There is now a wealth of research demonstrating that violence in literature that is considered sacred is a powerful force in motivating religious violence. It can only be negated by being renounced.

I encourage people to not believe in Jesus because they believe in the Bible, but to believe in the Bible because they believe in Jesus.

The Bible passage that reflects the limited, culturally-conditioned and fallen perspectives of its author—indirectly reveals God by bearing witness to his humble, other-oriented, self-sacrificial love.

The very fact that God was not above stooping to embrace it as his own by incorporating it into the canon indirectly bears witness to his humility and grace.

if God most perfectly revealed his perfection by identifying with our imperfections on the cross, then we should have no problem affirming that the Bible is a “God-breathed,” “infallible,” and even a “perfect” book while at the same time accepting that it contains human imperfections.

While I do not believe in Jesus because I believe in the inspiration of Scripture, I do believe in the inspiration of Scripture because I believe in Jesus.

What actually killed these people was their interpretation of what was happening to them. If anything supernatural was going on in the deaths of these people, Carol, it was in intensifying their interpretation of the event in order to terrorize them and bring about a cardiac arrest.

The same is true of you, Carol. You are no doubt caught up in spiritual warfare. The enemy is trying to torment you, and thus far it seems he’s been pretty successful. But the warfare isn’t taking place at the level of the experience itself, but at the level of your interpretation of the experience. The only thing the devil can possibly have on you, Carol, is fear that is based on deception.

The ultimate source of all evil is found in the will of free agents rather than in God.

Of course, once we acknowledge that some portraits of God in Scripture are horrifically violent, it forces the question of how we can nevertheless continue to affirm this material as “God-breathed.”