So I finally finished reading Rob Bell's new book Love Wins. I know, I know three months behind the trend of writing book reviews about whether or not Rob Bell is a universalist and a heretic. I need to get with the times, but lets face it Seminary homework slows people down. But now that I have finished reading here are some of my thoughts.
Much to the contrary of thought Rob Bell does believe in heaven and he does believe in hell. However, Bell emphasizes heaven and hell here are on earth more than the future heaven and hell. I believe this is a good point and something that the Church needs to start re-emphasizing. We as the Church are called to eradicate hell from this earth and try to restore as much of heaven as possible on this planet.
Bell does have thoughts about heaven and hell after death. He teaches that heaven will be here on earth after death for humans and that the creation of the new earth will be our ultimate resting place. I agree. And really do not much more to say on this topic.
Hell is a different story. Bell believes that hell is only a temporary stop for people after death. He writes that it is a place of judgment and pruning. It is a place where God's love can still pursue people and they have the chance to accept this love and be redeemed from hell. Now he does leave open the possibility that while in hell people will still reject God. But at the same time he affirms that God's pursuit of people is relentless and if God is relentlessly pursuing people for eternity and if hell is a place of pruning then it seems logical to conclude that eventually all people while in hell will accept God's pursuit and be redeemed. This is not the traditional universalist approach when it comes to salvation (ex. all people when they die go to heaven). But it does fundamentally seem to be a universalistic approach.
As of right now, I do not agree with this view. However, in saying that, I hope that Bell's view is correct. As a Christian who has experienced the love of God I hope and pray that all people will experience the love of God even if this means that God pursues them after death in hell. After all, God is God and He can work outside any box or theological paradigm I try to place Him in; which means that if He wants to redeem people from hell after they have died then He can and I hope that He does because if not there will be a lot of people who are eternally punished and tormented.
There have been several people who have read this book and have been trying to brand Bell as a heretic. I cannot find any merits for those claims in this book. Bell still strongly affirms that all people will be saved through Jesus. He claims that some people will be saved through Jesus without even knowing that they were saved through Jesus, but yet He was still the one performing the work, He was still the Way. If Bell strongly holds to Jesus being the means by which everyone is saved, how can he be a heretic? Is it because he holds a different view on hell? Is it because he believes that God's love and grace are so big that He saves people after death? How is this such a bad perspective? How is this worthy of being deemed a heretical view? Why should we so harshly judge someone who has such a grand view of the One who created the Universe? If we can brand someone a heretic for holding a false view on hell then we need to start branding everyone a heretic who holds a false view on any theological doctrine. Therefore, I am a heretic because I know that I probably believe some false doctrine and so is anyone who reads this because no one has perfect theology. Therefore, I feel that it is too far based on the information presented in this book to say that Rob Bell is indeed a heretic.
Let me concluded with this, I feel that the main point of the book is that there is a God who loves us so deeply that He wants to redeem us from the hell here on earth and the hell that is to come. God will passionately pursue us all of our days both on this earth and in eternity. Why? Because God is a God of love and His love will always win.
And I am glad it does.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Wild Thing
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6716984
Rick "The Wild Thing" Vaughan took steroids. Now I know most of you are probably thinking but he was a fictional character. Well don't go to downtown Cleveland and say that. I think most people hope and even wish that the players and story found in the movie Major League is true. Well now Charlie Sheen who played "The Wild Thing" in the movie claims that he took steroids for a six to eight week period while shooting the movie to help give him more juice on his fastball. You would think the Tiger's Blood would have been able to help him out with that, but I guess it failed him.
Question of the day: Will admitting to steroid use keep Rick Vaughan out of the baseball hall of fame?
Rick "The Wild Thing" Vaughan took steroids. Now I know most of you are probably thinking but he was a fictional character. Well don't go to downtown Cleveland and say that. I think most people hope and even wish that the players and story found in the movie Major League is true. Well now Charlie Sheen who played "The Wild Thing" in the movie claims that he took steroids for a six to eight week period while shooting the movie to help give him more juice on his fastball. You would think the Tiger's Blood would have been able to help him out with that, but I guess it failed him.
Question of the day: Will admitting to steroid use keep Rick Vaughan out of the baseball hall of fame?
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Metta World Peace
Last week before the NBA draft I saw some news that made me did a double-take: Ron Artest legally changes name to Metta World Peace.
What?
Could you say that again?
Metta World Peace.
And we all thought Ochocinco was bad.
My first thought was: What does this even mean? I understand World, I understand Peace. What about Metta? So I did some research. The only definition dictionary.com has for Metta is this: lovingkindness, the Buddhist virtue of kindness. Okay, so Lovingkindness World Peace. Yeah this sounds like a guy who is ready to defend the top offensive threat of all 30 NBA teams any given night. Also does this mean Ron Artest is Buddhist?
