Andrew Rillera
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andrewrillera.bsky.social
Andrew Rillera
@andrewrillera.bsky.social
1.9K followers 570 following 400 posts
PhD, NT (Duke), Associate Prof of Biblical Studies & Theology at The King’s University, former Jehovah’s Witness & evangelical, Anglican, hockey fan, hockey player. Book: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666703047/lamb-of-the-free/
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andrewrillera.bsky.social
My book, Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death, is 50% off throughout Nov with code CONFSHIP from the publisher’s site. Tell your friends!

wipfandstock.com/978166670304...
Cover of Andrew Rillera’s book, Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death.
November 8, 2025 at 6:25 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
this is cool from John Mark Comer
Screenshot of @johnmarkcomer ‘s IG story sharing a picture of him holding the book, Lamb of the Feee: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death by Andrew Remington Rillera, with a textual overlay that says: “One of the most important academic books I've read in years. Next I'll read rebuttels, but this seems to be the final biblical/exegetical knock out blow to PSA. Who would've guessed it would have come not from "liberals" but from scholars of Leviticus?! Highly recommend for your thoughtful consideration.”
August 9, 2025 at 4:22 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
15/15
Screenshot of Lamb of the Free pg 249
April 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
This is longer than I anticipated & than u prob wanted so I'll end by posting screenshots from LotF 245–49 w highlights that sit w a key observation re the NT's use of Isa 53 in consistently *non-substitutionary* ways (I know u have the book, so this is more for flies on the wall who don't). 14/
Screenshot of Lamb of the Free pg 245 Screenshot of Lamb of the Free pg 246 Screenshot of Lamb of the Free pg 247 Screenshot of Lamb of the Free pg 248
April 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Did Jafar hijack Trump’s account or is he just a bonafide cringe cartoon villain??
A truth social post from Donald Trump that says “THE GOLDEN RULE OF NEGOTIATING AND SUCCESS: HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES. THANK YOU!” Screenshot of a gif (posted in next skeet) of Jafar from the movie Aladdin saying “Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.”
April 20, 2025 at 8:27 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
I thought it was “America first” not “American alone.” Kim Jong Don is turning the US into North-West Korea real fast w this global trade war.
Trump face swapped with Kim Jong Un.
April 3, 2025 at 11:44 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
One of my favorite classes is having students make observations via guided ?s on the gospel speeches in Acts. Here's my final slide I'm priming them for. Altho many r shook, they can't "unsee" what they just observed. I've found this way (*usually*) generates curiosity rather than defensiveness.
Picture of my PowerPoint slide with the title/caption at the bottom: "(Re-)Calibrating the Gospel to the Apostlic Witness". It features two memes side by side of icons of the apostles Peter and Paul facing each other. On the left the text says: Imagine a gospel with no threat of hell. [italicized] You don't have to. You can see Peter & Paul preach it in ACTS. [italicized] every. [italicized] single. [italicized] time. One the right it has the same text except "threat of hell" is scratched out and "penal subsitutionary atonement" is written above it.
March 17, 2025 at 7:14 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Me: Nothing can ever be so utterly terrifying & yet totally hilarious in its sheer clownish bafoonery.

DJT: Hold my M@G@ hat.

He’s really going full Nebuchadnezzar in the most spot on cartoonishly cringe way possible & these “Bible believing evangelicals” gladly bend the knee. Embarrassing.
Screenshot from Trump’s Truth Social post of a (AI generated?) picture of a towering golden statue of himself in the middle of a main street. It’s taller than the palm trees lining the street.
February 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Perfect.
Pic from The London Economic showing Trudeau smiling and smaller pic on the upper left showing Trump and Trudeau talking together with the caption, “Canada make deal with Trump by agreeing to do something they were already doing” [“already doing” is emphasized with red font]
February 5, 2025 at 8:34 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Besides hoping he’s right since we all know how Goliath ends, he’s already correct to analogically identify the USA w the Philistines. Way to go, champ!
Tweet by @JohnMadin “Had Canada been treating us fairly, this would never have happened. So, buckle up Canada, you’re taking on Goliath.”
February 2, 2025 at 10:48 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Anybody know the source for this DBH quote?
"If you’ve been raised American you’ve most likely been raised with a religion that’s deeply anti-Christian. You’ve been inoculated against the Gospel. The God who expresses Himself in the form of a suffering slave is not the god who shapes the American religious experience. The only real religion in America has always been America, the shining city on a hill that has created a new constitutional order, a new nation, and a new people. And the more you realize that what backs up these claims is a gigantic military that spends a great deal of time striding around the world spreading the sheer terror of its presence, ostensibly as a benign influence on historical events… when you see how easy it is for people who profess Christianity to confuse their loyalty to Christ with loyalty to America… then what’s actually happening is that “Christian America” is just the religion of America dressed in Christian garb (and not very convincing Christian garb). Unfortunately, America and Christianity are actually two antithetical values. They don’t merely exist in two different spheres; they are fundamentally opposed to one another.” ~David Bentley Hart
January 28, 2025 at 5:00 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Drake Hotline Bling meme. Top text: Merry Christmas Eve Eve. Bottom text: Merry Christmas Adam.
December 23, 2024 at 4:58 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Just arrived! Excited to dig into @drewstrait.bsky.social’s _Strange Worship: Six Steps for Challenging Christian Nationalism_ over the break!
Picture of the cover of DREW J. STRAIT’s STRANGE WORSHIP: SIX STEPS FOR CHALLENGING CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM.
December 20, 2024 at 8:48 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
After a wonderful surprise 18th anniversary breakfast our kids made us (13 & 11) and us all watching a show together, I’m chipping away at grading with this Queen keeping a close eye on me making sure I stay focused. Oh, nope. She’s sleeping. That’s why I’m online :)
Pic of my black cat sleeping behind my head on top of a brown recliner.
December 14, 2024 at 8:12 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Can Christians hope/expect to be united with their loved one's in the resurrection? 🧵 ⚓

