Resources for Additional Research

 

I am very grateful for the work of the authors, scholars, teachers, and organizations below. These resources helped me think more carefully about the four questions at the center of this website.

 

I do not necessarily agree with every conclusion in every resource listed here. My own conclusions are based primarily on my study of Scripture. I include these resources because they helped me examine biblical arguments, historical questions, and perspectives that I had not previously considered.

 

1. Who Is God?

 

The Holy Spirit, God as Father and Mother, and Women in the Church

 

Blogs

 

1. Learn About Images of the Holy Spirit — Deidre Havrelock

2. What Is the Mother God Experiment? — The Mother God Experiment

 

Books

 

1. Our Mother: The Holy Spirit by Marianne Widmalm

2. Holy Spirit: A Beautiful Glorious She: Women’s Role in the Godhead by Eulalie Hendricks

3. Not Only a Father: Talk of God as Mother in the Bible and Christian Tradition by Tim Bulkeley

4. The Engendering God: Male and Female Faces of God by Carl A. Raschke and Susan Doughty Raschke

5. The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr

6. The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood by Philip B. Payne

 

Website

 

Christians for Biblical Equality

 

These resources approach questions about the Holy Spirit, divine femininity, biblical language for God, and the role of women from different perspectives. I do not agree with every conclusion represented here, but each contributed in some way to my study of who God is and what it means for both women and men to be created in God’s image.

 

2. What Is God’s Plan for the World?

 

Universal Salvation and the Restoration of All

 

Books

 

1. The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbott

2. Christ Triumphant: Universalism Asserted as the Hope of the Gospel on the Authority of Reason, the Fathers, and Holy Scripture by Thomas Allin

3. Bible Proof of Universal Salvation by J. W. Hanson

4. That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation by David Bentley Hart

5. Hell: A Jewish Perspective on a Christian Doctrine by Eitan Bar

 

These books were especially helpful as I reconsidered the traditional doctrine of eternal punishment and began examining the biblical case for universal salvation. Together they helped me see how extensive the biblical discussion of God’s universal saving purpose actually is and encouraged me to examine passages about judgment, salvation, reconciliation, and restoration more carefully.

 

Ultimately, however, my confidence that God will save and restore all comes from Scripture itself.

 

3. Who Is Jesus?

 

Is Jesus God?

 

The following resources were particularly important as I reconsidered whether Scripture actually identifies Jesus as God or instead presents him as God’s uniquely exalted human Son, Messiah, Savior, Lord, and King.

 

Blogs

 

1. Biblical Unitarian

2. Trinity Delusion

3. One God Worship

4. The Trinity on Trial

5. 21st Century Reformation

6. Restitutio

 

Podcasts

 

1. Biblical Unitarian Podcast

2. One God Report Podcast

3. Restitutio Podcast

 

Apps 

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1. InWord Bible: A Bible study app available for Android and Apple devices. It includes Biblical Unitarian commentary throughout Scripture and is especially helpful when studying passages commonly used to support the belief that Jesus is God. I have found Biblical Unitarian scholarship especially valuable for reconsidering these texts and examining alternative interpretations grounded in Scripture.

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Books

 

1. Christ Before Creeds: Rediscovering the Jesus of History by Jeff Deuble

2. One God & One Lord: Reconsidering the Cornerstone of the Christian Faith by Mark H. Graeser, John A. Lynn, and John W. Schoenheit

3. Divine Truth or Human Tradition? by Patrick Navas

4. The God of Jesus in Light of Christian Dogma by Kegan A. Chandler

5. Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence by James D. G. Dunn

6. The Restitution: Biblical Proof Jesus Is Not God by Kermit Zarley

7. When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome by Richard E. Rubenstein

 

Biblical Unitarian resources played an especially important role in causing me to reconsider Jesus’ deity. I do not agree with Biblical Unitarians on every theological question, particularly concerning the deity and personhood of the Holy Spirit, but I found many of their biblical arguments about Jesus convincing and worthy of serious consideration.

 

These resources should not substitute for examining Scripture itself. My own argument throughout this website is based on the cumulative biblical evidence concerning who Jesus is: God’s human Son and Messiah, extraordinarily exalted by God, but distinct from God Himself.

 

4. Who Are Christians?

 

I do not have a particular secondary source to recommend for this question.

 

My conclusion comes primarily from the many promises throughout Scripture that Christians will ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ.

 

The New Testament repeatedly describes Christians as Christ’s brothers and sisters, members of his body, co-heirs with him, participants in his glory, people being transformed into his image, and people who will ultimately be like him.

 

Paul describes Christ in Colossians 1:15 as “the image of the invisible God.” Scripture likewise teaches that Christians are being renewed into God’s image and conformed to the image of His Son.

 

For this question, more than any other, I simply encourage readers to follow the biblical passages themselves and take seriously what God promises His children will become.

 

A Final Note

 

These resources represent a variety of viewpoints, and listing them here does not mean I endorse everything taught by every author or organization.

 

They helped me investigate the four questions that structure this website:

 

Who is God?

 

What is God’s plan for the world?

 

Who is Jesus?

 

Who are Christians?

 

Above all, I encourage readers to examine Scripture carefully, consider arguments from multiple perspectives, pray for wisdom, and remain willing to reconsider inherited assumptions.

 

My goal is to keep returning to God’s Word and asking what it actually says. May God bless you.