Rob Bell Continued

I got this email from Rob Rhinier. Hopefully, he won't mind me "exposing" him (See Dan's comments on nakedness below, which were fantastic comments by the way IMHO). I'm going to sneak my comments in between Rob's thoughts. This is what I love about the blog is the conversation. Naked has it's problems too. Communication is a difficult task at best. But my hope is this community will turn into a real conversation. Here's my attempt.

Hey, I’ve been told I do a lot of things but contradict myself? LOL yes there are times that it appears that Rob contradicts himself but from what I know of him this is intentional. His main focus that I received from V.E. is for us to open up to not being afraid to question what we believe and hold onto the truth and discard the illusion. He is playing both sided of the fence, so to speak, giving us times of contradiction and confusion. I did have to read and reread several places because they weren’t the smoothest flowing sentences> I know that I do the same in my sentence structures many times also.

There is the sense of Strength from Weakness, Life from Death, ... The Bible is based on contradictions in some ways. Good point. I read today the chapter on Dust and felt like Bell was the best writer. It really touched me. Then I read on and found myself skimming. For a first book, it is really pretty good. I love how he described in Dust that the Rabbi's disciples needed to be able to ask good questions. That is how I try to teach disciples as well, though sometimes it is hard not to bang out some answers.

Maybe I’ve misread something, but the idea of raw in Rob’s sense of raw is the striped down no frills no meaningless rituals no worthless, meaningless time wasting garble that takes away from our experience and let’s get into the presence of God and hangout there for a while. (not that all rituals are meaningless and worthless). I have found myself asking people here why do we do this or that and the answer has always been the same; “Well we have always done that” to which I ask why? And 99.9% of the time the replay is a somber “I don’t even know why we do it we just do”. I like being raw and real, if I don’t come to church to experience the God I love and worship I should just stay home and let God walk with those that do want to experience Him.

Completely agree, nicely said.

I don’t see this as a pressure to me but a privilege to help lead us into the most holy of holies and then get out of the way and allow God to minister to his people. There is no better place to be then in His courts, no better place then to be in His house! Almost sounds like a song I heard once before ;-) I remember being in a church plant in PA that had no sign, no media publicity and no means of being seen (They were in an obscure fire hall hidden from sight in a small community outside of Hershey) the church grew to abut 200 in the first 6 years. The only means of growth was word of mouth and people bringing their friends into a place that they experienced God. When we truly seek his face we will find him! It’s so true.

This is where I don't agree. There is no better place than His courts except that Biblically, people fell down like they were dead; I assume because they felt like death. I don't always "feel" like entering into God's presence, whether it is from guilt, pain, weariness, depression, or because someone in the congregation just put a knife in my back, or worse, maybe I just put a knife in their back. That's why I appreciated Bell's note about sitting in the storage closet between services fumbling his keys wondering if he should drive away fast.

It comes in cycles for me. Lately, I've felt great in worship. I love it. But I've had weeks where I felt "naked, bad naked" and just wanted it to be over.

About the teaching on Revelation, I have seen something, I don’t remember where, talking about the same idea that Rob presented in V.E. depending on your commentaries they may be tainted whit the very futuristic mindset that too many evangelicals of the past have put on Revelation. It had to mean something to and be easy for 1 century readers to understand and be encouraged by. To see it through the “End Times” or Tim LaHaye, mentality that we have given it is to miss the point. (I am speaking on what I have been instructed and understood from my background here). The end was near in their minds at that time, not for 2000 years later. (not saying that there isn’t something about the distant future but less likely then we want to believe) To fashion it after the Domitian game setting would be a great possibility and great encouragement to the Christians of that day, since the people reading this letter would understand the symbolic message of Jesus being superior to the gods and Caesars of the Romans.

No doubt. I'm assuming Domitian was the Emperor when this was written and the three commentaries I am using lean toward amillinialism, as do I. It just surprised me I couldn't confirm it, especially in Beale's commentary which is THICK! My point is Rob is really sharp, but sometimes he throws around facts that aren't quite as firm as he lays them out. The 24 elder thing could be interpreted a lot of ways. Not a big deal, but it makes me step back and wonder about a lot of the more obscure facts that he rolls together into a delightful description of faith.

I’ll try to give you an update of what I find out about the church after I get back from Sunday’s visit. I ‘m looking forward to seeing what is taking place there myself. I’m sorry you can’t make it also.

I wish I could go. Can't wait to hear some details. Thanks Rob!