The "New" Christianity

I think I’m finally hip now!

I have finally read Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell!

He likes to write in one sentence paragraphs.

For those of you who don’t know, Rob Bell is a pastor of a megachurch in Grandville, Michigan.

I’m not really sure why this book was written. The subtitle of the book is “Repainting the Christian Faith”. It seems as though he is trying to reinvent Christianity. In the introduction to the book he says,

“But this book is for those who need a fresh take on Jesus and what it means to live the kind of life he teaches us to live. I’m part of a community, a movement of people who have been living, exploring, sharing, and experiencing new understandings of Christian faith.”

There are some points with which I heartily disagree. It seems as if those who would interpret the Bible want to change some things that are very obvious into things that are obscure. One example is the paragraph below.

“Jesus at one point claimed to be “the way, the truth, and the life”. Jesus was not making claims about one religion being better than all other religions. Thatcompletely misses the point, the depth, and the truth. Rather, he was telling those who were following him that his way is the way to the depth of reality. This kind of life Jesus was living, perfectly and completely in connection and cooperation with God, is the best possible way for a person to live. It is how things are."

In science, there is a principle known as Ockham’s Razor. Ockham's Razor is the principle proposed by William of Ockham in the fourteenth century: ``Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate''*, which translates as ``entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily''. Another way of saying this is don’t make things more complicated than they need to be. I think this could be used here. When Jesus said, “I am the way”, I think he meant that He was the way. When Jesus said, “I am the truth”, I think that he meant that He was the truth. When Jesus said, “I am the life”, I think he meant that he was the life.

There is one part of the book that I really do not understand. Here is the paragraph.

“Please realize that to this day I have never read a book on church planting or church growth or been to a seminar on how to start a church. I remember being told that a sign had been rented with the church name on it to go in front of the building where we were meeting. I was mortified and had them get rid of it. You can’t put a sign out front, I argued; people have to want to find us. And so there were no advertisements, no flyers, no promotions, and no signs.”

A little later on this page he’s says,

“Now I am going to give you some numbers. And I hesitate to do this because few things are more difficult to take than spiritual leaders who are always talking about how big their thing is. But it happened and it’s true and is part of my story. There were well over 1000 people there the first Sunday.”

Now I believe that God still does miracles today. But this one seems really unbelievable.

There are some places in the book where I do understand the point he is trying to make. For example, in the first chapter (oops I mean Movement, Mr. Bell even wants to rewrite how we write books), he’s says,

“A Christian doesn’t avoid the questions; a Christian embraces them. In fact, to truly pursue the living God, we have to see the need for questions. Questions are not scary. What is scary is when people don’t have any. What is tragic is faith that has no room for them.”

I do believe that as we grow in our faith, we will ask questions, we will seek God, we will pray, and we will feel His Spirit guide us through our lives.

Mr. Bell did not seem to put much stock in praying, and listening for the presence of the Holy Spirit as our guide for life on earth. I’m sure that this is more my misunderstanding of the way he wrote than it is what he really believes. In fact at one point he says,

“I affirm the historic Christian faith, which includes the virgin birth and the Trinity and the inspiration of the Bible and much more. I am part of it and I want to pass it on to the next generation. I believe that God created everything and that Jesus is Lord and that God has plans to restore everything.”

I think that someone who is really struggling with their Christian walk would probably be struggling more after reading this book than before reading this book. There are parts of this book that would make people believe that Christ is not the only way to God. As Jesus said, he is “the way, the truth, and the life”. He is the only way.

*No, I don't do Latin. I got this quote from the Internet.