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Why Ancient Christians Didn't Use Crosses for 300 Years · Theology Made Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Theology Made Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jordan.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In today's episode,
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  we're going to look at why ancient Christians didn't use
• 0:12
  crosses for 300 years.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's the year 150.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're standing in a small Christian gathering.
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  It's not a church,
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  not a cathedral,
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  just a dimly lit home on the outskirts of Rome.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters greet each other quietly.
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  SPEAKER_00: They pray softly.
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  SPEAKER_00: They sing hymns.
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  And on the walls,
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  no crosses,
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  no crucifix,
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  no jewelry shaped like Calvary.
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  If you look for the symbol that defines Christianity today,
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  you're not going to find it.
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  SPEAKER_00: For the first three centuries of the church,
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  SPEAKER_00: the cross,
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  SPEAKER_00: the very instrument of Christ's death,
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  SPEAKER_00: was almost entirely absent from Christian art,
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  SPEAKER_00: worship,
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  SPEAKER_00: and identity.
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  SPEAKER_00: To ancient believers, the cross wasn't a logo.
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  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a stamp.
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  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't comforting.
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  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't inspirational.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was an execution device.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the shock isn't that Christians eventually embraced it.
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  SPEAKER_00: The real shock is that for nearly 300 years, they didn't.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you lived in the Roman Empire,
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  SPEAKER_00: you didn't wear crosses,
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  SPEAKER_00: you didn't carve them,
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  SPEAKER_00: you didn't decorate your home with them,
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  SPEAKER_00: you didn't put them on buildings.
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  And the reason is because crucifixion was the empire's most
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  degrading punishment.
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  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just painful,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was humiliating,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was public,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was reserved for slaves,
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  SPEAKER_00: rebels,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the lowest criminals.
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  SPEAKER_00: Romans didn't talk about crucifixion in polite conversation.
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  Cicero said the very word crux should be far from the lips of a
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  Roman citizen.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was considered vulgar, offensive, socially radioactive.
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  SPEAKER_00: As one historian puts it, the cross was not a symbol of faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was a symbol of shame.
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  SPEAKER_00: So imagine the earliest Christians trying to explain their faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: What do you believe?
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, we follow a man who is crucified.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's instant scandal, mockery, suspicion.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're going to get ridiculed.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's why Paul says we preach Christ crucified,
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  SPEAKER_00: a stumbling block to Jews and fullness to Gentiles.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ancient people weren't inspired by the cross.
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  SPEAKER_00: They were embarrassed by it.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the church needed other symbols,
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  SPEAKER_00: markers of hope that didn't immediately repel the entire ancient world.
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  SPEAKER_00: So if not the cross, then what symbols did they use?
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  And probably the most famous early Christian emblem is the
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  ichthys,
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  a fish.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why a fish?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because the Greek word ichthys secretly encoded a creed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
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  A fish was safe,
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  ordinary,
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  unthreatening,
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  but to believers it said everything.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then you find the anchor, and this is often found in the catacombs.
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  SPEAKER_00: It symbolized hope.
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  SPEAKER_00: Drawn from Hebrews 6.19, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul.
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  Then we have the Good Shepherd,
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  often depicted as a young man carrying a sheep.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or the Cairo,
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  SPEAKER_00: the first two Greek letters of Christ,
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  SPEAKER_00: a shorthand symbol easy to carve discreetly.
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  SPEAKER_00: And these symbols, they were hopeful, but they were coded.
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  SPEAKER_00: Theologically rich, but safe for a persecuted community.
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  SPEAKER_00: The cross...
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  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just unsafe, it was inflammatory.
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  And we sometimes underestimate just how offensive the
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  crucifixion was in the ancient world.
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  SPEAKER_00: To Jews, it was a sign of being cursed.
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  SPEAKER_00: To Romans, it was a sign of social worthlessness.
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  To Greeks,
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  it contradicted every philosophical instinct about divine
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  dignity.
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  SPEAKER_00: The earliest artistic depiction of a crucified Christ?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's not Krishna at all.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's graffiti.
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  SPEAKER_00: Scratched onto a wall in Rome,
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  SPEAKER_00: dated roughly to the late 2nd or early 3rd century,
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  SPEAKER_00: is the Aleximenos Graffito.
