Questions from Humans: the Rob Bell/Heaven+Hell Controversy

We are the body. And we are imperfect. But we must never abandon Love. We must never forsake correctness for Unity. Unity can embody differences. The church can encourage disagreements. We can believe with a Holy passion in the truths which God has revealed to us, yet to divide the church, or summon condemnation seems a hateful perversion of our commission as followers of Christ. First and foremost we are children of God. Always, we are his and dearly loved. As His children, gripped by the evil in this world, we are offered salvation on Christ. We follow His son, and build His church. His banner over us is love.

There have been several high profile discussions over Rob Bell's recent book: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. I would never want to stifle the discussion of such eternal principals; however the trajectory of these blog commentaries seems minimally hateful and malicious. My heart is heavy and my spirit is saddened. Satan will use ANYTHING. He is quite resourceful.

I have not yet read the book, so I hold no position to comment on the content. However, my current understanding is that there are far more questions posed than answers offered. If this is the case, what are we all so afraid of? If we seek the Truth, does not God tell us thT He will reveal Himself. For even the mountains and rocks cry out the name of the Lord! Anyhow, as stated, I have not read it, so I have nothing further to say regarding Bell's book.

What I can observe, however; is the response of the Christian community. We are breaking apart. This is a tragedy that burns me to my core, in far proportion to incorrect doctrine. Although, if I were in tue opposition, this travesty would pain me greatly, as well.

There are many blogs. But this particular blog is the one I have gotten involved in, for whatever reason. I have posted the link, not to point fingers, but because I do feel there is a lot of very valid content from both sides. I mourn the egos that emerge, but if you are seeking textual support and opposition for Bell's claims, there are some very knowledgeable sources from both sides.

http://www.dennyburk.com/rob-bell-outs-himself/

Please aim not to just adapt anyone elses view, but understand that we have been given (each of us) the mind of Christ to discern truth. Let us listen to our teachers and consider what God has placed in our heart and be willing to engage on an exploration of the truth that only God can reveal to us.

As always, thanks for stopping by. And please, friends... Stay Dusty.

*b.Nicole



Love


Please pray that the power of love does win, as promised.

A prism, A God, and this world.

I used to serve a god.  Now I think I serve God.  

Bold statement for both my past and present associations, I know.  But in a whirlwind of hurt, chaos, selfishness and pride, I somehow found vulnerability, peace, love, and humility.  Needless to say, through this kenosis my perception of God has been completely transformed.  

I grew up in the church, and I am eternally blessed for the heritage of faith that I formulated within that community.  Yet, as most of us do in almost aspect of life, I took for granted the traditions and ideas that I received.  I do not mean to insinuate that there is any innate fallacy in my inherited faith, but I adopted the doctrine and interpretations of pastors, teachers, and professors without investing the necessary effort to evaluate for myself what God would have me hear in His Word.  I felt a strong connection to God, and I developed strong ideas within my faith about who God was, and who I am in Him.  I held to these ideas with a bona fide conviction that informed what I saw in the Text and how I interpreted my purpose in this world.  I sought Truth and I wanted righteoussness.  But--and, I would guess we have all felt this--there was some indiscriminate or inexctable fiber within the makeup of my beliefs that was just unresolved.  Not that there was doubt.  Not that there was blatant disregard, or even discontentment, but if we are talking about the God of the Universe and the Creator who reigns eternally, is there any validation for having any fiber, and moment, any formulation of thought that is not completely sold to this Being?   But all I knew was what I had been taught.  

And although I had questions, and sought answers whole-heartedly, my ideas guided my discoveries instead of the truth.  A scientist would even say that removing biases from an experiment is nearly impossible.  It is the ultimate goal of the Scientific Method to use empirical methods of observation, but we all know the results we are seeking when we care enough to structure an experiment, so creating an open environment where Truth emerges from the variables, is both necessary and arduous.  So, I would not completely condemn my previous understandings because I am aware that they have brought me to the point at which I presently stand.  Also, they were formulated from a genuine desire to know and understand God, which I thought was something I could achieve.  I think this whole journey (a.k.a: Life) is about pushing forward towards new ideas and better "us"es, so I allow for this shift in thought and regard, rather than regret, the tread stones that led me to today.  