Ron Artest at one point was one of my favorite Pacer players. He was a hot head but he was a great defender and can always slow down the top scorer of the other team. But Ron is going to be remembered for events like this. He is going to be remembered for going into Circuit City his rookie year with the Bulls and asking for a job application. He is going to be remembered for attacking that camera man in the hallway at Madison Square Garden. He is going to be remembered for quitting on the Pacers in 2005 and demanding a trade. Most importantly, he will be remembered for starting the Brawl in Detroit when he ran into the stands after fans and started punching them. Ron Artest will be remembered for destruction, never for lovingkindness or peace. What a shame.
P.S. Do you think He Hate Me is jealous right now or what?
Monday, June 20, 2011
Super 8
When I was younger, my summer was filled riding around on my bike with my friends throughout my hometown. We would ride all over the place and have great adventures. We would wrestle in backyards, build forts and play war, sometimes we would get a group together and play football or baseball. The nights were filled with games of tag and hide and seek well into dark. Summers were times of freedom and great memories.
Last night I went and saw the movie Super 8, which lived up to its hype (a rare compliment to Hollywood). Super 8 is takes place in a small-town in Ohio in the year 1979. A 13-year old boy and his friends are making their own movie for the summer on a super 8 camera. Filming one of their scenes they capture a train wreck in the background on their camera. The contents of the train belong to the US Air Force and soon the area of the wreck and the town are swarmed by military personnel.
Strange things begin to occur in the town. People and dogs are missing. Various things such as car engines and pieces of metal disappear. The power goes in and out all the time. Meanwhile the boy and his friends keep filming the movie while still trying to figure out the mystery. I will not reveal the mystery for you, so go watch the movie, but the characters are great, the plot is great and the story behind the characters is great as well.
The dialogue between the friends is amazing and humorous as well. The movie has its moments that make you jump but it will have plenty of moments that make you laugh as well, while at the same time having a mystical and magical appeal similar to E.T. Overall, its a solid movie that I do not feel many people will be disappointed in.
The movie does a tremendous job of capturing the essence of spending your summer hanging out with your friends. It brought me back to my childhood memories of spending the summers with my friends and when I got back last night I was half-wishing that my bike would be in the drive way and I could go for a ride.
Last night I went and saw the movie Super 8, which lived up to its hype (a rare compliment to Hollywood). Super 8 is takes place in a small-town in Ohio in the year 1979. A 13-year old boy and his friends are making their own movie for the summer on a super 8 camera. Filming one of their scenes they capture a train wreck in the background on their camera. The contents of the train belong to the US Air Force and soon the area of the wreck and the town are swarmed by military personnel.
Strange things begin to occur in the town. People and dogs are missing. Various things such as car engines and pieces of metal disappear. The power goes in and out all the time. Meanwhile the boy and his friends keep filming the movie while still trying to figure out the mystery. I will not reveal the mystery for you, so go watch the movie, but the characters are great, the plot is great and the story behind the characters is great as well.
The dialogue between the friends is amazing and humorous as well. The movie has its moments that make you jump but it will have plenty of moments that make you laugh as well, while at the same time having a mystical and magical appeal similar to E.T. Overall, its a solid movie that I do not feel many people will be disappointed in.
The movie does a tremendous job of capturing the essence of spending your summer hanging out with your friends. It brought me back to my childhood memories of spending the summers with my friends and when I got back last night I was half-wishing that my bike would be in the drive way and I could go for a ride.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Tablets, Tablets, Everywhere Tablets
Today I went shopping for a new laptop and was taken aback by the mass marketing of the hottest gadget product: the Tablet. For the last three years we have gone from the Kindle, the Nook, the Ipad to every electronics company making their own cheap knock off. In fact if you casually look at one at Best Buy you will be swarmed by sales people trying to get you to buy it. Fortunately, I could push them away by saying I own a Kindle (which I was one of the first people to buy one, just saying). The marketing screams out you need to own a Tablet, its a necessity. In fact they have sales advertised like they are cutting you the greatest deal in the world since this product is a necessity. But then I thought about it, humans have been around for what...about 10,000 years. And they survived 9,997 years without a Tablet of any kind...How did those people make it?
Remember When...Ashtrays
Due to the great knee injury of 2011, I was laying down in the backseat of Quinn Wright's car today. I was looking at the doors and I noticed it...a small little compartment in the door that flips open, an ashtray. Remember when every car had one, two, or more ashtrays?
I do. My parents were smokers and so most of the ashtrays in the car were filled with ashes which we would have to dump out from time to time. Today, you cannot find a car with an ashtray, its a lost convenience of the new millennium. Because some person some where decided to make every effort to deny people the right to smoke and has so far been successful.
There also used to be cigarette lighters in the dashboard as well. However, sometime in the mid-90's we started using the lighter as an outlet for our CD players that would be attached to a cassette tape to play over our stereo system in the car. Or we would have adapters so we could charge our cell phones in the car by plugging them into the lighter. These have disappeared as well, but what is interesting is that car manufactures have still built an outlet into the dashboard for our Ipods now. So the outlets live on as a reminder that cars used to be filled with smoke.
Just thought I would throw you back in time...I think Remember When could become a nice weekly segment to this blog.
