Preview of Rob Bell’s New Book

Ben Witherington has posted a long, but good, review of Rob Bell’s new book Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile co-authored with Don Golden. I have long respected Rob Bell while still not embracing the celebrity he’s become. I respect the way he has been able to teach critically spiritual and biblical truths to mass audiences. He does not fit the mold of the stereotypical mega-church pastor that at best dumbs down, and at worst corrupts, the biblical message and theology. For this I am grateful.

I have only seen a handful of the famous Nooma videos, and read only chapter selections from Bell’s two previous books, but I think I’m going to have to read this new one based on Dr. Witherington’s review. He describes the theology laid out in the book as a “non-Marxist liberation theology,” and for those of you who know me and theology well know this sounds right up my alley! If the book lives up to what Dr. Witherington says it does I will be very happy as I view my ministry in many ways to help Jesus “save Christians,” especially conservative and evangelical ones, from stale and impotent theologies and assumptions of Christianity. If this book is what I hope it is it will provide me with another resource, this time from someone many young evangelicals listen to with deep respect, to draw upon when challenging the status quo theologies that abound with one I truly believe is more biblical, theologically sound, culturally relevant and true to the ministry of Jesus.

Anyways, here’s some quotes from the book that really piqued my interest:

If you are a citizen of an empire that has the most powerful army in the history of humanity and is currently on the way to spending a trillion dollars on a war, passages in the Bible about those who accumulate chariots and horses from Egypt are passages about you and your people. (p. 128).

Imagine how dangerous it would be if there were Christians who skipped over the first century meaning of John’s Letter [i.e. Revelation] and focused only on whatever it might be saying about future events, years and years away. There is always the chance that in missing the point, they may in the process be participating in and supporting and funding various kinds of systems that the letter warns against participating in, supporting and funding. That would be tragic. That wouldn’t be what Jesus had in mind. That would be anti-Jesus. That would be anti-Christ. Were the people in John’s church reading his letter for the first time, with Roman soldiers right outside their door thinking, ‘This is going to be really helpful for people two thousand years from now who don’t want to get left behind.”? (p. 135)

This is why when Christians organize politically and start flexing their muscle, making threats about how they are going to impose their way on others, so many people turn away from Jesus. Jesus’ followers at that point are claiming to be the voice of God. But they are speaking the language of Caesar and using the methods of Rome, and for millions of us it has the stench of Solomon, its not the path of descent. (p. 164)

The church is the living, breathing, life-giving, system-confronting, empire-subverting picture of the new humanity. (p. 172)

Jesus wants to save our church from the exile of irrelevance. If we have any resources, any power, any voice, any influence, any energy, we must convert them into blessing for those who have no power, no voice, no influence. (p. 179)

Jesus wants to save us from making the good news about another world and not this one. Jesus wants to save us from preaching a Gospel that is only about individuals and not about the systems that enslave them. Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the Gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker. Jesus wants to save us from religiously sanctioned despair, the kind that doesn’t believe the world can be made better, the kind that either blatantly or subtly teaches people to just be quiet and behave and wait for something big to happen ‘someday’. (p. 185)