Forwards

Recently I’ve been reading Rob Bell’s new book: What We Talk About When We Talk About God. (For those of you who will be concerned at the very mention of Rob’s name, don’t worry - this book is far less controversial than some of his others! For those of you who are familiar with and even fans of his other work I thoroughly recommend it - he covers some things he has explored elsewhere but in a new and refreshing way.) Anyway... One thing Rob explores in this book is about how God is a God who is ahead of us and calling us forward - and this entry is about my reflection on that idea.

Rob’s basic point can be broken into 2 parts: Firstly: our theology - our understanding of our God, and His character and what matters to Him: what it means to call ourselves part of His Kingdom, and what it looks like to try and live like Jesus - changes and develops over time. And that’s obvious right? As you think about, and study, and explore and try to get to know something, the way you understand it changes. Secondly: as God is God - the person we are trying to understand better - He already knows the stuff we’re trying to figure out! Also obvious!

(See... This isn’t controversial at all!).

But the amazing thing about God is that, rather than download all His vast knowledge to us in one go and expect us to get it - like trying to teach a 3 year old (or me!) experimental physics and getting frustrated when they don’t get it and just want to spin around in circles and eat jelly (jelly is awesome!) - God allows us to develop our understanding over time. He never expects us to get it in one go but instead step by step, lesson by lesson, experience by experience, he gently ushers us forwards.

Rob describes the process using “clicks” in the Alphabet. God doesn’t expect us to leap from A to M, but guides us from A to B, and then B to C, and then C to D and so on. But always helping usforwards- towards understanding Him and being more like Him.

So... What does this look like?

There’s a great book by a guy called William J Webb entitled Slaves, Woman and Homosexuals which talks about this idea. It describes how although thinking in the Bible changes, it follows a consistent trajectory - it movesforwards. Webb uses the example of attitudes about woman in the Bible:

In the Old Testament, although writing about woman might seem to us very oppressive, at that time in history the way Israel treated woman was actually more positive than the way most surrounding cultures treated them. Leap ahead to the New Testament and Jesus and the early church again demonstrates moreforwardliberating treatment of woman than the surrounding culture. As we read through the story of God’s people we can clearly see He ushers them forwards in their attitudes and thinking, and at each step they are consistently concerned with improving the status and treatment of woman. So whilst we may look back at the Bible and see what the oppression of woman, that is only because we are, thanks to God continuing to usher His peopleforwards, both culturally and theologically further down the line of thinking then the Biblical writers were.

Now... a few important things need to be said at this point:

The first is that new thinking isn’t alwaysforwardthinking. As I’ve explored before... new thinking is great because it often raises helpful questions which can solidify our ideas or even move us forwards. But it can also lead us down false paths and we need to be humble enough - I need to be humble enough - to admit when exciting new thinking is actually leading us backwards and return to the old, but truer, moreforward,more Godly ideas.

The second is that in order to help guard us against false paths, we need the Bible. Whilst we can look at some aspects of our faith and theology now and feel that we are ahead of where the Biblical writers were, this doesn’t mean that we can rule out what they wrote! The Bible is still, without doubt, our greatest and most accurate source of understanding about God. So we have to use it to check our thinking. We may be further down the line with our treatment of woman, but we only know this is good and inline with God because of what the Bible shows us about His consistently positive view of woman. So we need the Bible!

The third is that if we are to use the Bible to check our thinking, we need to use it properly. If we believe in thisforwardmovement then we cannot simply take verses or passages or ideas out of context and use them as a definite statement on what the Bible has to say about a certain topic. Instead, we need to develop a broader understanding of what the whole of the Bible has to say on any given subject taking into account all the relevant references and what cultural backgrounds and at what historical point in time they appear. Otherwise we run this risk of moving round in circles or event backwards!

A final thing we need to be careful to make sure of is that our movingforwardsis in line with God and not our own culture. My own modern western culture is very pro woman and equality and in this area is in line with God. However it is also very pro individualism - life is about me, myself and I; being and doing what I like (as long as that doesn’t stop anyone else being and doing what they like) and dedicating my life to my own personal gain. Such individualism isn’t in line with God’s values which are consistently shown in the Bible to be concerned with self sacrifice for the sake of others. So I must be careful to make sure that I moveforwardwith God, not with my culture. And I must be doubly careful to not let this culture subliminally influence me to read the Bible and enact my faith in an individualistic manner - which is easily done.

Ironically... to make a sweeping statement briefly... in many Eastern cultures this is reversed: the cultural treatment of woman is less in line with God, but the cultural hospitality and care for others is much more in line! We would do well to learn from each other. It’s almost as if cultures all have intrinsic values within them that reflect God’s character but whilst getting some things very right get others very wrong... Like we are all somehow damaged replicas of God... But that's a thought for another day!

One last point I’d like to make is that God is really amazing! And so gracious! In thinking through all this, I can’t help but wonder how much of what I consider to be reallyforwardthinking is actually really not. I suppose I like to think that I am around X or Y in the alphabet but I can’t help wondering if I’m really around B or C! And yet, God let’s that be OK. He allows me to engage with Him from the level I’m at - even if that is just spinning around and eating jelly. He loves me wherever I am at. Not that He wants me to stay there forever, but He cares for me enough to let me take my time and grow at my own pace. And this encourages me towantto grow.

Because it’s easy to be led forward by God when you know He’s got your back.