(Jesus’) parabolic retort (“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, etc.”) seems at first to be saying little more than, “If the devil is behind this , how come he’s fighting against himself?” But what Jesus really seems to be getting at, once again, is the inability of the world to straighten itself up […]

Our usual notion of Jesus’ coming to the world – or even of the coming of the kingdom – is not only theologically suspect but biblically unsound. For “coming” inevitably carries with it the implication of “not here yet” – which, of course, simply will not wash in the case of the Word who became […]

In heaven, there are only forgiven sinners. There are no good guys, no upright, successful types who, by dint of their own integrity, have been accepted into the great country club in the sky. There are only failures, only those who have accepted their deaths in their sins and who have been raised up by […]

What then do I make of, “Many are called but few are chosen”? Just this. The sad truth of our fallen condition is that we don’t want anything to do with a system of salvation that works by grace through faith. We want our merits, sleazy though they may be, rewarded – and we want […]

(Nubar = The Rich Man in Luke 16:19-31. Capon names him after Nubar Gulbenkian) “When we talk resurrection up here, we’re not talking about some dumb, corpse-revival scheme in which the dead get up and go back to the same old life they had before. We’re talking about a whole new order that actually works […]