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  SPEAKER_00: A man worshipping a crucified figure with a donkey's head.
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  SPEAKER_00: Underneath the inscription reads, It's mockery.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it tells us the cultural reality.
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  SPEAKER_00: The cross wasn't just seen as controversial, it was seen as laughable.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so if the church had led with it as a symbol,
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  SPEAKER_00: Christianity likely could have been dismissed before it ever grew.
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  SPEAKER_00: So instead they focused on different imagery.
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  SPEAKER_00: Resurrection, shepherds, hope, incarnation, baptism, Eucharist.
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  SPEAKER_00: All of which were far less socially explosive.
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  SPEAKER_00: The cross remained at the theological center,
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  SPEAKER_00: but it stayed near the fringe of visual expression.
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  SPEAKER_00: So when did the cross reappear?
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  Well,
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  the shift happens in the early 4th century after the conversion
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  of Emperor Constantine.
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  SPEAKER_00: With persecution ending, Christians could express their faith publicly.
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  SPEAKER_00: Art flourished, churches grew, and then symbols emerged.
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  SPEAKER_00: And slowly, carefully, the cross came into view.
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  SPEAKER_00: Earliest Christian crosses began appearing as modest carvings in church
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  SPEAKER_00: architecture in mosaics.
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  But the crucifix,
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  a cross with Christ's body,
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  comes even later around the 6th century.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why the delay?
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  Because the cross was still a harsh,
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  graphic,
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  disturbing instrument of torture.
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  SPEAKER_00: It took centuries for Christians to reinterpret it as victory,
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  SPEAKER_00: sacrifice,
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  SPEAKER_00: love,
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  SPEAKER_00: triumph,
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  SPEAKER_00: healing.
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  The cross had to be theologically reframed before it could be
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  visually embraced.
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  The earliest Christians believed in the cross deeply,
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  but they weren't sentimental about it.
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  SPEAKER_00: To them, the cross wasn't jewelry decor meant to be on your walls.
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  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't aesthetic.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was the place where God entered humanity's darkest moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brutal, shameful, jarring.
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  SPEAKER_00: Theologically,
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  SPEAKER_00: the church had to grow into the cross to understand its meaning,
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  SPEAKER_00: the paradox of glory through shame,
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  SPEAKER_00: the victory that's hidden inside suffering.
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  And only after three centuries of reflection did Christians
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  have the cultural,
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  SPEAKER_00: theological,
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  and emotional tools to make the cross a symbol of hope rather
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  than horror.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that process, I think it matters.
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  SPEAKER_00: And by the late fourth century,
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  SPEAKER_00: we had cross-shaped church designs,
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  SPEAKER_00: crosses on church domes,
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  SPEAKER_00: processional crosses,
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  SPEAKER_00: and jeweled crosses.
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  SPEAKER_00: Cross transformed from an execution device into a proclamation,
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  SPEAKER_00: death defeated,
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  SPEAKER_00: shame redeemed,
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  SPEAKER_00: the worst thing in the world turned into the best news in history.
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  No other religion takes its moment of apparent defeat and puts
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  it at the center.
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  SPEAKER_00: The cross became Christianity's symbol not because it was obvious,
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  SPEAKER_00: but because it was unthinkable.
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  A symbol no one would choose unless something truly
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  world-altering had happened on it.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you see a cross,
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  SPEAKER_00: on a church,
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  SPEAKER_00: around a neck,
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  SPEAKER_00: on a Bible,
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  SPEAKER_00: on your own wall,
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  SPEAKER_00: remember,
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  SPEAKER_00: for the first Christians,
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  SPEAKER_00: this symbol wasn't comforting,
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  SPEAKER_00: it wasn't expected,
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  SPEAKER_00: it wasn't immediate.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was raw, humiliating, scandalous.
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the point.
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  SPEAKER_00: Christianity isn't built on what the world finds respectable.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's built on the God who enters shame,
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  SPEAKER_00: takes on violence,
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  and transforms an instrument of death into the greatest symbol
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  of hope in human
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  SPEAKER_00: history.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Theology Made Podcast.
• 6:29
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• 6:30
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• 6:32
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