Once upon a time . . . .

My rough draft of the "Fundamental Story" of Scripture

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/stack-of-brown-and-red-printed-hardbound-books-185764/

(A six-minute read.)

Last week, in writing about what I’m calling a “generous creedalism,” I alluded to the idea that perhaps my faith community should replace its list of “Fundamental Beliefs” with a “Fundamental Story.”

This week, I thought I’d try my hand at doing just that.

This is very much a rough, rough draft—an example of what I’m talking about. If my faith community was to go this direction, it would obviously take a lot of time, thought, and prayer to create something more lasting and theologically-robust.

(By the way, for those interested, I’ve written a longer version of this story here—which I use with people who’ve expressed interest in joining my faith community.)

But, again, this is just supposed to be an example.

So here goes (if you’re not a part of my faith community, I’d still encourage you to read on—as it will give you a sense of the basic story I’ve chosen to [imperfectly] participate in):

Before time began, before the universe existed, there was God—Father, Son, and Spirit, living together in eternal love, fellowship, and community. And then, long ago, God created everything—the stars, the planets, the galaxies—by the word of his mouth.

And then God created the earth—filling it with trees, flowers, birds, animals, and everything that has life—in six days. On the sixth day, as the crowning act of his work, he created man and woman in his image, and joined them together in holy union, inviting them to multiply and to care for each other and for all of creation.

On the seventh day, God rested from his work and extended this rest to humankind—a gracious and eternal gift from his heart of love.

God enjoyed communion with humankind, intending to live in perfect harmony with them and to have them live in perfect harmony with one another, only ever living by the principle of self-sacrificing, other-centered love.

But humanity chose selfishness over love, turning their backs on God and distancing themselves from each other. Love was replaced with selfishness; peace with shame; harmony with blame. They ran away from God and tried to hide themselves from his loving presence.

In taking this course, humankind followed the lead of Satan, who was a perfect angel in heaven, but who rebelled against God and questioned his trustworthiness and goodness. Instead of obliterating Satan, God chose to allow him to make his case to the entire universe, and to answer his charges only by love.

Thus, ever committed to the wellbeing of his creation, God vowed to rescue humanity from its selfishness and shame, and to restore the world and universe to a place of eternal harmony and love. He also promised he’d send a rescuer to atone for their misdeeds.

He also called a people who were to live out the reality of his love and to announce and embody the principles of his kingdom. But they, too, failed over and over again, falling deeper and deeper into acts of exploitation and abuse. And they related to God as a master instead of a lover.

At last, God sent Jesus—the Son—to perfectly embody his character and to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the world and restore love to the universe. He lived a life of complete selflessness, compassion, and grace. He healed the sick and explained the principles of his kingdom. And then he poured out his life unto death, forfeiting his own existence for the sake of humanity’s.

This act both secured the salvation of humanity, and unequivocally demonstrated God’s character of love.

Despite this sacrifice, which he felt was to be eternal, Jesus rose again on the third day, securing eternal victory over death and the grave.

Before returning to heaven, from where he could direct his continued work of reconciling the universe to himself, he sent his followers out into the world to embody and announce his kingdom of love. They went with power and authority, breaking down all walls that separate, declaring God’s liberating victory, and setting up communities that reflected the communal heart of the triune God.

He also gave them his Spirit—which would both go before and accompany their efforts—and the story the Spirit inspired, written down by men and women in the pages of the Bible.

Sadly, after much progress, these communities started reverting to old patterns of living and thinking, setting up dividing walls and hierarchical structures. They turned salvation into a transaction, and utilized guilt and fear in the service of conformity and control.

After hundreds of years, God was able to raise people up to challenge these patterns of living and thinking, and to slowly start restoring the reality of his kingdom of love. Over time, more and more truth about his character was uncovered, and God began his final act of restoration, setting up a last showdown between those who have embraced his love and those who have habitually refused to surrender to it.

Alas, we await Jesus’s return, when he will raise to life all those faithful followers who passed before his second coming. Together with those who are alive and living by his love, he will bring them back to heaven, where they will learn God’s story with ever greater clarity.

It will be a time of recovery, clarification, and healing—until, at last, they are fully grounded in the truth of God’s faithfulness, ever convinced of God’s eternal love and the wisdom of his ways.

In the meantime, all those who refuse to live by God’s love will die, and Satan will be bound on earth for a thousand years. At the end of those thousand years, the wicked will be brought back to life and brought into an encounter with the full truth about God and his loving ways.

Along with Satan, they will admit, at last, that God was fully faithful and fully just, ever acting in the best-interest of others. They will acknowledge his eternal love.

And yet they will still refuse to align themselves with God’s love and they will try to overtake his kingdom. Out of love, God will mercifully wipe out Satan and all those who’ve fully and eternally embraced his selfish and abusive ways, never for them to have a conscious existence ever again—and never for selfishness or exploitation to ever rise again.

God will bring his people and his home back down to earth, and live with his people forever and ever and ever. There will be no more tears, sadness, and pain. There will be no more abuse and unkindness and death.

There will only ever be love, joy, and happiness. There will be togetherness, harmony, and creative bliss. All will recognize and acknowledge God’s eternal love, choosing to live by it for all eternity. And all will live happily ever after.

I know there are lots of holes and omissions in this story (though it’s probably way too long as it is!). Some of those are intentional (which I’ll kind of return to next week), while some are just due to fact that I took about two hours to write this.

No doubt, many in my faith community would say I’m missing some really key ingredients, and it’s way too shallow and light.

But the intention with this story—among other things—is to cover the basics of the theological system my faith community promotes, while doing so in a way that’s story-based and not a list of detached, abstract “beliefs.”

As I’ve proposed before, we are story-formed people—ever placing information and experiences within the framework of the narratives we inhabit. So placing this theological system in a story addresses that reality—making it more relatable, relevant, and memorable, I do believe (while admittedly running the risk of being too trendy and faddish).

To that end, I’d be inclined to invite people who want to join my faith community to simply affirm that they want to be a part of that story—rather than asking them to just check off boxes of abstract theological doctrines which may or may not connect to each other in any obvious or dynamic way.

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Shawn is a pastor in Maine, whose life, ministry, and writing focus on incarnational expressions of faith. The author of four books and a columnist for Adventist Review, he is also a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the University of Oxford, focusing on nineteenth-century American Christianity. You can follow him on Instagram, and listen to his podcast Mission Lab.