Salvation

If Only I Had Been There at the Miʿrāj

Part 1.

Sometimes I find myself imagining a rather unusual thing.

I imagine that I was standing there instead of Muhammad during the story of the Miʿrāj. God speaks and says, "Fifty prayers each day."

Everyone else seems relieved that the number was reduced.

I cannot help wondering whether I would have reacted in exactly the opposite way.

I honestly think I would have asked for sixty.

Not because I enjoy collecting obligations. Not because I believe that more prayers somehow earn more points with God. Quite the contrary.

Matthew 20:28 — Rapid-Fire Debates

Penal Substitution vs. Servanthood Interposition

PSA: “The word ransom clearly means payment.”
SI: A ransom can mean release by interposition, not repayment, and Jesus defines it by servanthood, not legal settlement.

PSA: “Jesus died in our place, therefore substitutionary atonement.”
SI: Substitution does not equal atonement—stepping in to save a life is not repaying a debt.

The Doctrine of Worship

One of the most misunderstood questions in religion concerns the purpose of worshipping God. Many people assume that worship is something God requires from human beings, as if the Creator had fashioned humanity in order to receive praise. This idea leads critics to ask a familiar question: why would a perfect and self-sufficient God need validation from His own creatures?

The question arises from a mistaken assumption about the nature of worship.

The Qur’an states:

“I did not create jinn and mankind except that they worship Me.” (51:56)
— Qur'an

Jesus Without Atonement Theory

  1. God does not need to be reconciled to humanity.
    Humanity needs to be reconciled to life.
    God’s mercy is not triggered by payment; it precedes repentance.
  2. Sin is not a crime against God but a departure from God.
    It does not injure the Creator; it destroys the creature.
    Sin enslaves, blinds, and diminishes. Its consequence is death because separation from life cannot produce life.
  3. Death is not God’s punishment but sin’s destination.

Why Do You Still Seek the Wounds?

Beloved brothers and sisters,
The story of Thomas, the so-called Doubting Thomas, is not about a man who could not believe that Jesus rose from the dead. It is about a man who believed so strongly in the necessity of the cross that he could not imagine salvation without it.

What Was “Adultery” Really About in Jesus’ Time?

When modern readers hear the word adultery, they tend to imagine a moral category defined primarily by betrayal, romantic infidelity, or personal emotional disloyalty. But in the ancient Mediterranean world—and especially in Jewish law during the Second Temple period—the concept carried a much deeper anthropological, metaphysical, and even cosmic significance. The term μοιχός (moichos, adulterer) was not originally a vague ethical label.

Demons Are Not Defeated Once: The Forgotten Principle of Spiritual Stewardship

One of the most widespread assumptions in popular demonology is that exorcism is a one-time event. A demon is expelled, the problem is solved, and the afflicted person is permanently free. The image is appealing because it offers a clear victory. A battle is fought, the enemy is defeated, and the story reaches its conclusion. Yet when the words of Jesus are examined carefully, a different picture begins to emerge—one that places far less emphasis on dramatic confrontation and far more emphasis on what happens afterward.

Demons are a persistent environmental and relational problem

Several passages from Gospels become easier to explain if demonic activity is viewed as a persistent environmental and relational problem rather than a one-time technical problem solved by a single act of expulsion.

Let's examine the clues.

First, there is Mary Magdalene.

We Felt So Bad for the Master

I do not think people understand how tired the Master often was.

When strangers speak of Him now, they speak mostly of power. They remember the healings, the signs, the authority in His voice when He spoke publicly. They imagine glory following Him everywhere He walked. But those of us who stayed near Him long enough saw another reality also. We saw dust upon His feet every evening. We saw how little He slept. We saw how people pulled at Him endlessly from every side until even eating a piece of bread in peace became difficult.

Salvation