x.com/freganmitts/...
Screenshot from @freganmitts on Twitter: I have an afterlife-belief question that I’ve never gotten a good answer for: why do people believe they’ll see their dead loved ones in the afterlife? Even if there is an afterlife? Why would one even expect that? I guess I’m coming at this more from a traditional Christian perspective, as I know LDS and Islam etc have theology that asserts this. But traditional Christians always say this as well, which afaik isn’t anywhere in scripture and wasn’t even widely believed until recently? Feel free to chime in from other spiritual perspectives as well! I’m curious, but suspect it’s mostly wishful thinking. Happy to be wrong!
November 30, 2024 at 11:51 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Hot Frosty 2
Olaf from Frozen
November 30, 2024 at 6:27 AM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Imagine basing your whole personality on what makes a certain group mad. Such an immature, vindictive, and yet petty telos can only deform the proper growth of the human soul.
Screenshot of a tweet from Rod Dreher on 11/28/24 quoting Trump's thanksgiving tweet. Dreher's tweet says: "I love him. I used to not, but then the trigger-the-libs comedy got to me. That, and his Trumpy theology and geometry." Trump's tweet says: "Happy Thanksgiving to all, including to the Radical Left Lunatics who have worked so hard to destroy our Country, but who have miserably failed, and will always fail, because their ideas and policies are so hopelessly bad that the great people of our Nation just gave a landslide victory to those who want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Don’t worry, our Country will soon be respected, productive, fair, and strong, and you will be, more than ever before, proud to be an American!"
November 29, 2024 at 9:57 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
It’s just the definition of the word
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information.Misinformation can exist without specific malicious intent; disinformation is distinct in that it is deliberately deceptive and propagated. Misinformation can include inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths. Merriam-Webster dictionary entry for misinformation: incorrect or misleading information
November 24, 2024 at 3:59 AM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
The temple tax was not paid to "the empire" (Romans); it went to the temple itself. It is a widely attested 2nd temple practice based on Exod 30:11–16 & Neh 10:32–33 (Philo, Her. 186; Josephus, Ant. 3.194–196; 18. 312). "What would they do with the collected funds?" The Rabbis are glad you asked:
screenshot of Mishnah Sheqalim 4:1: What would they do with the collected funds? The They would purchase with them continual offerings and additional offerings along with their libations, the omer and the two loaves and the showbread and all communal offerings.
November 24, 2024 at 1:53 AM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Misinformation is misinformation (regardless of intention). And unfortunately, this post is just that. It sounds good (esp. to Christians trying to escape the many probs of conservative American evangelicalism in love w imperialism), but is based on a misunderstanding of what the temple tax was.+
Screenshot from Threads (poster's pic & name redacted): The temple tax was a symbol of empire’s entanglement with faith, a demand for allegiance wrapped in ritual. But in this story, it’s not paid as a tribute to power—it’s paid as a declaration of divine abundance. The coin comes not from toil or scarcity but from creation itself—God’s provision, unbent by human systems. Jesus isn’t bowing to empire, but exposing its fragility. A kingdom that has to borrow from the waters and the wild to assert its authority has no real authority at all. And maybe that’s what we’re called to do: to live in a way that reveals the empire’s emptiness while trusting in the abundance of a kin-dom that cannot be taxed or taken.
November 24, 2024 at 1:53 AM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
What does it mean to “hate” the already born?
Withholding material goods from them = hate = murder. Cruciform love = life.
picture of 1 John 3:15–18: 15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. 16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? 18 Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.
November 15, 2024 at 7:20 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
I cherish these remarks as a prof, esp for those hard times (& hard for different sorts of reasons).

This is someone in my Revelation class who recently "escaped the alt-right pipeline" (happened before so I'm not taking credit!). It reminds us to hope bc people can/do change & de-radicalize.
Screenshot from an essay from one of my students in my course on the book of Revelation: "...intimidated to be in a room full of 'real' Christians who presumably took their faith much more seriously than I had before, and very nearly dropped the course to TA for a computing science lab instead. In the end, I decided that I needed the structure and guidance this course could provide, and this choice has been extremely rewarding. The money I would've made as a TA by now is far outweighed by the new perspective this course has given me."
November 11, 2024 at 8:19 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
It’s in line with what I had already written to someone else re Girard in relation to my project (perhaps I should have been more clear and thorough in that part of the book). +
July 24, 2024 at 7:31 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Exactly. From The Bad Place:
Screenshot of two tweets (typos preserved): We had a faculty meeting abt this a few weeks ago. Since it’s really hard to verify or best bet at this point is try to have written assignments be such that lazy attempts to use AI would generate a failing essay anyways. (This is biased toward the lazy bc we’re counting on the type of student who was motivated enough to figure how to use ChatGPT in a nuanced expert level way to fly undetected would also be the type of student who was motivated & curious enough to not use AI in a dishonest way.)
December 18, 2023 at 11:03 PM
andrewrillera.bsky.social
Proofs!! This one will be open access and published on 12/30!

Come for why Philo is relevant to discerning the character/teaching of (some of) Paul’s opponents, stay for the penile polemics, diagrams, and slurs (from the Apostle himself)!
Proofs for my forthcoming article in JJMJS: “Polemicizing with Preputial Precision: What We Can Learn about Paul’s Opponents in Galatians and Philippians by Understanding the Differences between Two Types of Physical Circumcision”
December 4, 2023 at 6:02 PM