Yet at a certain stone in my not-so-distant past, I experienced a world that had been somewhat hidden from my formative years.  As I looked to the world around me, I saw hate and evil to the same proportion I witnessed good.  I saw violence and favoritism from a god that claimed benevolence and a love for the whole world.  He says he is the Alpha and Omega, as the Beginning and End, but I began to doubt that he cared much for the other 20 Greek letters, or the entire middle section, for that matter.   And as the friction between my beliefs and my experience grew stronger, the discomfort in my spirit brought me to a moment of absolute humility.  

If God is the eternal Truth, and His Word is the primary source by which He reveals Himself to me, I should not be afraid to earnestly seek the Goodness within His Text.  If I opened myself to Truth, I trusted that truth would be revealed.  And So I decided to shed everything I ever thought I knew about God.  Not reject, but shed.  And I would allow Him, for the first time in my life, to tell me who He was, and to share with me the secrets in His Word.  This was scary because I was not sure whom I would discover, and what that would mean.  If God could harden Pharo's heart and drown Egyptian soldiers, and send His own creation into a burning furnace away from Him for eternity, I couldn't be certain I would want to server Him for the rest of my life.  And as if this apprehension were not sufficient means to abort, I was incredibly aware of my daunting role in receiving His revelation.  I was going to have to dedicate myself fully and thoroughly to this task.  I had no clue what I would find, or where to begin.

So I started with Genesis.  Seemed logical enough.  And when I began to read the opening scenes of creation, for what I would consider "the first time," I found myself so engrossed and in awe that I read the first four chapters no less than twenty times before I even wanted to move on.  Each time I reread our story, I found something so precious and new, that I wanted to read it again, in case I had missed something else.  This Supreme Being within the narrative of the created world was so much more than I had ever dared to dream.  The surreal realization of His greatness and majesty and mystery left me inspired by His awesomeness.  And then I saw my downfall.  I wanted to know God.  To understand Him and confine him within the limitations of my mind.  But I could never know or understand God.  Who did I think I was? Not even Jesus knows the mind of God.  So if I could not know, I had a decision to make.  Would I reject the ideas of Goodness, Perfection, and Immutability that I had grown up with?  Or was there another option?  Because this God of Genesis is incredible. If God is all He says He is, then He is everything.  Everything.  The good.  The Bad.  The beautiful.  The whole world--in both concept and matter.  For, in the beginning there was God (only God).  Therefore, He is the only substance of creation.  Every single aspect of this world we experience must be a realization of Him.  This may seem like blasphemy, but if His Word is True, and He is God, this is Him. So, how am I to reconcile that what I see in God and His creation does not appear to always be Good?  Well, who are we to question the Potter and how He molds the clay?  And who am I to assume I could ever exact any complete conception of Goodness.  If I cannot know God, and God is Good, how then could I even know the nature of Eternal Goodness?  Perhaps I cannot.  And when I accepted this God, I saw the world in a completely new light.  So I read one more time, our story of our God.  And this is what I see.  

In the Garden of Eden, God's creation ate from a tree that granted them the "knowledge of Good and Evil,"  making them "like gods."  

Point No.1: The "knowledge" of Good and Evil.  Adam and Eve did not create evil, or introduce evil into this world.  They received a perception that allowed for the distinction between Good and Evil.  Evil had always been there--creation simply could not separate it from the Good.  To Adam and Ever, there was no Good or Evil.  Only God.

Point No.2:  The tree was within God's garden.  God had planted it there, and even given instructions as to not eat the fruit.  Adam and Eve discovered a part of God that He had contained in the fruit.  This knowledge was not outside of Him.  

Point No.3:  God had wanted to intentionally disclose this knowledge from His creation.  God knew the effects of this knowledge.  He had a plan for His creation--that it be a perfect extension of Him.   He offered salvation in obedience, by not eating the fruit of the tree.

