Friday, February 25, 2011

Rob Bell sets himself against God...

So, we've known for a while that Rob Bell was going to release a book denying the doctrines of Hell and the final judgement. It's a sentimental message that will certainly resonate with many contemporary evangelicals who cannot cope with any notion of exclusion. These are the same folks who loved Velvet Elvis wherein Bell states that Christ need not be resurrected and that Christian doctrines are like springs on a trampoline - disconnect some of them and you can still enjoy a rather satisfying jump. Rob Bell, Brian MacLaren, Tony Jones and the like are giving less discerning Christians a reason to reject the very words of Scripture. Sadder still, these men are giving unbelievers a reason to be comforted in their unbelief.


LOVE WINS. from Rob Bell on Vimeo.


Rob Bell denies that we are saved from the wrath of God by grace through faith in Jesus. He denies the reality of hell. He denies the very words of Jesus that few find the way of life. And yet this is exactly what the Scriptures teach:

Matthew 5:22 - "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire."

Matthew 2:29 - "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell."

Matthew 7:13-14 - "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Matthew 10:28 - "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew 13:40 - "Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age."

Matthew 23:33 - "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?"

Matthew 25:41 - "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

Luke 3:9 - "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Luke 3:17 - "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Luke 12:5 - "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!"

Luke 12:49 - "I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!"

Luke 13:23-27 - "And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!'"

John 3:36 - "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."

John 15:6 - "If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned."

Romans 1:18 - "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."

Romans 2:5 - "But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed."

Romans 3:5 - "But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?"

Romans 5:9 - "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."

Romans 9:22 - "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction..."

Ephesians 2:3 - "...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

Hebrews 10:26-27 - "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries."

1 Thessalonians 1:10 - "...and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."

2 Thessalonians 1:5-8 - "This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."

2 Peter 2:4-10 - "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority."

Revelation 6:16-17 - "...calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

It is a grievous sin to deny the very Word of God. This is precisely the project of Rob Bell and others within the dwindling emergent movement. Woe to those who speak falsehood and call it the gospel.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Christ wins, not his mamby pamby version of what he calls "love". He also has zero head and heart knowledge of the Gospel.

cwk said...

These questions by this person are most disturbing, because he’s been exposed to all of the answers and cannot grasp or understand them. The very questions he’s asking are not only answered in the Scriptures, but are answered clearly and emphatically in them. It would be more impressive if Bell were to create his own religion, rather than bite off of orthodox Christianity. Hasn’t the world seen enough perversions of genuine orthodoxy? How can he be satisfied with a new system of salvation that takes some of Scripture and not the whole? If one understands but a bit of Scripture, it is clear that there is a unity throughout. One cannot accept Jesus as a moral teacher and just a great person without tarnishing the entirety of Scripture and the gospel itself. It is both surprising that Bell overlooks his logical inconsistencies as it relates to Scripture. Moreover, it is shocking that he understands himself so little as to not recognize the motives behind his claims. It is one thing to think these kinds of things and live your life, and it’s another to have been given such broad influence and a platform to speak from, and to boldly lead others astray. This is disappointing to say the least. In reality, Bell’s heresies are nothing new, though he might like to think so. He is simply telling people what their itching ears want to hear, because that is far easier than speaking the truth to the world about God, the reality of sin, and the need for a Savior.