Monday, February 19, 2007
Okay...
So I have found out that if you really want to work people up, you do either one of two things:
Say you talked to God, who told you that she wanted to do away with certain Telly-vangelists
and
Ask folks about a theory of man.
First, the whole God conversation thing. As it was pointed out to me by my friend Nicole and a few others, it ain't very Christian to send various Telly-vangelists off of a cliff. I stand corrected. I am not of the authority to judge so I'll shut up. Thanks to my friend Nicole for setting me straight.
But if I may say this...don't listen to these snake oil salesmen and saleswomen and definitely don't send them money.
Second, stop e-mailing me to say that we are made in God's image. That is an easy out to who we are and why we do what we do. Besides if we were truly created in God's image, we would treat each other and our world a lot better.
Thirdly some questions came as to my personal bio and beliefs:
I was raised in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. At 15 I knew that there was a lot more to the story that they were willing to tell me. That curiosity stayed with me and propelled me a few years ago into a more historical search of Jesus. I read with fascination the work of Dominic Crossan, Karen Armstrong and John Shelby Spong among others. Of these I recommend Crossan's "A Historical Biography of Christ" and Spong's "Liberating the Gospels".
The more I humanized Jesus, the more I came to admire him. Lately I have begun the works of Jurgen Moltmann, beginning at the beginning with "Theology of Hope". I had the good fortune of meeting Professor Moltmann and was captivated by his faith and his optimistic outlook, particularly in so much as his views on Eschatology, or as it's more popularly known, the End Times. I don't believe in the whole Book of Revelation, Beast, torment, etc. and I certainly don't believe in the ridiculous notion of a rapture. The only thing the rapture is good for is selling books, as in the Scofield Bible and those silly "Left Behind" books.
I don't believe in an actual resurrection (spiritual yes, empty tomb, no) I believe that Jesus was more than likely only one of as many as fifty people hung on the cross that day and that the odds are he stayed there until his bones fell to the ground. I believe that the disciples split on the day he was arrested (Mark 14:50), symbolized by Peter's denial.
I believe that Jesus was more than likely married because it is what Jewish men did at that time usually at a young age, and I believe that we don't have a whole lot on him before he began preaching because during that time he worked in Nazareth and lived a fairly mundane early first century life.
Less glam and more man, I guess. Somewhere between the Council of Nicea and here today we robbed Jesus of his humanity, I think we need to give it back.
That's my theology.
Peace,
RW
So I have found out that if you really want to work people up, you do either one of two things:
Say you talked to God, who told you that she wanted to do away with certain Telly-vangelists
and
Ask folks about a theory of man.
First, the whole God conversation thing. As it was pointed out to me by my friend Nicole and a few others, it ain't very Christian to send various Telly-vangelists off of a cliff. I stand corrected. I am not of the authority to judge so I'll shut up. Thanks to my friend Nicole for setting me straight.
But if I may say this...don't listen to these snake oil salesmen and saleswomen and definitely don't send them money.
Second, stop e-mailing me to say that we are made in God's image. That is an easy out to who we are and why we do what we do. Besides if we were truly created in God's image, we would treat each other and our world a lot better.
Thirdly some questions came as to my personal bio and beliefs:
I was raised in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. At 15 I knew that there was a lot more to the story that they were willing to tell me. That curiosity stayed with me and propelled me a few years ago into a more historical search of Jesus. I read with fascination the work of Dominic Crossan, Karen Armstrong and John Shelby Spong among others. Of these I recommend Crossan's "A Historical Biography of Christ" and Spong's "Liberating the Gospels".
The more I humanized Jesus, the more I came to admire him. Lately I have begun the works of Jurgen Moltmann, beginning at the beginning with "Theology of Hope". I had the good fortune of meeting Professor Moltmann and was captivated by his faith and his optimistic outlook, particularly in so much as his views on Eschatology, or as it's more popularly known, the End Times. I don't believe in the whole Book of Revelation, Beast, torment, etc. and I certainly don't believe in the ridiculous notion of a rapture. The only thing the rapture is good for is selling books, as in the Scofield Bible and those silly "Left Behind" books.
I don't believe in an actual resurrection (spiritual yes, empty tomb, no) I believe that Jesus was more than likely only one of as many as fifty people hung on the cross that day and that the odds are he stayed there until his bones fell to the ground. I believe that the disciples split on the day he was arrested (Mark 14:50), symbolized by Peter's denial.
I believe that Jesus was more than likely married because it is what Jewish men did at that time usually at a young age, and I believe that we don't have a whole lot on him before he began preaching because during that time he worked in Nazareth and lived a fairly mundane early first century life.
Less glam and more man, I guess. Somewhere between the Council of Nicea and here today we robbed Jesus of his humanity, I think we need to give it back.
That's my theology.
Peace,
RW
Labels: God, Jesus, left behind, rapture, televangelists, theory of man
