UR Quotes page

UR QUOTES

********THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION BY CARLTON PEARSON********

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the proclamation of redemption not the act of
redemption. It is not a command for righteousness; it is a declaration of
righteousness. [THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 59]

According to the way many Evangelical Christians think; Christians are
being saved from God by God.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 103]

Instead of encouraging people to become disciples of Christ, we have
fallen to recruiting people to become disciples of Christianity,
and there is a difference.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 106]

I can't love because I am ordered---least of all can't I love One who seems
only to make me miserable here to torture me hereafter. Show me that He
is good, that He is lovable, and I shall love Him without being told.
Florence Nightingale
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 73]

Belief does not bring salvation. However, belief does recognize salvation,
enhance its reality in a persons life and lead to
conversion and personal reform.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 103]

Redemption is not a process. Redemption is instantaneous and
immediate, the result of the finished work of the Cross. It requires
neither action nor belief.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 104]

Just because the world seems unaware of God's love for it doesn't mean
the love isn't there.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 111]

Evangelism is not getting people saved; it is informing people of God's
redemptive love towards them. Faith doesn't save you; faith just
recognizes that you are saved.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 126]

Hell is the experience of the worst possible outcome of our choices,
decisions, and creations; the natural consequences of any thought which
denies God or says no to who you are in relationship to Him and your
purpose in Him. It is the pain we suffer through inaccurate thinking. Hell is
the opposite of joy; it is the unfulfillment. It is perhaps, to know who you
are and fail to experience that. It is being less, lack, or incomplete.
[Conversations with God by Neale D. Walsch   THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION.
CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 138]

Christians believe that Christ died for all sin---except the sin
of not believing He died for all sin.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 141]

The word 'disown' in 2 Timothy 2:13 suggests that if you deny or disown
Christ, He will disown your denial (and not you). Even if you are unfaithful
to Him, He will remain faithful to you. [THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION.
CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 138]

We assume that death is automatic, imposed upon humanity without our
consent, but that eternal life comes only by choice and election. God's plan
was crafted without our participation or permission, and under His system,
all are redeemed, even if the rest of us do not believe they
should be. This is amazing grace.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 154]

If you are convinced that your only alternative to faith in God is Hell,
does it make you faithful or just intimidated?
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 155]

Fear has no place in a relationship where God's grace has already
guaranteed our salvation.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 177]

Mankind is not on earth to receive God's wrath, but to fulfill God's worth,
which is infinite. We are the expression of God in this world, so does it not
follow that we are the mechanism by which He shapes it?
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 180]

We were taught that faith was the only answer or cure to the
problem of sin, not the act of atonement itself.
[THE GOSPEL OF INCLUSION. CARLTON PEARSON. Pg 203]

++++THE INESCAPABLE LOVE OF GOD BY THOMAS TALBOTT++++

According to Paul, therefore, God is always and everywhere merciful, but
we sometimes experience His mercy (or purifying love) as severity,
judgment, (or) punishment. When we live a life of obedience, we
experience His mercy as kindness; when we live a life of
disobedience, we experience it as severity.
[THE INESCAPABLE LOVE OF GOD. THOMAS TALBOTT. Pg 72]

God hardens a heart in order to produce, in the end, a contrite spirit,
blinds those who are unready for the truth in order to bring them ultimately
to the truth, imprisons all in disobedience so that He may be merciful to all.
And the hardening of Pharaoh's heart was an expression of mercy in two
respects: First, it revealed to Pharaoh the destructive nature of his own
sin, and second, it revealed to the Egyptians something of the nature of
God. [THE INESCAPABLE LOVE OF GOD. THOMAS TALBOTT. Pg 73, 75]

>>THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST BY GREGORY MACDONALD<<

Some have claimed that God has won the victory so long as He has
achieved His purpose of giving all people the OPPORTUNITY to accept
salvation freely and saving those who do accept it.
Thus God's victory is compatible with the damnation of some.
[THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST. GREGORY MACDONALD. Pg 25]

The 'all things' that are reconciled in v. 20 are without any doubt, the same
'all things' that are created in v. 16. In other words, every single created
thing. It is not ' all without distinction' (some of every kind of thing) but all
'without exception' every single thing).
[THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST. GREGORY MACDONALD. Pg 45]

