The Promise to Abraham

In the first two chapters of the Bible, we learn that at each stage of Creation, six times God evaluates His work as “good” and at the end of the Creation week during His seventh assessment, God evaluates His work as “very good”. However, things drasticaly change in Chapter 3 and the structure of the chapter highlights two main themes: the theme of temptation and the theme of salvation.

Apparently,  the people  were  in real  danger  of going down  the slippery slope of self-pity and faithlessness.  The apostle Paul is concerned that his readers and hearers may have had their spiritual senses dulled because of the difficult situations they were facing, and thus they had stopped growing in their understanding and experience of the gospel. Is not this a potential danger for us all, getting discouraged because of trials, and thus falling away? This study will focus on the strong words of encouragement that Jesus provides for us.

Hebrews  makes  clear  that  the  substitutionary  death  of Jesus  is  necessary  to  save  us,  because  “without  the  shedding  of  blood there is no forgiveness of sins”  (Heb. 9:22, NRSV). Blood stands for the life of the substitute.  The demand that the transgressor die was fulfilled by Jesus, who died once for all as an infinite sacrifice for all humanity.

We all have to deal with guilt at some point in our lives. Whether we do or not will either free us or take us deeper into entrapment of one kind or another. Beyond Guilt talks with Emmanuel Jal, a child soldier in the Sudanese civil war, and reveals how he dealt with his guilt overload. Renowned psychologist, Dr Arch Hart, gives insights into the psychology of guilt, revealing the peace that lies beyond it.