What if God is better than you think and hell isn't an eternal torture chamber?
Many Christians are unaware that Universal Reconciliation was the dominant view of the church for the first 500 years, with Annihilation and Eternal Torment as minority positions. Jesus Undefeated is an eye-opening examination of all three views of the afterlife and a God who is even more loving than we dare imagine. Discover the Gospel that is not merely Good News, but fantastically Great News.
What if the Bible actually keeps us from hearing the Word of God?
For many Christians, the Bible is the only way to know anything about God. But according to that same Bible, everyone can know God directly through an actual relationship with Jesus. Jesus Unbound is an urgent call for the followers of Jesus to know Him intimately because the Gospel is not mere information about God, but a transformational experience with a Christ who is closer to us than our own heartbeat.
What if Christ has already returned?
The Second Coming of Christ has been coming soon ever since 1850, when John Nelson Darby popularized his brand of end times dispensational rapture theology. Many Christians today are unaware that the version of biblical prophecy they've been taught is not what the Church believed for the first 1,800 years. It's time to leave behind the End Times and discover an astounding truth-Christ has already returned and our participation is essential to making all things new.
What if Jesus didn't die to save us from God?
The doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement is not the Gospel. It's a theory that originated in the 1500s under John Calvin. The damage done by this teaching is still being felt today. It's time to abandon this toxic theology in favor of a Christ-centered view of the cross that sets us free from sin and unveils a God of love who would rather die than live without us.
So, you're deconstructing your faith?
It can be painful. It can be scary. But the good news is that you're not alone, and you don't have to lose your mind in the process.
It doesn't matter whether you are questioning hell, penal substitution, or the end times; or you're troubled by how politics has invaded the pulpit; or you're uncomfortable with the way Christians treat people in the LGBTQ+ community; or you're just not convinced that the Bible is really inerrant, infallible, or inspired. There are many reasons to find yourself deconstructing Christianity.
Before You Lose Your Mind features contributions from Brandon Andress, Michelle Collins, Derrick Day, Brandon Dragan, Matthew J. Distefano, Jason Elam, Maria Francesca French, Keith Giles, Mark Karris, Matthew J. Korpman, Josh Roggie, Rev. Dr. Katy Valentine, and Skeeter Wilson.
This book was created to give you hope for your journey from faith to doubt and back again. To a place where embracing mystery is what true faith is all about.
Because the opposite of faith isn't doubt. It's certainty.
The opposite of faith is not doubt, it's certainty.
We cannot talk about God with any degree of certainty, because God is, by definition, a Being who transcends imagination, expectation and comprehension. What we know is this: there is more of God to know than any of us will ever fully know in this life. So, let's begin by embracing the mystery of Christ to discover the endlessly unfolding beauty of uncertainty.
What if the greatest threat to Christianity in America was American Christianity?
As the Church has become increasingly entangled in the pursuit of politics, the Gospel has become tarnished and often abandoned as the primary focus of the Body of Christ. Jesus Untangled is a prophetic call for the Church to awaken from the American Dream and to return to Her first love. Because, as the author powerfully demonstrates in these pages, you can't convert a culture that has already converted you.
What if Jesus was serious about loving our enemies?
For too long, those who carry the name Christian have ignored the Christlike path of enemy-love and creative nonviolence. For many of us, the Second Amendment has become more important than the Sermon on the Mount. It's time we begin to walk the path of peace marked out for us by the Prince of Peace and learn to study war no more.
God called. He wants His Church back.
Many Christians have begun to recognize that God desires His church to function as an organism rather than an organization. After over 11 years of experience founding and facilitating a house church, author Keith Giles shares the insights he developed in the trenches. Filled with practical, real-world examples of how to plant and nurture an organic gathering, readers will find a wealth of information to help them bring Jesus back to the forefront of every meeting.
First published as This Is My Body: Ekklesia As God Intended, 2010 by Subversive Press, Orange, California. Additional material includes: Anatomy of an Organic Church, Pitfalls of Organic Church, and What's Wrong With House Church, published online at www.subversive1.blogspot.com by Keith Giles. This edition is expanded, updated, and edited to reflect the transforming views of the author on this important subject.