundations for joint church action in this new communion.This ‘manifesto’ will be a key element to those discussions.”….

Reformed theologians draft manifesto for economic and ecological justice | Ekklesia.

It’s a battle Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, is watching closely, “Well, if you grab the minds of the young people you grab the minds of the next generation.” Sekulow believes a child’s school board meeting is the most important governmental event a parent can plug into. “Parents don’t check their rights to raise their children at the door to the schoolhouse,” Sekulow cautions. He knows the stakes are high this week in Texas because, “This curriculum, once established, will effect a generation of students – how they think.”

Others are concerned that conservative, religious interests are attempting to stuff Texas textbooks full of their viewpoint. Barry Lynn, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State warns, “There is a whole movement to convince Americans that this was founded as a Christian nation, and that’s simply not the case.” Lynn also worries, as others do, that elected board members – and not educators – are the ones making the final curriculum decisions. “The idea of electing people to make judgments about these topics, which frankly they often known nothing about, is a terrible idea,” Lynn says.

Who Decides What’s In Your Kids’ Textbooks? « Liveshots.

CP: You talk about your struggle with the notion of hell. It doesn’t seem to sit well with you. Could you just elaborate a little bit what you believe about hell and also what the Great Commission mean to you?

McLaren: On hell, here’s the issue. That six-line narrative I talk about in the book, as interpreted by many people, suggests that every person who does not say the sinner’s prayer, personally accept Christ as their savior will spend eternity – which means absolutely forever without ever any abatement or termination – in conscious torment. So every second will be like they’re burning in fire, every second they’ll be in absolute agony, every second. And so a lot of us find that is not something you can just lightly swallow. For example, we’re so sad that 230,000 people were killed in a terrible earthquake in Haiti but that involved them suffering for a few minutes and dying. But this is every single person who’s ever lived and ever will live who isn’t part of one group. You think about someone who went through the Holocaust. They were so horribly treated by the Nazis and then the Nazis kill them and then they go to something even worse just because they weren’t Christians.

A lot of us say, when we read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and really when we read most of the Bible, the image of God that we see does not seem like an eternal torturer. So many of us Christians are asking the question and we’re not asking because we don’t want to believe. We’re asking because we get a vision of God in Jesus Christ that just doesn’t seem to match with that. And not only that but even if a Christian is comfortable with that, if you are involved in evangelism as I have been for the last 30 years of my life, over 30 years of my life on a daily basis, that question comes up again and again and again when you’re trying to share the Gospel with other people. That’s the question I’m raising.

CP: Some people evangelize by saying if you don’t believe you’ll go to hell. What is your approach to evangelism?

McLaren: I want to invite people to become followers of Jesus Christ. I want to invite them to join God in the healing of the world instead of working against God in the destruction of themselves and others in the world. I want to invite people to follow Christ into life in the Kingdom of God as opposed to just living for their own kingdom or their own agenda or living for somebody else’s destructive agenda. So I want to invite them to turn from a life of sin and separation from God and I want to invite them to follow Jesus in a life of love for God and love for neighbors.

During the first millennium, Christianity become divided among the East and the West, generally along the lines of the Godhead and finally, after the primacy of the pope, the Great Schism happened. A lot of stuff there, actually, one which I wouldn’t dare to reignite.

This is the result of a conversation with Jeremy, so blame him.

But, in looking at the development of hell, I note that West has a fully fleshed out doctrine of eternal. The West is the Roman Catholic Church and all of the Protestants which inherited the doctrine. The West also has a doctrine on purgatory. The East, the various Orthodoxies, has a hell which is more akin to the West’s purgatory, in which there is remedial punishment which is limited.

The Jewish belief, generally, follows this line of thinking. (Yes, I am away of nuances, but I am going about the issue as an overarching premise.)

Is there a connection?

Let me try to put down on my paper (or a blog post) what is meandering through the skull.

