Julie Ferwerda Raises Hell and Puts the Doctrine Under Fire!

Julie Ferwerda, author of Raising Hell, joins Michael on The Spiritual Brewpub podcast for a fascinating conversation on what starts a person’s journey to question hell, what stages people go through to finally reject it, and how one’s life is changed for the better as a result. Julie shares what led her to see the emotional, logical, biblical, historical, and Jewish cultural evidence that debunks hell and how she was set free from fear-based faith and began to love people naturally. 

She also gives advice to people who are questioning hell or other beliefs, whether secretly or publicly. How does one get through stages of deconstruction? Hear from Julie on that question and more–and her plans for her next book on addressing “the problem of evil.” Grab your favorite brew and join us! 

12 Fake Claims of Western Christianity – Part 2

What if we turned the concept of “fake news” on politics to examining fake claims about religion? What would we discover? 

We’d find the DNA of ancient Christianity (i.e., Jesus’ teaching and peace movement) has suffered grave mutations that the Western Reformation never completely corrected, and in some cases, made worse. How can we know this? Through careful historical, biblical, and linguistic study. And how can the Jesus of history be authentic and much of this religion called Christianity be a scam? By an historical sleight of hand.

In this episode (Part 2), we discuss the remaining 7-12 major fake claims or scams that have been fostered by Western Christianity and ignorant or unsuspecting adherents about popular views of the meaning of the cross, the end times, women in the church, morality for the LGBT community, spiritual exchange, and justifying violence and war. (For fake claims #1-6, see Part 1). 

Authors cited or quoted include, James Bernstein, Mark Heim, Marcus Borg, N.T. Wright, Josephus (first century), Ann Nyland, Jacque Ellul, Michael Hardin, Rene Girard, and Robin Meyers. 

Interview Announcement: Michael announces the next episode will be an interview of Barbara Symons! Barbara is the author of “Escaping Christianity – Finding Christ” and has a lot of overlap with Michael on many experiences coming out of fundamentalism/evangelicalism.