The Future Belongs to the Curious from Skillshare on Vimeo.

here are some processing questions for your team:

How do I stoke my curiosity?
How do we inspire each other to be curious?
How do we concretely inspire our community to be curious?
What is curiosity?
What are the characteristics of a curious person?

It’s a slow-burning, investigative journalism type novel featuring the dark and fascinating computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, who helps crack a long forgotten murder.

Now, I’m ready to follow up by watching the original subtitled film. Then I’ll feel ready to go watch the newly released film.

mcmanus from McManus Studios on Vimeo.

I have to tell you this because I love you guys…

Since, the book isn’t out (at the time of this writing), my comments aren’t about the book as much as they are about the buzz between Piper (and so many Reformed practitioners) and the “unReformed” or Rebellious believers.

Before my thoughts, here are a few things you should know.

1) I’m am neither Universalist nor Reformed. I think both of these points of view see God wrongly in the same way.

2) I’ve never read a Rob Bell book or listened to a Rob Bell sermon. But, just to keep it real, I’ve met Rob at least a couple of times at Mosaic in Los Angeles. Even though we’re just acquaintances, I like Rob. Of the prominent pastors out there, I sense a general affinity with him. On the other hand, I’ve never met John Piper, nor have I ever listened to him, but I have read (years ago), Let The Nations Be Glad, and recommend it.

3) In the end, I doubt all this hoopla will amount to much. I doubt this conversation is about who believes the Bible and who doesn’t. It’s between people with differing ways of reading and engaging the story of scripture.

My Thoughts
First of all, the issues everyone is “up in arms” about are hardly new.

“Hell” -not new.

“Limited Atonement” -not new.

“Double-edged predestination” -not new.

“Arrogance” -not new.

Secondly, it seems that most of the commentators (again, at the time of this writing) have yet to read the book.” Funny how easily manipulated we are by the marketing machine.

Anyway, (because you asked) I went somewhere I would never otherwise go. I went to John Piper’s twitter and, yep, Piper did tweet, “Farewell Rob Bell” with regard to Bell’s new book.

I like to start by giving the benefit of the doubt. When John Piper bid Rob Bell farewell, I understood him to be wishing him well… as in, “fare well, my friend.”

Perhaps the scenario was like this.

Piper stands on the shore. Looks out towards a tempestuous sea.
Rob Bell sets sail and disappears into the ocean mist on a quest for truth.
Piper longs to go but cannot. Admiringly he whispers into the wind, “Farewell, Rob Bell.”

OK. Maybe not.

Perhaps John Piper is utilizing sarcasm here. Perhaps he is, in fact, saying that Rob Bell has left the faith.

You know, something like this:

You’re on your own now, Robby boy.
May God have mercy on your soul, Rob BELL.

That kind of thing.

Whatever the case, let’s talk about the implied separation of the “farewell”.

Here’s how I hear the farewell.
“Goodbye, Rob. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” Or perhaps,
“Here, at this fork in the woods, we part company, Rob.”

Whenever there is a parting, two people move away relative to each other.
In Piper’s “farewell”, Piper envisions Bell leaving.

There is another point of view. Piper is being left.

So, in terms of ideas, who is leaving the path? (This is not about them as persons –is one of them (or both) a heretic, or “saved” — but about the ideas.)

Perhaps this is a moment in which, although this conversation is old, the spirit is seeking to stretch the Christ following movement in new ways. We can set sail with the spirit. Or we can stay on land with the mementos we cherish.

The ideas circulating around Bell and Piper raise old questions about many ancient issues. Hell and heaven just do not seem like huge issues to me at this moment in time. But I do want to comment on one attitude (Arrogance) and one idea (double-edged predestination). These two issues reach deeper into things that matter.

#1) Arrogance.
In the USA Christians defended slavery on biblical authority. Sometimes an argument may be biblical, even Christian, but sub-human.

When an idea –like limited atonement or double-edged predestination– is tightly held, and those who hold it esteemed as guardians of the faith, and the traditions that maintain it as orthodox, does this mean the idea is true?

What if orthodox ideas are simply the heresies that won?

Could it be that some of the ideas of the most respected of today’s Reformed traditions are just as much deviations from the path as some of the ideas of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (for example)?

Perhaps we should be careful, when we declare someone else to have left the path, to make sure that we’re not the ones who (by virtue of standing still) are refusing to make a path where one needs to be made.

#2) Double-edged predestination.

I write this with you — my dear double-edged predestination believing friends that I like so much — in mind.

Q: Is this an idea that has out lived it’s usefulness?

Q: Is the idea that God hates some of those he creates a Christian idea?
A: It’s in the Bible, Alex, so yes. The prophet tells us that God loved Jacob and hated his brother, Esau. Sure this statement about Jacob and Esau was made “after the fact” but there are some who are not yet born that God hates.
Q: So the idea that God hates some people may be Biblical and Christian, but is it human?

Q: Isn’t the idea that God creates some humans then hates them -while biblical, and maybe even Christian- a sub-human idea?

Q: Can any system that shapes the mind so that, in the end, the idea that “God preemptively hates others” makes sense be any thing other than evil?

Q: Are not double-edged predestination and Universalism, in the end, the same warped view of God?

The idea here is that in both of these views God determines in eternity the fate of everyone. The only difference is that in one position (double-edged predestination), God withholds grace from some. These points of view are cousins and both seem somehow deficient.

*Again, these are not comments about Rob’s book which I have not read. These are comments about the buzz going around, not the substance of Love Wins.

A Little Direction for the Journey
In the end, isn’t asking questions like this a necessary part of becoming human? The Christ-following movement isn’t a static institution. It is a dynamic and developing conversation — with the spirit of a passionate God as one of the participants.

It is a conversation in which the person of Jesus is central.

There are times in which this story has been used to reduce the imagination, to limit options. There are times in which this same story has been used to expand the imagination, to open the possibilities.

These are times in which our imaginations are being expanded. Yes, this is a dangerous journey on a tempestuous sea and some of us would rather not make this voyage an option. That’s not our call.

So to Rob we here at “Into the Mystic” say, “Welcome to the journey, Rob Bell. And God’s speed.”

To those left on the shore we say with nothing but love in our hearts, Fare well.

There is spot deep within us all that wishes to stay home, but, alas, we cannot. To journey into the dark unknown is something we must do. Must.

“We make the path by walking.” Spanish Poet, Antonio Machado.

See you in the mystic…

Niza and I had Black bean soup.

Erica and Kamran sat under a colored lamp.

Lucas (aka Maudib) was able to join us in between making beats.

Thanks to Erica McManus for sharing this with me.

HT to Erica McManus.

My son, Lucas, depicted here in his “at study” mode, took the MTeams shot of us.

That’s Day 4. See you in the Mystic…