• The West was Latin, the East was Greek.
• The West was centered in Rome, a metropolitan city which inherited the Roman and Greek philosophers. The East was not centered in one city, but spread out over Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
• The West was ecclesiastically centered. The East was not. Each nation had its only ’state church’.
• The West diverted from the Semitic roots of Christianity. The East was forced to hold ties with the Semitic roots of Christianity
• Because of the geographical locations, and the changing of languages and understanding of base languages, some things were taken literal, others not. Where as the West lost the Semitic root the East was able to maintain some of it.

So, does this help to explain why the doctrine of hell developed differently in the West and the East?….because the East actually was able to retain a very slim connection to Judaism?

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

He also had an article published in Response to Robert Peterson’s case against annihilationism (see here).

NT/History Blog: About Me.

I do want to say, however, that his blog has been challenging in many areas and I would recommend him!

Click to Order

From Amazon:

The Life Recovery Bible is today’s #1-selling recovery Bible and is based on the 12-step recovery model. It was created by two of today’s leading recovery experts, David Stoop, Ph.D., and Stephen Arterburn, M.Ed., to lead readers to the source of true healing–God himself.

Features:

• New Living Translation
• Recovery Notes–Placed throughout the Bible text, these notes pinpoint passages and thoughts important to recovery
• Twelve Step Devotionals–A reading chain of 84 Bible-based devotionals tied to the Twelve Steps of recovery and placed throughout the Bible text
• Serenity Prayer Devotionals–Based on the Serenity Prayer, these devotionals provide an excellent More than 50 Bible-based devotionals create an excellent guide to recovery
• Recovery Profiles–Key Bible characters are profiled and important recovery lessons are drawn from their lives
• Recovery Reflections–Topically arranged recovery reflections pinpoint specific Scripture passages at the end of most Bible books
• Recovery Themes–Prominent recovery themes are discussed at the openings of various Bible books
• Other Features: Outlines, book histories, topical index, devotional index, book introductions, user’s guide, and a new 12-step comparison chart

You can see more post in this series here.

Approaching this as a niche bible is wrong. Approaching this as a bible only for drug and alcohol addicts is equally wrong. Instead, approach this bible as a constant companion in pointing out the rough spots in life and connecting them to the bible.

I do not like niche market bibles, and I was unsure if I would find a bible dedicated to those in recovery something more than a market scheme, but in fact, the editors of this edition have made a great effort in reaching up from the pages of this book and communicating with those who are going through life with a different path than those of us who manage without addictions (that we know of.) I have spent several weeks in reviewing the added material and found that unlike many other devotional bibles, this one reaches across the intended audience and provides something more than the standard fare. It provides an honest approach to such things as sex, drugs, alcohol, destructive behavior and those things which contribute to, even from the outside, these things.

Each book is given an introduction, with summaries, in narrative form what the book is about, stating it in terms which are applicable to a recovery lifestyle. A common outline is given, as well as a bottom line which states the purpose, author, setting, date, and gives a key verse with key people and relationships. The dating and authorship is conservative, as to be expected. Turning the page, Recovery Themes, focusing on the book itself, are given , generally three in number. A running commentary/devotional is found at the bottom of the page, connected to the verses above. Again, all are keyed to the recovery lifestyle, to showcase the battles that others have fought, trying to cast them into the light of modern, personal, wars. Throughout several of the books, there are sections dedicated to the several steps of the different programs (indexed in the appendix of the bible) which includes a bible reading, a state goal and a devotional. Also, for many of the individual books, the authors have included reflections and insights based on the book.

The appendix includes topical indexes along with an index to the added material.

While this devotional bible is intended for an audience in recovery, it is very much one for those who need a reminder that sin is something to be recovered from as well. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to be purchased for individual use as well as one to give out to those in need. If you are going to give a bible to someone who is struggling, give this one.

I want to deeply thank Tyndale House Publishers for the chance to review this product.

Freedom of Speech is protected against laws which may be created against it, not against the Marketplace or individual shouts to shut up, just so you know.

Glenn Beck has called for those of us who believe that a part of the Gospel mission is to obey the Bible in all areas, even those passages which call for helping the poor and the oppressed, to leave our churches.

Glenn Beck works for FoxNews. FoxNews is owned by NewsCorp. NewsCorp owns HarperCollins. HarperCollins owns Zondervan. Yep.

