ThinkFWD - Pete Rollins - Resurrection as Insurrection

What we believe emanates from who we are. And who we are is not about dogma, or even about moral behavior, but about dying to ourselves. This is part of the conversation between ThinkFWD host, Spencer Burke, and Pete Rollins, author of How Not to Speak of God and The Orthodox Heretic. They explore the ideas of truth and God, of resurrection and insurrection. (MORE INFO http://SpencerBurke.com - SUBSCRIBE http://feeds.feedburner.com/spencerburke - FOLLOW http://www.twitter.com/spencerburke - JOIN http://www.facebook.com/SpencerBurke.Page )

Truth, says Rollins, is not one extreme or the other; it's not the middle of the extremes. Truth is at both extremes. While traditional Christians say, "God is present. God exists, and Christianity is true;" atheists say "God isn't there and Christianity isn't true." These two extremes push Rollins to explore a 3rd position and he likens it to the story of Jesus on the cross, when He felt forsaken by God-- God not present--and yet God was completely present. And so the 3rd position dwells in the very place in between. Rollins says Christians are called to dwell not on one side of the other, but in the very split that Christ opens up: between old and new; between Judaism and Christianity.

Rollins and Burke turn to the idea of self. What is our true self? Can we disagree ideologically and philosophically, and at the end of the day still be friends and go out for drinks together? Can we have a public and private profile that are at odds? Rollins believes the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are a type of fiction. That our conscious self is an idealized representation of who we are.

We can say we believe certain things, but the truth of who we are plays out in the reality of our lives. And our goal is to bring the stories we tell ourselves (I'm a good person, I'm loving, I'm kind) in line with the reality of who we are. For Rollins, the truth is, he aspires to believe in God. To live a life of mercy, faithfulness, self-control. But we are not truly living Christian lives unless we are dying to ourselves—participating in the death and resurrection of Christ.

This Easter, Rollins is doing a pub tour, "I believe in the insurrection." What is it about? It's about being invited to transformation. Rollins thinks the apostle Paul had it right. Paul doesn't talk about who Jesus hung out with. Or about Jesus' miracles. He says that being a Christian is participating in the death and resurrection of Christ. You die, and you are reborn. You can say, "I believe x, y, and z" but if you don't think about where you live, and the work you do, and how your consumerism affects others, then that is the truth of your life, not what you SAY you believe. And so the resurrection, the insurrection is about dying, being reborn, transformed, so we are no long the same.

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• Pete Rollins
• ThinkFWD
• Spencer Burke
• Resurrection
• Insurrection

[brthomasfw]

@MADdwarfWorkshop Yes...MADdwarf... Jesus DID have doubt - it was the human expression of Christ. He also expressed fear ("let this chalice pass from me").

[TheMisterfrees]

He experiences the absence of God on the cross, that's what he means by doubt, it's experiential. It's not an intellectual doubt, he is crying out to God.

[MADdwarfWorkshop]

Jesus "doubted God" Rollins? Wow.. Apparently you know something that tens of thousands of Christian theologians dont know...

This guy is sincere, genuine, likable, but downright silly...

I'll pick definable foundational time tested doctrines of the faith in the gospel any day over the "cool factor" of guys like Pete or any others in the dying Emergent movement...