“The Jesus that reigns down pain and disappointment to teach you something about his love, the behavior obsessed Jesus who uses shame to manipulate you into doing what he wants, the abusive Jesus you have been describing to me for more than an hour, I think you should leave him.

Eric Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Church in Redding CA, shares generously, humbly, and with great insight on the goodness of God, navigating culture, Jesus and American politics, spiritual maturity, emotional health, and what it means to be alive.

I held my tongue while the men provided their own scripture, “…women should be silent in the churches…for they are not permitted to speak, but should remain silent and subordinate” (1 Cor 14:34), and “I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man; she is to keep silent” (1 Tim 2:12). The Elders believed that because their thoughts were biblical, they were somehow true. But of course, they were not. Jesus was far from them…

Jesus is my lens, my true narrative. His perfect love is my conviction. His goodness is my faith. Every question I have, every relationship or circumstance, every scripture, including the tension Job represents, is measured against the measureless revelation of Jesus.

If a person believes punishment is in God’s nature, that God pulls triggers after we die, that hell is His final act of eternal separation, then simply asking the question “Can we be saved when we die?” is sacrilege and attempting to answer, sheer heretical lunacy…

…With self-righteous arrogance, Jonah determines it’s the will of god that he die for his sin. Instead of repenting, Jonah, with his sanctimonious gospel, preaches himself overboard as a sacrifice to his angry god. And worse, he makes the sailors complicit in his death religion…

Jesus is my lens, my true narrative. His perfect love is my conviction. His goodness is my faith. Every question I have, every relationship or circumstance, every scripture, including the tension Job represents, is measured against the measureless revelation of Jesus.

Brad discusses high Christology and gives insight into how our early church fathers thought about God and how they read and interpreted scripture. He also discussed what the wrath of God means in scripture.