What We've Been Taught Has a Powerful Grip

Hi Everyone
I have been out of action for many months due to health issues, but that is about to change.
I had major back surgery last year and a quintuple by-pass operation this year so I have been unable to sit at my desk for any length of time or even be bothered concentrating on reading the newspaper.

But I have been passively listening, rather than actively participating in discussion or debate, and I have been hearing a similar story over and over.
"The main thrust of your book that all humanity will be reconciled to God eventually is well supported by Scripture and persuasively described in your book BUT it is quite the opposite to what I have been brought up to believe."

And, I have to say, I held a similar view until I began to look at the Biblical evidence for the complete success of Jesus' sacrifice for the sins of the world on the cross of Calvary. I too believed what I had been taught - that people who left this planet as unbelievers would spend eternity in a place called hell where they would be tormented unmercifully.

I was uncomfortable with this outcome, especially under the supervision of a God of love, but my pastors and ministers were all preaching the same message, often weekly at the Sunday evening gospel service, so it must have been correct, was my silent response.
So I completely understand what these people are now saying to me.
However, they at least have "The Really Good News About God" to present the true Biblical story, which I and others of my vintage did not have.

So, now that I am almost three months post-heart-op and getting stronger, I am preparing to take up the challenge of making God's really good news more readily available, especially on the internet.
This blog, the website and study guides for "The Really Good News About God" are going to be my first focus, probably commencing after spending Easter at home and having a brief holiday with friends at Bright at the end of April.

See you in May for the first of the new blogs.
Blessings, Barry

Koorong has "The Good News" for Sale

Koorong has begun selling "The Really Good News About God" (in Paperback and eBook versions) from its website and a few of their shop-fronts have at least one paperback copy on their shelves.

The Really Good News About God uses everyday language to address some of the deep questions most of us wrestle with at some point in our lives.
Who am I?
Why am I?
What is life?
What is death?
Is there a God?  If so, what is God like?
Does life on this planet have any purpose?

The Really Good News About God is an easy, refreshing read, written in an informal, conversational style, not weighed down by theological or religious language.
It's a good place to start exploring these important questions, as the author offers positive, uplifting answers from the Bible that challenge the good news/bad news dualism often promoted by mainstream Christianity.

I am currently talking to Dymocks about selling the book, and a theological training college in the US about including it in their student reading list.
So God's wonderful plan of eventual salvation for all mankind is starting to get around.
Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Blessings, Barry

The Next Really Good News Project

Hi to my wonderful Blog Readers and Reviewers.

I have the structure of the website in place (although I haven't used WordPress as I was thinking of doing) and am about to start writing for it and the new book.
I am planning to get the website made public by Easter 2016 and the new book published by Easter 2017.

I will again use this blog to give the various writings a first airing and the opportunity for you to crash-tackle them into shape before they become part of the website and/or book.

So, first of all, are you still happy ...

• to be involved in what I am writing?
• to be a reviewer for the stuff I write?
• for your email address to be attached to the blog so that each post gets into your inbox as soon as it has birthed here rather than you having to keep checking whether anything new has been added to the blog?

Although I value and appreciate your interest and support, and particularly your feedback on what I write, ( "The Really Good News About God" turned out the much, much better for it ), I don't want to burden you or your inbox if this venture is past its use-by date for you.

So please, be honest with your response.
I will not in any way be offended or hurt if you drop out. I promise I will still love you as much as I have ever done.

In the meantime, let me wish you a very merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, our maker, redeemer and model for life, and a safe, productive and satisfying start to the new year.
Blessings, Barry

PS  The book has sold about 40+ copies (and is to be placed in the Geelong Regional Library) and this blog has been viewed over 5000 times (without any marketing efforts).  The message is gradually getting out that God loves us and has a wonderful plan to reconcile us all to him before the end of time through the ministry of our Lord. Barry

On the Home Straight

Hi Everyone
Sorry for the lack of contact and news recently.
But here is the latest.

The manuscript for the book is complete and I am trying to find an editor, as everyone tells me an editor is essential for a work to be published.

My present schedule is to get the editing done, then format the manuscript for publishing as an ebook, then format and publish as a print book.  I hope to get this done before the end of the year, but that may be optimistic as I am discovering that the journey between writing the manuscript and publication is challenging, a bit hazardous, and can be quite costly (especially by some routes).

