Author: Michael Salsaa

We started our discussion on the identity of God by pointing out that we rely on images from the Old Testament to learn and understand more about who God is. These images present us with rich metaphors about God. I would like to start today’s class with a quick description of what a metaphor is. …

Note: large segments of this class have been taken from The Suffering of God by Terence Fretheim.  Today we will continue our discussion that we started last time on the character of God in the Old Testament. Last time, we discussed how we often get hung up on the question: Do you believe in God?…

Michael: Today will be the first part of a two-part discussion on the character of God in the Old Testament. I will be heavily relying on and quoting from the book The Suffering of God by Terence Fretheim.  We often get hung up on the question: Do you believe in God? And forget about the…

Note: An updated version of Michael’s talk was published on January 5, 2025) For the last two weeks, we have been discussing the Sabbath as a sacred time of rest and Grace. A statement that Dr. Weaver has mentioned in both of the classes is going to be the starting point of our discussion today,…

Michael: We will continue our study of the trinity from the perspective of Grace. As we have discussed before, several bible passages declare that God is love and grace. David has proposed that the love of God, agape in Greek, is the same, or a synonym of Grace while Jason has suggested that the triune…

Don: We’ve been discussing grace and its various aspects. Just before this conversation, Sharon mentioned that grace isn’t a subject often thoroughly discussed in many circles, and we are much the poorer for not emphasizing grace. The irony (as we’ve noted before) is that when you examine the ministry and message of Jesus—from the inception…

Michael: During last week’s class, the discussion shifted from Judgment to Grace. Judgment and Grace are very different from each other. Judgment is administered by people most of the time. However, our religions teach us that God is a grand judge as well. There are many verses in the bible to support this. On the…

After last week’s class was over, I was left feeling very uncomfortable, as if something bad had happened. First of all, I didn’t have any intention to politicize my message. It is applicable to everyone regardless of politics or religion. Second of all, and more importantly, this issue of judgment is just so annoying. It…

Michael: Last week, we discussed Jesus’s commandment of “Do not Judge”. We noted that judgment may be an innate feature of our humanity, it comes instantaneously and automatically. It occurred to me that asking if we can stop judgment is similar to Nicodemus’s question if we can be born again by returning to the mother’s womb….