The reconciliation of creation is thus already achieved in Christ and yet is
only experienced as a reality by those in Christ by faith. They are the
first to taste the reconciliation that has been won for all. The church,
then, is a present sign of the reconciliation that the whole
creation will one day experience.
[THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST. GREGORY MACDONALD. Pg 51]

To get some understanding of the love of God one must begin with some
prior notion of human love or one could not even get into the
hermeneutical circle. If we are to speak in any meaningful way of God's
love, it must bear, at the very least, an analogical relationship to human
love. But then a Christian's understanding of God's love will be nuanced by
its revelation in salvation history. We stretch our concept of God's love
across the poles of creation, covenant, and redemption. We drape it over
the shape of the cross to follow its contours and wrap it around the stone
rolled away from the tomb. Only then can we begin to see the shape of
God's heart. If you want to understand love, then don't think about
our love for God...but ponder His love for us in sending His Son to
die to take away our sin.
[THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST. GREGORY MACDONALD. Pg 101, 102]

God does not torture anybody -- He simply withdraws His protection that
allows people to live under the illusions that sin is not necessarily harmful
to a truly human life. The natural consequences of sin take their course,
and it becomes harder and harder to fool oneself into believing the
seductive lies of sin anymore. In this way hell is educative
and points us towards our need for divine mercy.
[THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST. GREGORY MACDONALD. Pg 101-2]

The universalist will see the church in much the same way as the non-
universalist. She (the Church) is Christ's bride, His body, the community of
the redeemed...the children of God. However, to the universalist the
church is also a microcosm of the age to come. In the church one finds
people from every tribe and tongue joined in
one body. Our calling is to act as a prophetic sign to the nations
representing the destiny of all humanity.
[THE EVANGELICAL UNIVERSALIST.GREGORY MACDONALD. Pg 167]

^^^IF GRACE IS TRUE BY GULLEY & MULHOLLAND^^^

The Bible was never intended to end the conversation, but to encourage
it. God didn't fall silent with the last chapter of Revelation. He continues to
reveal Himself. It makes no sense to glorify the accounts of our ancestors'
encounters with God while dismissing our experiences with Him today.
[IF GRACE IS TRUE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 38]

It eventually occurred to me that my ultimate allegiance belonged not to
the Bible, but to the One of whom it testified. We are not to worship the
Bible; we are to worship the One the Bible reveals. Jesus invited us to
look up from the page and into God's face.
[IF GRACE IS TRUE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 42]

I knew from personal experience how easily we attribute all our
experiences to God's hand. This habit leaves us with an understanding of
God that is not only inaccurate but also potentially harmful. Just because
something bad happened to us does not mean God caused it to happen.
Just because someone treated us ungraciously doesn't mean their actions
and attitudes represent God. Unless we understand God's character and
will, we easily assume every action, even the most horrible, must be
credited to God. I had to sort through the vast variety of images of God
until I found one that matched my experience. It finally occurred to me to
trust someone I believe knew God's heart -- Jesus.
[IF GRACE IS TRUE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 44, 60]

Holiness is god's ability to confront evil without being defiled. God's
holiness does not require Him to keep evil at arm's length. God's holiness
enables Him to take the wicked in His arms and transform him. God is
never in danger of being defiled. No evil can alter His love, for His
gracious character is beyond corruption.
[IF GRACE IS TRUE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 74]

Human brokenness is not the result of God's wrath,
but the reason for God's grace.
[IF GRACE IS TRUE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 100]

---READ & SEARCH GOD'S PLAN BY HAROLD LOVELACE---

God's will prevails over everything, and His ability and power
back up and perform His will.
[READ AND SEARCH GOD'S PLAN. HAROLD LOVELACE. Pg 15]

If man's will can prevail over God's will, then God cannot be sovereign.
[READ AND SEARCH GOD'S PLAN. HAROLD LOVELACE. Pg 17]

Man may rebel, but he will be corrected. Remember God loves the world,
and 'whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.'
[READ AND SEARCH GOD'S PLAN. HAROLD LOVELACE. Pg 18]

