"To begin with, a bit about this book. First, I believe that Jesus’ story is first and foremost about the love of God for every single one of us. It is a stunning, beautiful, expansive love, and it is for everybody, everywhere. That’s the story. “For God so loved the world…” That’s why Jesus came. That’s his message. That’s where the life is found. There are a growing number of us who have become acutely aware that Jesus’ story has been hijacked by a number of other stories, stories Jesus isn’t interested in telling, because they have nothing to do with what he came to do. The plot has been lost, and it’s time to reclaim it. I’ve written this book for all those, everywhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse rate to rise, their stomach to church, and their heart to utter those resolute words, “I would never be a part of that.” You are not alone. There are millions of us. This love compels us to question some of the dominant stories that are being told as the Jesus story. A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. And so this book." –
That is an excerpt of the introduction to Bell’s book “Love Wins”. I know the news of Bell and his book is long over, but tomorrow I am preaching from Acts 4, and I am using this quote as my introduction. Tomorrow I will say something along the lines of:
“My hope and prayer this morning is that there would be none here who say of Peter’s words “I would never be a part of that ( salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved)” Rather, I pray that you would leave this place saying “I want to be a part of that”. And why would you say that? Why would you leave this place rejoicing in the very thing that turns Bell’s stomach? Because it is true! It is absolutely true! It is wonderfully true!This truth will set you free!
What I find interesting about these people that want to look at the "meta-narrative" (a good thing to do btw), is that they seem to ignore a good story. How do we have stories without bad guys and suffering and death? From where would redemption come?
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that God is not allowed to write a story in which He destroys the Pharaoh and his nation. WAIT! He did!