"THREE OFFERS WITH NO SMALL PRINT" (Easter Sermon EN)

-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Albanians and Punctuality

-
Image
It is no secret that one of the biggest challenges that we face in Albania is punctuality. Far be it from me to make generalisations but I can safely assume that Albanians, along with their Mediterranean/Balkan neighbouring nations view time in a more relaxed manner than North/West Europeans. Ok, before I keep on stating the obvious, let me get to the heart of the problem. It is with coming significantly late to church on Sabbath. Allow me to make a list of places/situations that determine the Albanians' punctuality. ON TIME when they go 1. To work (in a serious business/company) 2. To a funeral 3. To a football (soccer) match 4. To a show (TV, opera, theatre, cinema) LATE when they go 1. To a wedding / birthday party 2. To church or any church meetings 3. For "coffee") 4. to a picnic I could add 5. blogging and I can only point the finger at myself... How does one make sense of this? Of course, what concerns me the most is the striking lack of p...
Read more

• Does it really Matter?

-
Image
Copyright © JULIAN KASTRATI, 2006 I want to direct our attention today to these questions: does it really make any difference if Jesus was divine or less than divine, in terms of redemption? Put simply, if we claimed that Jesus is not fully divine, how does this affect our picture of God and understanding of the cross? I am going to invite you to complete this sentence for me: ‘If Jesus was less than divine...’ and come up with implications that you think are appropriate. Remember that the focus is on redemption. How would you complete the sentence? This is how I would do it: 1. If Jesus was less than divine . . . then salvation is by works A less than divine Christ remains a moral paradigm of what God requires from humans. Unavoidably this would lead to a soteriology of works and merits, exactly the opposite view of the NT (see Eph. 2:8-9). The less than divine Christ would remain a mere representative creature leading us to the disturbing conclusion that another besides Jesu...
Read more

• God or Satan: Who Accuses Who in the Bible?

-
Image
Copyright © JULIAN KASTRATI, 2004 (PLEASE NOTE: footnotes are acknowledged but withheld for copyright reasons) The accusation theme in Scripture, in its judicial-eschatological context, is surprisingly one of the most neglected themes by biblical scholars and theologians. As we speak, there is hardly any substantial research on ‘accusation’ . Instead, a general confusion seems to exist as to who is actually responsible for this legal activity in Scripture (accusation). There also exists a perception by many Christians that since God is the Judge ‘of the quick and the dead,’ He must be the one that accuses the people as a typical prosecutor when they face judgment. This (mis)perception is still quite prevalent, despite the biblical references denoting Satan as the ‘accuser of the brethren’. In this context, there exists yet another overlooked area. Have you noticed the tendency that as you read the Bible, many titles or nouns turn to into proper names in your mind, or at the best case ...
Read more