Kernbeisser Counseling

Kernbeisser Counseling has been a registered trade name in the Netherlands since April 2024. This makes it easier to comply with legal obligations and paves the way for further activities. At the present time, it is not realistic to transfer the project to an association.

Experience is alive

This website was created in 2014 on personal initiative. It offers me the opportunity to publish studies and experiences that I have gathered over the past decades: Experiences in regional churches and free churches, theological training, house churches, in countless Bible study groups, at conferences, in forums, and as a reflection of many conversations. I have dealt with some issues more than others. You can tell by the selection of items on this page. I share what I have struggled with myself and maybe there are suggestions here that will help you with your questions and considerations?

A critical examination

On this website, I advocate an open learning culture. This is very different from the way it is practiced in many Christian communities. Sects and many free church groups cultivate a doctrinal culture in which the supposed truth is dictated from above and defended against outsiders. A critical examination of the community’s beliefs is often not desired and is downright counteracted. This leads to self-righteous assumptions, sectarian excesses and rigid beliefs. That is why a critical debate would be desirable there in particular, but it is often rejected. It seems all the more important to me to promote this kind of critical debate here.

Key points

Occasionally I am asked what I stand for. On the one hand, I’m a bit surprised, since I write regularly and in detail about various topics. If one is somewhat versed in the various views, then it is easy to see the direction. On the other hand, I must also concede that it can be helpful to identify a few key points. But if you just want to put me in a drawer to relieve your own understanding and conscience, I have to disappoint you. Not everything is conclusive.

If you are looking for my views on topics, I recommend taking a look at the topics page. Many things are worked out there. However, faith remains alive and in motion. I am not the same person who started this website 10 years ago and some things I see differently than where I started. That is what characterizes liveliness.

Understanding the Bible

Theologically, I have learned the most from a dispensationalist view of the Bible, whose core statement is: “God is always the same, but He does not act the same in all times”. This approach is helpful because it always asks about the context of a statement. I have also been able to benefit from various other sources. I was able to gain various experiences that I consider to be tools. I haven’t got stuck in any doctrine, I don’t try to defend any doctrine, but ask myself every day what leads on. I consider it logical and sensible to use the tools that have helped me so far while I try to understand other points of view.

Biblical teaching is by definition limited. One’s own or common understanding of the Bible remains fragmentary. Biblical teaching is useful, just as a map is useful when consulted on a hike. However, the map is never the country.

The aim of this website

With this website and the ideas here, I don’t want to dictate what you have to believe, but rather open a door to how you can believe. When it hits, you discover that the Bible can help you to become free from old ideas. Perhaps you will find new ideas, better ideas, living faith. You can learn that people bear witness to their faith because they are deeply moved by what they have seen, heard and experienced. For example, when Jesus says that his words “are spirit and life” (John 6:63), this is not a formula, not a sterile proclamation, but a statement in a real context. What do we learn from this?