fear factor

I had the privilege to go and hear Rob Bell speak in Pittsburgh this Saturday.  It was his "The God's Are Not Angry" speaking tour.  It was a great experience.  Traveled there with my wife, my pastor, and my friends Stephen and Craig.   Outside of the awful seats, it was a wonderful time. 

 

In this tour, Rob is unpacking how religion has capitalized on an ancient, ingrained part of our human psyche which makes us feel as though we have to perform to make sure the "gods" aren't angry with us.   And he used the picture of altar in ancient culture to make this point.  He talked about how before Christ and before the revelation of Jehovah God, the ancient cultures worshipped the forces that affected their lives, building altars on which they would offer sacrifices when things were going bad to get the gods on their side.   And when things were going good, they'd offer part of their blessings back to their gods to make sure they stayed in good standing.  It became a vicious cycle because whether it was a good time or bad time, you were always offering more and more to ensure you had not offended, or beg forgiveness if you did offend, the gods.

 

How he explained it was that for the ancient cultures, their lives were dependant on how they blessed their gods.   But into the midst of this ideology, here comes Jehovah revealing himself to Abraham…who just wants to bless him.  It wasn't about what Abraham could do for God, but what God wanted to do for and through Abraham.   Even to the point of taking Abraham to offer Isaac, it wasn't that God just wanted to test Abraham's loyalty, but to show Abraham that he was not like the other gods, who routinely wanted their followers to offer their best (even their children), but that he would provide even for the offering that his only child would not have to be lost.

 

Of course, going down through the centuries and here comes Jesus on the scene saying, I'm the way, I'm the truth.   Here he is changing the old way of relating to God.  He makes himself the sacrifice, doing for us what we could never have done.

 

But the part that is so much more powerful to me is the fact that we are still living with this ancient mentality in 2007, especially when you look at the charismatic church and current movements within it.   In the CLB and on religious broadcasting, all you have to do is listen for 10 minutes and you'll hear the undercurrent of fear being capitalized on to get believers to live, believe, give or act a certain way:

 

There is fear that if you don't give, not just your tithe, but your offering as well, that God will not be on your side, that he will leave you defenseless.   There is fear that if you don't do everything the leader/pastor/apostle wants you to do that you will be out from under "your covering" and the blessing of God will be stopped in your life. There is fear that if you don't do your devotions just right, pray and read your Bible everyday for a certain amount of time, you will not be able to fight the enemy and you will be attacked daily until you "get right."  

 

Now, please understand I'm not saying that we don't need to be participating in our spiritual disciplines and growing in our relationship with God, but what the Body of Christ could do without is this fear factor that puts words in God's mouth.

More to come on this…