Reviews from Bell's book

Pastor Bell's publisher for "Love Wins" has released review copies of the book to various reviewers. I've found two reviews so far.

The first is from Greg Boyd:

http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/rob-bell-is-not-a-universalist-and-i-actually-read-love-wins/

The tricky part of this review is that Mr. Boyd doesn't use any scripture to defend Pastor Bell. Instead he focuses on four factors of why it's ok for Pastor Bell to raise the questions he does without actually answering them fully. It seems that if you're going to argue that someone is correct, then using scripture would be the right way to do it. But I guess not everyone holds scripture in as high regard as Jesus did.

You can guess from my analytical, and I hope mostly logical, postings that I prefer a linear argument. Excusing a pastor's questioning of what should be rock-solid truth, because the questioner is an artist doesn't sound like a reasonable defense to me. If draw pictures on my calculus exams and illude or call into question the pythagorean theorem, the math teacher is going to fail me, any defense of artist not withstanding...

The second review is from Tim Challies:

http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/love-wins-a-review-of-rob-bells-new-book

This review is much easier for me to understand because Mr. Challies uses scripture throughout his review to rebut and point out the problems in Mr. Bell's implications and arguments. I appreciate where Mr. Challies points out where orthodox evangelicals would agree with Pastor Bell. It feels like he tried to be fair in his review, even though Mr. Challies clearly doesn't agree with Pastor Bell's conclusions.

Where do you stand in this debate?

Psalm 119:33 - 40

I don't know if you've ever read Psalm 119 before. It's one of my favorites. It's the longest Psalm at 176 verses. I love it because the author is praising God for His word, the Bible. The author revels in the ability to know the mind of God through the Bible. I cherish this ability too. Of course the complete totality of all that God is, is not revealed in the Bible. But the key points of His character and purpose are made clear. No matter how old or young a believer is, you can read the Bible and understand it. Of course you may not understand all of it right away, but the central themes are clear. If you don't make it a habit to read the Bible, I would strongly encourage you to consider it. You will probably be surprised by what you discover.

Today I read the section 119:33-40. A couple of key verses for me were:

³⁴Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart.

This is my prayer too. I want to know God better. I want to understand what I read. I want to follow His commands and example, because I want to be like Him. He saved me! How could I not want to follow in His footsteps. And I want to understand Him to the core of my being. I want to keep Him in all of my life, not just a part here or there. And of course He is the one who provides the desire and then fulfills it. It's such a pleasure to serve an all powerful sovereign king!

³⁷Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity,
And revive me in Your ways.

I am so caught up in how great I am. I am relatively successful and respected at work. My wife and kids are great, and I have a comfortable house. It is so tempting to focus on how great I am to have brought all of this to bear. In reality God has provided it all. He has done so with a purpose. I want to be in His ways and purpose, not mine. I was dead before He saved me. And yet I am so tempted to throw away His plan and pursue my own pleasure.

A discipleship partner of mine this week said: "Jesus shows His power by His Humility." These words have been ringing in my ears all week. Lord help me to be humble and not vain! Revive me to know your word and to conform to your ways.

4-part gospel strikes again

You've probably read/heard me rail against the "Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration" new gospel that has been floating around lately. Here's the latest salvo: http://www.jameschoung.net/big-story-training.pdf I'm sure Mr. Choung is a very nice guy. But what he teaches in the linked PDF is dangerously close to heretical teaching.

Please don't get taken in by this strange new formation of the Gospel. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He calls us to make disciples. He came to be a propitiating (wrath averting) sacrifice for us before God. He came to make peace between us and God. Not because we asked for it, but because of His mercy and kindness. It's all about God and not about the world.

Some positives about the pdf:

- "Would you like to hear the core message Jesus came to teach, or the basic message of the Bible?"

--- I agree that creation,fall, redemption,restoration is a pretty good summary of the Bible, it just isn't a very good summary of the gospel

- "If it’s new, it’s probably heretical."

--- Totally agree with that.

Some concerns about the pdf:

- "our universal ache for a better world means that such a world either once existed or will one day exist."