So, every time you buy a Zondervan product, it goes to support NewsCorp which finances Glenn Beck’s call not only for the destruction of this country, but now for Christianity.

If Christians are standing up against Glenn Beck, then good, but that is not enough. We should vote with our pocket-book in the area which matters to us. Zondervan has wonderful products, I imagine. I mean, I like the NIV and all, but just think, that in some way, when you buy a T/NIV or any of the other products from Zondervan, or HarperCollins for that matter, you support the only organization that can shut Glenn Beck up.

See more, here, for Christian publishers.

Do you read it as you understand it by today’s measurements and definitions, or do you read it how it was once delivered? Do the means change (not application) from generation to generation, culture to culture? Or do you believe that what Christ said still stands as He meant it, not as we today understand it?

Completely loaded question.

This Mardi Gras, Norrie received a gift that no other androgynous person in NSW has had before. The night before the parade, the postman brought a certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages that contained neither the dreaded ”M” nor its equally despised cousin, ”F”.

Instead, it said ‘’sex not specified”, making the 48-year-old Sydneysider, who identifies as neuter and uses only a first name, the first in the state to be neither man nor woman in the eyes of the NSW government. … Norrie was registered as male at birth, began hormone treatment at 23 and had surgery to become a woman – but has since ceased taking hormones, preferring to live as neither male nor female.

”It’s not a detail I think should be part of my identity,” neither he nor she said. (Norrie prefers ”zie”.)
…
A Catholic ethicist, Nicholas Tonti-Filippini from the John Paul II Institute, said birth certificates should also record no gender in such cases, updated with ”any changes to phenotypic gender”. He said there was a trend against the practice of selecting a sex for intersex children, which could mean more androgynous people in future.

Full story: Sexless in the city: a gender revolution | SMH

Where I go to church, there are members that preach social justice as members–my faith doesn’t–but the members preach social justice all the time. It is a perversion of the gospel. … You want to help out? You help out. It changes you. That’s what the gospel is all about: You.

No, the Gospel is not about the individual, Glenn. If you listen to him to you know, actually listen to him, then you are blackening your soul and while I couldn’t add it to the list of biblical sins, just yet, I am sure that at the very least, it is unChristian.

And yes, Glenn, even your church teaches social justice.

The LDS have “a vision of a different world, a world where injustice and oppression, poverty and ignorance would be dispelled and a world where men and women would be brothers and sisters” (Alexander B. Morrison, in Church News [14 Oct. 1995]: 4).

According to an LDS organization,

LDS scripture and prophetic teaching speak out strongly for social justice: for peace, equality, democracy, human rights, and wise stewardship of the earth’s resources. Latter-day Saints are enjoined to “plead the cause of the poor and the needy” (D&C 124:75) and to work towards a society in which “there [are] no poor among [us]” (Moses 7:18). We are challenged to “renounce war and proclaim peace” (D&C 98:16). The Book of Mormon teaches that “there should be an equality among all” (Mosiah 27:3) and calls us to stand against racism, gender inequity, and injustice on the principle that “black and white, bond and free, male and female;…all are alike unto God” (2 Nephi 26:33). The scriptures commend democracy, constitutional law, and human rights (Mosiah 29:26; D&C 98:5; D&C 101:77), while speaking harshly against inequity, exploitation, oppression, and violence (2 Nephi 20:1-2; 3 Nephi 24:5; D&C 38:26; Moses 8:28). Scripture teaches us that we are stewards of the earth and its resources, which should be used “with judgment, not to excess” (D&C 59:20).

Kent P. Jackson, associate dean of religion at Brigham Young University, said in an interview:

“My own experience as a believing Latter-day Saint over the course of 60 years is that I have seen social justice in practice in every L.D.S. congregation I’ve been in. People endeavor with all of our frailties and shortcomings to love one another and to lift up other people. So if that’s Beck’s definition of social justice, he and I are definitely not on the same team.”

I will tell you this, though, that the next time the missionaries come to my door, the conversation will be short.

“Hello, we are from the Church of  -”

“Wait, before you go on, I’ve got two words”

Awkward pause.

