546 results for tag: Brad Jersak

CWR Video – “Why Did Jesus Die?” – by Brad Jersak

Short video by Brad Jersak We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider donating freely toward paying it forward by clicking the blue giving at the top of your screen.

“The second is like it” – Loving God, loving neighbour – Brad Jersak

Matthew 22:35-40 "... and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ This teaching of Jesus is remarkable on several significant fronts! For example, we are actually hearing Jesus' own assessment of the greatest commandment in the Law: loving God wholeheartedly. And ...

Q&R: What is your take on the Nephilim? Brad Jersak

QUESTION"What is your take on the Nephilim?" RESPONSE: The brief mention of the Nephilim in Genesis is quite a mystery. The gaps in this fantastical story led to loads of creative fan fiction (the Jewish genre called 'midrash') and, more recently, bizarre conspiracy theories. Let's start with the initial text itself: Genesis 6: 1 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not abide in mortals for ever, for they are ...

From Our Mailbox…

I’ve been reading A More Christlike God by Brad Jersak, and I want to thank you for encouraging readers/viewers/listeners to read his book.  Brad’s encouragement to "pause to think" at the end of each chapter, is thoughtful. I'm sobered, humbled, by how often I allowed others to do my thinking for me.       I'm shocked to discover that some of my "old ideas" marginalized Jesus Christ and his Cross, and some of my "old ideas," carried to their logical conclusion, "separate" the Father from the Son!       I'm not ashamed to admit I was once a gentile, idolatrous heretic. Jesus ...

Breakfast with Brad – Silly but Harmful

In which Brad eats Campbell's chicken noodle soup, spouts a silly (but harmless) childhood poem, then cites an example of a silly (but very harmful) theology. For the toxic citation, see below:  https://vimeo.com/1007830344  We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider donating freely toward paying it forward by clicking the blue giving at the top of your screen.    

Q&R: “How did Jesus ‘become sin’? Brad Jersak

What does Paul mean when he says, "Jesus became sin for us"?

CWR Video – The Theology of the Cross

In this CWR Video, Brad and Ed discuss the topics of The Theology of the Cross and Theodicy. https://vimeo.com/1015762438 If this post has helped you, please subscribe and share it freely. We also invite you to help us continue to help others with a donation. Click here if you're able to partner with us

Violence in the Hebrew Bible (part 3) – Violence as a Pollutant – Brad Jersak with Matt Lynch

Violence in the Hebrew Bible

CWR Video – Penal Substitutionary Atonement

In this CWR Video, Greg and Brad discuss the definition of and the error within the theory of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. https://vimeo.com/1015767239 If this post has helped you, please subscribe and share it freely. We also invite you to help us continue to help others with a donation. Click here if you're able to partner with us.

Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Part 2) – Ecocide- Brad Jersak & Matt Lynch

In my discussions in Part 1 on Old Testament violence with author and friend of CWR, Dr. Matthew Lynch, the biblical connection between human violence and damage to the environment came up. The word that Matt used for this was ecocide. Just as the murder of a human is homicide or the murder of a father is patricide or the murder of God is deicide, the word ecocide links ecology (the environment) with murder. The striking thing about biblical ecocide that it is not simply the murder of the environment, but the impact of human-vs-human violence on the land and its ability to sustain life. Matthew offered the ...

Breakfast with Brad – Is Preaching God’s Love Capitulation to the World’?

In which Brad prepares a 'normal' breakfast and answers an important question: Is preaching God's all-inclusive love capitulation to 'the world'? See text beneath the video for the extended Q & A. https://vimeo.com/1007825193 Question: I love your book (A More Christlike God) because it rings true that the "through line" of our theology must be love and radical self-giving. But how do you guard against the idea that God and/or Jesus may be more wrathful and judging than we like to believe? Response: Great question! First, I notice you're assuming that the problem is that God be more wrathful than we'd want him to be. ...

April 2025

CLICK HERE to read now (PDF Format) Greg Albrecht Two Arrivals: Dallas & Jerusalem – pg. 2 Brad Jersak The Last Scapegoat – pg. 4 Richard Rohr Perfect Love Casts Out Fear – pg. 7

Q&R with Brad: “Is reading the Bible through the Gospel ‘eisegesis'”?

Question: Is reading the Bible through the Gospel 'eisegesis'? "What I’m saying is that your criteria for judging a translation is not your linguistic ability or your academic credentials. It is your personal knowledge of who Jesus is, the nature of God as he revealed it, and the gospel he preached." Brad Jersak from "Gospel Before Translation" Brad ... is that not getting a little close to eisegesis? My personal growth is so much dependent on my openness to God revealing things to me about Himself and myself, that are sometimes very challenging of my well-formed, and dysfunctional, personal theology. Response: What a good ...

Q&R: Two Thieves & the Third Cross-piece

Question: ​ I have a question about the cross.​ I have seen what some call the "Russian ​C​ross​." What troubles me about it is the symbol of the third wooden cross-piece at the bottom, because it contradicts my belief in apokatastasis (ultimate redemption).​ Can you help me understand ​the following explanation better or offer an alternative?  "The slanted line reminds us of the two thieves on both sides of the cross. One of them to the right of Christ ascended to Heaven, while the other one sank to Hell. Thus bottom bar of the cross is like the scale of justice and its points show the way to the ...

CWR Video – Heaven and Hell

In this CWR Video, Greg and Brad discuss perspectives on heaven and hell. https://vimeo.com/1013248243 If this post has helped you, please subscribe and share it freely. We also invite you to help us continue to help others with a donation. Click here if you're able to partner with us

Breakfast with Brad – Slow Roast Coffee and Trusting God’s Process

Today in the ancient town of Quedlinburg, Germany, Brad sees how quality coffee is roasted and trusting God in the slow processes of our growth. "2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." (James 1:2-4) https://vimeo.com/1007820640 We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider ...

Breakfast with Brad – Hot Chocolate and God’s Love

Breakfast with Brad - In which Eden has hot chocolate in Germany's winter wonderland, while Brad goes on a rant about God's supposedly wishy-washy Love. https://vimeo.com/1000504847 We hope that our articles and resources bring comfort, hope, encouragement, and healing to our readers. If you’re experiencing that, please subscribe freely, share freely, and, if you’re able, please consider donating freely toward paying it forward by clicking the blue giving at the top of your screen.

“He ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.” – Brad Jersak

“He ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.” “Fell on his neck” is such a strange idiom. My inner literalist chuckles if I picture it out of context. It sounds more like a professional wrestling move than an affectionate hug. In the biblical context, the expression appears just four times—three times in Genesis and once in a Gospel parable. The phrase is always connected to family and always to a moment of reunion/reconciliation. The exact verses are: Between Jacob and Esau (twin brothers) – Genesis 33:4 But Esau ran to meet [Jacob], and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they ...

Friends Without Borders – Brad Jersak

Even if we feel powerless over big-news global events, we are not powerless to share the grace we've experienced.

Q&R: Codependent Christianity – Brad Jersak

"I thought I was going through a depression, but turns out, it was just my religion!"  The following is an email conversation about "codependent Christianity" that I'm sharing with the writer's permission. READER Hi Bradley, am so grateful for your teachings and guidance for those of us deconstructing.  I thought I was going through a depression, but turns out, it was just Evangelicalism!  If only that didn't mean that I now have to sort out the tangled mess that has intertwined in my best faith practice.   My biggest hurdle is repairing my relationship with scripture when it's neurologically sewn into my ...