Bible and Theology on Human Condition

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Every human being, each in their own way, has the same glory, and this glory is incomparably greater than the glory of any distinction they could struggle themselves into.

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"Remember: You are Human."

Author

Christian Meier

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Scripture

James 4:1-10, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Mark 7:20-23, Proverbs 15:25-33, Proverbs 16:18, 1 Samuel 18:null, Luke 18:9-11

When Julius Caesar returned to Rome after many years of fighting its battles abroad, he planned great festivities and triumphal processions to celebrate his victories over Gaul, Egypt, Pontos, and Afr...

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Bearing the Family Likeness

Author

Vaughan Roberts

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Scripture

Genesis 1:27

The anthropologist Desmond Morris has written: ‘Human beings are animals. They are sometimes monsters, sometimes magnificent, but always animals.’ That statement is correct as far as it goes. We are c...

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Total Depravity Explained: Humanity's Devolution

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T.C. Hammond

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Scripture

Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:9-18, Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 19:25-26, Ephesians 2:5

Some skeptics today speak about “evolving” from a primitive condition, but the Bible (Romans 1:18-32) sadly portrays a descent rather than an ascent. The result has been given the theological term “...

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Author

Theodore Parker Ferris

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[Speaking of crucifixion] It seems almost inevitable to me that Jesus should go through this kind of darkness. . . . If you think of Jesus as God disguised as a man, then this will have no meaning for...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

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Scripture

Philippians 2:5-8, Isaiah 53:2-3, Luke 22:27, Mark 10:45, John 13:14-15

St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ, the revelation of God become human, “set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It wa...

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Stories Teach Us about How the World Works

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Steven Sloman

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A good story goes beyond just describing what actually happened. It tells us about how the world works more broadly, in ways that pertain to things that didn’t actually happen or at least haven’t happ...

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The Image of God Is Far too Rich to be Contained in a Single Person

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Irwyn L. Ince Jr.

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This is the beautiful community that Herman Bavinck gets at when he writes, The image of God is much too rich for it to be fully realized in a single human being, however richly gifted that human bein...

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The Perversion of Pleasure

Author

Jared C. Wilson

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Scripture

Genesis 1:31, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, James 1:17, Romans 1:25, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalm 16:11, 1 Timothy 6:17

In his classic fictional work on spiritual warfare, The Screwtape Letters , C. S. Lewis imagined a senior demon (Screwtape) corresponding with one of his protégés (his nephew Wormwood) as the latte...

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E. F. Schumacher

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Scripture

Matthew 5:48, 1 John 3:2-3, Galatians 5:16-17, Philippians 3:13-14, Colossians 3:1-2, Ephesians 4:22-24

The scholastics used to say: Homo non proprie humanus sed superhumanus est —which means that to be properly human, you must go beyond the merely human.

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Author

Dallas Willard

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The natural condition of life for human beings is one of reciprocal rootedness in others.

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Dealing With Difficult Bible Passages

Author

Frederick Buechner

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Have you ever found yourself reading the Bible and you came across a scene that is horrific, filled with awful violence or scheming swindlers or ethical blunders, and you find yourself unsure what to ...

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For Whom the Bell Tolls

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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While lying in bed due to a serious illness, the poet and pastor John Donne heard over and over again the funeral bells at his church, which would ring to announce the death of someone in the parish. ...

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Author

Paul Tillich

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The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is "ambiguity": the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the crea...

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Author

Jay Bennett

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Joy

Joy is a human condition which God Himself has designed for each of us. As we experience joy, we come to understand how it transcends the ups and downs of life on planet earth and offers peace and ass...

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Life Without Hope of Resurrection: An Atheist’s Explanation of the Human Condition

Author

Bertrand Russell

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Scripture

John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139:13-14, Romans 8:38-39, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Revelation 21:4

Sometimes it is helpful to see what life looks like on the other side of faith, that is, for those who believe that God does not exist. Bertrand Russell, the renowned philosopher and avowed atheist, h...

