The story of Exodus begins with powerful Pharaoh's fear over a Great Replacement. "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we" (Exodus 1:9). In the face of changing demographics, the tyrant turned first to violence and genocide.
In his nonviolent teaching, life, and death, Jesus revealed a God of nonviolence. The God who delivered an enslaved people in the Exodus was now seen as the deliverer of all humanity from oppression. The violence associated with God in the biblical tradition was...
By the mercies of God, this new covenant community has been released from the darkness and foolishness of illicit worship to serve the living God in spirit and truth. In a very real sense this is the goal of the process of redemption, just as it was in the Old...