After that, I plan to overhaul this blog site and start blogging again on subjects under-pinning the topics covered in the book (more like mini Bible Studies).

In the meantime, I have prepared a website to accompany the book, which is located at www.ibtechservices.com.au (our old business domain).

Please have a look at it for me and give it a good, solid road test.
I have tested it with the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, but nothing else.  If you have an earlier version of these or any version of Opera or Safari please check it out in these for me.

Any comments, positive or negative, will be most gratefully received, and please report back to me any links or menu items that don't work as they should.

Will talk again soon.
Blessings, Barry

Who We Are

Sorry I have been out of action for much of the past few months - and I'm afraid the rest of the year could be much the same.
So I thought I would touch base with you very special, chosen people.

One of my favourite passages, 2 Corinthians 5 : 19 - 20, reminds us that

WE ARE Christ's ambassadors or personal representatives whose task is to encourage others to be reconciled to God, the One who is already reconciled to them.

God was in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's sins against them.  And the message of this reconciliation has been given to us.  We are therefore Christ's personal representatives, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

WE ARE to encourage those who follow through on this to "revere God and serve him faithfully with integrity, considering the great thing he has done for them," as Samuel did to the people of Israel.

WE ARE co-rulers with Christ in his kingdom, his ambassadors in a foreign country, following his directions from above.

WE ARE very blessed people, no matter what our current assignment or circumstances, and privileged to have been chosen to serve the King of the Kings during the remaining ages.

WOW !!!
Reflecting on who WE ARE really blows me away.

Blessings, Barry

Specks of Gospel Gold

Hi Team.
Will I ever finish writing this book? 
I sure hope so.  
It's message has totally consumed my thinking, completely changed my outlook and will be such wonderful, freeing news to so many.

Nevertheless, I have explained so many times how I become distracted, not just with the events of life around me, but with exploring the new insights God is giving me as I spend so much more time these days reading and digesting his word.

Each new discovery or glimpse of new light usually captures my attention so much that I go hunting it down with single-focussed enthusiasm.
Many of these are confirmations of possibilities I have shared with you before - like the fact that at the Great White Throne all unbelievers will become believers, so that the Lake of Fire receives those who are believers whose names are NOT in the Book of Life.
But some of them are brand new thoughts like the discovery of TWO gospels, not just one as I had always believed.

The book-writing is definitely still happening, but more slowly, as I mentioned recently when I unhooked myself from the advertised time schedule for it. 

And you will have noticed that postings to the Blog have become quite rare.
Two reasons.
1.  All my recent writing has gone into the draft for the book.
2.  I haven't shared any of the distractions with you.

So that the Blog will not become completely deserted, I have decided to share some of these distractions with you - not as long epistles, but as small specks of Gospel Gold that I am discovering or wanting to brainstorm about.

As always your feedback is most welcome. 
Your email notification of a new posting or comment is an unformatted, unstyled version of what changed on the Blog, but should not be used to send me your feedback.
I just ask that all (non-personal) feedback be made as a Comment on the Blogsite so that all readers can enjoy the full discussion between us.

I'll probably get the first one up this week.
If you're not interested in these "extras", just delete the email announcing their arrival.
I'll still love you and appreciate your fellowship and feedback.  :-)

Blessings, Barry

Change of Pace

Hi Everyone.
For some time I've been working towards finishing the manuscript of the book by the end of the year so that it can be published early next year.
And I would still dearly love this to be so.
But I have to be real.

Events and other circumstances keep drawing me away from the desk, and my drive to keep to my schedule of completing a new chapter for you to look at every few weeks is putting at risk the need to be thorough in my research and thinking before I finalise what I write.

Today, I have decided that I must change that priority.
The need to be thorough in my writing must come first - regardless of how long it takes to get the job done.
People are going to be more influenced by what they read than by how long was taken to write it.
And what ends up in print is going to be around for a long time, and unable to be changed, so it must not be the product of hasty work.

I will continue to post chapters at ncable.net.au as they are completed, and I will continue to be grateful for your critical comments on them. (I have had some great feedback from the bits already posted, so please keep that coming - it is so helpful.)


Blessings, Barry

Here's Chapter ONE

Hi Everyone
Thanks so much for your feedback from the Preface and Introduction.