Point No.4:  God wanted His creation to choose.  Just as God is dynamic and changing, He wanted us to evolve and make choices with the same freedom that He himself has as Creator.  We are, after all, created "in His image." Therefore, He planted a tree that contained the wisdom of gods.  Yet knowing the burden of such understanding, God instructed His creation not to eat of its fruit, as to protect them from this knowledge, while still offering them the dominion to choose either obedience and Shalom, or disobedience and Chaos.  

I think we all know the rest.  

God must have realized that His light could always reign on this earth, if He preserved the recognition of the darkness.  But He could not just eliminate this aspect of Himself, and still achieve a full expression of His image within His creation. He had to offer the sovereignty to toy with the proportions and hues of God's character.  And did we ever.  Let me explain. If we consider white light, and its passage through a prism, we can access a metaphor for this transition.  White light could be compared (as it is in His Word) to the Love and Goodness of God.  God dwelt among His creation, and had complete dominion, so long as His people followed His commands.  Yet, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and the veil was removed, their eyes were opened and they saw the variations within the colors of God's light.  It is as if in that moment, God saw that they no longer chose Him, and He coated this world with an atmosphere of separation, dividing the physical from the spiritual realm.  God was no longer the ruler; therefore, He handed over the goodness of His creation to its own devices until a time when He could redeem it.  Redemption is the Reconciliation of God's creation--an hour when Shalom rules and God can reclaim His creation.  But until then, He allows His creation time to again chose Him, but must hide His fullness from the imperfections of our own misconceptions.  And our misunderstandings are the results of the atmosphere. Remember the prism?  If God's love is Light, and our disobedience required the installment of this atmospheric prim, the there is a change as His light enters our world.  When God's eternal Purity and Goodness pass through the earth's prism and fall to the world below, the light separates, and we see the many colors within the spectrum of His Providence.  Blue and Purple, Orange, Vermillion.  Each color could be seen as a point on the spectrum of Good and Evil.  We have gained perception of such a distinction through our disobedience, and now the character of God is difficult to conceive, as we would have to create a vortex that would combine every color in perfect proportion to again perceive the white light.  Through obedience, God could again lift the prism from our atmosphere. Yet we failed.  Time and time again, we failed.  God is so patient.  But He must have recognized our tendency towards evil, as we act foolishly in the knowledge that was never intended for us.  So He decided that He would enter our world and be the instrument of convergence.  He would lead a blameless life, and we could see the true form of God.  Sound familiar?  Well... we have established the effects of passing light through a prism.  The light is refracted, and separates into different colors.  But what could recombine these colors?  Incredibly, if we pursue this analogy a step father, it turns out that God uses the very same material to display his white light that was used to disperse it.  When light passes through one prism, it is separated.  When light passes through a second prism, it is recomposed.  Thus, if we are to at all access an understanding of God, we must first recognize His presence in every color.  And secondly, look to Jesus for any image of His Goodness.  And when I assumed this perception of the function of God's Goodness in our world, I grew hungry to imitate the life of Christ, as I fell in awe of the incredible mystery of God.

And in this new discovery, I encountered a God much greater and hardly recognizable to the god I knew before.  When I looked to the god I had accepted, I understood why my heart did not burn for His Word and His will.  I had created an idol, a counterfeit--he may as well have been Ashura or Baal.  My own little god was who I needed, and wanted to follow.  He loved me, and protected me, and justified many of decisions that were rooted in a heart of pride, conceit, and resentment.  But when I honestly assessed the cubicle I built for my god to live in, he did not seem to be any kind of a Creator of the Universe.  I had him figured out--more like an imaginary friend that fit in to my agenda.  But this God.  This God, I am incredibly aware that I can never fully know.  Not until he lifts the prism and His Goodness descends on this earth, at least.  And God wants to reign again.  So desperately.  Our only salvation is in the atonement of Jesus, who lived to be the example for a live of Shalom--everything exactly as God has willed it.  Then the world will again belong to Him. Every color will be reconciled unto him as the most glorious light--with vivid hues that we know exist, but can only experience and not perceive.  This is the day I live for.  When all the colors combine.  But for now, I live everyday in the light of the second prism.  Seeking the Goodness, Humility, Sacrifice, Vulnerability, and Authenticity that is undeniable in the Christ.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Be encouraged.  Seek the Light.  Walk in the dust.

