Recently, our launch team went to see Rob Bell in San Antonio at the Empire Theater for his “gods aren’t angry tour”. This guy is amazing and in some circles being declared as this generation’s Billy Graham. He is a brilliant communicator, but his message is very real. All of the proceeds from his tour went to missions. His nooma videos and his books are incredible. Velvet Elvis is a must read. I found this review to the tour online and felt like it was right on.

“The presentation began with a story about the nature of relating to forces that we assume affect our lives. In 4,000 BC the forces that moved around humanity were assumed to have a very real affect on the lives of people. Over time, humanity began to erect names for these forces, or gods. The nature of these gods created a paradox. If our lives depended on the gods for rain, etc, then we had better appease them. Rituals were created by people who had supposedly figured out how to appease the gods. The common method was an offering of some sort. Some gods could be appeased by a grain offering. Others needed blood. Other’s needed important male body parts (I’m not kidding). Molech needed children. The problem became that humanity could never really figure out how to appease the gods and ended up giving more and more and more.

It was then that Rob began to explain the nature of Abraham and Isaac. He brought up a really good point about why it appears Abraham is just willing to do so. The reality was that Abraham lived in this god culture where sacrifice was expected. I was considered normal during that day. His point was that God was showing Abraham he didn’t want his son as a sacrifice and offered a ram instead. God’s invitation was to Abraham was relate in a real way. This was unheard of in his day.

Rob then began discussing the nature of the sacrificial system as a ritual to appease the conscience of man. He talked about the many verses where God doesn’t need our sacrifice. So what was the sacrifice then about. It was about appeasing our own conscience. The ritual was a reminder of our own forgiveness and putting away the shame. Unfortunately the Sadducee’s had created an industry out of the ritual and were distorting its purpose. The offering of Jesus was then a way to reform the old way and do away with sacrifice. Rob talked a lot about how much of our life is still about appeasing the gods. He talked about the nature of Christ’s death was to do away with God’s anger. The early church kept rituals as a way of reminding themselves of what Jesus did on the cross. They kept one great offering though. That was to “do good.”

The last part was about how we make this last offering. Rob offered story after story about how we transform the world around us through love. It felt very much like an ending to a Nooma video with the music accompanying his message. His last words I believe were, “May you remember that God is love.”

I walked away with a very real impression that if you still were into religion, this was going to mess with your head. I found it to be a very liberating reminder not to get sucked back into trying to please God and embrace that He already loves me.”