I have now posted Chapter 1 for you to read and review for me.
It is at http://users.ncable.net.au/~barrytatt/C1.pdf

Some of it will be familiar to you if you've been reading the blogsite regularly.
And that will be true for other chapters as well. 
The blogsite is used by me to try out ideas on you and get your feedback in small bits before those bits become parts of a chapter.

So your candid feedback is always appreciated on the blogsite as well as the on draft chapters that are now being posted at ncable.net.au.

I am hoping to get the draft of Chapter 2 ready for you to review by the end of the month.
But life is so busy when you've retired   ;-)    ...... but that's my aim.

Thanks again.
Blessings, Barry

You can start reading the book - at last !

Hi Everyone.
After writing for non-Christians,and then re-writing for Christians, and then re-writing for the non-churched and ex-churched, I have decided to write for all of these groups together and hope that whoever reads the book will find themselves engaged by it.

So, after lots of fiddling around, I am ready to give you the draft manuscript of the book, bit by bit, and ask for your earnest and honest critiques in the hope that it will be finished its "peer review" by Christmas (you are the peers) and I can look at publishing it and completing the website early next year.

The preface is available at 

http://users.ncable.net.au/~barrytatt/preface.pdf 

and the introduction at 

http://users.ncable.net.au/~barrytatt/introduction.pdf

Let me know if you have any difficulty getting either of these and I will email you a separate copy.

My plan is to put each draft chapter up at similar locations every two weeks or so, beginning with Chapter1 in mid September. I will let you know when each draft reaches its destination through this blog site.

Thank you for your love and patience.
I will really appreciate your corrections, criticism and suggestions as you review each piece that is posted.

Blessings, Barry.

Recent Progress - book, web and blog

Hi Everyone.

As you will have seen I haven't posted anything for quite a while.

Sorry for the delay.

Have been on holidays in NT and had some family opportunities to pursue.

Have been engaged in some interesting discussions by email and face-to-face with non-Christians, calvinists and other Christians, which has been envigorating and relevant to the subject of the book, but has not added anything to it. Indeed, I have used material from the book drafts in these discussions to advantage.

And I will be going to QLD soon for several weeks.

Nevertheless the book is progressing, as is the website to accompany it.

Have now decided the book has to be readable by anyone, so I have cut it down tremendously and am putting the 'meatier' discussions (theological and philosophical) on the website for those who want to pursue them.

Most chapters are drafted, but I probably won't get the chance to tidy them up and make them available to you  until after I return home in early August.

Blessings to you all.

Will catch up with some of you on my QLD travels soon.

Barry.

Book Progress Report

Hi everyone.

I am miles (kms?) behind the book schedule I announced last year.  Even though I have rough drafts of each chapter written, I still have more study to do before I will be happy to release them to you .... for your expert review.

As you would know, I have been a student of eschatology for decades, yet have still to develop a view that is scripturally sound.  It is indeed a difficult task - wish God had inspired a book called "Eschatology 101" to be added after Revelation rather than have us gather clues from all over the Bible and try to fit them together.  :-)

However I have resumed the task because I want to have an eschatology that I know is biblically sound to explain HOW God will restore everyone to Himself.  I may not include the results of this investigation in the book (the first book anyway), but I want to be sure that I can answer the HOW questions that people may ask after they read it.

So ...... I have slowed down the book writing while researching the eschatology ... again.
Cartoons for the book have also slowed down, so everything may well be ready at the same time eventually.

Now a question for you .......
Do you want me to post here (and therefore send to you by email) my deliberations, findings, musings, questions, etc. from the eschatology study?  

Before you answer, let me warn you that it will be challenging stuff.  But if you would like to be challenged, maybe even to the core of your eschatological being, then it would be helpful for me to receive your feedback on what I post.

Any starters?
Blessings, Barry

Church-sitting lessons

I have been thinking a lot about what I have learned from my recent "botched" church-sitting exercise - botched only in the sense that what the pastor and I planned to happen was not achieved, not that God didn't have and fulfil His own plans. 

Although I have not come to any fixed-in-concrete resolutions yet, I feel I am coming to the following positions....

1.  I will not be a guest preacher for a church again, unless the leadership of that church already believes in God's ultimate plan for the world, as declared in the Bible, or is specifically wanting the church to be taught along those lines.

I see little value in allowing myself to be hauled over the coals and accused of teaching unBiblical stuff by the leadership of churches that worship a God of conditional love whose attempt at salvation at Calvary was too weak to overcome Adam's sin for most of His creation.

