Two People. Romans 8 - 9

Two people. podcast:

There is an old guy . . . there is a young guy.

Both are Christians . . . both are controversial.

One has violated a Scriptural truth, and maybe the other has too.

Let’s start with the old guy.  He has predicted that Jesus Christ is coming back next Saturday, May 21st to judge all of humankind and to gather up the faithful.(1)  That, Friends, is contrary to what Jesus said about his second coming.  "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”(2) ‘Funny thing is—this isn’t the first time Harold Camping has named a date for Jesus’ return.  I keenly remember the last time—September 6, 1994.  You see, I lived in the same northern California town as Camping—Alameda.  And I went to school with his daughters.  It was a strange thing to drive by his church the day before ‘all Christians were to be taken up, and the rest of the world judged.’  ‘Strange too to drive by his house on Alameda’s tree-lined Gibbons Drive on the named date—the 6^th—and then the following Sunday when everyone was of course, still here.  “Beware of false prophets,” is what Jesus said.(3)

The young guy.  There is a new book on the shelves that is rocking the Christian scene, written by controversial Michigan minister, Rob Bell.  I read it a couple months ago now, but didn’t feel particularly compelled to write about it until now.  Time calls it a “new holy war in Christian circles and beyond.”(4)    Love Wins fits right in with what Paul has us thinking about in Romans 8 and 9—the whole matter of chosen-ness.  (Are any chosen?  If so, who?  If not, why not?  If not them, what did they do wrong?  Or, are all chosen?)

“God loves us. God offers us everlasting life by grace, freely, through no merit on our part.  Unless you do not respond in the right way.  Then God will torture you forever.  In hell.”

Huh?”   It is not quite that terse in the real world.  After all, God equipped us with the ability to choose him, to choose life from the very beginning till our very end. 

Bell puts the reader through a maze of questions.  Questions, generally are good, I believe.  Jesus himself often asked questions, and he answered questions with questions; however, sometimes questions are meant to incite.  I do believe Bell means to ‘stir it up’.  He discusses Heaven and Hell, and how we think of both of them.  “Eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts now.  It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive even death.”

And then ‘a funny thing happened on the way’ to leaving the gym this morning.  Deciding this morning to write “Two People” to follow “Two Things”, I grabbed Love Wins on my way out of the door.  I skimmed it and reread my notes, while on the elliptical trainer.   ‘Excuse me,’ a woman quietly ventured, ‘please, can I ask you about the book you are reading?’  ‘Of course.’  ‘What do you think of that book?’  Then, she proceeded to tell me why she asked--that her mother-in-law had given her the book, following the death of her husband (the gym lady’s husband, the son of the book-giving lady).  ‘She wanted me to see that my husband still had a chance to receive God after he died.’  Come to find out, her husband had died after asphyxiating on an olive while drunk.  Her pain, naturally, was still palpable.  We had the opportunity to talk for a while.

‘Do you know that someone told me that my husband couldn’t possibly be in Heaven, because God doesn’t allow drunks into Heaven?’  With that, my heart sunk, and then started pounding rapidly—all in a matter of moments.  ‘I am so sorry that anyone said something like that to you!  That is not the heart of God,’ I looked long into her eyes, hoping she would believe me!  ‘And----that is why Bell wrote this book!  It is not ours to judge whether someone is in Hell or not. Oh, I am so sorry.’   Yet sanctimonious religious people, some calling themselves Christians, do that all the time. 

So, while Bell asks some provocative questions . . . and uses inflammatory language, in some instances . . . while he plays the Christian scholar trump card by referring to the Greek language in which the New Testament was written, and the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament was written—thereby leaving the average reader with no recourse or ability with which to refute his statements, I believe he makes a couple very valid points.  One--whether or not someone lives out their eternity in Heaven or in Hell is not our judgment to make or pronounce; two--there is so much that we humans do not know about the undying love of God, and his relentless efforts to win the heart and soul of mankind … perhaps, in the end, LOVE does win, and God makes a way for all to come to him.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Two men—Harold Camping and Rob Bell--both who cause us to stop and think, which is not a bad thing at all.  Two men who cause us to go to Scripture to see what God has to say, because after all, he has the last word.

Christine

1 cited in the Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2011

2 Matthew 24.36

3 Matthew 7.15

4 Time Magazine, cover story, April 25, 2011