“Glenn Beck”

“Sir, we…”

“Glenn Beck”

“But we…

“Glenn Beck”

If you need a lesson in social justice, read Amos. The Gospels. The bible. The entire bible.

But I know the LORD will help those they persecute; he will give justice to the poor. (Psa 140:12 NLT)

I am not Mormon, nor am I promoting Mormonism, but Glenn is a moron (play on sounds there) and fails to understand even his own dogma and leaders.

You can read more here.

You can find a great follow up, here.

“I think if we’d asked St. Paul what he thought about Aristotle and his scheme of the virtues, he would have said about it roughly what he said about the Jewish law: it is fine up to a point and as far as it goes, but it can’t actually give what it promises. It’s like a signpost pointing in more or less the right direction (though it will need some adjustment), but without a road that actually goes there” (36).

Read the entire article on NT Wright and Grace:

After You Believe 2 – Jesus Creed.

James’ critique cuts deeper than that, however, for he challenges the very view of reality assumed by such “friends of the world.” Their speech betrays a perception of the world as a closed system of limited resources, available to their control and manipulation, yielding to their market analysis and sales campaign. When James recommends that they say “If the Lord wills it, we will both live and do this thing or that thing,” he is not recommending an empty piety, but a profoundly different understanding of reality. He challenges their construal with the perception given by faith and friendship with God; that the world is an open system, created by God at every moment, and infinitely rich in the resources provided by God for humans to exist and prosper in cooperation, rather than competition. And within this understanding, their pretension and boasting is not the symptom simply of foolish heedlessness. It is the symptom of something evil – Letter of James, pp 307-8

This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers. (1Ti 4:10 NLT)

I want to follow the same method which I used with John 12.32.

From the start, this verse appeared in Ignatius’ greeting to the church at Philippi, attached to the Lord Jesus Christ:

Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church of God which is at Philippi, which has obtained mercy in faith, and patience, and love unfeigned: Mercy and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, “who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.”

Just as a side note here, Ignatius is writing in the early 2nd century, about 110. This helps us in two areas. First, in authorship and dating of 1st Timothy, it should help to nail down that 1st Timothy was known in Asia Minor widely enough to have the most important church leader of the time, which as a bishop of Antioch followed in Peter’s footsteps, to use it and to use it expecting no controversy. Remember, this is a congregation to which Paul wrote as well and now the blessed Polycarp, a disciple of John, was leading. Secondly, it helps to show Ignatius’ Christianity was one which used not only Petrine and Johannine writings, but Pauline as well and doing so without controversy. Tertullian accused his opponents of using this verse, and others, in such as way as to ‘effeminate’ others, while pandering to God. The Latin writers was not one to shy away from a fight, but this seems to be a case in which he didn’t want people imitating the Scriptures:

“But,” say they, “God is ‘good,’ and ‘most good,’⁷ and ‘pitiful-hearted,’ and ‘a pitier,’ and ‘abundant in pitiful-heartedness,’⁸ which He holds ‘dearer than all sacrifice,’⁹ ‘not thinking the sinner’s death of so much worth as his repentance’,¹⁰ ‘a Saviour of all men, most of all of believers.’¹¹ And so it will be becoming for ‘the sons of God’¹² too to be ‘pitiful-hearted’¹³ and ‘peacemakers;’¹⁴ ‘giving in their turn just as Christ withal hath given to us;’¹ ‘not judging, that we be not judged.’² For ‘to his own lord a man standeth or falleth; who art thou, to judge another’s servant?’³ ‘Remit, and remission shall be made to thee.’”⁴ Such and so great futilities of theirs wherewith they flatter God and pander to themselves, effeminating rather than invigorating discipline, with how cogent and contrary (arguments) are we for our part able to rebut,—(arguments) which set before us warningly the “severity”⁵ of God, and provoke our own constancy? (Tertullian: Part Fourth: On Modesty)

Origen uses it against the ancient opponant, Celsus:

