too far east is .... lost ..

so i'm reading this book i found on a friend's shelf
the title got me ...
anytime you got thoughts on reformatting the church
undoing it
redoing
rethinking
going back to the basics to see what Jesus meant
   when he said "i will build my church' ..
i'm checkin' you
'cause you're in my zone ..

so i read the introduction
and i was stoked

and then i wanted to highlight and mark up my friend's book
nono
so i bought it for my kindle

and i read

as i read i began to question the wisdom of spending that $10

i mean ..
this dude really gets my goat ..
really

i'll offer just a few of his comments ..
he does not believe in the virgin birth
the miracles recorded in NT
the blood atonement ' as the foreordained mission of Jesus '
" a whole generation has been asked to accept a false dichotomy.
   Either you believe that Jesus is God, or you don't-
   therefore either you're a christian or you're not. "
...
the gentleman also consioders that what we have as recorded scripture
is a politically/religiously motivated document
amended over time by one or the other to postulate and propagandize
and takes off on this exercise of testing doctrine
   against the 'red' text of the Bible
   the words attributed to Jesus
relegating everything else = non-Jesus, to tradition, mostly oral, passed down .... ..
...

and these are just a few of the things i just now looked up
   that bother me with this dude
there are many more
and i ask myself why am i reading this
and think of putting it down ..
but i think i'll finish it
(i've put like 5 or 6 other books on hold to do it)

why?
in days gone by i would have slam dunked this book in the nearest garbage can
rueing the waste of my $10
but
i'm trying to be ... different
i'm trying to allow other people to speak
even ones i disagree with on very core issues

i'll hear this guy out..

but lemme say this ..
when you start challenging the person of God in the face of Jesus
when you challenge Jesus as God in person
the atonement as a critical aspect of his mission to humanity
the scriptures as the preserved words of God
place Paul on some other level
   as if what he said under inspiration of God is of less value than the gospels
and relegate the gospels to the best memory
   the authors (whoever they were..) had when they wrote
and diss the Scriptures through redaction and editing and political motivations ...
and on and on
   too much for me to handle here right now ..
when you do these things
you lose me
big time

i become an observer of your theology
and will not climb on to your wagon
i will choose the things you say that resonate with Jesus and the Scriptures
and diss the rest
just so ...

the motivation of the author
to undo the churchevil foisted on humanity in the name of God
and to look to redo the church and its mission in the Earth today
is admirable

but what he asks of me in the doing of it
is nothing less than asking me to undo my faith
undo my 40-something-years of reading Scripture
undo the basic fundamental core of who i am
and i cannot do that
i will not

not to say i'm some expert
not to say i know it all
not to say i am God

but i have learned
the hard way, mind you
that God magnifies his words above his very name
i believe some of those words to be faithfully recorded in the Scriptures
and to be faithfully preserved
   by God himself
i believe Jesus to be the human incarnation of God himself
I believe Jesus to be the man that sits today at God's right hand
waiting until all authority in the universe is put under him
and that he will then put all that under God
and will put himself under God
so that God may be all in all ...
reconciliation completed

i hear what you're sayin' man
but i hear God
and his take on it takes priority over your take on it

so while i admire your motivations
i diss your thinkology and your methodolgy

i read you
trying to keep an open mind
but sad
sad that you disrespect God
and run so readily and repeatedly to the refuge of John Dominic Crossan and the like

my God
thrives in Jesus
   my master
   rabbi/teacher
   leader
   saviour
   redeemer
   motivation for change
   motivation for life
   ...
my reason for being

i admire your drive to move out of doctrinal statements and a creedal-focused chruchlife
   that undermines the work and example of the man of galilee
but balance is critical
and context is critical
you cannot magnify Jesus as example
while minimizing him as God

what you're doing is heading way too far east
and losing me in the process ...

i rest

shalom
        =
          clarify
             simplify
                balance
                   centre

postscript :-
i found this comment by Douglas Moo
on the new book by NT Wright
it's pertinent ..
although the author under review doesn't see himself as a theologian/academic ..
still fits, methinks
" The astonishing scope of this work, as Wright “locates” Paul’s theology within his first-century world, is a breath of fresh air in an environment in which 
academics learn more and more about less and less—until they know everything about nothing. "