You live according to the kind of God that you believe in.
[READ AND SEARCH GOD'S PLAN. HAROLD LOVELACE. Pg 35]

@@ WHATEVER BECAME OF MELANIE BY ALLAN E CHEVRIER @@

Truth to the humble seeker is not a destination he reaches or an
intellectual pinnacle he achieves early in his Christian walk, but a glorious,
lifelong journey and quest toward the very heart of God.
[WHAT EVER BECAME OF MELANIE? ALLAN E. CHEVRIER. Pg 44]

Everything and everyone belong to Him. This also includes us. And the fact
of the matter is that He is now in the process of claiming is
inheritance, not mutilating and destroying it.
[WHAT EVER BECAME OF MELANIE? ALLAN E. CHEVRIER. Pg 67]

Everything and everyone belong to Him. This also includes us. And the fact
of the matter is that He is now in the process of claiming is
inheritance, not mutilating and destroying it.
[WHAT EVER BECAME OF MELANIE? ALLAN E. CHEVRIER. Pg 67]

=== IF GOD IS LOVE BY GULLEY & MULHOLLAND ===

Pure religion is not about earning heaven or escaping hell. It is about
discerning our proper place and role in creation -- that God did not create
us to be cowering supplicants or greedy schemers, striving to escape this
world. Instead, we see ourselves as God sees us -- as the crown of
creation...capable of loving as He has loved, and destined to dwell with
God forever. When God looks on us, God smiles. Pure religion is
learning to smile back. We no longer focus on
escaping this world but in transforming it.
[IF GOD IS LOVE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 36, 38]

A gracious church is a safe place to ask questions, explore new ideas,
admit our struggles, and seek assistance. A gracious church is a place
where people can come with questions, doubts and
struggles without fear of being condemned.
[IF GOD IS LOVE. GULLEY & MULHOLLAND. Pg 174, 175]

^^THE ATONEMENT BY A P ADAMS ^^
The Atonement was not to satisfy God's justice, but to reveal His love.
The justice of God is not against the sinner, demanding his condemnation,
but for him, ensuring his salvation. God is not in contrast with, much less in
opposition to Christ in the Atonement, but in perfect harmony and accord.
The Atonement is not the exclusive work of Christ in order to reconcile
God to the world, but it is the work of God IN Christ to reconcile the world
unto Himself. Christ does not have to plead with God in order to make Him
willing to pardon the sinner, but God by His ministers, 'beseeches' the
sinner to make them willing to be pardoned. Hence the Atonement is not to
propitiate God, but man; not to make God favorably disposed to man, but to
make His already existing favor known to man. Christ did not die as our
substitute, but as our companion and associate; not instead of man, but
with him and for him. Christ did not die to save us from the penalty of sin,
but from sin itself. Christ did not die that we might not die, but to deliver us
out of death in which we were already involved. The sinner is not
redeemed because he repents, but he is called upon to repent because he
has been redeemed. The Atonement is not the cause of God's love to man,
giving rise to that love, but the effect, flowing out of that love. The final
outcome of the atoning scheme is not a partial success, but a perfect,
absolute, and universal triumph! [THE ATONEMENT. A P ADAMS]

!!! DESTINED FOR SALVATION BY KALEN FRISTAD !!!

It is of great significance that when Jesus was on the cross, he did not pray
saying, "Father, throw them all into hell because they have free will and
they know very well what they are doing." Instead, he said, "Father, forgive
them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).
[DESTINED FOR SALVATION. KALEN FRISTAD. Pg. 44]

&&&& THE SHACK BY WILLIAM YOUNG &&&&

(This is after Mack noticed the scars in Papa's wrists.) Papa says: 'Don't
ever think what my Son chose to do didn't cost US dearly. Love always
leaves a significant mark...We were there together."

Mack was surprised. 'At the cross? Now wait, I thought you LEFT him---you
know---'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?""

Papa says: "You misunderstand the mystery there. Regardless of what he
FELT at that moment, I never left him."

