By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries and the ASSIST News Service
ABBOTSFORD, BC, CANADA (ANS – May 17, 2015) – Many people today are asking penetrating questions like: “What is God like?” and some suggest he is a “A punishing judge?” “A doting grandfather?” “A deadbeat dad?” and even “A vengeful warrior?”
However, author and theologian Bradley Jersak proposes a radical reassessment in his recently released book, “A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel” (CWR Press), in which he argues that “Believers” and atheists alike typically carry and finally reject the toxic images of God in their own hearts and minds.
Even the Christian gospel has repeatedly lapsed into a vision of God where the wrathful King must be appeased by his victim Son. How do such “good cop/bad cop” distortions of the divine arise and come to dominate churches and cultures? Whether our notions of “god” are personal projections or inherited traditions, Jersak proposes a far-reaching revision of our views.
He says that if Christ is “the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God’s glory and exact representation of God’s likeness,” what if we conceived of God as completely Christlike—the perfect Incarnation of self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love? What if God has always been and forever will be ‘cruciform’ (cross-shaped) in his character and actions?
“A More Christlike God” suggests that such a God would be very good news indeed—a God who Jesus “unwrathed” from dead religion, a Love that is always toward us, and a Grace that pours into this suffering world through willing, human partners.
The book can be ordered from https://www.ptm.org/uni/resources/order/form_christlike.php#ORDER
About the Author:
Bradley Jersak is married to Eden Jersak and father to Stephen, Justice and Dominic. They currently live in Abbotsford, BC Canada. After serving twenty years as an ordained pastor (Bethel Mennonite Church, Aldergrove) and church planter (Fresh Wind, Abbotsford), Brad was “chrismated” into the Orthodox Church (OCA) and ordained, “Reader Irenaeus.” After leaving the pastorate, he completed a PhD in theology at Bangor University (Wales) and some post-doc research (in kenotic theology) at the University of Nottingham, England. Today, Brad serves as the senior editor of Plain Truth Ministries (Pasadena) and writes for CWRm (Christianity Without the Religion Magazine). He manages the CWRblog (www.christianity-without-the-religion.blogspot.ca ) and www.clarion-journal.com as well. Brad is also on the faculty of Westminster Theological Centre (Cheltenham, UK), where he teaches New Testament and Patristics. He is adjunct faculty at St. Stephen’s University (St. Stephen, New Brunswick). “A More Christlike God” is Brad’s tenth book (author, co-author or editor). He is also available for seminars on this topic. You can contact the author via www.ptm.org or www.bradjersak.com. Or you can email him at bradjersak@gmail.com .
Photo caption: 1) Bradley Jersak. 2) Dan Wooding interviewing Pastor Mike MacIntosh on His Channel Live.
About the reviewer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for nearly more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the world, and also “His Channel Live,” a TV show beamed to 192 countries. He is the author of some 45 books, the latest of which is a novel about the life of Jesus through the eyes of his beloved mother and called “Mary: My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary”. For more information, please go to http://marythebook.com/ , where you can find details of how to order the book.
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