Ben Sanders – On The Loose

I read an interview with an astronaut, a while back. In this interview, he described what it was like to be outside the space shuttle, standing on the end of the robotic arm as he worked. He said that when he looked at the Earth, he suddenly felt aware of the tremendous speed at which he and the shuttle were moving. Panic began to rise up in his mind and body. Here he was, suspended miles above the Earth – moving at thousands of miles per hour, standing on nothing more than a couple square feet of platform.

Fortunately, he was able to reel in his brain and focus on his work – finishing the task at hand and returning to the safety of the shuttle.

Perhaps this is similar to what Peter felt when he stepped out of the boat? Physically, he was standing on water… a wild idea to begin with – but mentally and spiritually, he was standing on the word of Jesus.

Literally – one word.

“Come.”

We stand physically upon the Earth – a planet that, to us, stands still. Yet, in reality, our planet hurtles through space at 66,000 mph – while simultaneously spinning at 1,000 mph. This doesn’t affect us because the Earth is so big that we don’t have the perspective required to worry about it. It is only when we are brought to the fringes of our world, like the astronaut, that we are brought face to face with the sheer lack of control we have. We are riding a speeding bullet that has no steering wheel – and we live our lives unfazed by that reality.

Spiritually, we live upon a book of promises – in a world of blessings. And we go through our lives, living with hope and faith – mostly oblivious. Yet, there are those times when we are brought to the fringe of our faith. The time comes when we see the reality of the world and realize our lack of control. We find ourselves grasping at only one promise from the book that is overflowing with them – one word.

What word are you standing on?

It is easy to try and guess the future – easier to realize that the possibilities branch out faster than we can compile answers. Even easier is to give into panic when we realize that we don’t have control – time and life – march on.

The trick – as the astronaut and Peter discovered – is to put your eyes back on the goal. There is work to be done – love to be shared – life that has not yet been spent.

What word do we stand on after all things have passed away? What is the word that we stand upon when all other promises have been fulfilled? Indeed, it is the word that we shall stand upon for eternity – both in this world and the next.

I must not fear tomorrow, for when my work here is done, I have this command – and this promise.

Live.

Joh 14:19

“Velvet Elvis” is written by Mars Hill Pastor, Rob Bell. My only exposure to Rob Bell prior to reading this book was through his Nooma video series. In those videos, he appeared to be thoughtful, sincere, and more than a little thought provoking. All of these mini-studies were delivered in what would be his trademark, staccato, and dramatic delivery – as though he thinks and speaks in no more than a few words at a time. We had used some of these DVDs in our small group settings and I thought they were interesting so when I saw the book “Velvet Elvis” on the shelf at our local Barnes and Noble, I picked it up.

Right away you get a sense of his speaking style in the book.

It is delivered

Much like

This.

This is of course, his speaking style-

If Captain Kirk wrote a book about God

It might read like this one.

Once you get used to it, it is not really that big a deal, but it is different. It is interesting to see his speaking style carried over into his writing style – at least it is to me.

The book is mainly about the idea that we should “repaint” the Christian faith – make it your own, so to speak – and apply it. There is an overarching theme that we should be more focused on loving and serving people in order to have a positive effect on the world – which is good – but this book sets off a few alarms in my mind. It is a dangerous book, in my opinion.

It is dangerous in that it mixes good points – we should be involved in our world and do more to show the love of Christ – with some really flaky ones that on the surface sound good, but when you think about them and apply Scriptural principles to them – they fail.

For example, early on he creates a metaphorical picture of faith that looks like a trampoline. I liked this example – especially where he speaks of how much easier it is to jump higher when others are jumping with you. Where he loses my interest – and veers off Biblical principle – is when he compares the springs on the trampoline to our doctrines. According to Rob, our doctrines, and hence our faith, should be flexible. The idea is that if we begin to question one of our doctrines, we can still jump on our trampoline of faith unhindered. A lovely idea, right?

He actually says that; to some people – like me – doctrine is:

“… a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble. It appears quite strong and rigid, but if you begin to rethink or discuss even one brick, the whole thing is in danger.”

Of course this leads to …

“…one of the things that happens in ‘brickworld’: you spend a lot of time talking about how right you are. Which of course leads to how wrong everybody else is. Which then leads to defending the wall … you rarely defend a trampoline. You invite people to jump on it with you.”

And defending doctrines is bad because…

“The problem with brickianity is that walls inevitably keep people out. Often it appears as though you have to agree with all of the bricks exactly as they are or you can’t join… Jesus invites everybody to jump.”

He then follows this up with the example of a doctrine that is central to ALL of Christianity – the supernatural birth and nature of Jesus Christ. He poses a question like ”What would happen to your faith if you found empirical evidence that Jesus was not born of a virgin and basically wasn’t who he claimed to be?” It’s a stupid question really – if Jesus wasn’t who he claimed to be, then Christianity doesn’t need to be here.

By asking that question in that context, he implies that faith in the identity of Jesus should be flexible – as if we should want to live the way we do regardless of the truth about Jesus. This is also called – Baloney!

Matthew 16:16-18

clearly states that the church is built upon the “rock” of the revelation of who Jesus is! That doesn’t sound flexible to me. It sounds a whole lot like if Jesus wasn’t the real deal, everything comes crashing down.

+1 point for brick wall doctrines.

Ephesians 2:19-21

says that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus being the cornerstone. It sounds like if one of the apostles is wrong, a prophet has lied, or Jesus isn’t truly who he says he is, everything comes crashing down.

+1 point for brick wall doctrines.

Jude 1:3

says we should fight for the original faith and teachings of the apostles!

+1 for defending your brick wall.

This is just one example of some of the “Rob Bell” ideas that he puts out there that doesn’t weigh true against Scripture.

He also leans HEAVILY on rabbinical teachings. It’s cool to get some ideas and context from extra-biblical sources, but we have to always be aware that they are extra-biblical. Rob seems to go overboard with his fascination and respect for the rabbis thoughts – even though I don’t know of any Jewish rabbi who agreed with Jesus’ identity or teachings as delivered by his apostles… otherwise, they wouldn’t be a Jewish rabbi would they?

So there were parts that I thought were good – and true – and a whole lot more that sounded philosophical but was really dismissive of Christians having anything resembling a firm foundation of beliefs. Every once in a while, he throws a thought out there that makes you really think “wow, that’s good.” But most often, he just leaves me really wanting to sit down with him and say “Show me the Scripture for that, please.”

Bottom Line: I would prefer revelation and enlightenment of Scripture over extra-biblical, let’s-be-so relevant-to-our-world-that-we-are-irrelevant, everyone has some kind of truth, “what is absolute?” philosophy. Add to that the fact that he has introduced Jewish mysticism and more into his teachings and church, and you get my recommendation of “Don’t buy this book if you are expecting anything else.”