"When all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of me?"
[ pg 96]
=====================
" A bird is not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly.
Remember this, humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the
intentions that I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by
everything it means to be created in my image". [ pg 100]
=====================
"The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie, is that you don't think I am
good. If you knew I was good and that everything---the means, the ends,
and all the processes of individual lives---is all covered by my goodness,
then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would
trust me. But you don't. Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know
you are loved. Because you do not know that
I love you, you cannot trust me". [ pg 126]
======================
Mack, just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies
doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don't ever assume that my using
something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes.
That will only lead you to false notions about me." [ pg 185]
=======================
(Papa and Mack are talking and Papa tells Mack that everything is about
Jesus, all creation and history. Papa tells him that Jesus is at the very
center of His purpose and because of Jesus being fully
human and fully God then both in relationship to complete
Papa's purpose and there is no plan B.)

"Seems pretty risky," Mack surmised.

"Maybe for you, but not for me. There has never been a question that what
I wanted from the beginning, I will get."

Papa set forward and crossed her arms on the table. "Honey, you asked me
what Jesus accomplished on the cross: so now listen to me carefully:
through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world"

"The whole world? You mean those who believe in you, right?" (Mack said.)

"The whole world, Mack."

------ SO YOU DON'T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE----
BY JAKE COLSEN

“How could God put him through all of that?” “Don’t think God was only a
distant spectator that day. He was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself. This is something they did together. This was not some sacrifice
God required in order to be able to love us, but a sacrifice God himself
provided for what we needed. He leapt in front of a stampeding horse and
pushed us to safety. He was crushed by the weight of our sin so that we
could be rescued from it. It’s an incredible story.”
[So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore - Jake Colsen Loc. 1090-94]

^^^^^^^ ROOMS BY JAMES L. RUBART ^^^^^^

Utterly engulfed, And wanting more. Buried, Drowned, Intoxicated, With the
vastness of Love. Losing myself as the waves wash over me, Through me,
Surrounding me, Caught up in a hurricane of overwhelming peace,
I have let go, And He has found me. [Rooms - James L. Rubart Loc. 6315-24]

%%% IS GOD TO BLAME? %%%
MOVING BEYOND PAT ANSWERS TO THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
BY GREGORY BOYD

The cross reveals that God's omnipotence is displayed in self-sacrificial
love, not sheer might. God conquers sin and the devil not by a sovereign
decree but by a wise and humble submission to crucifixion.13 In doing this,
the cross reveals that God's omnipotence is not primarily about control but
about his compelling love. God conquers evil and wins the
heart of people by self-sacrificial love, not by coercive force.
[Is God to Blame?: Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil; by
Gregory A. Boyd Loc 478-81]

God wasn't incarnate before Jesus was born. The Word of God became a
human baby, grew up to be an adult man, entered into suffering, and took
upon himself our sin. To question God's experience of time by postulating
that God really experiences all of history in a timeless fashion is to
question the authenticity of the incarnation.
[Is God to Blame?: Moving Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Evil;
by Gregory A. Boyd Loc. 491-93]

**** GOD OF THE POSSIBLE ***
A BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OPEN VIEW OF GOD
BY GREGORY A BOYD

God's perfect knowledge would allow him to anticipate every possible
move and every possible combination of moves, together with every
possible response he might make to each of them, for every possible
agent throughout history. And he would be able to do this from eternity
past. Isn't a God who is able to know perfectly these possibilities wiser
than a God who simply foreknows or predetermines one story line that the
future will follow? And isn't a God who perfectly anticipates and wisely
responds to everything a free agent might do more intelligent than a God
who simply knows what a free agent will do? Anticipating and
responding to possibilities takes problem-solving intelligence.
[God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God
by Gregory A. Boyd Loc. 1232-36]

In a general sense, the Creator must be responsible for everything that
transpires in his creation. He unilaterally decided that the risk of free
agents choosing evil, breaking his heart, and bringing nightmarish
suffering upon themselves and others was worth it. He is responsible for
creating a cosmos that was capable of this. This doesn't imply that it is his
fault if and when these agents freely choose evil courses of action,
however. If agents are truly self-determining, God is not responsible for
the individual evil choices that these agents make. In a small way, we do
the exact same thing when we have children. We know (or at least should
know) all the risks involved-we and others may get hurt. Love is risky, but
we decide to accept the risk and bring children into the world because we
judge that love is worth the risk. In this sense, we are responsible for their
lives. But the more our children become autonomous, self-determining,
morally responsible agents, the less responsibility parents have for the
choices their children make. To the extent that they act out of their self-
determining freedom... [God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the
Open View of God by Gregory A. Boyd Loc. 1312-18]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^LOVE WINS ^^^^^^^^^^^^
A BOOK ABOUT HEAVEN, HELL,
AND THE FATE OF EVERY PERSON WHO EVER LIVED
BY ROB BELL

