FIRE is used all over the Bible, both literally and metaphorically, for God's judgement. But can we understand fire in a context of judgement through a Jesus-looking, non-violent lens?

Most Bible translations show Jesus using the word Hell around twelve times. But the “Hell” we imagine today is not what Jesus was actually talking about. The word He used was GEHENNA—a term with a very different history, meaning, and context. Understanding what Gehenna truly meant in Jesus’s time will completely reshape how you read His so-called, “hell passages”, and transform your entire view of what Hell might be.

What does the Old Testament tell us about the ancient Israelites beliefs about the afterlife, and how did their understandings evolve and develop across Biblical history up until the time of Jesus?

Vinnie gives an thorough and uncensored overview of the traditional view of Hell, shares why this view is so resistant to alternative opinions and reformation, and finishes with hints toward a more Jesus-Centered view.

This is part 1 in a new mini-series that dives into the topic of Hell. The introduction will provide you will the big picture and direction that this mini-series will take for the following episodes.

Vinnie responds and debunks some common Penal Substitutionary Atonement passages and concepts such as: divine-on-divine punishment, the Father forsaking the Son, the veil torn in two, authority over cosmic evil, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and a few other comments.

Vinnie talks about understanding "the wrath of God" in light of Christus Victor and in a Jesus-Centered lens, and how eliminating the Law of Moses was tied into Jesus's victory over the cosmic forces of evil.

Vinnie used this episode to go over the mechanics behind Christus Victor—if not via a legal mechanism, then how does Jesus’s death defeat the cosmic powers and free humanity from the Kingdom of Darkness? Great question! Vinnie gives some answers.

Vinnie explores the true purpose of Jesus’s death on the cross through the lens of Christus Victor. He begins by reestablishing the foundation of two kingdoms locked in a very real war, outlines two perspectives on how Satan gained authority over the earth, and then explains how Jesus’s victory over sin and the devil does not need to be understood within a legal framework.

The blood was the element in Old Testament animal sacrifices that made atonement for sin. But contrary to traditional Penal Substitutionary interpretations, Vinnie reframes its significance around an earlier Old Testament definition of atonement. He shows how Jesus’s spiritual blood has now become the pitch—the tar-like covering—that seals us through the New Birth, releasing us from the foundational problem of sin itself.