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- Written by EJ Sweeney
A real reaction to real events. Being a pastor, I’ve had many people share their grief with me. There’s nothing more heart-breaking than the death of a loved one. No matter how hard you try, you can’t escape the finality of it all, the suffocating loneliness, the unrelenting pain.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
Three days after He was crucified, Jesus’ disciples claimed that they found the tomb He was buried in empty. Last week, I showed how their initial reaction to discovering the empty tomb, doubt, reveals that the story is very credible. To their utter humiliation—down through the ages—their initial reaction wasn’t a heroic faith that Jesus had conquered death, but instead, the clueless presumption that someone else must have moved His body. This, however, wasn’t the most humiliating thing they did.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
One evening, the fire department I was a member of at the time received a call for a house fire. The police were reporting that people might be trapped. Myself and another firefighter responded with the ladder truck and arrived at the fire several minutes before anyone else.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
The Da Vince Code claimed that the Divinity of Jesus—and hence, the doctrine of the Trinity—was invented at the Council of Nicea in 325. I know, I know, it’s only fiction! But so many people have accepted this claim as scholarly fact, it’s become a commonly held belief. In this week’s blog, I’m going to continue to respond to some great comments I received that challenged the idea that the Trinity is found in the Bible. But, unlike last week, I won’t assume that the Bible is the Inspired Word of God. Instead, I’ll use the best, recent scholarship to show where the Trinity actually originated—spoiler alert: it wasn’t the Council of Nicea!
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
After my last two blogs on the Trinity, I received a couple of very thoughtful comments. They challenged the assumption I made that the Trinity is found in the Bible. They argued instead that this doctrine is an invention of the Church, several hundred years later.
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The greatest story ever told. This is how the story of Jesus, the Gospel, is often described. When I hear this, though, I think of those “cheesy” movies of the 1960’s and 70’s, like Ben Hur or Jesus of Nazareth. They weren’t terrible, but they were nowhere close to the greatest story ever told! The greatest story would have to be something more like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, three of the top books and movies of all time.