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell)- Highlight Loc. 1438-41

That’s what God’s love does: it speaks new words into the world and into
us. Potentials, possibilities, and the promise that God has an imagination
and is not afraid to use it. Hard and fast, definitive declarations then, about
how God will or will not organize the new world must leave plenty of room
for all kinds of those possibilities. This doesn’t diminish God’s justice or
take less seriously the very real consequences of sin and rebellion, it
simply acknowledges with humility the limits of our powers of speculation.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 1442-50

Now back to that original question: “Does God get what God wants?” is a
good question, an interesting question, an important question that gives
us much to discuss. But there’s a better question, one we can answer, one
that takes all of this speculation about the future, which no one has been
to and then returned with hard, empirical evidence, and brings it back to
one absolute we can depend on in the midst of all of this, which turns out
to be another question. It’s not “Does God get what God wants?” but “Do
we get what we want?” And the answer to that is a resounding, affirming,
sure, and positive yes. Yes, we get what we want. God is that loving.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell)- Highlight Loc. 1566-71

What happened on the cross is like . . . a defendant going free, a
relationship being reconciled, something lost being redeemed, a battle
being won, a final sacrifice being offered, so that no one ever has to offer
another one again, an enemy being loved.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 1640-43

When Jesus is presented only as the answer that saves individuals from
their sin and death, we run the risk of shrinking the Gospel down to
something just for humans, when God has inaugurated a movement in
Jesus’s resurrection to renew, restore, and reconcile everything “on earth
or in heaven” (Col. 1), just as God originally intended it. The powers of
death and destruction have been defeated on the most epic scale
imaginable. Individuals are then invited to see their story in the context of
a far larger story, one that includes all of creation.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) Highlight Loc. 1759-71

How does the sun give off that much energy and yet still regenerate itself
at the same time? How do bees know to take that pollen from that flower
over there and put it over here in this one? Why does my lawn have brown
patches where I can’t get the grass to grow, while five feet away grass
grows through the cracks in the concrete in the driveway, grass much like
the grass I wish would grow in those brown patches? This energy, spark,
and electricity that pulses through all of creation sustains it, fuels it, and
keeps it going. Growing, evolving, reproducing, making more. In many
traditions, this energy is understood to be impersonal. Much like the Force
in Star Wars, it has no name or face or personality. It’s assumed to be
indifferent to us. Our joy, meaning, and happiness are simply irrelevant. It
does its thing; we do ours. This is not, however, how things are explained
in the creation poem that begins the Bible. In this poem, the energy that
gives life to everything is called the “Word of God,” and it is for us. God
speaks . . . and it happens. God says it . . . and it comes into being.
Before, it’s chaotic and empty and dark. But then God speaks into that dark
disorder radiant, pulsating life with all of its wonder and
diversity and creativity.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) Highlight Loc. 1836-39

Jesus is supracultural. He is present within all cultures, and yet outside of
all cultures. He is for all people, and yet he refuses to be co-opted or
owned by any one culture.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 1863-70

John remembers Jesus saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me” (chap. 14). This is as wide and
expansive a claim as a person can make. What he doesn’t say is how, or
when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God
through him. He doesn’t even state that those coming to the Father
through him will even know that they are coming exclusively through him.
He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and
redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him. And so
the passage is exclusive, deeply so, insisting on Jesus alone as the way to
God. But it is an exclusivity on the other side on inclusivity.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 1870-94

