Beautiful article, Dr Kheriaty. You hit on a lot of the things that I've struggled with. I didn't realize it was common for people to think Jesus loves everyone personally but maybe finds me just a little annoying. Or maybe very annoying.
I've lived with chronic pain from spine injury and migraine for the past 20+ years. I've never been good at denying myself and offering it as penance. So I figure in His love He's given me something I can't back out on. Thanks for reminding me that I should be thanking Him for that!
Thank you so very much for this beautifully written piece. We have hope because of what Jesus the Christ has done for us. Katherine Wolf -Hope Heals- has a book out Treasures in the Dark that dovetails with your post.
The major question facing religion is thus raised: the problem of evil. Do we live in a universe, in a world, where we must suffer? This begs the question of "what kind of God do we worship?" The Book of Job comes into question: do we live in a universe with a God who allows people to suffer? What kind of God could that be? Some, myself included, read the events of this Holy weekend with a different eye. Jesus rebelled against the OT world of a jealous God who brought suffering. His theology was quite different. Thus, the new covenant. However, the Sadducees would have none of that; they convicted him of blasphemy and had him crucified. Not because they were good guys who wanted Jesus to enjoy the fruits of suffering; rather, because they lived with a false theology that honored a false god. If that is so, why do we still celebrate the God of the Sadducees and even deify the suffering? Should we not, as Christians, note the errors of the OT past and live fully in the new covenant with a loving, living God that is not wedded to jealousy and suffering? Should we not, like Jesus, say no to a flawed theology? Why would we continue to honor and even celebrate those who brought suffering to others, not as an act of God, but rather as an act of degraded humans who did not know God?
Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it and brought us a new covenant based on grace, not legalism. His teachings pointed to the old ways of the OT but brought about what they were pointing to through relationship with Him.
Nah. He was crucified for blasphemy. He taught a different theology, which was rejected by the Sadducees. And rejected by most who give the above answer.
The theology of penal substitution has had a lot to do with viewing God as vengeful. The Catholic view is different: that Jesus' sacrifice more than made up for human sin but His sacrifice was made out of love for God and love for man. It's a more complex view of atonement than penal substitution, developed/perfected by St Thomas Aquinas building on St Augustine's and St Ambrose' theologies of atonement.
Flawed theology: what Aquinas, at the end of his life, described as "so much straw." Aquinas, in keeping with the Dominican drift into Inquisition (a love for causing suffering), made some wrong turns into the Realism of Aristotle and away from the Neo-platonic views of Augustine. He battled Bonaventure—who objected to such errors—until he, too, left the Academy in Paris and came to know the more mystical path of true (Patristic) theology. B XVI worked to correct as much as he could before they forced him aside.
Thank you for this inquiry. Yes, we should say no to a flawed theology!
The entire prophetic tradition of the Abrahamic religions has gone rotten via institutional religious collusion and/or inaction in the face of well-documented evil.
Such evil is real, and aristocratic tables are in need of flipping, as Christ showed in his actions toward the exploitative money-changers in the temple, which the Roman-aligned Sadducees hated. Holy rage and sacred defense of the defenseless is a reality-oriented "righteousness" (Aramaic: zadiquta) in the cultural worldview of Jesus, according to the wonderful translations by scholar-theologian Neil Douglas-Klotz PhD (2025). Righteousness means discerned clarity that sees what is really Real, rather than anything less.
In addition to many domestic ills well-documented in social work, Godless colonial slaughter and extermination of an ancient culture has been conducted by the Israeli state, with munitions funded by both U.S. parties - from the outset Israel's goal in Gaza was ethnic cleansing if not outright genocide of the Palestinians. Degraded ethnosupremacists who only know inner tyranny, psychopathic insatiable greed, and sadistic cruelty are a bloodlust cult that threatens the entire Earth and its children.
Pope Francis has humbly expressed consistent solidarity with the long-besieged Palestinians, and his repeat-calls for an immediate ceasefire have been ignored by a mob mentality that seeks extirpation of Arab Semites and the Aramaic worldview, along with a massive land grab and the Gazan offshore oil fields worth some $500B. Predatory, malignant narcissism, as exemplified by evil of many kinds done in the name of religious entitlements, is neither spirituality or true religion.
Douglas-Klotz, N. (2025). The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days: Forty Days of Contemplation and Revelation. Hampton Roads Publishing.
As Palestinian Lutheran theologian and academic dean at Bethelehem Bible College, Munther Isaac PhD (2025) puts it in "Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the genocide in Gaza":
- How is the colonizer defending itself from the colonized?
- How is the occupier defending itself from the occupied?
- How is the besieger defending itself from the besieged?
Isaac, M. (2025). Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza. Wm. B. Eerdmans.
Thank you and many Blessings to you Dr. Kheriaty. Bearing our cross is very difficult indeed, but articles like this are so appreciated to remind us to "keep on keeping on".
Gratitude for our trials and tribulations, our disappointments, our temporal defeats, our setbacks and yes, suffering, is a difficult concept to grasp.
But what is triumph without the possibility of tragedy? Victory without the possibility of defeat? Bravery without danger? Success without the potential for failure? Happiness without possible grief? Good without the potential for evil?
And in every life well lived, each of these possibilities and potentials will become real to some degree and extent. Yet from every such experience comes the gift of strength of character and wisdom, whose purpose is to prepare us for greatness, for higher service in the name of God.
What a terrible affliction it would be to have never been afflicted.
This is a beautifully written article. Thank you for all you do!! May the Lord bless you and your family always.
Thank you for this-I dearly needed the reminder today! May the Father God and dear Jesus bless you and yours!
