FREE BOOK: CRAFT BREWED JESUS

Don't take him up on this offer if you don't like questioning things that you have considered fundamental to your faith and practice as a Christian. Michael Camp is offering a pdf version of his book entitled Craft Brewed Jesus, on the condition that you write a review, good or bad, on the Canadian Amazon site for the book, or the U.S. site for the book. 

The reason I stated the proviso at the beginning is because Camp describes his book this way:  

What if the modern American church has its Christian history wrong? According to ex-evangelical Michael Camp, most American believers fail Christian History 101. Drawing on his own historical research and missionary experience, he discovers that most popular Christian views of the Bible, church, sin, salvation, judgment, the kingdom of God, the "end times" and the afterlife--pretty much all religious sacred cows--don't align with the beliefs of the original Jesus movement. Some of them not even close. Camp's Craft Brewed Jesus paves a fascinating journey of a group of disillusioned evangelicals and Catholics. When they decide to meet regularly over craft beers to study the historic foundations of their faith, their findings both rock their world and resolve ancient mysteries. They examine well-documented narratives of the early Jesus saga, Eastern streams of a lost Christianity, and the roots of our modern religious assumptions, all while striving to steer clear of either a conservative or liberal bias. What they uncover is a vital, refreshing spiritual paradigm no longer at odds with reality. Grab your brew of choice and trace this transformational journey based on a true story that will encourage you in your walk of life and faith.

It's smart to know what people are thinking, and how thinking is shaped, and how certain you are of your own belief points if you can handle the exercise.

CRAFT BREWED JESUS

Michael Camp is not the first person to make a theological shift as pronounced as his self-described journey has been. It will be interesting to hear what has changed in his mind and in his views. It may shock and worry some of you. It may intrigue others. He says he's a husband, father, author, amateur historian, Rotarian, global development practitioner, marketing director, ex-evangelical, former missionary to Africa, and pub theologian. He has written books, writes a blog, carries on conversations designed to give other theological migrants a means to question their own beliefs, shave off the assumptions and settle upon evidential truths.

His latest book is called Craft Brewed Jesus, in which he describes a captivating excursion of a group of disillusioned evangelicals and Catholics, who decide to meet regularly over craft beers to study the historic foundations of their faith. They learn that their findings rock their world and resolve some ancient mysteries. It's not fiction. What Camp discovers is that in his view, most popular Christian views of the Bible, church, sin, salvation, judgment, the kingdom of God, the “end times,” and the afterlife, all of which are sacred to believers, do not align with the beliefs of the original Jesus Movement. That's the outcome for him at least.

I will spend a bit of time these next days exploring some of his blog writings. I am fascinated that he describes himself as an ex-evangelical for one thing, and that he served as a missionary in Africa for seven years and arrives at this place.

OWNING MORE GUNS IS NOT A DETERRENT

How many good people is it justifiable for automatic weapon owners to kill? Who decides that? A culture that takes violence seriously and takes gun ownership seriously? Is violence serious only when bad people kill good people? How many more good people will have to carry guns in public to generate a serious deterrent? Cannot good people accept the logic of a syllogism that argues that fewer people die when it is harder to lay hands on killing machines? The good guys already own twice as many guns per person as any other nation on earth.

FINE LINES & BROAD STROKES

A fine line or a broad stroke from an artist's brush creates either photo-realism or conceptual abstract. Neither genre is good or bad. The beauty is in the eye of the artist and the viewing enthusiast. Not so with language. The fine line or the broad stroke affected with words, results in either clarity, sanity, logic, and analysis or libel, vilification, smear, and defamation. The first enlightens, the other deceives. The ugliness is in the heart of the wordsmith and in the mind of the obsessive. The first communication is exceptional but infrequent; the other is tactless but persistent.

ONE OF US

To all Americans I say, the Orlando shooter was one of you. More collectively I say, he was one of us. Our default will be to deny this. No solution proceeds from labeling him a terrorist, Islamic, deranged, different from. The victims too were ones with us. An avoidance response might be, "but they were gay." No one elevates himself by refusing to lower a flag to half-mast, or by asserting, "they deserved it." Politicians and NRA will honour humanity's incomparable privilege of sharing life on this planet only when weapons of war cease to be considered intrinsic citizen rights and as essential to domestic security.

THE TERMS THAT IDENTIFY US MAY NO LONGER BE EFFECTIVE

             Terms like 'Christianity' and 'christian' and certainly 'evangelical' may no longer effectively serve the faith.  They are tarnished when applied too generously in contemptible situations. They are censoriously associated with partisan political affiliations. They are borne by uninformed marginal factions. The difficulty is not a simple comical variance like the potayto/potahto, tomayto/tomahto pronunciations. It pertains to understanding and is profoundly more critical and potentially injurious to faith.  Because they derive from the Christ and the evangel, the terms are associated with one for whom holiness and perfection are intrinsic rather than performed. Divine standards, values and principles are in unambiguous juxtaposition to common human behaviour. People who claim to be Christian or evangelical yet whose lives upon even casual scrutiny, appear to be insincerely linked to Jesus, compromise the identity of believers in the world.  When followers of Jesus credibly embrace by living and conversation their Master's attitudes, they perpetually and predictably clash with societal moralities. Our Canadian culture deplores, sometimes reprimands and even legislates against the expression of faith inspired conduct. The evangel/gospel will speak to non-followers only as our personal faith is genuinely Christian and courageous.

NOBODY CAN CHOOSE NOT TO BE SAVED - IS WHAT JACQUES ELLUL SAID

I don't buy myself, but if one is to believe Jacques Ellul's interpretation of salvation, then he has news for all atheists and agnostics. They cannot reject Christ. They cannot succeed in not wanting his salvation. Here is the way he put it. I will highlight the bits that bite.

  Ellul admitted that in his correlation of sociology and theology, he seemed to be a sociological pessimist while at the same time being a theological optimist. On one occasion he asks, "Am I a pessimist? Not at all. I am convinced that the history of the human race, no matter how tragic, will ultimately lead to the Kingdom of God. I am convinced that all the works of humankind will be reintegrated in the work of God, and that each of us, no matter how sinful, will ultimately be saved." This is, of course, an explicit statement of his belief in "universal salvation" or "universal reconciliation".As explanation and justification for this tenet, Ellul writes: "Salvation is universal because the love of God encompasses all. If God is God and if God is love, nothing is outside the love of God. A place like hell is thus inconceivable. The difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is not one of salvation. Salvation is given by grace to everyone. Christians are simply those charged by God with a special mission. The meaning of being a Christian is not working at your own little salvation, but changing human history." Elsewhere he states, "It is inconceivable that the God who gives Himself in His Son to save us, should have created some people ordained to evil and damnation. There can only be one predestination to salvation. In and through Jesus Christ all people are predestined to be saved. Our free choice is ruled out in this regard. God wants free people, except in relation to this last and definitive decision. We are not free to decide and choose to be damned." "Being saved or lost does not depend on our own free decision. An explicit confession of Jesus Christ is not the condition for salvation. Salvation is always for everyone, by grace. All people are included in the grace of God. A theology of grace implies universal salvation."

from an article entitled, A Synopsis and Analysis of the Thought and Writings of Jacques Ellul by James A. Fowler http://www.christinyou.com/pages/ellul.html