Where are we going & how do we get there Week 2

This week’s message turns the corner and begins to look at how do we get to where we are going..our “Seattle”- our vision of Desiring the Kingdom of God to become tangible. We begin to look at the vehicles necessary to get us to “Seattle”. This week we cover Vehicle #1..To Be Family. Spend some time and listen to Ryan talk about what vehicle #1 looks like and how to live as family.

My review of "A More Christlike Word" by Brad Jersak

Before beginning my review of the book “A More Christlike Word” by Brad Jersak, I need to make two brief statements. First, the review of this book is my thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and opinions and may not reflect the thoughts, ideas, beliefs and opinions of the Veritas Community. Secondly, I received this book from the Speakeasy Book Blog program in exchange for a review of the book.

And so now onto the review…

When you hear or see the phrase Word of God, what immediately comes to mind? For most people when they hear that, their mind goes right to the Bible. But when we find the phrase Word of God or just Word (notice the capital W in Word) in the Bible, it is referring not to the Bible but to Jesus, who is the Word of God. Just read John 1 and you’ll see that it is referring to Jesus himself.

Jersak, in this third installment of his A More Christlike series, wants us to see all of Scripture through the lens of a cruciform hermeneutic. Or put in another way, he wants us to see all of Scripture through Jesus. That all of Scripture points us to Jesus. Yes even the violent portrayals of God in the Old Testament can actually point us to Jesus. (more on that in a moment)

One of my favorite quotes in this book is ““The Word of God is inspired, inerrant and infallible and when he was 18, he grew a beard” All too often in many Christians theology, it is almost like we have elevated the Bible to a third part of the Trinity, and almost as it stands over Jesus, instead of the other way around.

One of my biggest struggles throughout the last probably tens year of my life theologically has been how to read the Old Testament, especially the violent portraits of God. When the narratives seems to point us to God committing acts of genocide. As an Anabaptist, who is committed to the way of peace and non-violence, I’ve had a hard time squaring those pictures of God with the picture of Jesus (the fullest and most complete representation of God), and the prince of peace. I’ve read multiple helpful books that deal with this issue. Books like Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Cross Vision both by Greg Boyd, and Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God by Brian Zahnd.

This book does an equally great job in helping me to understand these problematic texts in the light of both a progressive revelation and a cruciform hermeneutic. Probably one of the most helpful in relation to this was the three points he makes on page 170 when he says, “Every Old Testament Trial (however disastrous and prolonged) prefigures Christ’s ultimate, brutal suffering and death on behalf of those who suffered the trial- and on behalf of everyone. Every Old Testament injustice (by the people, the kings or the priests) prefigures humanity’s ultimate and more wicked betrayal of Christ, through Judas, the Sanhedrin, Herod’s palace, and Pilates empire. Every Old Testament victory (however dubious in its xenophobic violence) prefigures Christ’s ultimate and more beautiful victory over darkness, dread and death.”

Another very helpful part of the book is about half way through when Jersak summarizes (up to that point) what his main points in writing the book were. 1. The Word of God is Jesus Christ. 2. The function of Scripture #1: to point to the gospel. 3. The function of Scripture #2 :a mirror revealing the human condition. 4. What is worthy of God. 5. Interpreting the Scriptures with the fathers.

And so if you have questions about things like violence in the Bible, issues like inspiration and inerrancy, the purpose of Scripture, how to read and understand the Scriptures, progressive revelation, cruciform hermeneutic and many other issues around Biblical interpretation, then you should definitely pick up A More Christlike Word by Brad Jersak.