Rob Bell (with Don Golden).
Has written another book.
Just as trendy…
as the first two….
With many one-line (and sometimes one word) paragraphs.
And with end-notes…
rather than footnotes.¹
Oh.
Joy.
But seriously, not only was this book (hereafter refered to in trendy acronym style as JWTSC) an easy read, I’d have to say it is Rob’s most ‘biblical’ book. Now that doesn’t mean that his first two books were not biblical, and it doesn’t mean that JWTSC won’t recieve much criticism by some worrying that he may be at or near some kind of universalism. What it does mean is that I’m convinced that the approach that he outlines (a ‘New Exodus’ reading of the Scriptures) is the best (or one of the best) ways to begin to grasp the message of the Scriptures as a whole.
It’s an approach that is summed up nicely by the pattern: Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem, Babylon. Egypt is the place of oppression, where the Empire (as in ‘the Egyptian Empire’) subject humans to dehumanising roles and lives. God, who always hears the cry of the oppressed, delivers (‘saves’) them, and takes them to… Sinai.
Sinai is the place of endowment with the task of being what Bell and Golden call ‘anti-empire’ or anti-Egypt. They are reminded of their identity of the people of the God who hears and rescues, and are given their covenant law, which is laced with don’t-be-like-Egypt reminders.
Jerusalem, then, is the place where the people who were blessed-to-be-a-blessing end up stock-piling their blessing – and building armies to defend it. This is personified in none other than Solomon, who had – among other things – 666 bits of gold.
Babylon, finally, is what happens when the anti-Egypt people become ‘the new Egypt’. The people ‘hang up their harps’, mourn their losses and (hopefully – eventually) repent of their ways.
JWTSC rightly lays this out as a key pattern of the Old Testament, but also as a pattern that reaches a new kind of fulness and fulfillment in the person and ministry of Jesus. There is a New Exodus in Jesus, and it’s from a new and much larger kind of Egypt – it’s from sin itself. And this New Exodus has not only one group of humans in view, but all of creation.
Now, I’m not going to even bother trying to defend everything they say or imply. Many will complain about the tone-of-voice taken in some parts. But it remains that this is a telling of the biblical story that is still unknown and unheard in many parts of the Church – and one that must be told. Different ones will quibble with this or with that, but JWTSC remains a good popular-level introduction to a very sound and immediately relevant telling of the Biblical Story.
And.
That.
Is.
A.
Good.
Thing.
—————
Endnote:
1. Which, though somewhat annoying, can be overcome by the stylish and witty trick of keeping one’s finger (any one one the right hand will do) in the endnotes section as you go…
***
Dale Campbell is a volunteer advocate for TEAR Fund New Zealand. He is an Associate Pastor at Northcote Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand and runs a blog that is well worth reading – Fruitful Faith.
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Interesting. I thought the universalism was at about the same level as it was in VE.
My review: http://tiny.cc/bellJWTSC
I have to get this! (As a Christian universalist – which I am)..
Deb
Great review, Dale.
One of the aspects of the book that I found very relevant was the clear outline, as you have noted, of God’s care for the oppressed.
His cutting analysis of ‘empire’ and the associated accumulation of resources coupled with the need to protect those resources and lifestyle etc was very pertinent.
It is clear that, as Christians, as God desires to respond to the cry of the opressed, we are the people who are to enact that response.
Yeah, I’m quite certain that if asked, Rob would deny being a universalist, but it would be interesting to his response.
And yes, Frank, the question (or challenge, really) of what to do with our blessing is the key thing in JWTSC.
Cool book just finished reading it, your so right Dale the Solomon and empire angles really opened my mind to a different perspective
Easy to read with the bullet points for those with short attention spans!(like me)
The back cover really appeals as well, we so need to do church differently, more books, more thoughts more,ideas, revolutions so we can get closer to what jesus intended for his bride
Rock on
Fully loved this book – A must read…especially for Christians who ‘know it all’! The most challenging part for me was the part about understanding scriptures from the view of the writers being oppressed by empires, when we (in the west) have little idea of what it means to be oppressed by an empire…I know he specifically targets himself and his fellow Americans in this, but it is relevant throughout the rest of the western world too.
Hey Andy,
Love your comment. It’s often hard to take our western glasses off when reading the scriptures and so we often re-interpret them to fit our context of “empire”… thus you’ll notice we often spiritualise things that shouldn’t be when placed in their context ie the “oppressed” really were physically oppressed.
One of the things I am looking forward to in my role at TEAR Fund is hearing how those who are part of the developing world interpret scripture from the context of being affected by the actions of the “empire”.