Beginning in the Beginning ~ Rob Bell

I agree with the essence of Rob Bell's message about how it is important to tell and understand a story especially in terms of how it begins and how it ends. While I am aware that the bible is only a collection of books written and put together by ordinary people such as you and me, and some books such as the gospel of Thomas could have been added, I agree with Rob Bell's perspective that if we were to use the bible (however imperfect and questionable it is) as a platform to tell the gospel story, it makes sense to start with Genesis 1 and 2 (the garden where everything is created good and perfect), and end with Revelation 21 and 22 (the new city with gardens and rivers where everything is recreated good and perfect).

I think that is an important point because like what Rob Bell has observed, many a times in evangelical christian circles, preachers tend to tell the gospel story by beginning with Genesis 3, instead of Genesis 1, and the result of such preaching is that their message focuses on the "removal of sin" and "disembodied evacuation of earth", hence out came the doctrines of "original sin" and "rapture in the last days". As we know, this kind of message created a whole lot of problems because people develop self-loathing tendencies when they are told they are "sinners" and they need to evacuate from this earth one day by receiving a so-called perfect body, and going to a so-called perfect place.

As Rob Bell pointed out, there is nothing wrong with the original creation, because god/creator/source created everything good, including human beings whom he declared to be very good. Our original state, therefore, is shalom (peace, health and wholeness). The good news therefore is a "restoration of shalom" - to return to the experience of our original state of being, as co-creators and participators of love, peace and wholeness (holiness = wholeness). This gospel empowers us to believe in the truth of who we really are, instead of the traditional evangelical teaching that puts a heavy burden on people to try to perform in order to become acceptable.

I like this quote by Walt Whitman who said "Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul."  Yes, we can dismiss those condemning messages we used to hear in the past in evangelical christian circles that insult our soul, and instead hold on to those messages that affirm our original innocence and perfection, and build us up.

Recently, I read Jan Coetsee's post in facebook and I agree with his message.

Jesus IS NOT the justification of the unjust .. Jesus is the proof that mankind has always been just (righteous) .. ♥
Ephesians 1:4 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes .. ♥

Yes, our true identity has always been righteousness, innocence, and blamelessness, which has been unveiled in Christ.

Finally, I agree with Rob Bell at the end of the above video that resurrection is not about the hope of leaving the earth to somewhere better, but about the hope of staying and overcoming challenges and tribulations in the here and now. The gospel empowers us by affirming the goodness and innocence and perfection of god's creation, including us human beings (or spiritual beings on a human journey).

Here's sharing this nugget I came across in facebook.

"The universe.. all that exists.. seen or unseen
Was.. is.. and will be. It has no beginning.
In its essence.. it is both energy and consciousness.
Here lies the secret of life.. without boundless knowing.
...In Silence.. Divinity reveals itself from our depths.
The sacred.. lies within every human being...
appearing through simplicity.
~ Ilie Cioara "Life is Eternal Newness"

Yes, the sacred lies within every human being. The resurrection, according to Carlton Pearson (in his book "God is not a christian, nor a jew, nor a muslim, nor a hindu - God is in us, with us, around us, as us"), is forgetting who we are not and remembering who we are - divinity and humanity as one. We are both energy and consciousness in essence, and unconditional love is our nature.