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\u201cThe Christian God has been twisted into something not unlike that of radical Islam.\u201d So says Brad Jersak. We first met because\u00a0we were both interviewed for the movie \u201cHellbound?\u201d <\/a>Then we became friends. Now Brad\u00a0has an important book out\u2013A More Christlike God<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u2013that challenges the received lazy \u201cwisdom\u201d of both conservatives and liberals, atheists and believers about\u00a0Christ. Here\u2019s my interview with Brad on this important and beautifully written book.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Q:\u00a0<\/i>Tell my readers a bit about your background.<\/strong><\/p>\n Brad:\u00a0<\/strong>Like you Frank, I grew up in the Evangelical world in the era when Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority hit their stride. It was also a time when your father, Francis Schaeffer, was my favorite thinker and hero \u2026 he did offer some culture and sanity to the Evangelical scene. Also, like you, the notion of a violent, retributive God eventually soured on me. The journey so far has led me to a more Christlike vision of God (and, like you, to the Orthodox church). Out of that fresh (but ancient) vision came this book.<\/p>\n Q: What was your inspiration for the title, A More Christlike God \u2013 <\/em>more Christlike than what?<\/strong><\/p>\n Brad: A<\/strong>ll of us, Christian or not, including atheists\u2014carry images of \u2018God\u2019 in our minds. Whether we love and worship that \u2018God\u2019 or despise and reject him (or her or it), I believe human conceptions of God are incomplete, distorted and can even be dangerous. This is especially troubling when we see fundamentalists of all stripes emulating a violent god of their own making.<\/p>\n We become like the god we worship. How is it that our portrayals of God are so often utterly un-Christlike<\/em>? In this book, I continually return to the claim that Jesus Christ is the \u201cimage of the invisible God\u201d and \u201cthe exact<\/em> representation\u201d of who God is. In other words, if you want to know what God is really <\/em>like\u2014exactly<\/em> like\u2014look at Jesus.<\/p>\n Q: The churches in America present a god who is completely un-<\/em>Christlike. They are stuck on the bad-ass god that could be lifted from ISIS videos as they behead people or as they burn people to death. After all Billy Graham, and the editors of Christianity Today<\/em> preach a literal hell, and a god who created humanity to burn most people who don\u2019t \u201caccept\u201d \u00a0Jesus. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Brad: <\/strong>Right. I think of it this way: literally millions of thoughtful folks are abandoning the whole church scene. But many of them still care about who or what \u2018God\u2019 is. As a matter of conscience, they can no longer stomach the God of wrath often portrayed by Christendom if you don\u2019t jump through their hoops. They have begun to suspect that the Christian God has been twisted into something not unlike that of radical Islam.<\/em> Even the \u2018New Atheists\u2019 are citing the Bible and asking tough questions about the so-called \u2018toxic texts\u2019 that describe divinely sanctioned genocide, justification of slavery, oppression of women and a wrathful God who tortures unbelievers forever.<\/p>\n On the other hand, many of the same people very much like and respect the person of Jesus. They like his call to love, forgiveness and nonviolent peacemaking. In our most basic instincts, we know that if God is nothing like Jesus, something doesn\u2019t fit related to our own hopes for humankind. Those who\u2019ve taken the nearest exit still have questions\u2014good questions, hard questions\u2014questions about how a good God can allow or even inflict so much suffering in the world.\u2013<\/span>A More Christlike God<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span> attempts to engage those challenges head-on in a way that doesn\u2019t just pile the B.S. platitudes even deeper.<\/p>\n Q: If we look at Jesus, what are we meant to see? How<\/em> does Jesus show us what God is like?<\/strong><\/p>\n Brad: <\/strong>Ironically, the vision of God that we get through Jesus is not that of an All-Supreme Emperor in the sky. The clearest picture we get comes from the Cross. On Good Friday, Jesus unveiled God as \u2018cruciform<\/em>,\u2019 which means \u2018Cross-shaped.\u2019 In other words, something about Jesus\u2019 suffering and death says more about God than anything else \u2013 it trumps every other image of God that religion has conceived.<\/p>\n In the book, I define \u2018the Cross\u2019 as the revelation that God is by nature \u201cself-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love.\u201d This is what it means for God to be both Christlike<\/em> and cruciform<\/em>. Jesus shows us a God who, by nature, empties himself into the world as redeeming love and infinite mercy.<\/p>\n Q: The climax of the book is your chapter about \u2018A More Beautiful Gospel.\u2019 Tell us about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n Brad: <\/strong>I compare and contrast two ways the gospel has been presented. The first version shows the very conditional gospel of the evangelicals and roman Catholics and for that matter the more fundamentalist \u201cOrthodox\u201d : if you turn to God, he will turn to you. The whole thing starts with God\u2019s indignation and we find his so-called love for us is entirely conditional.<\/p>\n The second version walks us through the story of Jesus. We see how God in Christ is always<\/em>\u00a0 in pursuit of us, even and especially when we have \u201cturned from him\u201d as the evangelicals would say. We see how God never turns his back on anyone and, in fact, he pursues us like a \u00a0lover.<\/p>\n On Amazon at\u00a0A More Christlike God<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n BOOK ORDERS: www.ptm.org\/christlike<\/a><\/p>\n Frank\u00a0Schaeffer<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a writer.\u00a0His latest book \u2014<\/span>WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD:<\/strong>\u00a0How to give love, create beauty and find peace<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Christian God has been twisted into something not unlike that of radical Islam.\u201d So says Brad Jersak. We first met because\u00a0we were both interviewed for the movie \u201cHellbound?\u201d Then we became friends. Now Brad\u00a0has an important book out\u2013A More Christlike God\u2013that challenges the received lazy \u201cwisdom\u201d of both conservatives and liberals, atheists and believers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[705,343,246,22,151,5,1793,13,23,38],"class_list":["post-7052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","tag-atheism","tag-christ","tag-evnagelicals","tag-faith","tag-history","tag-jesus","tag-religion","tag-religious-right","tag-spirituality","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n\nAvailable now on Amazon<\/h2>\n
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\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\nFollow Frank on Twitter\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>www.twitter.com\/frank_schaeffer<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0See Frank\u2019s paintings\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>http:\/\/www.frankschaefferart.com\/<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Follow Frank on Facebook<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/frank.schaeffer.16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Contact Frank at<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>http:\/\/www.frankschaeffer.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n