--- Seems kind of a jump of logic to me...

- "we damaged creation. We drain her for her oil, and fill the air with pollutants so we can have a comfortable lifestyle. And it fights back in hurricanes and tsunamis."

--- Huh? "her" that sounds a lot like 'mother earth' which is pagan as the day is long. He then shifts to 'it' but, the earth doesn't fight back because we take oil. It is subject to the fall of course, but it is not reacting to us. The earth has been suffering from the fall since long before we could harvest oil out of it....

- "God came to the planet as Jesus 2,000 years ago and started a new thing. He started a resistance movement against evil, though not with military revolt, or communal escapism. Instead, he taught us a better way to live, and wants to give us the power to overcome evil in us and around us. "

-- Wow it's getting worse. Jesus didn't just start a 'new thing'. He didn't come to teach us a 'better way to live'. He came to redeem us from the wrath of the Father! This actually makes Jesus out to be just like any other sage/teacher who teaches us a way to live. Yikes!!!

- "he restored creation so that all of it could be used in their good ways. All of the world’s systems " the environment, corporations, governments, schools, etc. " can now be used to usher in God’s values of love, peace and justice. Oppression & injustice can cease"

--- I never understand this point in the C,F,R,R 'gospel' I just don't see the scriptural basis for it at all. I don't see any of the disciples or apostles using the world's systems to fix things on earth. I do see them spending their lives and their treasures to bring people to faith though. The two verses included as references: Eph. 2:11-22 and Col. 1:15-20 are much better at presenting the gospel than this story/illustration thing. And they do nothing to support the point that the author is making.

- "Lastly, God restored our relationships with himself."

--- Really? Lastly God restores our relationship with Him? Isn't that the most important thing? Isn't He the one we've grossly offended? I would think we would all want Him to restore that relationship first!!

- "Jesus wants us to join this resistance movement against evil, to go out and heal the world. With these resources,Jesus is asking us to be sent together to heal the planet"

--- HUH?!?! what part of "Make disciples of all nations, teaching them everything I have taught you" is caught up in 'heal the planet'? All the verses he cites are all Old Testament verses about serving the poor and not being unjust. While of course those are things we should pursue, if he was going to argue that Jesus wanted this to be our focus after we were saved, then why didn't he pick any verses from the NT?

- "By trusting him, and giving him leadership over our lives, we can become the kind of good we want to see

around us."

--- But this isn't what really matters. People fat, dumb, and happy on earth is not the ultimate goal! Saving them from the tortures of hell for eternity is what really matters. At least the author does point out that we are to have a response to this message. Normally I don't see any response called for.

- "Would you like to let Jesus be the leader of your life and join his movement to heal the planet? Will you trust him with your life?"

--- Again, I'm pleased to see a call to response. But it's this strange mission to 'heal the planet' again. This is like a green movement with some Jesus sprinkled in.

- "Also, looking at Colossians 1:20, it’s clear that Jesus didn’t just come to save individuals, but “to reconcile to himself all things"

--- This is really pretty terrible eisegesis. Reading the passage in context you can see that Paul is making the point that Jesus is reconciling all people, who are elect, to God and making peace with the Lord of Judgement. It has nothing to do with systems of government or other things. Paul's not making that point at all. If he was he would have elaborated on it more. Instead Paul is making the point that Jesus is God and that He has saved us from the Father's wrath. What a glorious, merciful, mighty gift.

- "But all of this old truth is often locked behind the Bible’s many pages or in theological tomes, and so seems inaccessible to the normal Christian."

--- Huh? I'm a pretty normal Christian and the truth was revealed to me without someone having to dumb it down and warp it like this presentation does. The Bible really isn't that complicated. If this whole presentation had just exegeted Eph 1 or Col 1, it would have been easy to show to anyone what the Bible says.

- "The penal substitution theory we know arose in the 11th century by Anselm"

--- This is very dangerous. It slyly insinuates that Jesus's wrath averting sacrifice was something made up later in history. Instead it was written very clearly in Romans 3:23-26 mere decades after Jesus' death and resurrection.

