Douglas Lee

“We’ve camped in wilderness areas near an active volcano, attempted to cross a swift river on foot, hiked a dozen trails, and lit fires nearly every evening. None of these were our greatest risk. The worst danger was ourselves. Maintaining cheerfulness and kindness in the midst of constant change can be an enormous challenge. Liminality exposes all our rough edges.”
― Carmen Joy Imes, Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters

“The Atonement as the Whole Story If you ask anyone from that 74 percent of Americans who say they have made a commitment to Jesus Christ what the Christian gospel is, you will probably be told that Jesus died to pay for our sins, and that if we will only believe he did this, we will go to heaven when we die. In this way what is only one theory of the “atonement” is made out to be the whole of the essential message of Jesus. To continue with theological language for the moment, justification has taken the place of regeneration, or new life.8 Being let off the divine hook replaces possession of a divine life “from above.” For all of the talk about the “new birth” among conservative Christians, there is an almost total lack of understanding of what that new birth is in practical terms and of how it relates to forgiveness and imputed or transmitted righteousness.”
― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: A Study of Spiritual Reality in Christian Thought

“This Son of Man continues to have a significant role in the Parables of Enoch: he is named by God (1 En. 48:2–8), sits on a “throne of glory” (45:3; 61:8; 62–63; 69:26–29), and judges the unrighteous and sinners while saving the righteous (51:5; 62–63; 69:26–29). One of the more descriptive judicial scenes is in 1 Enoch 62–63, where the kings and mighty of the earth fall down on their faces, helplessly hoping to receive mercy from the Son of Man at the final eschatological assize.”
― Ben C. Blackwell, Reading Mark in Context: Jesus and Second Temple Judaism

“We call this an apocalyptic worldview because it reflects a system of beliefs that includes the idea that what humans see and perceive as their earthly experience is in fact not the whole story. There is the deeper and invisible reality of a divine and heavenly realm. Moreover, the God of this heavenly realm reveals himself (hence “apocalyptic,” from the Greek word meaning “to reveal”) to his chosen people, his “elect,” and he tells them how the world really is—how it is structured, what the angelic realm is like, etc. (e.g., 1 En. 59:1–3; 60:11–23; 69:17–25). This enables the elect to live rightly and with hope that despite the way things appear now, God is at work and in control.”
― Ben C. Blackwell, Reading Mark in Context: Jesus and Second Temple Judaism