History is a funny thing. People tend to remain the same, but cultures don’t. As Christians, we have missed an important part of our history. We started in a Middle-Eastern, Hebrew worldview, but around 325 AD, we migrated into a Greco-Roman one.

And scriptures written in one worldview, don’t always translate well into the other.

In this lesson, I suggest that Jesus’ story about the sheep and goats didn’t translate well at all. Since it has been so influential in the way we Christians see our world, we ought to have a second look at it.

Have a listen,
Doug

[Download mp3]

We long for a world (albeit an impractical one) where everyone gets along and there are no wars or suffering. We comfort ourselves about not having this as our reality by turning Jesus into a “poet”. His words are often interpreted almost as if they were dreams or lofty goals.

When Jesus describes “eternal life”, we think of it in a similar manner as being something supernatural and not available in the present. But the phrase “eternal life” should actually be translated as “life that springs from the eternal” and part of this is the journey from two-ness to one-ness. Jesus prays in John 17 that we “would be one with the Father”. The oneness with God is the deepest dimension of each of us.

Listen in to learn more…

by Doug Hammack

[Download mp3]