Popular evangelical understandings of the gospel tend to focus almost exclusively on Jesus' death, even a specific interpretation of his death. They also tend to focus on avoiding hell and going to heaven. But this is not how the New Testament describes the gospel: michaelpahl.com/2025/09/25/w...

"And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to Jesus in the temple" (Luke 21:38). Followers of Jesus, how often do we make listening to Jesus one of the first things we do each day? (Confession: for me, not often enough...)

Feeding the hungry. Satisfying the thirsty. Clothing the naked. Caring for the sick. Welcoming the stranger. Visiting the prisoner. These are the basis for Jesus' judgment of "the nations," the peoples of the earth (Matt 25:31-46). How well have we done these things collectively?

Even greater than the anxiety is the grief. So much grieving, daily grieving the sufferings of the world. And yet I know that even as I grieve, God's Spirit grieves with me, in sighs far deeper than words. #KyrieEleison #MaranaTha

🇨🇦 this is your biennial call for the Rapture—happening tomorrow!* Don't miss out! Sign up today!** (Though if you do miss out, there will be another Rapture happening in two years or less. Watch for it!) * 12pm Eastern, give or take. Half past in Newfoundland. ** Offer not available in Quebec.

I see many evangelicals highlighting Erika Kirk's forgiveness of her husband's killer. A beautiful, Christlike moment. I don't see many expressing alarm at the blatant Christian nationalism, the violence-inciting rhetoric, the "I hate my opponents." I know some of you are appalled—please speak up!

Calling for a ceasefire. Restricting (some) arms sales to Israel. Recognizing Palestine as a state. Encouraging steps by Canada these past months. But there's more work to do. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

I'm hearing more 🇺🇸 Republican calls to "put on the armor of God." Amen! Let's enter the nonviolent struggle against injustice, violence, and oppression by walking in truth, integrity, peace, and faith, bringing deliverance through the way of Jesus. I suspect that's not how they read Eph 6, though.

Alberta: Trans people make up 0.2% of the population in Canada. LGBTQ+ young people are more than 4X likely to attempt suicide as their peers. Trans youth attempt suicide at an even higher rate after US states enact anti-trans laws. Trans youth are one of the most vulnerable groups there are.

In case you missed it, here's the interview I did on CBC radio in Winnipeg yesterday afternoon, on Christian responses to Charlie Kirk's murder. Comments are coming in. So far no death threats! www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

I'll be on Up to Speed with Faith Fundal (CBC Radio One in Winnipeg) this afternoon, after the 4:00 news, to talk about Christian responses to Charlie Kirk's death. As you might expect, I'm feeling a little anxious about this! I appreciate prayers and good thoughts as I do this.

Jesus' greatest commandments: love God with undivided devotion, and love your neighbour as yourself. ➡️ I take that to mean: love God first and foremost by loving your neighbour as yourself. ➡️

I found this to be a helpful article. Whether you think one "side" of Charlie Kirk excuses the other, or one "side" of him *doesn't* excuse the other, this might help us understand each other better. wildernessdispatch.com/2025/09/15/w...

Trust me, I've looked. If you want to find violence-inducing rhetoric on both the left and the right, you can find it. Leaders need to lead on this. Political leaders, religious leaders, all leaders need to consistently denounce this rhetoric and, more importantly, not engage in it themselves. ➡️

Way back in 2014 (a lifetime ago), I wrote this piece on Scot McKnight's blog: "The Polarization of 'Biblical Christianity.'" Somewhat prophetic? Helps explain some of what we're seeing these days? I'll let you decide. michaelpahl.com/2014/04/04/t...

How many Christians today could do to hear these words of Jesus? "You attend to the smallest religious matters but have neglected the weightier ones: justice and mercy and faith" (Matt 23:23).

What is sin, according to Jesus? My latest blog post: michaelpahl.com/2025/09/16/w...

We fawn over the uber-wealthy who give a large sum of money. Jesus isn't all that impressed. "Truly, this poor widow who gave two small copper coins has put in more than all of them, for they have contributed a little out of their abundance, but she gave all out of her poverty" (Luke 21:1-4).

According to some Christians, if you truly love someone you'll call out their personal sins and wrong beliefs. In fact, for some, this is more important than meeting someone's physical or material needs—after all, their eternal destiny depends on it. Apparently the Good Samaritan didn't know this.

Jesus: "'Love God with every dimension of who you are.' This is the first commandment. And a second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as if their needs were your own.' This is what the whole Bible hangs on" (Matt 22:37-40). This is it, folks. Love God. Love others. Even: love God by loving others.

Looking forward to joining Jubilee Mennonite Church tomorrow in worship! They're doing a sermon series related to my book, The Word Fulfilled: Reading the Bible with Jesus, and I get to kick off the series by focusing on Jesus' greatest commandment: his call to love God by loving others.

Charlie Kirk's assassination has been an apocalyptic moment. I mean that in the actual sense of "apocalyptic"—a revelation, an unveiling of what has been hidden. People of all stripes are showing their true selves. And some of it is very hard to see.

For many conservative Christians, CK was just "speaking the truth in love." But the ideas expressed by his words were themselves not loving. They demeaned, even dehumanized, the people they were describing, people who are objectively most vulnerable to harm in our society. That's not Jesus-love.