First, there is exclusivity. Jesus is the only way. Everybody who doesn’t
believe in him and follow him in the precise way that is defined by the
group doing the defining isn’t saved, redeemed, going to heaven, and so
on. There is that kind of exclusion. You’re either in, or you’re going to hell.
Two groups. Then there is inclusivity. The kind that is open to all religions,
the kind that trusts that good people will get in, that there is only one
mountain, but it has many paths. This inclusivity assumes that as long as
your heart is fine or your actions measure up, you’ll be okay. And then
there is an exclusivity on the other side of inclusivity. This kind insists that
Jesus is the way, but holds tightly to the assumption that the all-embracing,
saving love of this particular Jesus the Christ will of course include all
sorts of unexpected people from across the cultural spectrum. As soon as
the door is opened to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptists from
Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus
doesn’t matter anymore, the cross is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what you
believe, and so forth. Not true. Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not
true. What Jesus does is declare that he, and he alone, is saving
everybody. And then he leaves the door way, way open. Creating all sorts
of possibilities. He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe. He
is as exclusive as himself and as inclusive as containing every single
particle of creation. When people use the word “Jesus,” then, it’s
important for us to ask who they’re talking about. Are they referring to a
token of tribal membership, a tamed, domesticated Jesus who waves the
flag and promotes whatever values they have decided their nation needs
to return to? Are they referring to the supposed source of the imperial
impulse of their group, which wants to conquer other groups “in the name
of Jesus”? Are they referring to the logo or slogan of their political,
economic, or military system through which they sanctify their greed and
lust for power? Or are they referring to the very life source of the universe
who has walked among us and continues to sustain everything with his
love and power and grace and energy? Jesus is both near and intimate
and personal, and big and wide and transcendent.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 2082-87

But there’s more. Millions have been taught that if they don’t believe, if
they don’t accept in the right way, that is, the way the person telling them
the gospel does, and they were hit by a car and died later that same day,
God would have no choice but to punish them forever in conscious
torment in hell. God would, in essence, become a fundamentally different
being to them in that moment of death, a different being to them forever. A
loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a
relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean,
vicious tormenter who would ensure that they had no escape from an
endless future of agony.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 2096-98

And that is the secret deep in the heart of many people, especially
Christians: they don’t love God. They can’t, because the God they’ve been
presented with and taught about can’t be loved. That God is terrifying and
traumatizing and unbearable.
==========
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who
Ever Lived (Rob Bell) - Highlight Loc. 2102-8

Because if something is wrong with your God, if your God is loving one
second and cruel the next, if your God will punish people for all of eternity
for sins committed in a few short years, no amount of clever marketing or
compelling language or good music or great coffee will be able to disguise
that one, true, glaring, untenable, unacceptable, awful reality.

### THE HOLY BIBLE OF INCLUSION BY D E PAULK ###

Receiving reconciliation is therefore not an attempted to finish a work
that has already been completed—but rather an acknowledgment of
the finished work of Christ. ( pg 53)

In essence the world was reconciled to God through Christ in
eternity...before reconciliation ever showed up in time (Rev 13:8). In
other words, when Jesus bore Calvary's cross in 33 AD He had
already borne it eons prior in eternity. Jesus took on flesh in the
fullness of time so that we could see in time
what has always been in eternity. (pg 63)

1 Timothy 4:10: Those who believe are saved. Those who do not
believe are saved. But those who believe have connected their minds
to what has already happened to their souls. That's why they are
especially saved. Unbelievers are saved but unaware. Believers are
aware of or awakened to their salvation. (pg 74)

This cyclical phenomenon is evidence of the providential mercy of
God as proof, if you will, that God continually sends Messengers
(Messiahs) throughout history in an undying attempt to awaken
mankind to the Divine. As long as we cling to our generation's savior
figure to the exclusion of all others we fail to see the one God who
sends the same message to each generation. Furthermore, as we
choose to see the Christ throughout history, and in several
different Messianic figures we don't have to lose our
connection to the Jesus Person in order to begin
walking in the Christ Consciousness. (pg 262-3)

=====AN NEW KIND OF CHRISTIANITY, by Brian McLaren=====

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the
Faith (Brian D. McLaren) Highlight Loc. 1769-76

So the God of the fundamentalists is a competitive warrior—always
jealous of rivals and determined to drive them into defeat and
disgrace. And the God of the fundamentalists is superficially
exacting—demanding technical perfection in regard to ceremonial
and legal matters while minimizing deeper concerns about social
justice—especially where outsiders and outcasts are concerned.
Similarly, the fundamentalist God is exclusive, faithfully loving one in-
group and rejecting—perhaps even hating—all others. The
fundamentalist God is also deterministic—controlling rather than
interacting, a mover of events but never moved by them. And finally,
though the fundamentalist God may be patient for a while, he
(fundamentalist versions of God tend to be very male) is ultimately
violent, eventually destined to explode with unquenchable rage,
condemnation, punishment, torture, and vengeance if you push him
too far.

