The Gods Aren't Angry Tour

Last night I saw Rob Bell on the opening night of his new tour, The Gods Aren't Angry. It was a sold-out crowd at the Vic. Lots of young adults, but others as well. I met my friend, Jill (who came into town), Kim, and her roommate (also named Kim) before the show. There were a few others who I knew were going that I didn't get to see there at all.

Those of you who have read Rob Bell's books and/or seen him speak know that he does both in a similar fashion. He has a way of putting things into context that you don't hear too often, which is why I've read his books and heard him speak. He mixes a good bunch of history from other religions, personal stories, and Christian faith into great messages.

This tour was like that, first introducing us to numerous gods from other cultures. Wherever you go, you end up sacrificing more for them. Here's why. You are dependent on these outside forces or gods to provide the right amount of sunlight and rain to grow crops that you eat. If conditions didn't provide enough crops, you felt that you had not pleased these gods enough, so you sacrifice more. If the conditions provided an abundance of crops, you gave more to show your appreciation to the gods. And there were plenty more gods you would depend on for other needs and wants. But they were up there doing their own thing.

Along comes Abraham. He is in this system of sacrificing gods and depends on them. He relied on his father to know this system in the region he lived in. Then all of a sudden, God speaks to him and tells him to leave his family. What? God is someone who is not only in touch with what is happening on the earth but actually speaks to a human? And leave the system of gods Abraham is familiar with to an unknown place? The idea seemed crazy.

Travel ahead several years when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, up in the mountains. At first glance, this is a story of God testing Abraham's faith. Why was their no resentment or questioning on how to do it? Maybe because it was a common practice. But who in their right mind would sacrifice their firstborn? I've heard it said multiple times that this story is not necessarily about Abraham's faith. One pastor said it was about showing faith to his doubting family that thought he was crazy. Rob Bell suggested it was to show a glimpse of who this God is, since he stops Abraham from killing Isaac. Why is this significant? In a history of gods that demand (or atleast seem to demand) sacrifices, this God stops this sacrifice and provided a way out.

Bell went on to around the year 30 A.D. The main temple (in Jerusalem?) had a huge altar. During Passover, there would be thousands of animals slaughtered for sacrifice on this altar. In entered Jesus, and he claimed that if you tear "this temple" down, He would rebuild it in 3 days. Sure...it took us some 46 odd years to build this temple (and still not finished yet) but you will rebuild it in 3 days?

But the main idea here, just as with the story of Abraham and Isaac, is that we are following a God who provides. A God who has ideas of being close to His people that are way ahead of its time. A God who does not follow the ways of lower case gods.

In Hebrews, the writer calls every sacrifice before that of Christ was not desired by God, nor was He pleased with them. But it was required by the law. A few verses later, that Christ's sacrifice made us holy once and for all (Heb 10:5-10).

Are these gods gone today, or do we merely call them different things? As usual, Bell had plenty of personal stories to share about those with depression, attempted suicide, went through face surgery, faced burn out, felt shame, guilt, and so on. These gods aren't gone. They can control our lives, if we let them, or seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.


That's basically what I remember about what he said, with a couple of other thoughts in there. If he is coming to a town near you, go see him! If not, pick up one of his books, Velvet Elvis or Sex.God., or one of his Nooma DVDs.