Humble Theology

He Is Risen

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:56:15 GMT

Easter is a strange day if you think about it long enough.

We gather, we sing, we say the words — *He is risen, He is risen indeed* — and then we go home and eat ham (or Chicken Biryani) and wonder if we actually believe what we just said. Not because we’re bad people. But because the resurrection is an audacious claim. A man died. A man rose. And somehow, that changes everything about everything.

I was once asked on a podcast if there was anything that could shake my faith and cause me to move from belief to disbelief.

I responded simply - Yes, show me the body.

So let’s slow down and actually deal with it.

The Cross Was Not a Defeat

Before we get to the empty tomb, we have to understand the cross rightly. Because most people, even many Christians; read the cross as a tragedy that God turned into a triumph. Like Jesus lost round one and won round two.

But that’s not what happened.

Jesus on the cross was victorious, not defeated. Here’s why that matters: the cross was understood in the anc…

Palm Sunday: An Invitation to Reflect on our Motives

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:41:54 GMT

A few years ago, my greatest fear was that people would not know the name of Jesus. Today, that is no longer my greatest fear.

My greatest fear is: what Jesus will they be presented?

In a world consumed with “what can I get” and “how does this benefit me” — in a culture that designs mobile devices to make taking selfies easier and almost automatic, we find ourselves in great danger.

(Source1)

And before we think this is a new or novel idea, we would be wise to remember that there is nothing new under the sun. The people who celebrated Jesus as he entered Jerusalem had their own motives and agendas. They had their own terms, their own conditions, for accepting the kingship of Jesus. Those terms were communicated through the symbols they held and the words they shouted.

John 12:12–15 (CSB): The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him.

It would be easy to gloss over the symbol of pal…

In Times of Chaos We Need Renewed Commitment To the Word

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 19:37:14 GMT

If you’re waking up with panic because of the news and the constant conflict happening around us, you’re not alone. I am too.

The other day, walking into a church in Lubbock, TX to speak at a college ministry, I had a panic attack. In the moment, I didn’t realize what was happening to me. In my mind I was totally fine, but my body had finally had enough. It triggered a response to help my mind catch up to the constant state of panic, anxiety, and chaos I had been feeling for the last four weeks since my book, The Unseen Battle, released.

(Source1)

I sat in the green room and found myself on my knees in prayer, earnestly asking the Lord to calm my nerves, bring healing to my body, and meet me in my weakness. He did just that — through His Word. I picked up my Bible and flipped to Psalm 46, a passage I’ve come to truly treasure. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, Psalm 46 reminds us:

“The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (Psalm 46:7, NIV)

I suspect many…

A Bible Study on Spiritual Warfare, My Research Process, and Much More

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:01:44 GMT

Last week, The Unseen Battle officially entered the world.

And fittingly, launch week was… a battle.

Not just the kind you see, but the kind you feel.

On the very day the book was released, I had to fly to Dallas. We found out my dad had to undergo triple bypass heart surgery. What was supposed to be one surgery became more complicated: a valve replacement was added, and the procedure was delayed because of how complex everything became.

(Source1)

Flights were canceled. Then delayed.
Plans unraveled. Charlotte was hit with a massive snow storm that we haven’t had in almost 10 years which created more travel delays.
Organizational hiccups surfaced with a live stream we had planned to launch the book.
Complications piled up with relational dynamics, some I can’t even talk about.

Nothing went the way I wanted it to.

And yet, here’s what is still true today:

Christ is victorious.
The dark powers have been stripped of their ability to blind the nations.
The gospel is still the best news anyone could ev…

We Didn’t Lose The Battle, We Let It In

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 19:42:19 GMT

An entire city fell because of the love, and obsession; of one man for one woman.

In Homer’s telling of the fall of Troy, the war is fought over Helen. Every battle is always fought over something. In Troy’s case, it wasn’t ultimately brute strength that brought the city down, but deception that was made possible because obsession.

The Trojan Horse wasn’t a military failure.
It was a failure of discernment.

The Trojans, and King Priam interpreted the horse as a sign of divine favor.

In reality, it was a beautifully packaged act of vanity, designed to deceive from the inside out.

Troy didn’t fall because of what attacked it from the outside, but because of what it willingly welcomed in.

