Episode Details

Episode 4194 │ August 2, 2026

God takes no pleasure in anyone's death. He said it in Ezekiel — the harshest book in the Old Testament. That is not the God most people were taught.

WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS 

Scott Kesterson and Brad Cummings continue the heart of God series with a deep read of Ezekiel 18 and 33 — the most scathing indictment in the Old Testament, written to a people practicing human sacrifice in the temple, where God nonetheless declares He takes no pleasure in anyone's death and pleads with them to repent and live — using it to dismantle the wrathful-God framing most American Christianity has inherited and replace it with the New Covenant reality that God is not disappointed in you because He has no illusion about you, and that His vow to write His law on your heart places the entire weight of the obligation on Him, not on your willpower or your performance. The episode moves through the distinction between transgression and iniquity, the definition of the kingdom as wherever the King is and the extension of His rule, the ecclesia as the Roman governance model Jesus deliberately inverted, the difference between mercy and grace to help, and Brad's practical framework for prayer — subordinating your list to His list, confessing the things that are actually bothering you, then going quiet so He can work. The episode closes with Brad's observation that God declares a thing in heaven and waits for someone on earth to receive and agree with it, because dominion on earth requires two witnesses — and every listener who comes into agreement with what God says about them becomes the amen that allows it to be established.

KEY QUESTIONS ADDRESSED 

• What is the difference between transgression and iniquity — and why does Brad argue that understanding the distinction between crossing a known boundary and carrying an internal twist toward sin changes how you approach confession, repentance, and the mercy that God freely promises in the same breath as His harshest judgment?
• What is the unshakable kingdom — and why does God shaking both heaven and earth in Hebrews 12 represent not punishment but the removal of everything temporal so that what He created, which is eternal, can remain and be fully revealed?
• What is the difference between mercy and grace to help — and why does Brad argue that most people stop at mercy, the forgiveness for when you have screwed up, without ever receiving the grace to help, which is the supernatural enablement of the Holy Spirit that means you do not have to keep needing mercy for the same thing again?

ABOUT BARDSFM

BardsFM is a daily independent podcast covering faith, liberty, history, and information warfare. Hosted by Scott Kesterson — combat veteran, documentary filmmaker, and rancher. Over 4,100 episodes and 50 million lifetime downloads. New episodes every weekday. bards.fm

This episode was researched and produced under the Spatial Terra Intell