Stay dusty.

b.Nicole 

    

Nature vs. Nurture: Who decides?

Scientist, psychologist and sociologist alike would agree--we are all a product of nurture vs. nature.  In a course I am currently taking, Violence and Human Nature, this concept has been heavily reinforced.  Scientists can predict with 99% accuracy, the 8-year olds that will be displaying violent behaviors by age 18.  Cynical?  Perhaps.  But with odds such as these, the profile is difficult to ignore.  The terms for such identification are based on race, family structure (nurture) and specific genetic profiles (nature), composed of variations on about 27 genes.  The age-long debate surrounding such profiling revolves around the fear attached with such arbitrary profiling.  The argument is that humans are not robots.  Although influenced by, we are neither controlled by fate nor circumstance, even if science seems to prove otherwise.  The hope is that humans are still the deciders of their own fate.  And the fear is that perhaps we are not.  

Yet, in the midst of both lofty and depressing presentations of the human, I cling to hope.  For, the gorilla may not be able to change his fate.   His environment coupled with his genome will determine the kind of life he will live.  And his influences are as inextricable as ours.  Yet, the human brain has undergone such extreme evolution that has developed our frontal lobe to be able to think about abstract concepts, analyze sensory input, and assess value decisions.  This ability sets us apart from the gorilla in a way that our DNA composition may never reflect.  Suggestively, this development has offered humans an out.  

Consider the 2002 movie, Minority Report.  A new technology has been developed that is able to offer evidence of a murder before it happens.  Precogs, humans exposed to certain chemicals at birth, have violent "previsions" of murder.  These images are extracted and saved under case files.  In decoding the evidence of the murder, the Pre-Crime unit investigates the case, hoping to be able to identify the location and identity of the murder.  Before he murder.  Using this technology, the Pre-Crime unit convicts citizens before they are able to commit their crime.  For a year, the city survives without a single murder.  However, a turn of the events predicts that the lead investigator, John Anderton (played by Tom Cruise), will commit murder.  Notably, the Precogs do not "predict" murder, they actually see events yet to occur.  Yet a circularity develops as Anderton discovers his pending crime.  He steals one of the Precogs, to eliminate evidence and assist his investigation to track his victim with the hopes of proving his innocence.  As the plot leads Anderton on a renegade search, Anderton finds himself at the apartment of his victim.  No one appears to be there, so he breaks in to find it empty, except for a bed and a briefcase with hundreds of pictures of children.  The eerie mood, mixed with Anderton's frantic rummaging through the photos leads the audience to realize that the murderer of Anderton's son and wife several years prior must live here.   And then, Cruise sees a picture of his son.  He mourns over the picture, as he bares the emptiness that his son's death has left him.  But his cries quickly turn to hate.  A wild and powerful rage.  At this point, murder is within him.  And the very quest which leads Anderton to prove his innocence, fabricates perhaps the only circumstance under which Anderton would commit murder.  He waits for the owner of the apartment.  And as the keys jingle at the door, Anderton is imminently a victim of his predetermined fate.  The man enters, shocked to see Anderton.  And as Anderton begins to pull the trigger, the Precog offers him hope.  She tells Anderton that he is not bound by fate, for he has the knowledge that others did not have.  He can choose another outcome.

In light of the earlier discussion, this sentence rings such hope in my heart.  The very capabilities humans have developed or been given that allow us to decide, offer the power to overcome our influences.  For we may never separate from our genes and environment, but I do believe that there is hope to overcome them.  Perhaps, by giving the predetermined "assailants" knowledge of their tendencies and offering them hope and a path to another future, we will not be face with same fate of the Pre-Crime Unit.  Those accused never had the opportunity to change their fortune or misfortune.  True, some would still commit murder and violent acts, but could we really condemn an entire class of people based on statistics without offering the opportunity to supersede?  I certainly could not.  

