Stephen De La Vega

                       Violence       Rage         Manslaughter       Murder                                     Trafficking     Slavery       Exploitation                                           Oppression             Injustice                              Defrauding            Harassment       Abuse                         Threats        Bullying            Intimidation...

I recently heard about heretical teaching from an evangelical pulpit. The preacher taught that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. He declared that God took Jesus’ place on the cross at the moment of death. So, God the Son didn’t die. God died instead, for Jesus and God are one in the same. Or so it was preached. My dad listened from the pews in unwelcome surprise. In horror, really, because all hope and life hangs on the fact that God’s Son died on the cross to satisfy the penalty of sin – to satisfy His Father’s righteousness. Jesus asked His Father if there was any other way to pay the penalty of sin, but He submitted to His Father’s plan. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 I was as shocked as my dad as he shared about this errancy. We both listed biblical truths that depend on the fact that Jesus, Himself, was crucified on that fateful cross....

  Two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes. Perfect! All is good in the maternity ward. Or so it seemed… When will the crying end? Why do the ‘terrible twos’ last more than a year? Why won’t they listen to me? How did they become friends with ________? Teenagers! Sometimes they grow up, but too many of them just get older. (Sigh) We’re not really cute, little bundles of joy underneath those chubby cheeks. That’s what the Apostle Paul would tell us: As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way o...