Hosea 11:9 – Household Words:

Old Testament Mercy. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.

When I was a little boy, a girl down the street told me that God the Father was mean and angry, and that only Jesus the Son was merciful.[1] Have you heard this idea? It goes hand-in-hand with the oft-repeated trope that the Old Testament tells the story of a God of vengeance, and theContinue reading “Old Testament Mercy. 2 Chronicles 33:12-13.”

Is it Better to Arrest a Villain or Gun Him Down? Isaiah 28:21.

I once polled my friends on Facebook about their favorite films that end with the death of the villain. There were so many good answers: The wicked witch falls off a cliff in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Emperor Palpatine falls to his death in Return of the Jedi. While fighting Frodo for theContinue reading “Is it Better to Arrest a Villain or Gun Him Down? Isaiah 28:21.”

Men Prefer Justice, But God Prefers Mercy Because He is God and Not a Man. Hosea 11:9.

Pictured: “The Death of Socrates,” by Jacques-Louis David, 1787. Socrates was convicted of “corrupting the youth of Athens” because he asked hard questions about the Greek gods they all served. In the painting, Socrates, who is still teaching, bravely faces his sentence of death by hemlock tea, while his admirers and students look on inContinue reading “Men Prefer Justice, But God Prefers Mercy Because He is God and Not a Man. Hosea 11:9.”