DOWN WITH SOLA SCRIPTURA! 

 

Jeremy Bouma, who refers to himself  as an “emerging- missional follower of Jesus” and is currently pursuing a “Master of Divinity in Pastoral Studies and Church Planting at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary,” is “live blogging” the Poets, Prophets, Peachers (PPP) conference put on by EC icon Rob Bell, which also features his friend Peter Rollins.

And even though Bouma, whose blogging concerning PPP was recommended by EC theologian Scot McKnight and Emergent Village, is sympathetic with the de-formation of the Christian faith espoused by the Emerging Church aka Emergent Church, now morphing into Emergence Christianity, the following is quite interesting in what’s seemingly missing from Bell’s message to these Poets, Prophets, Peachers:

I also am curious why The Story that Rob was encouraging us pastors to tell was missing the Event of the Cross, the point at which God objectively dealt with the three objective realities of evil, sin, and death. While I absolutely applaud his emphasis on God’s original intend for Creation and provoked us leaders to begin the Story at the BEGINNING rather the MIDDLE with sin or heaven/hell (as I say in my own book), I dont understand HOW God is returning all of Creation to the way he intended it.

While he also emphasized the resurrection as key to the New Creation, I am confused HOW even the resurrection is made possible or actually does something for US without the Event of the Cross. I would have like for him to unpack his understanding of the Life and Death of Jesus along side the Resurrection to explain how Rescue is made possible, and HOW God is restoring creation back to the way he originally intended it to be. This wasn’t exactly clear…

I was also struck with the absence of judgement in this Story. He seemed to allude that recreation, renewal, and restoration was for “all things”…was universal. Part of the Story that Jesus certainly tells has an element of judgement and separation of those who believe/act from those who do not believe/act. It is very unclear 1) if there is judgement in the Story we pastors are supposed to be communicating and 2) if we are supposed to talk about the reality of judgement in the Story we tell.

Again, I’m thankful for a ‘retooling’ of our communication of the Story, but the absence of the Event of the Cross and judgement was confusing. (Online source, italics his)

See also:

IS ROB BELL EVANGELICAL?

ROB BELL, NOOMA, AND THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGES

ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS AND PHYLLIS TICKLE TOGETHER ADVANCING EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY

PETER ROLLINS AND PHYLLIS TICKLE ON THE EMERGENCE OF A BRAND NEW RELIGION

TONY JONES, PETER ROLLINS AND ROB BELL

PHYLLIS TICKLE: THE REFORMATION IS OVER AND REFORMERS HAVE NEW NAMES TODAY

THE NEW CHRISTIANS WITH CHRISTIANITY WORTH BELIEVING—NO SOLA SCRIPTURA: YES, WOMEN PASTORS AND QUEER CHRISTIANS