An interesting convergence of thoughts this morning. First, on his Facebook page Marcus Borg posted this quote from his book Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written:
"The image of Jesus as the 'once for all' sacrifice for sin has often been misunderstood in Christian history. It has been placed within a theological framework that emphasizes that we are all sinners, that our sins must be paid for in order for God to forgive us, and that Jesus is the sacrifice who paid the price. This theological framework is a later development, not present in the first thousand years of Christianity."
That got me thinking about the notion of hell, and my thoughts in my (Your) God is (Quickly Becoming) Irrelevant series of posts. The shocking thing is not to question the existence of hell and the idea that most people are going there. I've abandoned that idea on it's merits (or lack thereof) alone. That being said, the really big deal is when you consider what happens to the Christian faith as it stands today when you reverse-engineer hell out of it. To my mind the implications are nothing short of staggering. Give that some thought and let me know what you think.
Bonus: I've been talking about hell here so let's have a show of hands of those who thought about Rob Bell and his book Love Wins. I thought so. Maybe you've already seen the news this morning about Rob's latest book What We Talk About When We Talk About God and Oprah's interest in it. Mike Morrell has the story, along with an interview he did with Rob several years ago.
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