But since he has represented those whom he regards as worms, viz., the Christians, as saying that “God, having abandoned the heavenly regions, and despising this great earth, takes up His abode amongst us alone, and to us alone makes His announcements, and ceases not His messages and inquiries as to how we may become His associates for ever,” we have to answer that he attributes to us words which we never uttered, seeing we both read and know that God loves all existing things, and loathes² nothing which He has made, for He would not have created anything in hatred.  We have, moreover, read the declaration:  “And Thou sparest all things, because they are Thine, O lover of souls.  For Thine incorruptible Spirit is in all.  And therefore those also who have fallen away for a little time Thou rebukest, and admonishest, reminding them of their sins.”³ How can we assert that “God, leaving the regions of heaven, and the whole world, and despising this great earth, takes up His abode amongst us only,” when we have found that all thoughtful persons must say in their prayers, that “the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord,”⁴ and that “the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh;”⁵ and that God, being good, “maketh His sun to arise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth His rain upon the just and the unjust;”⁶ and that He encourages us to a similar course of action, in order that we may become His sons, and teaches us to extend the benefits which we enjoy, so far as in our power, to all men?  For He Himself is said to be the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe;⁷ and His Christ to be the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”⁸ And this, then, is our answer to the allegations of Celsus.  Certain other statements, in keeping with the character of the Jews, might be made by some of that nation, but certainly not by the Christians, who have been taught that “God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;”⁹ and although “scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.”¹ But now is Jesus declared to have come for the sake of sinners in all parts of the world (that they may forsake their sin, and entrust themselves to God), being called also, agreeably to an ancient custom of these Scriptures, the “Christ of God.” (Origen: Origen Against Celsus )

In a letter to a contemporary, Origen writes,

If any one sin, we read,² “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world,” since He is the Saviour of all men,³ especially of them that believe, who⁴ blotted out the written bond that was against us by His own blood, and took it out of the way, so that not even a trace, not even of our blotted-out sins, might still be found, and nailed it to His cross; who having put off from Himself the principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them by His cross. And we are taught to rejoice when we suffer afflictions in the world, knowing the ground of our rejoicing to be this, that the world has been conquered and has manifestly been subjected to its conqueror. Hence all the nations, released from their former rulers, serve Him, because He⁵ saved the poor from his tyrant by His own passion, and the needy who had no helper. This Saviour, then, having humbled the calumniator by humbling Himself, abides with the visible sun before His illustrious church, tropically called the moon, from generation to generation. And having by His passion destroyed His enemies,

To the same friend, Origen writes about the use in scripture of the phrase ‘of the world.’ Some were using it to mean just the Church, but Origen attempts to write against it, saying,

The reader will do well to consider what was said above and illustrated from various quarters on the question what is meant in Scripture by the word “world”; and I think it proper to repeat this. I am aware that a certain scholar understands by the world the Church alone, since the Church is the adornment of the world,¹ and is said to be the light of the world. “You,” he says,² “are the light of the world.” Now, the adornment of the world is the Church, Christ being her adornment, who is the first light of the world. We must consider if Christ is said to be the light of the same world as His disciples. When Christ is the light of the world, perhaps it is meant that He is the light of the Church, but when His disciples are the light of the world, perhaps they are the light of others who call on the Lord, others in addition to the Church, as Paul says on this point in the beginning of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he writes, “To the Church of God, with all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Should any one consider that the Church is called the light of the world, meaning thereby of the rest of the race of men, including unbelievers, this may be true if the assertion is taken prophetically and theologically; but if it is to be taken of the present, we remind him that the light of a thing illuminates that thing, and would ask him to show how the remainder of the race is illuminated by the Church’s presence in the world. If those who hold the view in question cannot show this, then let them consider if our interpretation is not a sound one, that the light is the Church, and the world those others who call on the Name. The words which follow the above in Matthew will point out to the careful enquirer the proper interpretation. “You,” it is said, “are the salt of the earth,” the rest of mankind being conceived as the earth, and believers are their salt; it is because they believe that the earth is preserved. For the end will come if the salt loses its savour, and ceases to salt and preserve the earth, since it is clear that if iniquity is multiplied and love waxes cold upon the earth,³ as the Saviour Himself uttered an expression of doubt as to those who would witness His coming, saying,⁴ “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith upon the earth?” then the end of the age will come. Supposing, then, the Church to be called the world, since the Saviour’s light shines on it–we have to ask in connection with the text, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” whether the world here is to be taken intellectually of the Church, and the taking away of sin is limited to the Church. In that case what are we to make of the saying of the same disciple with regard to the Saviour, as the propitiation for sin? “If any man sin,” we read, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world?” Paul’s dictum appears to me to be to the same effect, when he says,⁵ “Who is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful.” Again, Heracleon, dealing with our passage, declares, without any proof or any citation of witnesses to that effect, that the words, “Lamb of God,” are spoken by John as a prophet, but the words, “who taketh away the sin of the world,” by John as more than a prophet. The former expression he considers to be used of His body, but the latter of Him who was in that body, because the lamb is an imperfect member of the genus sheep; the same being true of the body as compared with the dweller in it. Had he meant to attribute perfection to the body he would have spoken of a ram as about to be sacrificed. After the careful discussions given above, I do not think it necessary to enter into repetitions on this passage, or to controvert Heracleon’s careless utterances. One point only may be noted, that as the world was scarcely able to contain Him who had emptied Himself, it required a lamb and not a ram, that its sin might be taken away.

