I talked about this before in a post called repent or burn <cough, gag>. Someone decided, when translating a certain group of authority-approved books about our religious history, to use words like “repent” and “sin” and “savior”.

When you translate, you choose words appropriate to the time and place you’re in. They should be words that are in general use. In King James’ time, you’d call someone who saved a kid from drowning a “savior”. But now-a-days, we think “savior” means something magic and weird. If you’re curious, here’s my understanding of what those words really mean. “Repent” would be better translated “change your approach”, “sin” actually means “screw up”, and “savior” would better be called “rescuer”.

Right now I’m thinking of “scripture.” That word means “words that are written down.” Whoop-de-do! Just like “Bible” means… get this… “book.”

Jesus didn’t talk in magic-language. He didn’t want to hold up a system of code-words that kept people separate from God. He used the a word like “kingdom” because “kingdoms” made sense to people. When’s the last time you set foot in a “kingdom”?

I imagine that by the word that became “kingdom”, Jesus meant a world where God was present, fully involved, where God’s will carries the day. That we can look around a see a new environment, a new world that belongs to God and where we, as sparks of the divine fire, can be truly ourselves.

“On the outside, it can sometimes appear that these “emerging churches” are just as orthodox as any other Bible-believing church. Online doctrinal statements and many sermons will sound no different from a Bible-based church. But more often than not when the outer layers are peeled back from these “emerging churches,” a mystical-based, kingdom-now, panentheistic view of “God” is revealed.

And I have to say it looks to me much like it looks to these guys: Churches do try to hide the truth of what they believe in an effort not to offend old-school Christians. They *do* put up statements of faith that imply that they’re just regular old-fashioned “Bible-believing” Christians. And I think it’s sad.

I keep hearing leaders say “I’m not saying I don’t agree with substitutionary atonement, I’m just asking…” or “Of course I affirm the Nicene Creed, I’m just saying…” They are dancing around the truth because they don’t want to push away fellow Christians. But what about the rest of the world?

The secular world is my world, an I am telling y’all that they are not going to come to Christianity as long as they think it’s about a God who longs to burn people for all eternity, or any other weird, illogical theology.

I am deeply in love with the emergent church, and grateful to Jonathan Brink, and to Tony Jones, Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, and others for the honest things they’ve said.

But you’re all still only seeing Christians. You’re not speaking to the rest of us, for whom the dogma is just silliness. Those doctrines kept me away for so long. And when I was finally able to see the possibilities, it was because I dug and dug, and overlooked weird things like “I’m not saying substitutionary atonement is wrong…”

Just for the record OF COURSE IT’S WRONG. The idea that God demanded blood as payment for our sins is silly, and any God that worked that way would be unworthy of worship. There. I said it.

Jesus didn’t come here to die as payment for anything. I could go on all day about how that makes no sense at all, but I won’t. Because what’s much more interesting is why he did come here.

Jesus came here to LIVE with us, to BE among us, and to SHARE the good news of God’s love and God’s kingdom with us. Why did he have to die? Because that’s what it means to be human. We all die. Some earlier, some later. Some by “natural causes” and some because of the stupidity of other humans. But we all die.

The reason he died the way he did is because that the most loving thing he could do right then, with those people. He gave himself to show us the way.

We use what we’ve learned from Zen, from Heart of Now, from NVC, and of course from our brother and teacher, Jesus Christ, to love one another and listen.

There’s no set location — we may meet at a coffee shop or other quiet spot — so contact us to find out where we’ll be before you come. If you want to reach us faster, try calling us: 541.515.6377.