Troy fell because of what it let inside.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Today, spiritual warfare rarely looks like open confrontation. It looks like deception. It looks like the slow sleight of hand that convinces us we’re experiencing “divine favor,” while quietly forming habits, loves, and allegiances t…

[Available Today]: The Unseen Battle

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:03:06 GMT

It’s hard to believe that today is the day. It has been over ten years in the making since I first started my PhD work. And over the last ten years, I’ve clearly seen the impact of dark powers and evil in the world. You may wonder why you should even care about a theologically leaning book. Let me say it very clearly for you.

Because you have an enemy that absolutely hates you.

In The Unseen Battle, I trace how warfare language slowly moved from daily vigilance to occasional explanation.

“Spiritual warfare became abstract not because Christians stopped believing in it, but because it no longer shaped how they interpreted ordinary life.”

(Source1)

We still use the language, but we apply it only when things become extreme or unexplainable.

The biblical pattern is the opposite.

Scripture locates spiritual conflict in:

– allegiance

– loyalty

– attention

– habit

“The enemy is not primarily interested in dramatic moral collapse. He is interested in shaping the conditions under which collapse becomes i…

The Bible Assumes a World We’ve Been Trained Not to See

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:02:54 GMT

The modern Christian imagination has been quietly reshaped.

Not simply by heresy.

Not solely by disbelief.

But by specifically through disconnection.

We still affirm spiritual realities. We still conceptually believe in angels, demons, resurrection, and heaven. But somewhere along the way, we stopped organizing our lives around what Scripture assumes is real - a cosmic worldview.

(Source1)

As I argue in The Unseen Battle, the Bible never stops to defend the unseen realm. It simply presupposes it.

“Scripture does not argue for the existence of an unseen realm. It assumes it. The biblical authors write as though heaven and earth are overlapping spheres of the same reality.”

This is why the language of the Bible feels so foreign to us.

It was written from within a worldview we no longer inhabit.

The problem isn’t that modern Christians reject the supernatural.

It’s that we’ve been discipled to treat it as background noise.

“When the unseen becomes theoretical, obedience becomes fragmented.”

The biblic…

Spiritual Warfare Isn’t What You Think: A Clash of Kingdoms

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 11:02:38 GMT

When we think of spiritual warfare, we often think about demon exorcisms, evil spirits, and power encounters, and just pure terror and evil. But how does the Bible present spiritual warfare? It presents it as a conflict between two kingdoms. The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil. Jesus identifies this powerfully when he says:

“Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:25–28, NIV)

(Source1)

This poses some difficult questions.

How is it possible that evil forces could have any kind of “authority?”
What does all of this mean in light of Jesus and the …

Does Interracial Marriage Generally Go Against God’s Normative Design?

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:08:40 GMT

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A legitimate debate about whether or not interracial marriage is “ideal” or what God has in mind as “normative.” There is a lot that is going on with this discussion. And the fact that this debate is even happening is wild and deeply saddening to me. Honestly, there could be an entire PhD dissertation that could (probably should) be written about how being so committed to a theological and philosophical ideology stripped from Biblical exegesis is problematic at best and utterly devastating at worst.

I actually wrote a section in a PhD paper some years ago identifying how God views “multi-ethnicity” and what his “ideal” is for humanity. Check it out, and let the Biblical text drive your theology, not political ideology or philosophy.

(Source: Horne, Charles, and Julius Bewer. The Bible and Its Story: The Law, Levi…

Year End Thought On Social Media Theologians

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 11:00:38 GMT

Sometimes I wish the Bible was a Q&A book—a nice, helpful concordance where the Holy Spirit just updates the text to match our current cultural situation. For instance, I want to turn to the section under “theologians” and find the answer to:

“Should people listen to their favorite social media theologians over the personal pastors who lead them?”

Now, obviously this is much more complex. But it gets to the heart of the issue I’ve been struggling with.

Sometimes—actually, lately it’s been often—I’ve found myself wanting to quit my presence on social media. I love teaching theology. I love commenting on cultural issues from a biblical worldview rooted in the text. I want to always start from the biblical text, not from human philosophical ideologies.

So here’s the rub: I think we’ve lost (or neglected) the spiritual practice of discernment and applying discernment to theological triage. Gavin Ortlund has an amazing book on theological triage that’s been so helpful for me. There are primary…

How To Study The Bible (Part 1)

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 11:01:02 GMT

We live in a world where we have more access to God’s Word than ever before. At our fingertips, we can pick what translation we prefer. We can even, at the click of a button, get insights into the original Hebrew and Greek words. But just because we know how to read the Bible doesn’t mean we know how to understand it.

