Question How is it possible that often art is often better than sermons in churches? At least that’s my experience. I grew up in a fundamentalist, biblicist home. This, among many other things, brought me into deep and serious depression. At that time, because of the way I was taught, it was impossible for me to receive God’s love through the bible. But I was still able to receive his love through art. This was mainly through TV series and... Read more
Recovering Authentic Prayer In the West, there was a time when most people (not just Christ-followers) knew “the Lord’s Prayer.” In the early 1970s, even in Canada’s public schools, I recall praying it daily at the beginning of the day, followed by singing our national anthem. Unlike our American neighbors, we didn’t say an oath of allegiance, but sometimes we would sing “God, Save the Queen” to remind ourselves that we belonged to the British Commonwealth (a cool word if... Read more
Question I have a question regarding the literality of Scripture, particularly concerning Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story. Like most stories from Genesis, I have generally been open to a metaphorical or symbolic—rather than literal—reading of this account. However, one particular facet of non-literal readings does trouble me somewhat. Namely, whether or not creation originally existed in a state of perfection, until it was sullied. If the story is literal, then this is certainly the... Read more
Question I am discovering that God is a loving Father and I’m experiencing the joy of knowing I’m his dearly loved child. I am basking in his goodness and mercy, I’m rediscovering my true identity in Christ and I’m finding real belonging in his family and at his table. I’m also taking Jesus more seriously than ever. But some of his teachings are difficult. For example, how should we read Luke 7:7-10? Doesn’t this completely undermine the way Jesus sees... Read more
In October, 2019, Paul Young and I were fielding a Q&R time at the Grand Embrace retreat in Aldergrove, Canada. It was the first time I’ve been asked for a response to “Jesus-following Atheists” (aka “Christian atheists”). The question was raised by another dear friend, musician Kevin Boese. He’s a huge fan of the Canadian rock band, RUSH, and an avid listener of the Liturgists Podcast, which might be where Kevin first became familiar with this idea of Christian Atheists. I did... Read more
“Can’t everyone respond to God, even if it’s in the next life? QUESTION: Why can’t everyone come to know God’s grace and mercy, even if it means doing that in the next life? God is much more powerful, loving, understanding and his ways of making that happen are past our finding out. RESPONSE: I do share your hope that, in view of God’s infinite power and love, Christ might also ultimately redeem everyone, including those the world judges as irredeemable.... Read more
Question I’ve been reading through Romans and am just having a hard time *not* seeing consistent affirmations of PSA (penal substitutionary atonement) and the forensic view of “justification” and “righteousness.” But I’m aware that this is because of my background, and I’m trying to unlearn it. I know that you’re able to read Romans in a completely different way and I’d like to learn how to do that. I’m aware of some concepts, like N.T. Wright’s “New Perspective,” but have... Read more
INTRO – “The Finished Work” “The finished work” has become a popular catch-phrase among those who faithfully teach God’s unconditional grace. This reassuring phrase comes to us from Christ’s dying declaration of divine love’s great victory. “It is finished!” he cries with his final breath (John 19:30). Although Christ’s last words were likely spoken in Aramaic or Hebrew, the Greek word John the Beloved uses to translate Jesus’ words in his eyewitness account is tetelestai (from teleo, the verb form... Read more
Question: Brad, I’m a fan of your books. But I saw something on page 142-143 of A More Christlike Way that I’d like to caution you on. I need to advise you that Mr. Kaskas is not being truthful as far as Surah 5:28 is concerned. Verse 28 looks hunky-dory but in verse 29, Abel tells Cain to “Go to hell!” Literally! And the hell Islam represents is the ever-burning Augustinian type. I would also advise you to Google Taqiyya. Also Kitman. Without knowing about Taqiyya, non-Muslims... Read more
The [heretics] act just like someone who finds a beautiful image of a king that has been constructed by a skillful artist out of precious jewels, and then breaks down this statue of the king into pieces and rearranges the gems into the form of a dog or a fox, and even then, does a poor job of it. And then they maintain and declare that this was the beautiful image of the king which the skillful artist had constructed. They point... Read more
Brad Jersak
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