Gregory of Nyssa writes,

If, then, every good thing and every good name, depending on that power and purpose which is without beginning, is brought to perfection in the power of the Spirit through the Only-begotten God, without mark of time or distinction (since there is no delay, existent or conceived, in the motion of the Divine will from the Father, through the Son, to the Spirit): and if Godhead also is one of the good names and concepts, it would not be proper to divide the name into a plurality, since the unity existing in the action prevents plural enumeration. And as the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe³ , is spoken of by the Apostle as one, and no one from this phrase argues either that the Son does not save them who believe, or that salvation is given to those who receive it without the intervention of the Spirit; but God who is over all, is the Saviour of all, while the Son works salvation by means of the grace of the Spirit, and yet they are not on this account called in Scripture three Saviours (although salvation is confessed to proceed from the Holy Trinity): so neither are they called three Gods, according to the signification assigned to the term “Godhead,” even though the aforesaid appellation attaches to the Holy Trinity.

This is a partial transcript from the above (ht):

The word hell has had a checkered career in the history of the church. And it wasn’t hugely important in the early days. It was important, but not nearly as important as it became in the middle ages. And the in the middle ages, you get this polarization of heaven over here and hell over there, and you have to go to one place or the other eventually. So you have the Sistine Chapel, with that great thing behind the altar. This enormous great judgment seat, with the souls going off into these different directions.

Very interestingly, I was sitting in the Sistine chapel just a few weeks ago. I was sitting for a service, and I was sitting next to a Greek Orthodox…who said to me, looking at the pictures of Jesus on one wall. He said, these I can understand. The pictures of Moses on the other wall, he said, those I can understand. Then he pointed at the end wall of judgment, and said, that I cannot understand. That’s how you in the west have talked about judgment and heaven and hell. He said, we have never done it that way before, because the Bible doesn’t do it that way.

I thought, Whoops. I think he’s right actually. And whether you’re Catholic or Protestant, that scenario which is etched into the consciousness of Western Christianity really has to be shaken about a bit. Because if heaven and earth are to join together. Its not a matter of leaving earth and going to heaven. Its heaven and earth joined together.

And hell is what happens when human beings say, the God in whose image they were made, “We don’t want to worship you. We don’t want our human life to be shaped by you. We don’t want, who we are as humans to be transformed by the love of Jesus dying and rising for us. We don’t want any of that. We want to stay as we are and do our own thing.” And if you do that, what you’re saying is you want to stop being image-bearing human being within this good world that God has made. And you are colluding with your own progressive dehumanization. And that is such a shocking and horrible thing, that its not surprising that the biblical writers and others have used very vivid and terrifying language about it.

