Serpent Symbolism Genesis 3 begins by introducing us to the serpent: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” Modern Christianity almost exclusively sees serpent symbolism as evil. Consequently, the serpent of Genesis 3 is identified as Satan without much further thought. However, the authors…
The Boundary of Meaning. The way we interpret the Genesis origin stories often begins with the question: What went wrong? Life is not always what we would like it to be, and God does not seem to intervene as much as we would like him to and neither does He bother to explain Himself. And…
Audio: I’m sure many of you are familiar with the concept of an original perfection. The story goes something like this: When God first created all that is, it was perfect, because God is perfect. There was no suffering, no pain, no disease and no death. God created a paradise in which mankind could…
Self Revolution Today, one of the meanings of the word revolution is a sudden or dramatic transformation, but that has not always been the case. When Copernicus used the word in his 1543 publication of ‘De revolutionibus orbium caelestium’ it had the simple astronomical meaning of circular movement – revolving. But his idea that the…
Fear has a natural advantage over trust. We are much more likely to give our attention and react to something dangerous than to something beautiful. It is the way we are wired. In fact you are here most probably because your forefathers were quick to fear. When our ancient ancestors walked through jungle paths, they…
While visiting a friend in Troy NY last year, he told us a delightful story of an unusual relationship that developed at a local restaurant. The restaurant employed two chefs. Neither of them had many friends because of their extreme cynicism, yet in meeting one another this cynicism became the very bond of their friendship….
Some experiences enlighten us, others confound us. Life can surprise us with its generosity and its cruelty. Reality is richer that the simple stories we often construct. But it is here in the seeming contrasts, in the pleasant and the painful, in the promise of what could still be and in the devastating ends, in…
In our conversations we have realized that the question of pre-existence is important to many. We read texts such as Ephesians 1:4 “…He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” or Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” and wonder in what way were we known…
What does it mean to participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? [Jesus] saying, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Then he said to them all, “If any want to become…
Certainty or truth. Choose one. You cannot have both. These might seem like rather provocative statements but their purpose is to show the significant distinction between certainty and truth. There are many things we may be certain of. We may be certain of the facts of a situation. We may have moral and ethical principles…