Sunday, April 10, 2011

Rob Bell Answers His Critics....But Don't Be Fooled

Megachurch pastor Rob Bell, a prominent leader in the Emergent Church Movement, has recently released a YouTube video in which he makes what sounds almost like a creedal statement, presumably as a rebuttal to all who are rightly calling his new book "Love Wins" the heresy that it is.  But please don't be fooled by Bell's persuasive, sing-songy honeyed words: no matter what he proclaims in this video, Rob Bell affirms a Universalist heresy known as "Universal Reconciliation/Christian Universalism" throughout his newly released book.  Here is the video, which we've also transcribed, and then below that we've given our response to Bell's statement:





The RobBellion Creed
"My name is Rob and I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I'm a Christian.
And I believe in Jesus, and
I believe Jesus is the way, and
I believe in heaven, and
I believe in hell, and
I believe the Bible is God's word, and
I'm not a universalist, because I believe God's love is so great God lets you decide.
I believe in the communion of the saints,
I believe the church is the fullness,
I believe in the new heaven and a new earth,
I believe in healing,
I believe in miracles,
I believe in salvation,
I believe in the power of prayer,
I believe that God is alive and working,
I believe there's been a resurrection and that there's a whole new creation bursting forth right here in the midst of this one, and
I also believe it's best to only discuss books you've actually read."

 Sola Sisters Response 

So let me get this straight: Rob Bell writes an ENTIRE book laying out his case for Universalism, and then when people start calling him on it, he stands up and gives this I-am-not-a-universalist creed with a straight face. And just listen to the people whooping and hollering in the background (Yeah, you tell 'em Rob! They can't slander you like that!) Uh, what? Have I fallen down the rabbit hole, and ended up in Wonderland where nothing is as it appears, and words are plastic-y playthings that only mean what the speaker wants them to mean?

As persuasive of a speaker as Rob Bell is, I emphatically and categorically reject Bell's attempt to frame himself as orthodox by making the above statement. As we've written here before, we fully expected Rob Bell to affirm all of the things he does on this video because he already affirms them in his book "Love Wins." (And yes, I did actually read the book.....and so according to Rob Bell's own statement, I am therefore allowed to have an opinion!) In all seriousness, the problem here is that - like any classic cult member - Bell is rejecting the biblical definitions of all those things he is affirming. Rob Bell has conjured up his own redefined versions of these Christian beliefs he is supposedly affirming.  A few examples:

....a false "Jesus" as "the mechanism" who makes entry for all into heaven (Bell's version, p. 154 "Love Wins") as compared to

.....the historical person of Jesus (and the Jesus of the Bible) who makes atonement only for those who come to the Cross through repentance and faith in this life (God's version)

and,

.....Hell, as a period of "pruning" in which God is continuing to woo each person who is there until they end up in heaven (Bell's version, p. 91 "Love Wins") as compared to

......Hell as an eternal punishment for those who have broken God's moral laws, and who are paying the penalty of their sins with their own lives (God's version).

The Bible has spoken clearly and authoritatively about all of these Christian concepts that Bell has "affirmed." To be in rebellion to God's Word is to also be in rebellion to Jesus himself, who in Scripture is known as "the Word." God would not have supernaturally written and preserved the inerrant Word of God for us if He didn't desire for us to fully and deeply know him, and also know what He requires of us.

I exhort my brothers and sisters in Christ to reject this wolf in sheep's clothing who attempts to use Christian terminology to assert orthodoxy, but who has revealed in his book "Love Wins" an arrogant disdain for the revealed Word of God. Make no mistake: the emergent church movement is a Christian cult, and in my view, the fastest growing one in existence today. Beware, beware, beware.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires." (2 Timothy 4:3)

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