But people have picked that up and said, “This is a literal description of reality. Somewhere down there, there is a lake of fire, and its got worms in it and its got serpents and demons and there coming to get you. But I think actually, the reality is more sober and sad than that, which is this progressive shrinking of human life. And that happens during this life, but it seems to be that if someone resolutely says to God, “I’m not going to worship you . . .” (It’s not just, “I’ll not come to church.” Its a matter of deep down somewhere, there is a rejection of the good creator God), then that is the choice humans make. In other words, I think the human choices in this life really matter. Were not just playing a game of chess, where tomorrow morning God will put the pieces back on the board and say, OK that was just a game. Now we’re doing something different. The choices we make here really do matter.

There’s part of me that would love to be a universalist, and say, “It’ll be alright. Everyone will get there in the end.” I actually . . . The choices you make in the present are more important than that.

You can check out an interview with Wright, here. Also, here as well.

1. During the First Century the primitive Christians did not dwell on matters of eschatology, but devoted their attention to apologetics; they were chiefly anxious to establish the fact of Christ’s advent, and of its blessings to the world. Possibly the question of destiny was an open one, till Paganism and Judaism introduced erroneous ideas, when the New Testament doctrine of the apokatastasis was asserted, and universal restoration became an accepted belief, as stated later by Clement and Origen, A.D. 180-230.
2. The Catacombs give us the views of the unlearned, as Clement and Origen state the doctrine of scholars and teachers. Not a syllable is found hinting at the horrors of Augustinianism, but the inscription on every monument harmonizes with the Universalism of the early fathers.
3. Clement declares that all punishment, however severe, is purificatory; that even the “torments of the damned” are curative. Origen explains even Gehenna as signifying limited and curative punishment, and both, as all the other ancient Universalists, declare that “everlasting” (aionion) punishment, is consonant with universal salvation. So that it is no proof that other primitive Christians who are less explicit as to the final result, taught endless punishment when they employ the same terms.
4. Like our Lord and his Apostles, the primitive Christians avoided the words with which the Pagans and Jews defined endless punishment aidios or adialeipton timoria (endless torment), a doctrine the latter believed, and knew how to describe; but they, the early Christians, called punishment, as did our Lord, kolasis aionios, discipline, chastisement, of indefinite, limited duration.
5. The early Christians taught that Christ preached the Gospel to the dead, and for that purpose descended into Hades. Many held that he released all who were in ward. This shows that repentance beyond the grave, perpetual probation, was then accepted, which precludes the modern error that the soul’s destiny is decided at death.
6. Prayers for the dead were universal in the early church, which would be absurd, if their condition is unalterably fixed at the grave.
7. The idea that false threats were necessary to keep the common people in check, and that the truth might be held esoterically, prevailed among the earlier Christians, so that there can be no doubt that many who seem to teach endless punishment, really held the broader views, as we know the most did, and preached terrors pedagogically.
8. The first comparatively complete systematic statement of Christian doctrine ever given to the world was by Clement of Alexandria, A.D. 180, and universal salvation was one of the tenets.
9. The first complete presentation of Christianity as a system was by Origen (A.D. 220) and universal salvation was explicitly contained in it.
10. Universal salvation was the prevailing doctrine in Christendom as long as Greek, the language of the New Testament, was the language of Christendom.
11. Universalism was generally believed in the best centuries, the first three, when Christians were most remarkable for simplicity, goodness and missionary zeal.
12. Universalism was least known when Greek, the language of the New Testament was least known, and when Latin was the language of the Church in its darkest, most ignorant, and corrupt ages.
13. Not a writer among those who describe the heresies of the first three hundred years intimates that Universalism was then a heresy, though it was believed by many, if not by a majority, and certainly by the greatest of the fathers.
14. Not a single creed for five hundred years expresses any idea contrary to universal restoration, or in favor of endless punishment.
15. With the exception of the arguments of Augustine (A.D. 420), there is not an argument known to have been framed against Universalism for at least four hundred years after Christ, by any of the ancient fathers.
16. While the councils that assembled in various parts of Christendom, anathematized every kind of doctrine supposed to be heretical, no oecumenical council, for more than five hundred years, condemned Universalism, though it had been advocated in every century by the principal scholars and most revered saints.
