Brothers and Sisters,
All of his teachings are sprinkled with Bible verses. That is a ploy. What does it mean when he throws Bible verses around, we can't know what they mean? What is he doing here? There's a certain deception in that, I think. Recently I watched a video called 'Love Wins' where he talked about how the gospel of Jesus was not unique. He talks as if everything is a question and we are not sure what he means. He just basically comes out of the closet in his new video by introducing the idea that it's all just universally the same and Jesus is not unique. Hey? What? Isn't that Universalism?
Please, little ones, Don't be swept away by any wind of doctrine.
Just a precursor to the video: The guy in the video, Todd Friel, is a bit torqued because Rob Bell has been doing these antics for years and nobody has said anything about it. In Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell talks about "re-imagining the Christian faith." He wrote a book called Sex God. Hello! This should have blown whistles and alarms for evangelicals everywhere. But it has been left alone and now many have been swept away by his Nooma videos (which are directed to teens) and wish-wash teachings. Seriously, my jaw locked when I heard the things he said in his new video. I've followed some of his videos before and found something really annoying. He acts as if the gospel is not enough and as if we have no understanding of it. His teachings are so easily consumed by teenagers because they are the spiritually weak. They just don't know how to discern things as adults do. This is why bible studies with only people your own age can be dangerous, especially with these Nooma videos.
Is being overly provocative the cool thing nowadays? I like to make people think about their faith, but he takes it to another level. His claims are backed by speaking with invisible question marks and parenthetic "you knows" and "you know what I'm sayings" in a derogation tone without conviction with what he claims. Don't be another groupie on a bandwagon of unknown uncertainties.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Revelation 22:18-19
Those videos reach teens because they make scripture approachable, and applicable to their lives. Which for many non-Christians, can bring them to scripture which they might not come to when they have evangelicals throwing the book of Revelation in their face. Rob Bell is not wish washy, and his books aren't about changing the scripture, nor does he ever say that the scripture isn't divine. And Sex God was a great book, have you ever read Song of Songs? Sex is part of life, and Rob Bell points out that sex should be biblical, with one person, they way God intended.
ReplyDeleteBe in the world, not of the world. You can't reach people with brimstone and fire, but with the love and sacrifice of Christ. Nooma videos are not scripture, but they are a gateway for young people who may not know Christ to approach the bible, and approach topics which they may struggle with, or not see sin in.
http://thideology.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/nooma-you-a-review/
ReplyDeleteOh, he really believes in the scripture, but he doesn't agree with it. He believes in his own Jesus, not the one in scripture that everyone knows and the bible makes clear. Bell distorts what the text clearly says. He doesn't like the idea of eternal punishment to those who haven't repented of their sins. Instead, Bell argues the point that people shouldn't go to Hell because they haven't heard of Jesus, and that Hell isn't actually a place but Hell is just a metaphor of what we make on earth. This is the problem. This is not the reason why people go to Hell. And since Bell doesn't like the idea of Hell he has crafted his own Jesus out of scripture and uses the text to fit his own beliefs.
ReplyDeleteThe reason we all know why people go to Hell is because of sin. They don't go to Hell because they never heard about Jesus. God says that he made himself evident in creation so that man is without excuse. It takes a lot of will power to suppress what is so obvious.
The way Rob Bell approaches these topics is as if the people in the past had no clear understanding of the scripture as we do now. It's this idea that people in the past were wrong.
His Jesus allows everyone into heaven. His Jesus forgives even the ones who hate him. Our Jesus even says that those who call upon his name 'Lord, Lord' he will say to them, depart form me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. And He will say to them depart from me you workers of iniquity, and He will throw them into eternal fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth--a place of eternal punishment (Matthew 25). Our Jesus judges men fairly. Psalm 14 says no man does good, not even one! And man only lives once and after death comes judgement. And when Jesus comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8).
Romans 7:12-17
ReplyDelete"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ."
Romans 5:18-21
"Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Rob Bell doesn't teach that at all. He skips over so much scripture to create his own Jesus--a marketable one that fits his worldview and the world's.
His teachings don't even align with the Old Testament. At the very beginning when man first sinned. Adam was covered by the sacrifice of an animal. His sin was covered by the blood shed. And the Lord made the atonement for him and also promising an atonement for all of mankind borne of Eve, in which we have been given Jesus. You'd have to dismiss and distort every book in the bible to make a Jesus that died for nothing and for no one. If it were up to us and our 'good' merit, then Jesus' sacrifice and blood was not necessary. But there is only one lawgiver and judge, He who is able to save and to destroy (James 4:12). He will open the books and judge every sin. "And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement."
I've read reviews. Ones that support him, ones that refute him, and ones that are completely neutral. I'm not judging the guy from my own intuition. The bible is so clear. Bell is making it unclear.
ReplyDeletehttp://walkwithmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/rob-bell-part-1.html
ReplyDeletehttp://walkwithmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/rob-bell-part-2.html
http://walkwithmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/rob-bell-part-3.html
http://walkwithmen.blogspot.com/2011/04/bells-inferno.html
And more at gty.org