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davehershey 's review for:
A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel
by Bradley Jersak
What is God like?
Jersak joins a chorus of voices today seeking to remind Christians, and anyone else listening, that historic orthodox Christianity affirms that God is like Jesus. Our clearest and primary revelation of God is the incarnation where God took on flesh and became human.
This changes everything. Though the point is not that such changes are new. Rather, things were already changed that now need changes back. One thing is that the Bible, with many pictures of God, is used to relativized Jesus. So sometimes God is like Jesus but other times, not so much. Jersak shows the deep problems here. God, we are told, loves us so much. But if we refuse said love then God will torture us for all eternity in hell. After all, sometimes God is love and sometimes not. Along with that, a stream of Christian thought (seen in Reformed circles; Jersak quotes Piper a few times) affirms God really causes everything. Your kid died of cancer? Genocide in Rwanda or Germany? You got raped? According to some Christians, God actually did those things. But don’t worry, God is Love?
Jersak argues the God revealed in Jesus does not do anything but love. God empties himself, giving humans space to act. Wrath is not an act of God but a natural consequence of sin. Evil is a result of people choosing to act apart from God. But God continually reaches out to us with love.
There’s a lot here that echoes Boyd, Zahnd and others. Jersak is Orthodox, but was once Anabaptist. At times I wonder how he is Orthodox; he is critical of Constantine but Constantine is a saint in the Orthodox Church. That aside, it is becoming clear there are fruitful areas for dialogue between Anabaptist and Orthodox views. Further, we who grew up imbibing Western faith do ourselves a favor to drink deeply at the Orthodox well.
Finally, this book is definitely approachable for any Christian reader. It’s not just for pastors and scholars. Highly recommended m!
Jersak joins a chorus of voices today seeking to remind Christians, and anyone else listening, that historic orthodox Christianity affirms that God is like Jesus. Our clearest and primary revelation of God is the incarnation where God took on flesh and became human.
This changes everything. Though the point is not that such changes are new. Rather, things were already changed that now need changes back. One thing is that the Bible, with many pictures of God, is used to relativized Jesus. So sometimes God is like Jesus but other times, not so much. Jersak shows the deep problems here. God, we are told, loves us so much. But if we refuse said love then God will torture us for all eternity in hell. After all, sometimes God is love and sometimes not. Along with that, a stream of Christian thought (seen in Reformed circles; Jersak quotes Piper a few times) affirms God really causes everything. Your kid died of cancer? Genocide in Rwanda or Germany? You got raped? According to some Christians, God actually did those things. But don’t worry, God is Love?
Jersak argues the God revealed in Jesus does not do anything but love. God empties himself, giving humans space to act. Wrath is not an act of God but a natural consequence of sin. Evil is a result of people choosing to act apart from God. But God continually reaches out to us with love.
There’s a lot here that echoes Boyd, Zahnd and others. Jersak is Orthodox, but was once Anabaptist. At times I wonder how he is Orthodox; he is critical of Constantine but Constantine is a saint in the Orthodox Church. That aside, it is becoming clear there are fruitful areas for dialogue between Anabaptist and Orthodox views. Further, we who grew up imbibing Western faith do ourselves a favor to drink deeply at the Orthodox well.
Finally, this book is definitely approachable for any Christian reader. It’s not just for pastors and scholars. Highly recommended m!