Beautiful article, Dr Kheriaty. You hit on a lot of the things that I've struggled with. I didn't realize it was common for people to think Jesus loves everyone personally but maybe finds me just a little annoying. Or maybe very annoying.
I've lived with chronic pain from spine injury and migraine for the past 20+ years. I've never been good at denying myself and offering it as penance. So I figure in His love He's given me something I can't back out on. Thanks for reminding me that I should be thanking Him for that!
Thank you so very much for this beautifully written piece. We have hope because of what Jesus the Christ has done for us. Katherine Wolf -Hope Heals- has a book out Treasures in the Dark that dovetails with your post.
The major question facing religion is thus raised: the problem of evil. Do we live in a universe, in a world, where we must suffer? This begs the question of "what kind of God do we worship?" The Book of Job comes into question: do we live in a universe with a God who allows people to suffer? What kind of God could that be? Some, myself included, read the events of this Holy weekend with a different eye. Jesus rebelled against the OT world of a jealous God who brought suffering. His theology was quite different. Thus, the new covenant. However, the Sadducees would have none of that; they convicted him of blasphemy and had him crucified. Not because they were good guys who wanted Jesus to enjoy the fruits of suffering; rather, because they lived with a false theology that honored a false god. If that is so, why do we still celebrate the God of the Sadducees and even deify the suffering? Should we not, as Christians, note the errors of the OT past and live fully in the new covenant with a loving, living God that is not wedded to jealousy and suffering? Should we not, like Jesus, say no to a flawed theology? Why would we continue to honor and even celebrate those who brought suffering to others, not as an act of God, but rather as an act of degraded humans who did not know God?
Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it and brought us a new covenant based on grace, not legalism. His teachings pointed to the old ways of the OT but brought about what they were pointing to through relationship with Him.
Nah. He was crucified for blasphemy. He taught a different theology, which was rejected by the Sadducees. And rejected by most who give the above answer.
The theology of penal substitution has had a lot to do with viewing God as vengeful. The Catholic view is different: that Jesus' sacrifice more than made up for human sin but His sacrifice was made out of love for God and love for man. It's a more complex view of atonement than penal substitution, developed/perfected by St Thomas Aquinas building on St Augustine's and St Ambrose' theologies of atonement.
Flawed theology: what Aquinas, at the end of his life, described as "so much straw." Aquinas, in keeping with the Dominican drift into Inquisition (a love for causing suffering), made some wrong turns into the Realism of Aristotle and away from the Neo-platonic views of Augustine. He battled Bonaventure—who objected to such errors—until he, too, left the Academy in Paris and came to know the more mystical path of true (Patristic) theology. B XVI worked to correct as much as he could before they forced him aside.
Thank you for this inquiry. Yes, we should say no to a flawed theology!
The entire prophetic tradition of the Abrahamic religions has gone rotten via institutional religious collusion and/or inaction in the face of well-documented evil.
Such evil is real, and aristocratic tables are in need of flipping, as Christ showed in his actions toward the exploitative money-changers in the temple, which the Roman-aligned Sadducees hated. Holy rage and sacred defense of the defenseless is a reality-oriented "righteousness" (Aramaic: zadiquta) in the cultural worldview of Jesus, according to the wonderful translations by scholar-theologian Neil Douglas-Klotz PhD (2025). Righteousness means discerned clarity that sees what is really Real, rather than anything less.
In addition to many domestic ills well-documented in social work, Godless colonial slaughter and extermination of an ancient culture has been conducted by the Israeli state, with munitions funded by both U.S. parties - from the outset Israel's goal in Gaza was ethnic cleansing if not outright genocide of the Palestinians. Degraded ethnosupremacists who only know inner tyranny, psychopathic insatiable greed, and sadistic cruelty are a bloodlust cult that threatens the entire Earth and its children.
Pope Francis has humbly expressed consistent solidarity with the long-besieged Palestinians, and his repeat-calls for an immediate ceasefire have been ignored by a mob mentality that seeks extirpation of Arab Semites and the Aramaic worldview, along with a massive land grab and the Gazan offshore oil fields worth some $500B. Predatory, malignant narcissism, as exemplified by evil of many kinds done in the name of religious entitlements, is neither spirituality or true religion.
Douglas-Klotz, N. (2025). The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days: Forty Days of Contemplation and Revelation. Hampton Roads Publishing.
As Palestinian Lutheran theologian and academic dean at Bethelehem Bible College, Munther Isaac PhD (2025) puts it in "Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the genocide in Gaza":
- How is the colonizer defending itself from the colonized?
- How is the occupier defending itself from the occupied?
- How is the besieger defending itself from the besieged?
Isaac, M. (2025). Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza. Wm. B. Eerdmans.
Dr Aaron,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Eijk
Perhaps "papabile".
Thank you and many Blessings to you Dr. Kheriaty. Bearing our cross is very difficult indeed, but articles like this are so appreciated to remind us to "keep on keeping on".
Excellent. Thank you. Might I add this:
"Psychology, Communication, Love, Communion, and Sacrament (Not Necessarily in that Order)" https://paritzer.substack.com/p/psychology-communication-love-communion?r=yupor&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Gratitude for our trials and tribulations, our disappointments, our temporal defeats, our setbacks and yes, suffering, is a difficult concept to grasp.
But what is triumph without the possibility of tragedy? Victory without the possibility of defeat? Bravery without danger? Success without the potential for failure? Happiness without possible grief? Good without the potential for evil?
And in every life well lived, each of these possibilities and potentials will become real to some degree and extent. Yet from every such experience comes the gift of strength of character and wisdom, whose purpose is to prepare us for greatness, for higher service in the name of God.
What a terrible affliction it would be to have never been afflicted.