- "What if someone just wants to jump to the fourth circle, and ignore the third? Why do we need Jesus to heal the planet? Ultimately, we need to become the kind of good that we want to see in the world."

---- What?!?! I'm not saying in the slightest that we should abandon the world once we're saved, we have to obey the great commission and make disciples. But this author instead says we have to make the world a better place, as if that is far more important. That mere social justice is the only purpose for Christians on the planet, and that one day the whole world will be restored through our efforts. That is complete hogwash. Revelations is pretty clear that the world will be reformed by God and not by us!

- Pointing readers to Dallas Willard and N.T. Wright

--- Yikes those are some very shady authors now-a-days. They both deny the necessity of penal substitution and justification by faith.

Not really surprised...

Looks like Rob Bell has jumped the shark. Not that I am really surprised by his jump. And it does make me thankful in some senses since he makes it clearer now what he preaches instead of hiding as much and confusing people.

At the same time, I'm sad. Sad for Rob, sad for the thousands who follow him, saddest most for those who have followed and been condemned to hell for their belief in falsehood. I hope and pray that Rob can see the error of his belief and come to true faith.

What a great miracle of God would it be for Him to correct Rob and bring him publicly to the truth. Oh that He would show mercy.

Oswald Nails It

Don't know if you've ever read "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers before or not. It's a great devotional. Recently I discovered that someone has put up a site hosting all the days of the book. They even have an RSS feed.

Today's entry is: Sacred Service.

The line that jumps out and grabs me is:

"If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen."

What a rebuke to the arrogant parts of my life that want to point out how great my life is, and how people should follow Jesus so they can be like me. Equally this is a warning to me, not to preach a 'self-help' religion where I hear that people are suffering and I offer them the Savior as a solution to that suffering. Of course, I'm not saying that Jesus doesn't help in our time of need. But what I am saying is that He came and died for so much more. He came to save us from the wrath of the Father that we had earned. And besides, He may not think it's best to remove some affliction from us in a particular season.

Instead I should focus on the supremacy of Christ. His matchless splendor. His amazing grace. His unending kindness. And let that kindness lead to repentance.

Talk about Bad Theology

Below is an excerpt from a post from Dallas Willard. The italics in the quote are directly from the post, but the bold part is my addition.

"

"But I still struggle with how I should view those who have other beliefs. I'm not sure I am ready to condemn them as wrong. I know some very good Buddhists. What is their destiny?"

I would take her to Romans 2:6-10: "God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger."

What Paul is clearly saying is that if anyone is worthy of being saved, they will be saved. At that point many Christians get very anxious, saying that absolutely no one is worthy of being saved. The implication of that is that a person can be almost totally good, but miss the message about Jesus, and be sent to hell. What kind of a God would do that? I am not going to stand in the way of anyone whom God wants to save. I am not going to say "he can't save them." I am happy for God to save anyone he wants in any way he can. It is possible for someone who does not know Jesus to be saved. But anyone who is going to be saved is going to be saved by Jesus: "There is no other name given under heaven by which men can be saved.""

This kind of thinking is amazingly dangerous and I would say even borders on heresy.

1) If someone comes to you and says: What about my buddhist/muslim/atheist friend who is really good, won't they go to heaven? Your answer is very scripturally: Unless they repent and believe (Mark 1:15, Acts 19:4, Romans 10:9-10) they shall not be saved. There is absolutely only one sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:12), not multiple. In fact this is the entire point of Romans 1-3. In particular Romans 1:18-32 labors the point that God is knowable and that those who reject the God of the Bible do so knowingly and purposely. What kind of god is God who rejects those who are nice but reject Him? A righteous, holy, perfect, and just God. He is the ultimate one deserving of worship. It is Him alone who made the universe and everything in it. He alone holds the universe together even now. Worshiping any other, including ourselves, is the height of idolatry. In fact, God is infinitely merciful to allow all of us who previously worshiped other than He to live long enough to accept His Lordship.