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the
Faith (Brian D. McLaren) Highlight Loc. 2340-46

“Most Evangelicals haven’t got the foggiest notion of what the gospel
really is.” He then asked me how I would define the gospel, and I
answered as any good Romans Protestant would, quoting Romans.
He followed up with this simple but annoying rhetorical question:
“You’re quoting Paul. Shouldn’t you let Jesus define the gospel?”
When I gave him a quizzical look, he asked, “What was the gospel
according to Jesus?” A little humiliated, I mumbled something akin to
“You tell me,” and he replied, “For Jesus, the gospel was very clear:
The kingdom of God is at hand. That’s the gospel according to Jesus.
Right?” I again mumbled something, maybe “I guess so.” Seeing my
lack of conviction, he added, “Shouldn’t you read Paul in light of
Jesus, instead of reading Jesus in light of Paul?”

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the
Faith (Brian D. McLaren) Highlight Loc. 2371-73

Instead, he came to announce a new kingdom, a new way of life, a
new way of peace that carried good news to all people of every
religion. A new kingdom is much bigger than a new religion, and in
fact it has room for many religious traditions within it.

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the
Faith (Brian D. McLaren) Highlight Loc. 2834-42

These things, without love, Paul says, are worth nothing. If he were
writing today, he might say: Though I interpret the biblical text with
state-of-the-art hermeneutics and preach sermons with flawless
homiletics, though all my theologies are systematic, all my books,
blogs, and podcasts scrupulously orthodox, and my books always
best-sellers, without love I am static on a radio or an error message
on a computer screen. Though I can show decadal church growth in
the double digits and raise millions of dollars in building funds,
though I have files full of testimonials from people saved, healed,
delivered, and blessed through my ministry, without love I’m just
another clever, two-bit purveyor of goods and services in the
religious-industrial complex. Though I have worldwide impact,
traveling by private jet and broadcasting on cable, satellite, and the
Internet, though my budgets balance and my seminaries are bursting
with beautiful and handsome valedictorians (all of whom are above
average in every way), and though presidents invite me to the White
House and consider me a “key person,” without love I am nothing.

^^^^^^GOD OF THE POSSIBLE, by Gregory Boyd^^^^^^

God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God
(Gregory A. Boyd) Highlight Loc. 132-35

Theologically, several unsolvable   problems inherent in the classical
view can be avoided when one accepts that God is the God of the
possible and not simply a God of eternally static certainties.
Practically, a God of eternally static certainties is incapable of
interacting   with humans in a relevant way. The God of the possible,
by contrast, is a God who can work with us to truly change what
might have been into what should be.

#####GOD BELIEVES IN YOU, by Francois du Toit#####

god_believes_in_you_du Toit Highlight Loc. 1815-22

The word became flesh and has taken up permanent residence
(tabernacled) in us, and we gazed with wonder and amazement upon
the mystery of our inclusion in Him; (theaomai to gaze upon, to
perceive) We saw His glory (Greek, doxa, the display of His opinion),
the glory as of the original, authentic begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.’ (The original mind, or opinion of God, preserved and
perceived in Christ.) We have grasped that He is the revelation of our
completeness. ‘And of His fullness have we all received, grace
against grace.’ (Grace undeserved) ‘For the law was given through
Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He who is in the
bosom of the Father, the only (original, authentic) begotten of the
Father, He is our guide who accurately declares and interprets the
invisible God within us.’ John 1:1-5, 9-14,16-18.

THESE ARE QUOTES FROM SOME AWESOME BOOKS. THERE ARE MANY BUT THESE ARE
A FEW OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES FOR THOUGHT AND CONVERSATION. HOPE YOU ENJOY.

ABSOLUTE RECONCILIATION MINISTRIES