I do. My parents were smokers and so most of the ashtrays in the car were filled with ashes which we would have to dump out from time to time. Today, you cannot find a car with an ashtray, its a lost convenience of the new millennium. Because some person some where decided to make every effort to deny people the right to smoke and has so far been successful.
There also used to be cigarette lighters in the dashboard as well. However, sometime in the mid-90's we started using the lighter as an outlet for our CD players that would be attached to a cassette tape to play over our stereo system in the car. Or we would have adapters so we could charge our cell phones in the car by plugging them into the lighter. These have disappeared as well, but what is interesting is that car manufactures have still built an outlet into the dashboard for our Ipods now. So the outlets live on as a reminder that cars used to be filled with smoke.
Just thought I would throw you back in time...I think Remember When could become a nice weekly segment to this blog.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Canadians
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2011/news/story?id=6669115
So Boston beats Vancouver in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and the Vancouver fans riot. 100 people are arrested and 150 people get hurt. Don't Canadians know that you riot when you when the championship not when you lose it? And they wonder why Americans make jokes about them.
Ryan Crundwell is you read this please don't take offense. Jon Rounsaville this is what you have to look forward to.
So Boston beats Vancouver in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and the Vancouver fans riot. 100 people are arrested and 150 people get hurt. Don't Canadians know that you riot when you when the championship not when you lose it? And they wonder why Americans make jokes about them.
Ryan Crundwell is you read this please don't take offense. Jon Rounsaville this is what you have to look forward to.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
An Alternate Universe
I had a vision: Lebron James still wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers' uniform.
The Cavaliers lost to the Mavericks in game six of the NBA Finals. The city of Cleveland was shocked, disappointed and heartbroken. Another team, another season had fallen just short of a pro championship. The Holy Grail which the city never seems to be able to capture. But there was still hope. The Finals still meant a good season and the city still had its King with the promise of many more Finals to come and perhaps a parade. But amidst the disappointment the city still had its King and the King still had his city.
Then I realized it was just a vision. Instead the Heat lost to the Mavericks in game six of the NBA Finals. Lebron's decision backfired and Cleveland was left rejoicing that its former king was fallen. The vision left me with a sense of hope. The reality only bitterness.
The Cavaliers lost to the Mavericks in game six of the NBA Finals. The city of Cleveland was shocked, disappointed and heartbroken. Another team, another season had fallen just short of a pro championship. The Holy Grail which the city never seems to be able to capture. But there was still hope. The Finals still meant a good season and the city still had its King with the promise of many more Finals to come and perhaps a parade. But amidst the disappointment the city still had its King and the King still had his city.
Then I realized it was just a vision. Instead the Heat lost to the Mavericks in game six of the NBA Finals. Lebron's decision backfired and Cleveland was left rejoicing that its former king was fallen. The vision left me with a sense of hope. The reality only bitterness.
Wedding Rings
The Kingdom of God is like a man and his wedding ring.
When a man loses his wedding ring he searches through the whole house to find it. He will go through the garbage, look through his dirty clothes, even take apart the plumbing underneath the kitchen sink. When he finds the ring he will breathe a sigh of relief and swear that he will never lose it again.
Some men, when they can't find the ring will go to a jewler and get a cheap replacement. This way no one will know that they actually do not have the real ring.
When a man loses his wedding ring he searches through the whole house to find it. He will go through the garbage, look through his dirty clothes, even take apart the plumbing underneath the kitchen sink. When he finds the ring he will breathe a sigh of relief and swear that he will never lose it again.
Some men, when they can't find the ring will go to a jewler and get a cheap replacement. This way no one will know that they actually do not have the real ring.
Introduction
Once a long time ago I started a blog that is now lost in cyber space somewhere unfinished. I have tried to remember the website, user name and password for the blog but my 24-year-old brain has failed me and I simply cannot remember.
Therefore, I have decided to start a new blog, which will hopefully bring fresh words, thoughts, insights into the world we live in. I really have no particular focus for this blog and more than anything will probably be filled with ramblings from my brain that will only make sense to me.
The blog will probably feature posts about spirituality, politics, television, movies, news events and sports. My hope is that you will be entertained and hopefully laugh while reading. This blog will have a mix of both serious and humorous content, so feel free to laugh at anything I post.
Any feedback would be great whether on the blog or on facebook. If there is any particular topic that you think I am better at covering than another please let me know and if I get enough feedback I will make it the focus of the blog.
I hope you enjoy.
Therefore, I have decided to start a new blog, which will hopefully bring fresh words, thoughts, insights into the world we live in. I really have no particular focus for this blog and more than anything will probably be filled with ramblings from my brain that will only make sense to me.
The blog will probably feature posts about spirituality, politics, television, movies, news events and sports. My hope is that you will be entertained and hopefully laugh while reading. This blog will have a mix of both serious and humorous content, so feel free to laugh at anything I post.
Any feedback would be great whether on the blog or on facebook. If there is any particular topic that you think I am better at covering than another please let me know and if I get enough feedback I will make it the focus of the blog.
I hope you enjoy.
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