The “Gospel” of Divine Abuse

Redeeming the Gospel from Gruesome Popular Preaching of an Abusive and Violent God

De: Eitan Bar

Narrado por: Saethon Williams

Don't let the scandalous book cover fool you because The "Gospel" of Divine Abuse is not a clichéd Christian novel. On the contrary, it is a book that seeks to expose the most significant, dangerous, and widespread heresy of the 21st century. Primarily, it is the teaching claiming God so hated sinful humanity that He had to violently abuse, punish, and kill Jesus to appease his wrath, a doctrine known as “Penal Substitution Atonement.”

Have you ever wondered how the God of love and grace, introduced by Jesus—a Jewish rabbi in Israel two thousand years ago who proclaimed His mission not to judge the world but to save it—morphed into a Western fundamentalist god of fear, wrath, and violence? This transformation is rooted in a twisted theology marked by misinterpretations, flawed translations, and verses stripped from their original context. In this book, I aim to expose and refute the doctrine most central to the destructive ideology known as "Christian Fundamentalism."

Why call it destructive?

You might be unaware that church attendance has declined more drastically in the last decade than in the previous five decades combined. Despite a booming global population, church participation is in steep decline. Many Christian leaders refer to this as "the great exodus," noting that younger generations are leaving in droves, pushing the median age of churchgoers close to 60. While some attribute this crisis to "the evil world," I argue that the real issue is more sinister: a harmful doctrine and misrepresentation of God and the gospel preached from many church pulpits!

Indeed, a dangerous, fear-based, and hateful theology has infiltrated Christianity through those often labeled as "fundamentalists." This modern-day heresy, which distorts the true Gospel and devastates many lives, is founded on anything but biblical principles. Join me as we deconstruct religious fundamentalism and reconstruct a genuine understanding of the gospel.

©2024 Eitan Bar (P)2025 Eitan Bar

Excellent and essential reading

The author carefully addresses and compellingly refutes key issues that distort our understanding of the gospel, of the character of God and the assumptions that shape our perspective of life itself. If that sounds like a powerful and profound message, it is. I cannot recommend this strongly enough. I will be sharing it with others.

Freeing

Thank you Eitan for your work. We live in a world where the ‘Gospel’ isn’t amazing. My daily prayer of late is “Lord show me who you are” because we live in a noisy world theologically, it’s tantamount to walking the isle at a carnival with pitchmen to the left and right vying for you attention. All of them use the Gospel in their pitch. Eitan and his work have already been a blessing to me, and I look forward to discovering more through his insights. I trust him.

A new understanding of the gospel.

Interpretation of biblical text from its original context and well supported points. The content is interesting and insightful. A must read for a full perspective of the gospel.

Challenged my view of what happened on the cross!

This book really made me think and I honestly can’t find a scripture to contradict it. I guess I always simply accepted what I was taught in that the Father separated from the Son and poured wrath on Him to satisfy His justice against our sin, but there are logical fallacies in that I never considered and not a single scripture to confirm that point of view. The author made quite a few excellent points including the fact that no sacrifice in the Old Testament was ever to be tortured or tormented and that the blood was the key. The author’s attempts to be shocking were off putting to me and it took a while to get past them, but I understand that some people may need to be shocked to consider an alternative point of view and it was well worth putting up with it to get the details of his message. I always evaluate everything I read against Scripture and never seem to agree with anyone on everything, but that’s why God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us understand what He is telling us. I highly recommend this book and that everyone evaluate it against what Scripture says.

Another excellent book!

So thankful for this well written, easy to understand book. I highly recommend it! Do not hesitate to buy it.

Clarity in confusion

This books provide sound biblical arguments for what actually took place on the cross. Though I am not a Calvinist a lot of their beliefs in interpreting scripture were intertwined into my own theology. Examining the Old Testament and reading it for what it says opposed to what we believe it is attempting to convey is great wisdom. The way Dr. Bar is able to walk through the text clearly and explain passages in context goes a very long way. I found this book by trying to differentiate God’s “wrath” and God’s “judgement”. Very interested in now reading his book about hell as well. Great read and would 10/10 recommend.

Worthy

I thought my whole life was a lie, a joke after reading this book. I cried and cried with relief. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. I was abused and didn’t want to worship God because of the theological idea of an abusive God. I felt depressed, unworthy and unlovable. Thank you for wiping the tear stained lenses of my glasses. I can see Jesus Christ now.

compelling exegesis and lucid

Like or dislike are inadequate choices. This is an important understanding. To say it changes everything may be an overstatement, but I doubt it. It compels me to really nail down this understanding of God’s overwhelming love and Christ’s sacrifice. I will never be the same. I conclude that the author’s re-titling of Penal Substitutionary Atonement as Divine Abuse is quite fair, and I will refer to it no other way.

Thought provoking and insightful

I truly enjoyed this book. I always felt uncomfortable with the doctrine of “divine abuse”. The other theories I heard on the atonement never made sense to me either. For the first time, after listening to this book, I heard an explanation of the atonement that makes sense especially in light of the Old Testament sacrificial system. It definitely moved me to research further. The author documented his case well and I thought the narrator was great. This book is definitely worth the read and may start to change your perspective on a very controversial subject.

THE BEST I’VE READ!

This book is perfect! I have never read a book that gave me so much peace within my trouble to understand God and his purpose. I see God in the most beautiful way now, and I finally understand what was troubling me regarding the nature of God, which is supposed to be love, but he is instead proclaimed as a God of wrath, that talks about love and forgiveness, but requires to punish first and killed his own son for us. Thank you Eitan B this is wonderful book. You explained so clear what the Bible If everyone would read this book, there would not be people turning away from God.