James E. Alderman

I want to begin by reading John 1:1–5 from Eugene Peterson’s The Message : “The Word was first, the Word present to God,God present to the Word.The Word was God,in readiness for God from day one.Everything was created through him; nothing not one thing came into being without him.What came into existence was life, and the life was light to live by.The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.” That’s good, isn’t it? Now I want to read the same passage from the...

John’s vision of the great white throne has long been read as a scene of terror and finality—where all humanity stands before a distant Judge. But when we look again through the lens of Christ, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, another light shines through. What John saw was not the end of grace, but the final unveiling of grace —the moment when all illusion, all separation, all darkness is swallowed up by the uncreated fire of divine love. The Face Before Whom Heaven and Earth...

Hebrews 9:27 is one of those verses often quoted to inspire fear: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” For many, it’s taken as a warning — that after death comes a courtroom scene where your eternal destiny hangs in the balance. But when we read this verse in its actual context, it becomes something entirely different. The writer of Hebrews isn’t trying to scare us. He’s making a comparison. Just as human beings die once, so Christ was offered once. Death comes...