Go to Hell!: How to Raise the Dead according to John Kinney

Posted on Jan 9, 2012 in The Church, Theology | 1 comment

This past Friday, I had the privilege of sitting under the teachings of John W. Kinney, the Dean of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. What an amazingly gifted preacher and teacher!

Dr. Kinney shared with us that he has been meditating on how to raise the dead.  Dr. Kinney shared some of his insights with us and I found them enlightening.  I am sure I will not even come close to conveying the richness of Dr. Kinney’s teaching so those of you who were there, please grant me grace.  Below are my personal gleanings and I am in no way suggesting that they represent perfectly or fully Dr. Kinney’s teaching.

So here is Dr. Kinney’s formula for how to raise the dead.

Step One: Alternative Visualization

In the stories of Jesus raising the dead, Jesus sees things differently than the rest of the world.  For example in the raising of Jairus’s Daughter, Jesus says that the dead girl is only sleeping. (Luke 8:52)

Step Two: Radical Alteration

Dr. Kinney pointed out that Jesus broke with traditional Jewish law to bring about healing.  He took the little girls hand – thus touching the untouchable.  He does something similar in the raising of the widow’s son in Luke 7 by touching the coffin.  In order to raise the dead, Jesus had to push back against the teachings of the religious leaders and be willing to alter tradition.

Step Three: Authentic Identification

While the world labeled these individuals as “dead”, Jesus called them by their true identity.  Lazarus by his name, the girl he called “my child”, and the widow’s son he called, “young man.”  The point being that we have to see what Jesus sees and name it and not what the world sees – dead, stinky corpse.  We can’t raise the dead if we focus on externals.  Labels like “lost”, “sinner”, and “poor” are not life giving.

Step Four: Behavior Modification

Jesus tells those who are dead, to behave differently.  He says, “Lazarus, come out!”, “My child, get up!”, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” Dr Kinney made the point that you can’t behave differently if you don’t know your real identity.  He also stressed that it is in the encounter with God that we are convicted and are able to do things differently.  Attempts by humans to convict others only result in judgment and is never life giving.  Our role is simply to invite people into life giving behavior.

Step Five: Establishing Authorization

I never liked that Jesus delayed going to Martha and Mary in the story of Lazarus death.  Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” He says to God  before raising Lazarus, “I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” In the story of the widow’s son we learn, “They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”” When Peter raises Tabitha the outcome is similar, “And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.” So, when God gives life, God’s authority is established.

What struck me in the raising of the dead stories with Peter and Paul was that no one invoked the name of Jesus.  The power to bring life was not dependent on the name of Jesus, but the spirit of the risen Christ.  I was actually a bit surprised by this fact when I went and read these stories.

I believe Dean Kinney would say that too often we get caught up in arguing about whether these miracles actually happened and that we miss the spiritual message of this passage.  Dr. Kinney said, “We are the dead!”  If we want new life, if we want to bring our churches, our city or our communities back from the dead, we need to follow these spiritual principals.

• We have to start with a new vision – seeing ourselves, our neighbors, our churches, our communities and our city as God sees them.
• We may have to reject the religious traditions or practices of the church and be willing to touch the unclean.
• We have to stop labeling ourselves and others according to our present condition and name our given identity as a child of God.
• We have to let God do the convicting and direct people toward new behaviors consistent with their true identity.
• We need to remember it is God who gives new life, not us. It should be God, not us, who gets the glory.

Dr. Kinney then contrasted this biblical methodology with our modern methodology for evangelization which he portrayed as some thing like this, “You are a wretched sinner and you need Jesus.  If you don’t do what I say and accept Jesus, you are going to die and burn in hell.”  Quite a stark contrast don’t you think?

Dr. Kinney ended his message commanding us all to, “Go To Hell!”  He then delivered my favorite quote of the day, “If all the Christians went to hell, we could raise hell!”

He then said, “Jesus went to hell for us, does he expect us to do any less for those living in hell on this earth?”

This was my first opportunity to hear Dr. Kinney live and I think I am going to become a John Kinney groupie.  I loved his powerful delivery but more importantly his theology resonated deeply with me.  He is the first person who told me to go to hell and made me want to come back for more!

So, what do you think of Dr. Kinney’s formula for raising the dead?

Are you willing to go to hell to help others find life?