Bullwhip Guy

This video is a DEAD ON the mark parody of Rob Bell's Nooma video Entitled Bull Horn Guy.

Comments

[Ben]

There was another pretty good response titled "A Bullhorn Guy Response." It is in two parts, and the guy pretty much hits it on the head. It is one of the related videos that comes up on the bottom of the screen after the main video is done playin.

[Teresa]

This video was to make fun of Rob Bell's video? I watched in total shock at the Way Of The Master site. I thought this video was in league with that original heretics Nooma video. I did not know this was a joke? Are you sure? Perhaps I need to stomach watching it again. Or maybe not....?

[Gavin Terukina]

First of all, I have to mention that the portion of scripture used as a reference in this parody is taken completely out of context. When Jesus stormed through the temple, he was angry because it was being desecrated, not because the people in it were sinners. In fact, throughout the Bible Jesus' anger is always directed at religious hypocrites, never at the unsaved. When Jesus ministered to people, he always confronted their sin in a spirit of love, never condemnation – a sharp contrast to the religious hypocrites he raged against.

Jesus taught us to judge ourselves before we judge others. And since the Bible says that no one is good and all our righteousness is like filthy rags, what right do we have to judge others at all? It is this spirit of humility which needs to come across when we minister to others, not a spirit of judgment. I think that is the point Rob Bell was trying to make in his original video. I don't know about the rest of his beliefs or the way he implements them, but I agree with him on this.

Like the rest of you, I too hate the way that the Gospel has been misused as an excuse for sin or a ticket to riches. But let us not allow our bullhorns to become so loud that God's original message – one of love, forgiveness and undeserved grace – comes across distorted in the ears of those listening.

[Paul Siems]

This is certainly an interesting video. It does seem to be a presentation of the fallacy of those who love to judge others using the words “judge not.” Even telling another person that judging is wrong is a judgement against that person. Yet the most judgmental never imagine that such things apply to themselves, only to “those” people. The judgment of the Law is for sinners, all sinners. The Gospel is for sinners who acknowledge that the Law applies to them, to convert them from sinners to saints.

If the original video has any value at all, it is in the demonstration that trying to force people of the world to hear by shouting more loudly truly does not work. But what the video deliberately ignores and misrepresents is that the Gospel cannot be received by those who refuse to hear the Law applied to them personally. What the first video ignores completely is that the Church is God’s bullhorn, declaring by its very existence the contrast between the world and the Holy Communion of God.

It seems clear to me that the second video is very different from the first, and demonstrates that the most severe preaching of the Law is directed to the Church, to drive out the thieves from every heart so that the Holy Communion may be reestablished by God with His people, so that truly His house is a house of prayer.

This is the point that Jesus truly drives home by this physical demonstration of the wrath of God, directed to those who are in His house. This demonstration is not enacted only against those who were selling. Jesus drove out the merchants and the bankers, but with them He also drove out the sacrificial animals and the money. Thus the declaration of hypocrisy was directed equally to those who came to the temple to BUY from these merchants and to have their money exchanged for denominations fitting their purchases (offerings).

Jesus was filled with holy anger at the fact that the Holy Communion was being mixed with worldly activity and the Gospel was being sold out.

John records this happening during the first Passover of Jesus’ ministry among the Jews, while Matthew and Mark record it being repeated at the final Passover which Jesus fulfilled as the true paschal Lamb. All of the Old Testament sacrifices and most especially the High Feast of the Lord’s Passover were instituted to direct all hearts to the Lord Jesus and His all-sufficient sacrifice. This is what was being stolen away from the Church by both those selling and those buying. The sacrifices were never about what the people were doing, but what God was doing for them and among them.

Once Jesus drove out the sacrifices and the money, where was the focus of every person in Jerusalem? Upon JESUS! This is why Jesus commanded, Matt 12:6-7 “But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.”

The guiltless were those who were guiltless through being in communion with Jesus. They had been falsely accused of breaking the Sabbath when they were truly partaking of the Sabbath in communion with the Lord of the Sabbath.

John the Baptist stood out by the roads calling out, but to whom did he call? These were the roads that led to Jerusalem. He did not stand on a street corner yelling at the unchurched. He stood and cried out primarily to those who were one their way to worship. And to what or whom did John direct the people? It was not to their sacrifices or even to their prayers. He preached the coming of the Christ and when Christ’s advent was manifest John pointed and said :

BEHOLD, HERE IS THE ONE I TOLD YOU ABOUT. BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES THE SIN OF THE WORLD.

Jesus came to the temple during the Passover and excommunicated those who were not of the true faith, in order that all the Church would be brought to repentance. Those who were driven out were welcome to return, as long as all that they brought with them was their need for God’s mercy in Christ. The sacrifices were always substitutionary, they were commanded by God always with the intent of holding before them that they had nothing to offer of themselves that was worthy but that God was appointing a substitute to stand in their stead, a substitute upon which God would place their guilt in their stead. But no animal or other earthly offering was big enough to carry the full burden of sin, only God Himself was big enough to carry such a burden. Thus God in the flesh was given to the world to accomplish the Lord’s Passover. Jesus drove out all who were looking for something else so that the Church would be a household of faith/prayer for all nations.

If only today’s preachers had such zeal for God’s household of faith.

[Ryan Dunlap]

I think what bothers me so much about this video is the method used to mimic and mock how Rob Bell speaks/acts/whatnot. While I don't agree with everything Rob Bell says, I don't go as far as to make a mockery of his work by creating a more distorted vantage point and then attributing that to him. It almost looks like an attempt to make him look stupid enough to tell Christ that His methods are ineffective by taking two different scenarios out of context and then comparing the two. Is that done out of love? It doesn't appear that way to me.

[Jonathan B. Hobbs]

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