And hope offered with knowledge does not end with violence.  We are all crippled by our genetic make-up, our upbringing, or the opportunity life has brought us, but just as Anderton was able to choose his fate, we too can overcome ours.  Admittedly, the road to victory may be more difficult for some, there is a road and there is a way.  We are not victims.  Yet so many are unaware of their choice.  They have been deceived and believe themselves to be outcomes of their environment or heredity.  For them, this is probably true.  But in the moment they realize the power of the decision before them, victory is within their reach.  By God, we have been offered free will and at every single moment, life is ours to be chosen.  We can choose Good or we can choose the lesser.  But whichever we decide, we must realize that we have written our own fate.  We create ourselves.  

Pen and Ink: EXCERPTS FROM A BOOK

Brilliance has never been what I seek. That would be incomprehensible to me, since I neither possess the raw intelligence nor impetus to attain such lofty aspirations. But I do have points to make. Most of which will be beyond my limited capacity of articulation, but nonetheless, the goal will be fulfilled. The Needle will see to it. My humble thoughts will give way to words and ideas, which will in-turn create some thread of truth or reason that will most feasibly develop in to complex and volatile epiphanies. To the logical brain, this presented reasoning may strike one as improbable or zany, but then one comes to the recollection that he is reading a story. A story woven by the Needle, as I will refer to It. This allows for whatever limits I am given, or possess, in my ultimate reality—being this text—to be arbitrarily surpassed or manipulated by the Needle upon whim or necessity. It is within these contexts that I will continue my dissertation, my defense of the here and now. For although I will never escape the confines of these drippings of ink upon paper and the binding of this book, the symbols and ideas the Needle creates through me can transcend to the dimension beyond—to your world—the one I can never imagine, but have only been given the vaguest, most ambiguous awareness by the Needle.



My composition is simple. I am these words you read—these symbols of idealology—interpreted by your brain, which I am only privy knowledge to by means of the Needle. You then interpret and synthesize these fragmentations of Me into tangible meaning. (I do apologize for my redundancy in mentioning the influence of the Needle, but I feel as though I must continue to remind you of my Source for all I have power to Be. You see, I understand you are not yet accustomed to the limitations which I am subject, but soon enough you will understand, and I can get on better without constant interruptions of this variant of notices.) As I was developing—I am these words. The apparent pluralism of one entity encompassing a multiple quantity is possible Here where I exist. We are all composed of smaller parts that make up the entity we occupy. However, this is a matter to be treated later in my narrative. The greater convolution, to which I digress and must first address, is my ability to communicate ideas beyond my scripted level of capacity and affect a dimension entirely beyond my existence. It baffles me that I can appear in your world, yet there is never a thread of possibility that you will maneuver into mine. Fascinating actually. The Needle would have me note. But now I will move beyond this nonsense to the tale that brought me to realize this power within my existence.



It all started on a seemingly normal day—calm, gentle breeze in early autumn—in a normal neighborhood under quite normal circumstances. The leaves have just begun to tire from summer and are the brilliant golden color with splashes of red and green making each passage through them appear as a masterful artwork. The air is cool, which gives a fresh sense to life after being burnt and suffocated by the heat of the summer. It is the kind of uneventful day that gives no indication of its unlimited possibilities. There is no pressure to accomplish any single task, yet all the same there is no guilt for the lack of efficiency. The Needle is there. He leaves his humble abode and sets out on foot. He is not sure where He is going, but the gentle motion and quiet symphony of the leaves as the wind bristles through them urges his legs to join in their chorus. He strides in rhythm to their most humble melody without direction or awareness.



A passing car interrupts this involuntary movement of the world, and drags the Needle away from his unawareness and into the cognition realm of Thought. This is precisely the moment he begins to give himself account of the orderings and happenings of the day. It is now he realizes the leaves, and the music, and his movement in synch with them. It is only at the disharmony of the abrupt sounds of an automobile driving by that he is willing to entertain Reason. And this is my beginning. His mind centralizes to the idea that he once was not aware of the His existence, but by thinking about it, He takes it into account. He wonders whether or not these events would be real had the car not driven by to make Him aware of the day and of His thoughts. After all, he baffles, What are blank sensory images sent through our synapses if we attribute no effort to their analyzation and synchronization and assimilation? He wonders what else he can make a reality within the working of his mind. He scurries back to his house, and given his tendency towards science, he decides to record his thoughts, as an experiment of sorts. He picks up a pen and paper and begins whatever comes to his mind...