Crucible of Thought

Twice in the past year, someone who loves me has written to warn me that my changed theology puts my soul in danger, citing Matthew 18:15 and 2 Timothy 3:16. In this episode I share my response. If you're on a deconstruction journey and someone has told you "I'm concerned for your soul," this one is for you.
I talk about taking 2 Timothy 2:15 seriously and realizing I'd only ever studied to prove myself right. I also share how inner healing and my church's failures in 2020 opened me to real repentance. I explore why the Bible isn't as "plain" as we claim, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, Gregory of Nyssa and apokatastasis, and whether challenging the church is arrogance (Luther had thoughts). And I explain why I no longer need anyone to agree with me in order to trust their relationship with God.
Plus: I've finished the first draft of my book, Perfect Love, Perfect Fear.

What happens when you've spent decades being shaped by God - and you finally feel ready to pour into others - but you have no one to pour into, and you're running out of time?In this episode, Brandon wrestles with a growing sense of uselessness: the institutional church isn't making disciples the way it should, he can't return to it in good conscience, and community outside its walls is nearly impossible to build. The rubber just isn't meeting the road.But then something broke open.If Christian universalism is true - if resurrection means an embodied, eternal life on a restored earth - then death doesn't end the call. It doesn't end the purpose. It doesn't even end the discipleship. The grave has no hold on what God is building in you."O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" This episode is about why that passage hits completely differently when you take eternity seriously.Topics covered:- Why the institutional church is failing at discipleship (and the numbers to prove it)- Organic church and the problem of community outside the institution- Christian universalism and the sweep of scripture toward universal reconciliation- Embodied resurrection and the renewed earth in Isaiah, Romans, and Revelation 21- Why your usefulness to the Kingdom does NOT end when you dieScripture referenced: Matthew 28:19, Romans 5:18, 2 Peter 3:9, Ephesians 1:3-2:10, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, Isaiah 65:17-25, Romans 8:19-23, Revelation 21Crucible of Thought is Brandon's podcast exploring theological deconstruction, progressive Christianity, and what faithful living looks like after you've left easy answers behind.Subscribe and leave a comment - they all get read!

If you grew up in evangelical Christianity, you probably learned a version of prayer that treats God like a cosmic vending machine - put in the right coin, get out the answer you want. But what if that's not how prayer works at all? This episode explores two very different theologies of what Jesus came to do, and how each one shapes what we expect when we pray. If you're deconstructing your faith but want to stay Christian, this might reframe the question in a way that actually helps.
You can watch this in video form at https://youtu.be/WLdsuszojtU

Your brain is lying to you about God - and the consequences are devastating. In this episode, we explore the deeply human psychological habit of “tokenizing” - reducing complex realities to simple mental shortcuts - and reveals how we inevitably do this with God, collapsing the infinite Divine into a neat little package of doctrine, denomination, and politics that fits comfortably in our minds. But that comfort comes at a terrible cost: it locks us into a distorted, shrunken picture of God, turns us against anyone whose “tokens” differ from ours, and has even been used to justify violence, oppression, and the idolization of political figures. Drawing on Scripture, psychology, and his own journey of deconstruction, we make a compelling case that God has always resisted being boxed in - and invites us to the terrifying, exhilarating freedom of encountering a God too wild and vast to be contained by any label.
This is also posted in video format at https://youtu.be/8DPVnnOcqJ0

Did you grow up feeling really squeamish about Jesus' assertion from the Sermon on the Mount that if our eye offends us, we are supposed to gouge it out? I sure did. It seems particularly over the top, even for a radical like Jesus, and I reckon that we'd assume the only people to follow that teaching are probably mentally disturbed. But I think there's something really deep and really valuable that is hiding in that brief teaching, and I'd love to open it up for our thinking today.
You can also watch this at https://youtu.be/RvBd1BnG0lo