17. As late as A.D. 400, Jerome says “most people” (plerique). and Augustine “very many” (quam plurimi), believed in Universalism, notwithstanding that the tremendous influence of Augustine, and the mighty power of the semi-pagan secular arm were arrayed against it.
18. The principal ancient Universalists were Christian born and reared, and were among the most scholarly and saintly of all the ancient saints.
19. The most celebrated of the earlier advocates of endless punishment were heathen born, and led corrupt lives in their youth. Tertullian one of the first, and Augustine, the greatest of them, confess to having been among the vilest.
20. The first advocates of endless punishment, Minucius Felix, Tertullian and Augustine, were Latins, ignorant of Greek, and less competent to interpret the meaning of Greek Scriptures than were the Greek scholars.
21. The first advocates of Universalism, after the Apostles, were Greeks, in whose mother-tongue the New Testament was written. They found their Universalism in the Greek Bible. Who should be correct, they or the Latins?
22. The Greek Fathers announced the great truth of universal restoration in an age of darkness, sin and corruption. There was nothing to suggest it to them in the world’s literature or religion. It was wholly contrary to everything around them. Where else could they have found it, but where they say they did, in the Gospel?
23. All ecclesiastical historians and the best Biblical critics and scholars agree to the prevalence of Universalism in the earlier centuries.
24. From the days of Clement of Alexandria to those of Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia (A.D. 180-428), the great theologians and teachers, almost without exception, were Universalists. No equal number in the same centuries were comparable to them for learning and goodness.
25. The first theological school in Christendom, that in Alexandria, taught Universalism for more than two hundred years.
26. In all Christendom, from A.D. 170 to 430, there were six Christian schools. Of these four, the only strictly theological schools, taught Universalism, and but one endless punishment.
27. The three earliest Gnostic sects, the Basilidians, the Carpocratians and the Valentinians (A.D. 117-132) are condemned by Christian writers, and their heresies pointed out, but though they taught Universalism, that doctrine is never condemned by those who oppose them. Irenaeus condemned the errors of the Carpocratians, but does not reprehend their Universalism, though he ascribes the doctrine to them.
28. The first defense of Christianity against Infidelity (Origen against Celsus) puts the defense on Universalistic grounds. Celsus charged the Christians’ God with cruelty, because he punished with fire. Origen replied that God’s fire is curative; that he is a “Consuming Fire,” because he consumes sin and not the sinner.
29. Origen, the chief representative of Universalism in the ancient centuries, was bitterly opposed and condemned for various heresies by ignorant and cruel fanatics. He was accused of opposing Episcopacy, believing in pre-existence, etc., but never was condemned for his Universalism. The very council that anathematized “Origenism” eulogized Gregory of Nyssa, who was explicitly a Universalist as was Origen. Lists of his errors are given by Methodius, Pamphilus and Eusebius, Marcellus, Eustathius and Jerome, but Universalism is not named by one of his opponents. Fancy a list of Ballou’s errors and his Universalism omitted; Hippolytus (A.D. 320) names thirty-two known heresies, but Universalism is not mentioned as among them. Epiphanius, “the hammer of heretics,” describes eighty heresies, but he does not mention universal salvation, though Gregory of Nyssa, an outspoken Universalist, was, at the time he wrote, the most conspicuous figure in Christendom.
30. Justinian, a half-pagan emperor, who attempted to have Universalism officially condemned, lived in the most corrupt epoch of the Christian centuries. He closed the theological schools, and demanded the condemnation of Universalism by law; but the doctrine was so prevalent in the church that the council refused to obey his edict to suppress it. Lecky says the age of Justinian was “the worst form civilization has assumed.”
31. The first clear and definite statement of human destiny by any Christian writer after the days of the Apostles, includes universal restoration, and that doctrine was advocated by most of the greatest and best of the Christian Fathers for the first five hundred years of the Christian Era.

It is therefore quite in keeping with this order of things, that that part of our nature should be the first to have the recompense and reward to which they are due on account of its priority. In short, inasmuch as we understand “the prison” pointed out in the Gospel to be Hades, and as we also interpret “the uttermost farthing” to mean the very smallest offence which has to be recompensed there before the resurrection,10 no one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline, without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection, when the recompense will be administered through the flesh besides.- Treatise of the Soul LVIII