The “Gospel” of Divine Abuse

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

By: Eitan Bar

Narrated by: 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

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.

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.

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.