Out the Door

Does God have a poker-face?

One of the attributes good gamblers must develop is a poker-face, the ability to not to give away what cards they have in their hand.  Likewise, good gamblers must learn how to look for "tells;" the slight rise of a eyebrow, a nervous twitch, drumming fingers, or other subtle hint into what their opponents hold.  Gamblers' ability to pull off a bluff is directly related to their ability to put on a poker-face.

Theologies that believe that God never changes His mind must believe that God has a great poker-face because time and again God warns that something is going to happen but it never occurs.  If God knows from the start that He going to carry out His threat, then the warning must be a bluff on God's part. 

Throughout scripture there are many examples of God initially saying one thing, then doing something else in the end, but none more famous that God's threat to destroy Ninevah.  God calls Jonah to go the the great city and tell its citizens that in 40 days Ninevah would be overthrown.  However, the people repent and cry out to God for mercy and God grants it.  Assuming that God never changes His mind and that God knew all along that He wasn't going to destroy the city then this was one of the greatest bluffs in human history.  God couldn't let Jonah in on the con job however, because if Jonah knew that in the end God had no intention of destroying the city, Jonah might have developed some "tell" that could give the bluff away.  So God kept Jonah in the dark and reinforced His false seriousness by having Jonah spend three days in the belly of a giant fish.

There must be some other explanation to what happened in Ninevah than the one just described for God is never deceitful.  What God says He intends to do, He fully expects to follow through on.  Anything else means God is making idle threats and being dishonest.  So then, why wasn't Ninevah destroyed?  Because God can and does change His mind based on the actions of humans.

Indeed, Jonah knew this and that's why he ran away, "for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing" (Jonah 4:2, emphasis added).  To relent of something means to "give in, as to influence or pressure."  God relented from punishing the Ninevites because they influenced God by their acts of repentance and prayers.  The Ninevites had hope that they could influence God, "Who knows?  God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish" (Jonah 3:9). 

That their acts of repentance did indeed influence God is revealed in the next verse, "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it" (Jonah 3:10 emphasis added).  This shows that God doesn't need to have a poker-face, that He wasn't bluffing when He sent Jonah to warn the city of their coming destruction.  God fully intended to destroy Ninevah at the time Jonah proclaimed God's message.  God was not at all being deceitfulness, but God did change His mind.  

This is such wonderful news for us.  It means that our prayers and our actions make a difference.  Just as the Ninevites influenced God and persuaded Him to change His mind, so God is influenced by and responds to us.

Love Wins

Rob Bell makes one of the most passionate pleas for trusting in God's grace that I have ever encounter.  His telling of the story of the prodigal son opened my eyes to a new perspective on this parable.  In Bell's understanding the father refuses to accept his sons' stories.  The younger son view of his life story is that he is unworthy to be called his father's son.  The story he tells himself is that his father may forgive him enough so he can get in on the benefits of being a part of his father's household.  He can hope for nothing more.  His father, however offers a different ending to the prodigal's story.  He is welcomed back with open arms and everything the father does communicates that he indeed is very own son.

The older brother, according to Bell sees himself as a reluctant slave of the father from whom he expects only the bear minimum of love.  And even this little bit of love he believes he fails to receive.  He also believes that because his father treated his brother with such grace, he himself has been cheated out of what is rightfully his.  "He thinks he's been wronged, shorted, shafted.  And he's furious about it." (p. 167)  His father offers a different perspective.  Everything the father had was available to the elder son but his misguided understanding of his father prevented him from benefitting from his father's resources.

I like that understanding of this parable.  Bell comments:

We are free to accept or reject the invitation to new life that God extends to us.  Our choice.

There are consequences for for the old brother, just as there are for us.  To reject God's grace, to turn from God's love, to resist God's telling, will lead to misery.  It is a form of punishment, all on it's own.  This is an important distinction, because in talking about what God is like, we cannot avoid the realities of God's very essence, which is love.  It can be resisted and rejected and denied and avoided, and that will bring another reality.  Now, and then.  We are that free (p. 176 & 177)

Here Bell proclaims the wonderful gift of free will, the ability God has endowed upon human beings to accept or reject his love.  I couldn't agree with him more!

However, later Bell appears to reverse his position and takes that freedom away from humans.

On the cross, Jesus says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23).  Jesus forgives them all, without their asking for it.  Done. Taken care of.  Before we could be good enough or right enough, before we could even believe the right things.

Forgiveness is unilateral.  God isn't waiting for us to get it together, to clean up, shape up, get up--God has already done it.

It is absolutely true that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  God's forgiveness isn't based on our goodness.  But that doesn't mean that forgiveness is unilateral.  If it is then all the talk about human freedom is nonsense.  If we are not free to refuse God's forgiveness, then we are not free to accept it. 

Jesus' first proclamation according to Mark was "Repent and believe the good news" (Mark 1:15).  God's love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace demand a response from us.  We have the choice to believe the good news or not believe.  We can repent and live in God's grace, or we can continue in our sin and live outside of grace.  And God in his love won't force us to choose the former. 

Either way, love wins because all have experienced God's love if in no other way than the ability to reject it.

Here is the New There: Rob Bell's "Love Wins"

It's very common to hear talk about heaven framed in terms of who "gets in" or how to "get in."  What we find Jesus teaching, over and over, and over again, is that he's interested in our hearts being transformed, so that we can actually handle heaven.  To portray heaven as bliss, peace, and endless joy is a beautiful picture, but it raises the question: How many of us could handle it, as we are today?  How would we each do in a reality that had no capacity for cynicism or slander, or worry or pride? (Love Wins p.50)

I'm not drawing any final conclusions about Rob Bell's ideas since I've only read chapter one, but I am challenged by this paragraph.  Jesus said, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." (John 3:36a)  Note that Jesus speaks in the present tense.  He says "has" not "will have."  If we were not living in the reality of eternal life in the present, that is a life without cynicism, slander, worry, or pride, why do we think we will be able to live blissfully in that reality in the future?  Do we think that when we die all the negative characteristics which have made up our personhood will suddenly be wiped away?  I've said in more than one sermon, "the only thing you can take with you to heaven is your character."  If that's true, and I believe it is, then what about those parts of our character that are not God-glorifying?  What happens to them?  I'm not sure of the answer, but these seem like questions worth pondering.