Category Archives: Doctrine

Jul 25 2022

I Am the Light of the World – Part 1: 'Monday Morning Musing July 25, 2022'

In this two-part episode I try to present the high tension and drama that would have been involved in Jesus’s “I Am the light of the world” statement. This statement along with his declaration about living water were made in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Dedication. I briefly unpack some some of the significant ritual features which occurred during the feast, to which Jesus’s bold statements were directly and immediately referring. It was a scene of high drama and conflict.

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jul 18 2022

I am the Door: 'Monday Morning Musing July 18, 2022'

When Jesus likened himself to a door, he was taking unto himself a function that the Rabbis and religious leaders believed belonged to them, divinely assigned by God. A door functions as something that limits or grants access. The KJV language about “binding and loosing” was a well known Semitism for the ability of the religious professionals to either grant or deny access to eternal life and the things of God.

Photo by jon-tyson-7uPzmidQ4jI-unsplash.jpg

 

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jul 11 2022

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: 'Monday Morning Musings - June 27, 2022'

Jewish leaders at the time of Christ understood Torah and the practice of Torah to be the Way of Life. Torah study was called “instruction in the way of Life.” As teachers of Torah, the religious establishment viewed themselves as brokers of Torah to the people. Jesus’s claim would have been outrageous and offensive.

 

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

 

Jul 11 2022

Before Abraham Was, I Am: 'Monday Morning Musing - July 11, 2022'

Of all Jesus’s I Am statements, this is perhaps the most easy to understand, and it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. In this statement Jesus engages in something called “challenge and riposte” which in an honor-shamed based society was a formal and public dispute before a crowd, with winners and losers. Jesus and his opponents are locked in a fight about identity and lineage “from God.” After this episode in John 8, the skids toward Calvary were “greased’ so to speak. In the previous chapter, Jesus was a hero with crowds still following him. But after this statement, his death sentence was sealed. He went from hero to zero all over claim to spiritual originations: who had claim to Yahweh as Father?

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jul 4 2022

I Am the True Vine: 'Monday Morning Musings - July 4, 2022'

At the time of Christ there were two universally understood metaphors for the nation of Israel: the fig tree and the vine. When Jesus claimed he was the “true” vine, he was making a thinly-veiled, but very uncomplimentary comment about the leaders of the Jewish establishment as representing the people of God. This is one of the many reasons they wanted Him dead.

Photo by jose alfonso sierra on Unsplash

 

Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jun 13 2022

I Am the Resurrection and the Life: 'Monday Morning Musings - June 20, 2022'

 

By claiming to be in His person, the resurrection and the Life, Jesus was taking unto Himself claims of identity, authority, being, and ability that Judaism of his day would ascribe solely to Yahweh. This was one of the many offensive claims which ultimately led to the charge of blasphemy and his death, understood by the Jewish establishment as not only justified by God’s Law (Torah) but a necessity.

 

 

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash R&L

 

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jun 13 2022

I Am the Good Shepherd: 'Monday Morning Musing - June 13, 2022'

 

Jesus’s claim to be the good shepherd was a direct challenge to how the Jewish religious authorities viewed themselves and their function as representatives of Yahweh to the people of God.

 

Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jun 13 2022

I am the Bread of Life: 'Monday Morning Musing - June 6, 2022'

 

For the next few weeks we will be looking at the I Am statements of Jesus as an existential threat to the Jewish religious establishment. Their deep convictions regarding themselves, their calling as individuals and as a people, their function as priests and teachers, the Torah, the Temple and their national identity were all challenged by the I Am statements. The aggregated effect of them was instrumental in their desire, even need to have Jesus killed. According to their understanding of Torah, He deserved it. In this first episode we will briefly look at the “bread of life” claim Jesus made.

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

May 23 2022

The New Marcionism?: 'A Critique by Michael Hardin May 23, 2022'

Those who claim that Jesus–specifically Jesus at the cross–is the final, complete and definitive image of God, clarifying other misrepresentations and misinterpretations of God in Scripture are likely (sooner or later) to be accused by their critics of of being a “Marcionite”. This is a straw-man argument, often coming from folks who should know better.
 
In this episode, I briefly introduce the topic and share a link to an article by my friend, Michael Hardin. In it, he responds to an article by N.T. Wright who calls a non-violent, non-sacrificial, Christocentric hermeneutic the “New Marcionism.”
 
I urge you to read the article. For some, it might be too technical if you are not familiar with the issues. However, there is much at stake beyond the slander in the accusation.

Continue reading →

May 17 2022

Spirit, Soul and Body: ONE INTEGRATED Being: 'May 16, 2022'

In some Evangelical churches and in many Charismatic churches, Paul’s use of spirit, soul and body in 1 Thess. 5:23 is understood as a hierarchy of being and a hierarchy of value. This is essentially a Gnostic interpretation that seriously misunderstands Paul’s fluid and interchangeable use of those terms.

Photo by Nick Page on Unsplash

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Copyright 2022. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.