Jesus Wants to Save Christians- Part 1 The Cry of the Oppressed

Let me say first and foremost that I am angry at myself. I was suckered in to purchase this book by the crowd which states that I have no right to discuss ideas found in the book without having first read it. I always say to them that I do not have to go into a chicken barn to know that it stinks, there are lots of feathers flying around, and an incessant clucking noise. It is like my sister in law says “If a man speaks alone in a forest, is he still wrong?” Well, I was wrong to waste $20 on this book, and I find myself disgusted by the time that I spend reading it. I think I will donate it to Joe Martino after I am finished, because his pastor (who wrote the book) has not, for some reason, given him a copy. The title did interest me, however, for I thought Rob Bell had gone reformed on me by stating the very Biblical concept that Jesus wants to save Christians. I thought Rob was talking about election, predestination, and foreknowledge of those who would believe. I have been disappointed.

However, I have promised a chapter by chapter “Shadow” review of the one going on over at our favorite site, as we call it, .info. Chapter one is a very interesting take on the biblical meta-narrative of redemption, and the need of redemption by those who are dead in sin, which is the human race. Rob introduces four nations that are meant to illustrate God’s purpose in redemption.

The first nation is Egypt. Egypt represents the oppressive nation, and everything that is wrong with humankind. Rob starts the narrative with Adam and Eve. I am left wondering if he believes in a literal Adam and Eve, but that is besides the point. They did not sin, as is clearly stated in the Bible, rather, they

“chose to go their own way, to explore outside of the boundaries given by their maker, and, as a result, the relationship suffers”.(pg 25)

This is a description of sin, and the results of sin, but a very humanistic one. It puts the scent of the flower on the stench of a pig sty. The Bible clearly states that this event brought a curse upon all mankind, that this one sin committed by this first couple brought sin into all the world and therefore death. Rob Says it like this:

The broken, toxic nature at the heart of a few humans has now spread to the whole world…the word for this condition is the anti-kingdom (26)

Again, I may be a bit nit-picky here, but the terminology is frightening to me. It is not toxic, it is deadly. It started with the original humans, but it was passed on to all. The word for this condition is not anti-kingdom, it is sin, and the sin nature. The rapid downfall of the human race was the result of this sin nature run wild. It is rebellion against the God who created us.

And Bell points out here that the name for the governmental system that this toxic condition of the human heart represents is Egypt. Egypt is oppressive evil codified into a government system. It is ‘Egypt’ that is the oppressor of how God wants things to be, the anti-kingdom. It is the result of man’s toxic nature made into a government and a people that oppresses others. But then Moses enters into the picture, as Rob puts it.

The next place that represents an idea is Sinai. God has been silent to the masses, Rob says, speaking only to a few individuals like Noah and Abraham along the way. Again, here I have a problem. God has spoken to those individuals (and many more) and these individuals preached on sin, righteousness, and judgement. Noah was a preacher of righteousness for all the years it took him to build the Ark. Unfortunately, only his sons, their wives, and Noah’s wives paid any attention. They were the only ones saved. Abraham was one who took God at His Word and lived by His faith, and became a Father of many nations. He preached God’s Words to His Sons, and prayed for his relatives. He lived as an example of faithfulness to God in the midst of a pagan people. We see his ministry, along with other great people of the faith, detailed in the book of Hebrews. God was not silent, he spoke through the patriarchs. Simply put, sinful mankind did not listen. The sin nature that we inherited from our Father Adam was in play.

But, as Bell puts it, after the Exodus from Egypt, after God heard the cries of the oppressed people, the slaves God rescued from the oppressor were to hear from God. But, before Bell tells us about what they were to hear and what it was to mean, He throws this idea on us: God NEEDS a body.

” God needs a body, God needs flesh and blood. God needs bones and skin so that Pharaoh will know just who this God is he’s dealing with and how this God acts in the world. And no so just so Pharaoh will know, but so that all humanity will know” (31)

I disagree. God does not need a body. God, by His grace, chose these people to be His covenant people to demonstrate His grace. But it is not because God needs anything. God did not need Moses. God chose Moses, by His grace, to serve a purpose. God could have taken anybody, as He did with Baalam’s donkey, to be an agent. Or, God could have accomplished it without a human instrument. It is God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s grace that allows us to be the instruments by which He accomplishes His purposes. God does not need skin. God chooses to use us to accomplish His purposes. He chose to use Moses at this time, as He chose to use Pharaoh! God was working in both men, at this point in History, to accomplish His purpose.

Now, to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, according to Rob Bell’s theology, are not:

strict rules given by a fire breathing God (straw man) to keep people in line

But rather are there to show us how to be human again. They are not God’s law with which to act, as Paul states in Galatians, as a tutor. Nor is God’s Law to be used to ‘Stop the mouth’ as Paul States in Romans, or to declare the world guilty before God. Nope. God’s Law, the Ten Commandments:

What God begins here at Sinai with the Ten Commandments is the long process of teaching them how to be human again….. The first commandment instructs these people to have no other Gods, so their humanity is directly connected to their ability to remember their liberation which was a gift from God. If they forget God,-the one true God who freed them- they are at that same moment forgetting their story.

This is in direct contradiction to what the rest of the Bible teaches, specifically, what the New Testament reveals about the spiritual nature of the Law and its purposes. The first commandment, as an example is a call to worship the one true God to the exclusion of any other Gods. It is a call to loyalty, a call to monotheism. Verse 2 in Exodus 20 identifies this God as the one who brought the Hebrews out of Slavery. We are to worship this God alone, as He has identified Himself, by His Word, and in truth. It is not a call to remember their liberation, it is a call to remember God who liberated them, and to worship Him alone. It is a huge difference. One focuses on the gift liberation given by God, the other focusses on God who liberates.

The second commandment builds on the first, prohibiting any image in the form of anything. In the ancient near east, people conceptualized their many gods using images. They used statues and carvings and idols as physical representations of the divine beings they believed controlled their fate…..an idol helped people understand just who their god was and what their god was like (33)

Rob Bell teaches that this is not about idolatry, this is about God desiring a people, because this God again is looking for a body. I can see this, though it is a stretch. The Bible teaches that idolatry is putting anything in front of God, giving more glory and worship to the object rather than the God who created the object (creation vs. creator, Romans 1). It can also be creating a false image of God, and this is where Bell in a round-about way nails it. As the church, as God’s chosen people, we are to be light and we are to be salt. We are to represent God to the world by being Holy because He is Holy. We are to be God’s representatives, His ambassadors. Specifically, we are to bring the good news of His salvation to the world. We are a picture of God’s grace to the world. We (those who have been born-again) are the body of Christ; we are the church.

Yet Bell paints a false picture of the God of the more orthodox believer (fire breathing, strict rules (see LAW) and creates a wicked straw man of what God is who gave us this law, this code of conduct, that he does expect us to follow as we live in obedience because of our love for Him. The law is given to demonstrate that we cannot keep it, that we are, by nature, wretched. The law is a reflection of God’s holiness, His perfect standard, His morality. Jesus broke it down like this, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. In the first five commandments, we see a demonstration of how we can love God. In the second five commandments, we see how we can love men. When we break these commandments, we see that by nature, we are imperfect, sinful beings who need a Savior. This is what God’s law is for; not to show us how to be human, but to show us that we are not divine, and that we need divine intervention so that we can be made righteous. And this comes only by faith.

I will continue this series soon. First, I need a brain enema and to replace this maddening prose with some prayer and reading of the scripture.