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Good Friday

Author

Jonathan Cornell

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Scripture

Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9, Hebrews 5:7-9

Ancient Lens What Can We Learn From the Historical Context? Old and New Testaments Meet Hebrews is a rich tapestry of intricately woven theology that spans the Old and New Testaments. With Christ...

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Ephesians 2:1-22 | From Death to Life in God’s Family

Author

Bradley Long

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Scripture

Ephesians 2:1-22

Context Standard Letter Format Recall the Greco-Roman letter form that Paul uses in Ephesians: Salutation and Greeting Thanksgiving Body Exhortations/Encouragements Closing/Farewell...

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The Cave

Author

William Rowley

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 12:8-12, John 1:, John 17:18, Philippians 2:6-11, 1 John 1:7, Romans 8:1, Colossians 1:13-14

The Cave One of the most famous passages in Plato's Republic is his "Allegory of the Cave," which is found at the beginning of book seven . Socrates imagines the human condition al...

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Getting Behind the Myths

Author

Thomas Keating

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Scripture

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 18:22-35, Luke 16:19-31, Matthew 13:3-8, Matthew 20:1-16, Matthew 13:24-33, Matthew 13:44-50, Mark 4:26-29

The thrust of the parables is to subvert the distorted myths in which people live their lives. To understand what we mean by “living in a myth” just think of a couple of our own contemporary myths. Ta...

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Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with...

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Author

Liuan Huska

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Being fully human is to inhabit the wild mysteries of our bodies and trust that, because Christ was a body, and still is a body, we don’t need to fear this place. We can say, it is good, because Chris...

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Author

Meredith G. Kline

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The city is not to be regarded as an evil invention of ungodly fallen man... The ultimate goal set before humanity at the very beginning was that human- culture should take city-form... there should b...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

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The Latin words humus, soil/earth, and homo, human being, have a common derivation, from which we also get our word 'humble.' This is the Genesis origin of who we are: dust - dust that the Lor...

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Transgression is Pushing Past Good Boundaries

Author

Ashley Hales

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Scripture

Genesis 2:, Genesis 3:, James 1:14-15, Romans 5:12-19, Psalm 19:7-8, Genesis 11:

After the fall of our first parents, boundaries were something to push past, to transgress. It’s worth pausing to note how we use the word transgression for “sin.” With its Latin roots, “across” and ...

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Transgressing Boundaries After the Fall

Author

Ashley Hales

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Scripture

Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 5:12, 1 Timothy 2:12-21

After the fall of our first parents, boundaries were something to push past, to transgress. It’s worth pausing to note how we use the word transgression for “sin.” With its Latin roots, “across” and “...

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Spiritual Formation: Essential to Human Existence

Author

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. and Ruth Haley Barton

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Scripture

2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 1:28, Philippians 2:12-13, 2 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Timothy 64:7-8, Colossians 3:10-11

In their excellent book, Invitation to a Journey , M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton describe the foundation of life as being spiritual in nature. This means we are constantly be “form...

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Third Sunday of Easter

Author

Paul Koptak

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Scripture

1 Peter 1:17-23, Isaiah 40:6-8

(Scripture quotations below are from ESV unless noted otherwise.) Liturgical Context On this Third Sunday of Easter, the Revised Common Lectionary texts harmonize with the epistle’s praise of Jesus...

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The Farmer’s Market and Increasing Optimism in Politics

Author

Eric O. Jacobsen

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Daniel Kemmis provides a political model for seeing redemptive possibilities in our cities. Kemmis, a former mayor of Missoula, has noted an increasing cynicism about political life in this country. T...

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Why We Need Hope: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Hope

Scripture

Romans 15:13, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 42:11, Isaiah 41:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Major Harold Kushner was a prisoner of the Viet Cong for more than five years. Kushner describes one of his fellow American prisoners, a tough twenty-four-year-old Marine who had made a deal with thei...

bible and theology on Human Condition

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