http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Two troubling paragraphs:
"Mission fosters the capacious orthodoxy necessary for us to stick together. Mission allows for the generous diversity of thought which is essential to a healthy evangelical gene pool. Biologists teach us the less diverse the gene pool, the more at-risk the species. The more homogeneous our beliefs become the less likely evangelicals are to survive. We need a rich, diverse orthodoxy. As the evangelical truth-police work to silence all minority reports, they are actually working against the overall health of the tribe.
Those who wish to functionally excommunicate Rob Bell and others like him are alienating the very Christians who promise to provide the kind of theological diversity essential to our healthy future. We should be welcoming Bell's voice, not silencing it. If evangelicals have a future together, it will not be the way of those who cry "heresy" and let slip the dogs of war. It will be with those who unite around mission and prefer a rich theological landscape."
The Bible and orthodoxy are not something that needs a diversity. It is not acceptable or compatible to say that 'everyone gets into heaven' as Bell does, and what Jesus says in John 6:37-40: "37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 ForI have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus is quite exclusive. He only permits into heaven, those He has called.
His biodiversity argument doesn't make any sense at all. God spent the entire Old Testament calling out his people to separate them from the diverse orthodoxy around them. Jesus carried that torch further in His ministry showing how the religious elite had perverted God's message of grace.
The second paragraph doesn't make any sense compared to Jesus and Paul's in the New Testament. Both of them fought for orthodoxy continuously. Jesus didn't 'generously diversify' His message to include the religious elite's view of works and hereditary based salvation. Paul opposed Peter in front of a group of church leaders in Galatia when Peter tried to act like a Judizer and put salvific value in circumcision.
Both of these paragraphs highlight what my own church so often promotes: "Let's spend our energies helping God restore the earth. This is our most important goal." I would argue, the Bible describe's God's most important goal as giving Him glory and enjoying Him forever. We do this best when we do as His Son called us to do, and that's to make disciples from here to the nations. Disciples who individually dedicate themselves to Christ as Lord of their life, and then influence the area around them with His light to draw others to saving faith.
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