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Select a Month August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019

August 2021

August 14, 2021

Word of God—What Does That Mean?

Word of God, the expression, rolls off the tongue for Christians—but what does it even...

August 03, 2021

Finding the Real Deal Jesus

Finding the real Jesus means dropping old mental idols and getting informed by the social...

July 2021

July 20, 2021

Great One Jesus or Reality?

Great One Jesus is another culturally congenial identity theft committed by American Christians. "Make America...

July 19, 2021

Intellectual Sage or Real Jesus?

Intellectual Sage Jesus is yet another culturally congenial identity theft American Christians. Last time we...

June 2021

June 07, 2021

Last Supper Wasn’t Passover

It turns out that the Last Supper wasn’t Passover, unlike what some Gospels interpret. Yesterday...

May 2021

May 04, 2021

Lowly Lowlife Jesus

Lowly and poor was the village tektōn Jesus, just above the degraded and expendable of first-century Palestine....

April 2021

April 28, 2021

Docetic Addiction

Catholics frequently twist Jesus into Superman via a common Docetic addiction. We Catholics and other...

April 06, 2021

Faithful Yet Clueless: A Resurrection Reflection

Easter Sunday’s Gospel presents faith or "being faithful" in a very different way than most...

April 04, 2021

Eastertide Resources on the Resurrection

Messy Inspirations offers several challenging resources about the Resurrection throughout Eastertide. The Eastertide proclamation is...

February 2021

February 25, 2021

Is “The Chosen” Realistic to the World of Jesus?

This is the first of a series of posts about the good and bad of...

February 17, 2021

Fasting—Why Did New Testament People Do It?

While Western Bible readers can easily discover that biblical people fasted, learning why they did...

February 15, 2021

Grapple with Jesus and Scripture, Before Lent Begins

One way to prepare for Lent and Easter this year is to grapple with spurious...

February 14, 2021

Wholeness and Healing Lepers

Here comes Sunday’s Gospel about Jesus brokering wholeness for a leper—except he wasn’t really a...

January 2021

January 15, 2021

Grandchildren Wrote the Gospels

History repeatedly shows a third-generation interest, which illuminates the origins of the Gospels as authored...

January 10, 2021

Miss the Point of Jesus’ Baptism?

Miss the cultural cues, and you'll likely disengage from the Gospel story of Jesus’ Baptism....

November 2020

November 24, 2020

Understanding Jesus & Ourselves

There are tremendous benefits of understanding Jesus and the New Testament communities in ways honest...

November 19, 2020

Master in Parable Cannot Be God

If the Master in the Parable of the Talents represents God, who needs the Devil? ...

November 13, 2020

Perspective—Was Jesus a Shameful Son?

Was Jesus a shameful or honorable son? Perspective goes a long way in how we...

August 2020

August 31, 2020

Jeremiah Raped? A Disturbing Metaphor

Jeremiah raped by God may sound blasphemous, but this metaphor is Scriptural. Things were getting...

August 26, 2020

Apocalypse Then VS. Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse then meant something, and Revelation, as well as any other Scripture, must first be...

August 16, 2020

Jesus Loses to a Foreign Woman

Master of arguments and insults, Jesus loses at his own game, beaten by a foreign...

August 13, 2020

Romans 9—11: Challenges for American Christians

Romans 9—11 offers challenges to American Christian individualistic complacency. This past Sunday, we read from...

July 2020

July 31, 2020

More Important than Belief in the Real Presence?

More important than belief in the real presence is knowing who is really present. Sometimes...

July 25, 2020

Apocalypse & 666: What Does this Mean?

Apocalypse, or the book of Revelation, generates much ignorance and confusion, not the least of...

July 22, 2020

Results for the Quiz on Jesus, Paul, & Gospels

Results from our recent quiz on Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels may surprise and challenge...

July 18, 2020

Quiz on Jesus, Paul, & the Gospels: How Much Do We Really Know?

Quiz yourself on just how well you understand Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels. Spurious familiarity...

July 12, 2020

Sowing Seeds: Allegory-Gone-Wild in the Parables

Sowing Seeds of deeper understanding, this post is all about understanding the parables of Jesus...

July 05, 2020

Apostolic Succession: What It Is

Apostolic succession is true, but maybe not in the way we often popularly imagine it...

July 01, 2020

Idols & Statues

Idols are forbidden by God, but what about statues and other religious art? Idols and...

June 2020

June 04, 2020

Donald & the Brainwashed Reshape Christ

Donald Trump and his American Christian cult followers continue a long and horrid tradition of...