One of the things I love doing is partnering with local churches to teach a course called “How To Study The Bible.” I usually come in on a Friday or Saturday to teach this course and then stick around to preach on Sunday. (If you’re interested in this, I’d love to hear from you!)

Now, I’m bringing parts of that teaching directly to you.

I’ve created an exclusive video series for my paid Humble Theology Substack subscribers. This is the kind of content I usually only deliver in person at churches, but I wanted to make it available to everyone who supports this work.

Watch the trailer below:

Ready to dive in? Upgrade to a paid subscription to access the full “How To Study The Bible” series and all premium content.

Thank you so much for your support! I literally could not keep writing, researching, and providing the theological and biblical resources that I’ve been able to release over the last few years without you.

This is the first teaching in a new series that will equip you to study God’s Word with confidence and clarity. Let’s get started.

I’ve Always Hated Journals..Till Now

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 23:00:39 GMT

If you walked into my office, you would see a stack of journals I’ve either bought or received as gifts over the years. You would open them and notice that almost all of them get started and none of them are ever finished.

It could be a “me” thing or it could be a “journal” thing. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s both. You may be like me. The thought of a journal excites you. You get started, but then fall off. The same is true for a Read the Bible in a Year plan. The idea of it is exciting. The possibility of learning and growing in the Word is a true value. But then you get into it, and like around 94% of the people who say they will read the entire Bible in a year—you bounce.

You’re not alone. I’m right there with you.

Over the last few years, I’ve found myself doing my very best to get into a Read the Bible in a Year plan and have it stick. I finally realized that I’ve got things in so many different places I wasn’t able to finish and stay consistent. So I thought, “What if we create…

Read The Bible In A Year With Me

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 11:02:59 GMT

If you’ve ever felt like the Bible has hidden layers you’re not seeing, you’re right. And good news. You’re in the right place.

I’ve never seen this done before. A Bible reading plan that is specifically focused on the theme of the spiritual realm. Angels, demons, nephilim, leviathan, supernatural encounters and miracles - all of it. Ever wonder why we get so stuck in Leviticus? What is the point of all of this clean vs. unclean policy and procedures? Why the various sacrifices and feasts? What if the reason God cares so deeply about our “holiness” is because of what took place in Genesis 6 with the unholy (unclean) alliance between the Sons of God and the daughters of man? What the Nephilim actually give us is a backdrop that brings a bit of clarity to why God wants us to be a people who are set apart and holy?

This year, it’s time to break the cycle of skipping the weird parts of the Bible. It’s time to join the 6% who actually finish reading the Bible in a Year. And good news - the…

Learn How To Study The Bible Like A Theologian

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:01:08 GMT

People want to read the Bible with confidence. But there are certain things that prevent them. Confusion around the cultural context. The various literary genres. The fact that sometimes genres shift within books of the Bible, even in a single chapter. The variety of English words used for Greek and Hebrew words. Not to mention the difficult passages that a surface level reading often leaves us just scratching our heads. But there is good news, we just need some guidance and access to the right tools.

If you’ve watched (or read) the story of the Wizard of Oz you know that the wizard is working behind a curtain. It’s not until the very end until the curtain is exposed and we all get to see what is really happening. Well, sometimes it can feel like that with theologians and scholars. They are writing, and researching, and teaching and it feels like they have access to some secret resources.

Well, you’re right. They do. And I really think it’s important for the everyday reader of the Bible…

No, I Didn't Forget About Black Friday Or Cyber Monday

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 18:52:23 GMT

A Special Thank You

I’ve been writing Humble Theology for years now, and I’m consistently amazed by the community that’s formed around these explorations of Scripture, theology, how to respond to the cultural moment with a Biblical perspective, and the supernatural worldview of the Bible. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or just stumbled upon my work recently, thank you for being part of this conversation.

Today, I want to extend a special invitation to go deeper.

For a limited time (next 48hrs), I’m offering 30% off an annual subscription to Humble Theology.

Get 30% off for 1 year

What You Get as a Paid Subscriber

First, you’ll unlock the complete backlog of all my theology essays. Years of work on how to read and understand the Bible, Old Testament Theology, New Testament Theology, Angels and Demons and much more. These aren’t just blog posts; they’re carefully researched pieces that connect the ancient worldview of the Biblical text to our modern context.

