As I got up from my seat, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. In many ways, Rob told a great story with an exciting introduction and memorable conclusion. But as a storyteller, he left out the central problem of the story. In a word, he left out sin. He never even mentioned the word. How can one speak of Christ’s sacrifice for us without speaking about our sin problem? His whole tour is called the gods are not angry. That statement is true for the believer. God is no longer angry at us because he has done something for us in Christ. Christ has taken God’s anger and wrath against us on the cross and bore the punishment we deserve for our sin. Our response is to repent and believe. Rob’s response was to simple realize what God has done to bring peace and reconciliation for everyone. Rob’s message to the world is that this God is not angry with you. He loves you now because of Jesus. A half-gospel at best.I have reported on this a bit in the past few weeks. You can read my two posts here and here.
Friday, November 30, 2007
More on Rob's Tour...
My buddy Doug Wolter reports on his recent attendance at Rob Bell's "The God's Are Not Angry" tour. He writes:
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2 comments:
I just realized you posted 6 times today before 10am. Z, you may need a blog intervention :)
Maybe there's alternate ways of looking at the issue, as off as it might sound, and amidst a lot of adversity I don't think it would hurt...
but maybe Rob is just addressing the sin problem in a more connected way - perhaps Im off because I havent been to one of his talks, but from what I can gather talking about shame and guilt and all of that is simply a more connected away of talking about the sin problem....
for myself, its a lot easier to grasp when dealing with questions like why do I feel guilty? or shamed? Where do I find freedom from this... rather than just being told youre a sinner - that word needs to be hashed out to today's culture... the biblical understanding I believe is hamartia "to miss the mark"...
which is different from most people who would hear theyre a sinner and what would really be communicated to them is that God is PO'd with them, theres nothing they can do about it and its really the hate gospel we see protesting at so many events.
We need to be intelligent enough to realize that language barriers also exist in the same language, and so just as some things may need to be translated from greek to english... we need to connect the gospel to an ever-changing culture.
PERHAPS... many we know today are looking for a Jesus who HEALS all that hurt and disconnectedness, and maybe Rob is just one more step out there to tell people "LOOK, God hasn't given up on you... in fact He's done everything He can to redeem this whole problem"
And once people hear that they are more open to Forgiveness and realizing what is causing all that disconnectedness in the first place.
And maybe healing and forgiveness and ultimately love aren't really seperate issues but connected in some way - what good is forgiveness if it doesnt bring healing? and what good is healing unless we realize why its happening in the first place - and what good are either of them if we continue to preach a gospel of subscribing to a listed doctrine over Christ's words to love God and love people.
We all know how Christ dealt with the adulterous woman...
Communication goes far beyond words... I think his intent is the same - and from the stories I hear, people are discovering the Christ who gave His life, who forgives and who heals... its still a narrow way compared to everything else out there.
So I invite you to decide that maybe Rob Bell does believe the same things we do, He's just speaking another language.
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