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Love Wins, am I going crazy?
So I heard all the chatter on social media and in blog space about how some high profile ‘theologians’ think Rob Bell is a heretic based on the promo video for his new book.
I watched it a few times and I have come to some conclusions.
- Rob Bell never makes a single doctrinal claim in this video. Not one! He simple submits some questions and some hypotheticals.
- Rob Bell asks questions that I myself have asked and continue to ask. I hope you are continuing to wrestle with these questions too and hopefully you are in a position to help other people wrestle with them.
- Either all these other ‘theologians’ watched a completely different video than I did or they are categorically against people asking tough questions. I’ll understand if they got a different version of the video for ‘theological rock stars’. Does anyone have a copy I could check out. But if they are opposed to people asking questions than maybe they need to choose a new career. DMV maybe?
Am I being too simple? I’m open to discussion. Help me out. Do I need to read more into what he is saying?
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‘The Word of God’ | I feel like I can’t trust that phrase anymore
Bare with me for a minute as I work through some thoughts.
Say it any which way you like:
‘The Word if the Lord’ ‘The Word of God’ ‘God’s Word’ etc…
I think this phrase has lost its meaning, or at least at this point in time it has so many meanings to so many different people that I can’t be sure what they mean by it. When I hear someone say it, I have to either stop them mid sentence to clarify what they mean or just go head and make a judgment call in my head about what I think they mean.
These are the two meanings that I think most American Christians have in mind when they use this phrase:
It’s the Bible
Probably the most popular meaning for Christians and not entirely wrong. But I think God is bigger and we can probably agree that He speaks to us in more ways than just the Bible. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Bible we know has barely been around for 500 years.
It’s My Interpretation of the Bible
Be honest with yourself, there is a good possibility that your interpretation of the Bible could be wrong. For what it’s worth I can’t have a conversation about Biblical theology with anyone who can’t start by saying they are unsure on at least a few points.
I’m I the only one that has a pause when hearing this phrase? Thoughts?
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Turtles helping turtles, it’s a beautiful thing
I found my self watching this YouTube video of a turtle helping another turtle get turned back over after getting stuck up side down. Yes I know they are actually not turtles but are in fact tortoises, for the sake of my fingers I will hereto fourth refer to them by the slightly shorter term ‘turtle’; and let’s be honest you and I both call everything that looks like a turtle a turtle; but I digress. Turtles aren’t known for their speed, so as this event slowly progressed on the video I filled the time by scanning through the comments below on YouTube. I noticed two things; one that was encouraging and one that was infuriating.
#1 | Even in a silly video of a turtle turning over a turtle a spiritual conversation happened
People were pointing at the fact that we need each other and that some ‘creator’ must have given the turtles some kind of instinct. The video stirred up feelings of solidarity that are ingrained in all of us and it was beautiful…in a YouTube sort of way. People are willing to engage in spiritual conversation online, there’s opportunity there if we are real and honest….and careful.
#2 | Even in a silly video of a turtle turning over a turtle Christians found a way to be jackasses
At some point the E word was dropped (evolution) and it brought out the hellfire from a few Christians who were obviously placed on this earth ‘for such a time as this’ to flame some poor person in a public forum and win huge God points. Someone give that guy a badge or something!
People, the story is so much bigger than that tiny little interaction on a website. Yet, that tiny little interaction will set whom ever you were trying to ‘convert’ back years on what could potentially be a spiritual journey towards God. Let’s get on the same page folks.
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This is how you present the gospel
Stop trying to convince people to believe in God…because they already do.
I don’t know if Jeremy Rifkin intended to present the Gospel, but he did. Maybe it’s just me, because this is how my brain works. You may think you hear a pluralistic doctrine, but this talk doesn’t complete the story…it is merely a springboard to which the conversation can be completed. You can’t introduce Jesus until you can get this far in the conversation. I don’t know anything about Rifkin, I assume he is an atheist/humanist. I imagine your first reaction will be to consider what he is saying that is wrong, but look for the common ground you may have with this conversation.
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Exclusivity and forks in the road
My son just started playing basketball. Playing may be overstating it. Five year old kids can’t really play basketball. They just don’t have the coordination and body control that is needed to play hoops. Basically it’s just a practice session where they try and learn the building blocks that might one day translate into basketball skills.
One thing I noticed right away is that coach isn’t concerned that the kids are traveling when he instructs them to dribble from one end of the court to the other. In fact he hasn’t once explained what traveling is. He is more concerned that they get the basics down first. Yet, to an experienced basketball player, traveling is pretty basic. Fact is, if he was concerned about the kids understanding and executing properly the concept of traveling at this point in their hoop journey, the journey would all be end. They simply are not ready for that reality yet.
I see this scenario played out in Christendom all the time:
Someone asks a Christian about their faith or about God and not three sentences in they start dropping info about the trinity or the virgin birth, or worse yet, details about their beliefs on eschatology.
At some point in one’s spiritual journey there comes a fork in the road. That fork is one of a series of concepts about the Christian faith that demand exclusivity from other paradigms, and they are important.
Why do we feel the need to rush people to that fork? Should we not first try to take them along a longer road that would prepare them to receive these truths? Should we try and go down a road built on common ground for as long as we can?
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I’m not sure we really believe (pt 2) | God’s will is best
God’s will; sometimes its easy to figure out. Some things are laid out right before our eyes in creation and others written in scripture.
Maybe its too easy. Maybe having it there right in front of us all the time we take it for granted.
Take the disciples for example. At first you think that they were in constant awe and amazement at everything Jesus did all the time, every day.
The fact is, that even guys that were right there next to Jesus himself had trouble committing to His will.
One passage in John has Jesus and his crew out and about doing ministry all day and the disciples are pretty much over it.
Disciples: “Jesus, Dude…can we get some food or something? We’ve been running around God’s green earth all day!”
Jesus: “I have food that you don’t even know about.”
Disciples: “seriously? Jesus, If you have been sneaking snacks this whole time I’m gonna be so pissed.”
Jesus knew what he was doing. He knew what the REAL purpose was in everything he had the disciples do. His concern was the Kingdom and the work of the Father.
This is where we have a problem. There are two values that as humans we put up way too high on the list and as far as I can see it, there is no mandate from God for them; these are safety and success, and I mean these in the most human of ways. By safety I’m talking about basic health and well being. By Success, I’m talking about any and all success that is not that of the Kingdom and Gospel.
The fact is that God’s will for your life could look something like this:
Drop everything in your life and wander around the country with a bunch of dudes confused out of your mind following some rabbi. Have a bad day and deny anything to do with Christ. Feel guilty and come back full circle more on fire than before. Bring the Gospel to thousands of people. Get crucified with your wife.
Sign me up!
That’s Peter’s story. What’s yours?
[photo :: tricky]
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