I see many Christians eulogizing CK, even elevating him as a faithful Christian martyr. I hope they don't know about his anti-Black, anti-women, anti-queer views. But I fear that they do, and that they see these views as core Christian doctrine.

Scanning through my social media, it sure looks like there were two very different people named Charlie Kirk who were both murdered yesterday.

It's Mennonite Heritage Week in Canada. This always brings mixed feelings for me, a Mennonite. I suspect the idea behind it is to honour the cultural heritage of particular streams of Mennonites originating in Europe. But...

"As Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, 'If you, even you, had only recognized the things that make for peace! But they are hidden from your eyes'" (Luke 19:41-42). Jesus still weeps over us. We know the things that make for peace, but we refuse to see them, to live them out.

I'm going to push on this. On my sm I see words from people across the spectrum. Yes, dehumanizing and violent rhetoric from political leaders is more common from the right than the left (esp in 🇺🇸). But among the grassroots, I see a lot of this rhetoric from both sides. We've got to do better.

Violence—and especially potentially lethal violence—is never the way forward. And we need to tone down the rhetoric, on both the left and right. People with guns are listening.

But with God all things are possible! Zacchaeus shows how the rich enter God's kingdom: by giving their wealth away, and paying back generously those they have defrauded (Luke 19:1-10). To these, Jesus says: "Today salvation has come to this house!"

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God's kingdom" (Luke 18:25). Nope, this wasn't an ancient gate that was just hard to get through. Jesus really does mean it's impossible for those who have accumulated enormous wealth to enter God's kingdom.

The Access Hollywood tape should have been the end of this, before it even began. Actually, there were plenty of widely known things about him that should have kept this from even getting *that* far. Nearly ten years on, this all still seems unbelievable. Yet here we are.

Some people seem surprised that Mark Carney moves left on some things and right on others, depending on the mood of mainstream Canada. I'm not surprised—he's a Liberal, after all.

To my fellow Christians: There is nothing in the Bible that justifies what the modern nation state of Israel is doing to Palestinians. In fact, there's much that condemns it.

When we focus on our own sins, not the sins of others—and we stop comparing ourselves to others, to make ourselves look good—we are on the path to being right with God. "I tell you," Jesus said, "this repentant sinner went home justified rather than the self-righteous religious leader" (Lk 18:14).

Yet another tragic theological error of Christian history has been the elevation of penal substitutionary atonement to the level of "the gospel." It's not the gospel: there is no description of euangelion or kerygma in the NT that clearly and directly includes penal substitutionary atonement. ➡️

"Jesus wept" (John 11:35). One of the shortest verses in the Bible, and one of the most profound. Jesus—the eternal Word made flesh (John 1:14), the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15), the exact imprint of God's very being (Heb 1:3)—wept at the death of his friend.

I still think about this almost daily. All the technological innovation of the past several decades, with a practically (not actually) limitless energy source in the Sun, and we're still relying so much on burning fossil fuels which we know to be causing climate change.

It's weird seeing 🇺🇸 companies, universities, newspapers, etc. immediately change what they do simply because the President wants it. If the Prime Minister of 🇨🇦 did that, we'd be like "Who went and made you king?" (Which is funny, because we have a king and he doesn't actually have any power.)

🇺🇸: (changes its Department of Defense to Department of War) Rest of the world: "Yeah, we've known for decades that's what it is."

Another tragic theological error of Christian history has been the articulation of Paul's doctrine of justification by faith in such a way as to make irrelevant the way Christians live. In its popular expression: "All we need is faith—believing certain things to be true—to be saved." ➡️

"And yet," Jesus said, "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8). A sobering question. When Jesus comes among us—however that happens—will he find a people faithful to his way of love? Or will their allegiance be to wealth or worldly power?

This timeline is one part Finkelstein Formula and one part Dunning-Kruger Effect, mixed in a solvent of white Christian Nationalism. Is there another timeline out there we can jump to?

The changes have sped up my commute to work, but it looks like the results so far are mixed, even mostly negative. www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...

I still find these kinds of distinctions helpful (tiers of Christian conviction with latitude for disagreement). The problem, though, is that we find ways to link our adiaphora back to our orthodoxy, and so we still justify breaking fellowship over our adiaphora. www.faithtoday.ca/Magazines/20...

"The kingdom of God is among you," Jesus said (Lk 17:21). Another translation, keeping in mind the context: "God's reign is already in your midst." Do we have eyes to see God's reign of justice and peace and flourishing life being revealed in our midst? It's there—often as small as a mustard seed.

Pray for Hollow Water First Nation. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Praying for the safety of the Epstein survivors. Sounds like there are a lot of powerful men about to be called out. "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness; rather, expose them" (Eph 5:11).

No real reason, just posting the list of vaccines provided free of charge within the province of Manitoba up here in cold, cold Canada: www.manitoba.ca/health/publi...

One of the most tragic errors of Christian history (theologically speaking) has been the inappropriate elevation of the Bible: verbal plenary inspiration, inerrancy, literalism, and the like. This has stunted the spiritual growth of many Christians and fueled a lot of anti-Christian atheism. ➡️