2.  I will be more focused and more purposeful in my efforts to spread the good news about the God of unconditional love and sovereign power, who is the Saviour of the whole world, that the Bible reveals.

I am getting too old (have too few productive years left) to think this can just happen whatever/whenever and I need to deliberately set time aside each week to write for the web and the printed publications I had just been hoping would eventuate some day.

3.  I am also wondering if my focus needs to be on the "world" rather than the organised church for sharing this message as the world and fringe church-goers seem to be more ready to embrace these Biblical truths than those who have been unthinkingly saturated by the theology of mainstream christianity, whose leaders don't want their flocks to be exposed to anything or anyone that might enlarge or challenge their thinking, even if it is Biblically supported.

It is so ironic that a "wonderful" church which preaches grace so often, and where God began to stretch my own understanding of His grace several years ago, axed me for preaching how extravagant and powerful God's grace really is.

As always, your thoughts and feedback are most welcome.
But please give them as comments below the post, rather than as reply emails to me (unless you have something private to share), so we can all benefit from the ideas and discussion.

Barry

Another Bunch of Hypocrites

We have all heard many times the excuse for not coming to church as, "The church is full of hypocrites."  On hearing this, I would usually talk about our sinful weakness, even though we are saved, and the need for those in the church to be refined and matured towards God-likeness over time.

I still think this is true.  Yet, I think mainstream christianity has a lot to answer for nevertheless.

I have seen books written recently with titles like "How to Quit Church Without Quitting God", "So You Don't Want to go to Church Anymore",  "7 Biblical Truths You Won't Hear in Church", "I'm Fine with God ... It's Christians I Can't Stand", among others.  I have read several of these and have agreed with much that is in them.

It's interesting that the mainstream religion of the Old Covenant era was described in a similar fashion.  Isaiah reports that God accused Israel of being responsible for having his name constantly blasphemed. 
Ezekiel was just as damning.  "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, O House of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.'"

Those familiar with the Bible are well aware of the ways in which Israel profaned God's name, but we are often blind to the ways we have done so.  We too, are guilty of the same hypocrisy they were.  We say one thing, and preach or act in a quite opposite way.

Mainstream christianity says that God loves us unconditionally, but then preaches that this is true only on the condition that we love him in return.
Mainstream christianity says that we are saved by grace alone, but then preaches that this is not true, we are required to take some action ourselves, and right now by the way.
Mainstream christianity says that God is the Saviour of all, but then preaches that most people will not be saved but will be tormented in hell forever.

What do not-yet-believers make of all of this?  How do they respond?  
Confused.  Frustrated.  Cynical.  Antagonistic.  Disinterested. 
I wonder why the mainstream churches are becoming empty and only the entertainment style churches are growing in the western world?  Any thinking outsider is more likely to respond with, "I'm fine with God... it's christians I can't stand," than join God's latest bunch of hypocrites.

Boy doesn't God take a risk in allowing humans to represent him?  Even when they are "his chosen" under the Old Covenant or "the saints" under the New.  It's pretty sobering to realise that the heathen are not accused of profaning God's name, only God's people.

I have been reluctant to expose this hypocrisy and share these Bible truths strongly in the past.  Why?
What would happen to the positions I hold, the respect of other christian leaders I enjoy or the close friendships I value?

I have my similarities with the first century followers of Jesus.
No-one would say anything publicly about Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles celebrations for fear of the Jewish leaders, the leaders of the mainstream religion of the time. 
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus' body secretly (probably at night) for fear of those same leaders.
On the evening of Jesus' resurrection, his disciples were meeting behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jewish leaders rather than proudly and publicly announcing the good news of Jesus being alive, having conquered death as he predicted he would.

So here I am with the good good news of God's unconditional love and extravagant grace that needs to be proudly and publicly announced and preached.  How am I to do this is my big question?

I have now retired and no longer hold any of those precious mainstream church positions.  Indeed, the more public I become about this, the more likely I am to remain retired. :-) The need to have the respect of other christian leaders is not as important as it was, and  friendships will surely sort themselves out as being close or not.

The proposed book will be the end result of the website that will be generated mainly from this blogsite.  The website and book will be widely advertised, even though the blog is only for friends.  That's as far as I have travelled with this question.  

Any suggestions?  Using the comments section under this post for brainstorming this over the next few months would be appreciated.  Barry.