Fear and Trembling

Michael Scott Horton reviews Rob Bell’s Love Wins at this link . Mike Licona reviews Forged by Bart Ehrman at this link . Thank you Mike and Mike for reading those books and reviewing them for the rest of us.

Reformation Theology quotes a pastor on the reality of hell at this link. Here’s the quote: A very good friend of mine, Pastor Graeme Adams, from Dundee, Scotland writes, "“Are you orthodox on the issue of hell? Good! Does it cause you to pray and weep for the lost and actively seek ways to reach them with the good news of Jesus, or be smug or worse because you know something Rob Bell doesn’t? It’s incredibly sad and harmful when high profile leaders propagate heresy, AND when millions of Christians profess faith, historical biblical faith, and yet don’t live it. Heresy and Cold lifeless heartless Orthodoxy are partners in crime against humanity and God. May God use this issue to break our hearts.”

I agree with Justin Taylor that Rob Bell now seems to have outwardly embraced universalism . He seems to be teaching that all people ultimately go to heaven. Taylor provides Bell’s video at this link , and Bell’s own words condemn him.  (If this turns out to be some kind of publicity stunt, then woe to Bell for taking liberties with his message.) I have written about Bell’s dangerous theological leanings before (see the links here and here ), but this new teaching takes him far outside orthodox Christianity. Jesus is the figure from the Bible who says the most about hell. He describes it as eternal (Mt. 25:41, 46; Mk. 9:43, 48) and as a place of torment (Mt. 25:30). To venture outside these teachings is to find oneself arrayed against the Lord of Glory Himself. (I recommend an audio presentation by R. C. Sproul on hell at this link .) I do not relish the idea of anyone going to hell, and I find it encouraging that God does not either (Ezek. 33:11, Mt. 23:37-38). ...

I’m still reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I wanted to address another comment this week, quoted below. For the next several hundred years, there was a lot of discussion in the Christian community about which books were considered Scripture and which books weren’t. But it wasn’t until the 300s that what we know as the sixty-six books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as the Bible. This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is. So when I affirm the Bible as God’s Word, in the same breath I have to affirm that when those people voted, God was somehow present, guiding them to do what they did. When peop...

I am reading a new book this week: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I find it an interesting read, with many perspectives I share (more on that later). There are a few aspects of the thoughts expressed that bother me, however. I address the first one in this post. It has to do with what the Bible is about. Rob says: …this is why the Bible loses its power for so many communities. They fall into the trap of thinking that the Bible is just about things that happened a long time ago. / But the Bible is about today. / These stories are our stories. They are alive and active and teaching us about our lives in our world, today. These words express a very dangerous perspective on salvation, our right standing before God. Let me clarify. The Bible is clear on its intent (Luke 1:4, John 21:24, Luke 24:25-26). The intent is for us to know certain facts about things that happened in the past and their bearing on us today. There is a reason for this. Our salvation; our right standing before God, eternal ...