2) Willard's whole point that people can be super good and just not know Jesus and therefore be hosed out of getting into heaven by an unfair God completely ignores the entire contents of Romans 1-3. Paul is making the point as strongly as possible that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none. NOT EVEN ONE!! who is perfect enough to get into heaven. That is except for Jesus of course. Remember that even a single sin separates us from God because is perfect. Once we're less than perfect we cannot be in His presence, and He can't stand to have us in His presence. Imagine if you said/did one dumb thing to the CEO of your company or to the President. You would be forever removed from his presence for your incompetence. Those at the top don't want to have you there to taint them. God of course is thousand, billion times more holy then mere men and cannot have sinners near Him. The only way we get to be in the presence of the Father is through His amazing mercy, shown through the willingness of God to kill His Son on our behalf to bear our burden in our place. Then we have the righteousness of Christ instead of our own, and suddenly we're adopted into the Family and made to be His children.

3) He says Christians get anxious about this point. No we don't. We get saddened for those who don't know the Lord and are too stubborn to look at the sin in their life and repent. We long for those we love to realize that their works are not sufficient to save them, and that only Jesus can do so. We long to tell them the truth that they may be saved instead of languish in false hope.

4) His strange laundering statement at the end that anyone who is going to be saved will be saved by Jesus regardless of their knowledge of Him is completely and totally ridiculous double-talk. Now at this point if he tried to bring up Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and their lack of knowledge of who Jesus is, I'd at least give him some credit that he was trying to argue from the Bible. Thankfully God doesn't leave us hanging with His Theology. Romans 4 makes it clear that Abraham was saved by faith in the Promise of the Messiah. And Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5 that Moses wrote about Him. But to say that anyone today who doesn't hear about Jesus is excused, but will still be saved by Jesus is nonsense and confusing.

If you don't know Jesus, Please, Please, Please read the Bible and pursue whether the claims of Christ are true. Talk to me about them, talk to someone else. Just find out if it's true or not. Because if you're thinking that somehow you are going to deal with your sin/guilt problem on your own or through some mechanism other than Jesus' death on the cross, you will have a very, very painful realization when you die.

Resources to follow up Sunday Sermon

Hey everyone. Don't know if you had a chance to catch Hopper's sermon from last week (9/5/2010). He may not agree, but I think his main point was: We need to be ready to share the gospel in one of 3 venues even if we lean towards only one of those venues. His three venues were: (1) Intellectual discussion (2) Miraculous conversion (3) Service opening I personally lean towards (1) b/c that's the way the Lord has gifted me. I can do the other two, but I'm weaker at them. Not saying of course that I'm perfect, far from it (just ask my wife and close friends ;).

One of the neat things about Acts 16, that Hopper referenced, is that in both of the examples of people who were recorded as specifically believing, Lydia & Jailer, they were able to come to faith because Paul was able to explain to them what they needed to do to be saved and provided other details of the gospel that they could understand. Do you or your community group members know how to share the gospel and what some basic tenants of the faith are so that they can 'give an answer'?

Below is a list of resources I've used to help me do that. (This list is not an all encompassing list. Just meant to get you started.) Feel free to try them out or comment below as to whether they or other resources have been useful to you. Some at BACC may not even like some of these resources. That's ok too. Again feel free to post other options.

Basic Systematic Theology

• Essential Truths of the Christian Faith - by R.C. Sproul (Book has 2 to 3 page explanations of a doctrine and the verses to support it. Great for first timers)
• Christian Beliefs: 20 basics every Christian should know - by Wayne Grudem (this is the short-short book, not the short-long or the long-long book ;)
• Systematic Theology - by Tommy Nelson (sermon series from mid 90s from a favorite pastor of mine at Denton Bible Church)
• Drive By Theology - by Todd Friel (short 15 min lessons made for commutes)

Basic Gospel presentation

• What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert (Great little 100 page book on the gospel)
• Terrified - by Todd Friel (20 some Audio examples of witnessing encounters teaching you the right and wrong way to get into conversations with people)

Solo Deo Gloria --doug ><>