WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO RECREATE JESUS IN OUR OWN IMAGE - Francis Chan
We are quick to point out the many cultural distortions that lead to idolatry. Every kind of ism from nationalism, sexism, racism, militarism, and consumerism. But what about the many ways we make Jesus into our own image? We do like the first chapter of Romans says and turn the Creator into the creation or we return the favor at the beginning of the Bible and "make God into our own image."
Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle deal with the problem of finding in the Bible what we want to find in the Bible. If we want to find hell in the Bible then it is there. If we don't want to find it then it is not there (at least the dark grueling apocalyptic imagery that scares the hell out of us if we believe in hell at all).
I remember many years ago when the owner of a Christian bookstore told me that Jesus was a Republican. She said unashamedly, "Doesn't everyone know that Jesus was a Republican!" This tells me more about the person making such comments than it actually does about Jesus. We like to think Jesus is just like us, all the way down to the flag we raise to our voting preferences.
Chapter two of Chan's and Sprinkle's book is provocatively called, "Has Hell Changed? Or have we?
Good question . . . .
We are quick to point out the many cultural distortions that lead to idolatry. Every kind of ism from nationalism, sexism, racism, militarism, and consumerism. But what about the many ways we make Jesus into our own image? We do like the first chapter of Romans says and turn the Creator into the creation or we return the favor at the beginning of the Bible and "make God into our own image."
Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle deal with the problem of finding in the Bible what we want to find in the Bible. If we want to find hell in the Bible then it is there. If we don't want to find it then it is not there (at least the dark grueling apocalyptic imagery that scares the hell out of us if we believe in hell at all).
I remember many years ago when the owner of a Christian bookstore told me that Jesus was a Republican. She said unashamedly, "Doesn't everyone know that Jesus was a Republican!" This tells me more about the person making such comments than it actually does about Jesus. We like to think Jesus is just like us, all the way down to the flag we raise to our voting preferences.
Chapter two of Chan's and Sprinkle's book is provocatively called, "Has Hell Changed? Or have we?
Good question . . . .
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