Second, you’ll get exclusive posts that onl…

Raw Thoughts on Gratitude and Grief

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 15:30:06 GMT

“The church can’t survive on sentiment and nostalgia. Sentiment, nostalgia, optimism - these are weak thin fuels.” - Fleming Rutledge"

It’s early in the morning. I usually write my posts weeks in advance. So I have time to edit them. If they’re deeper theological posts, I try to get other people’s eyes on them for feedback. But this morning, Thanksgiving morning, I woke up early to sit down and just write some words from my heart. Not polished. Not neat.

Just raw.

(Source:1)

Giving thanks when things aren’t the way you thought they would be is tough. Most often it’s pretty dysregulating. Normally for Thanksgiving my family and I go to Houston to celebrate with our extended family. It’s quite the scene to behold. We’ve been doing this since I was in high school. My Uncle Calvin moved from Illinois to Houston. The distance created a reason for us to be intentional with holidays. So he made it a staple. We always go to Houston, to his house, for Thanksgiving.

For twenty-five-some years this ha…

Making Sense of the Spirit of God

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:03:17 GMT

God is triune: There are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it. - J.I. Packer

Sadly, one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated doctrines in our culture and time today may be that of the Holy Spirit. It seems like there are two typical responses to the study of the Spirit (Pneumatology)—both pendulum swings. One is a hyper-conservative and almost “taming” approach to the nature, prominence, and power of the Spirit. The other is an over-realized, overactive, and often dangerous obsession with certain aspects of the Spirit. The goal here is to see and think rightly about the importance of the Spirit and how crucial it is for us to embrace the reality and implications of living by the power of the Spirit. Herman Bavinck captures this well, saying, “Just as breath comes out of our mouth, so the Spirit pr…

Does God Hate Divorce?

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 11:03:10 GMT

A while back, I had an Instagram video about the mistranslation of Malachi 2:16 that went relatively viral, at least for my content. With that, I’ve received hundreds of comments from women and men who are so grateful for this clarity. I’ve also received critical feedback and severe accusations against me. I wanted to respond to two parts of the accusations.

First, the Hebrew grammar of Malachi 2:16 and why the phrase “God hates divorce” is inaccurate from an exegetical standpoint in my opinion, based on Hebrew grammar supported by ancient sources.

Second, why this clarification is a distinction WITH a difference. In other words, it has real-life applications and consequences for men and women in destructive and dangerous marriages.

It truly is an honor to walk alongside you as we both strive to better understand and interpret the text.

(Source: From Bod…

Defending Timothy Keller and the "Third Way"

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 11:03:09 GMT

During my seminary days, I had the opportunity to take a class with Terry Gieger and guest lecturer Dr. Tim Keller. The class was on church planting, and I realize now that sitting in that class learning from Keller was like learning how to shoot a sky hook from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. From that day, Keller has been an inspiration and model for me—one of the first people I thought about when considering a “Pastor/Theologian/Scholar.”

(Source1)

I was really excited when Colin Hansen announced he was working on a kind of biography on Keller that was more about the influences “on” him versus his influence on others. In a way, we get insight into what formed Keller and shaped his life, ministry, and theology. Sadly, Pastor Keller passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2023 at the age of 72. His death has been particularly difficult for me in these last few years, as I’ve often found myself thinking: what would Tim Keller say about this?

You see, his books on God and humanity—rooted…

What Your Soul is Actually Searching For

Joel Muddamalle, PhD — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:02:28 GMT

The human heart stands as one of God’s most profound creations, both in its physical and spiritual dimensions. When the ancient Hebrew’s referenced the “heart/leb” they had in mind so much more than emotional reactions. They had in mind the wellspring of volition. The seat of reasoning. It was the connection between what we thought, felt, and did.

It really is fascinating the symbolic/poetic and literal function of the heart in Biblical language. Just as God designed the physical heart to pump blood throughout our bodies, sustaining life through its rhythmic circulation, He created our spiritual hearts with an equally vital purpose: to pump love toward its proper object, God Himself. This concept was first introduced by the early church father, Augustine who suggested our hearts were a kind of love pump. Philosopher and theologian James K. Smith developed this even further painting a picture of heart as a love pump that was always intended to pour out love onto God. However, when sin e…