Monday, April 04, 2011
It makes sense.
But it is wrong. Pastor Rob Bell has a new book out that explains how a loving and all-powerful God could allow his created children to spend eternity in Hell if they do not put their faith in trust in His Son Jesus. He explains this by saying that Hell is a state of mind. Heaven is real, mind you, but Hell is not. It is hard for us to believe that God would send people to eternal torment, even if they are moral people, if they don't believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven. In fact, because it is hard to believe people have always found other ways to believe or explain this away. Every other religion got its start with basically some guy sitting under a tree somewhere saying, "That is just too hard to believe and so I'm just going to make something up that is easier to believe". It may make sense but if God was easy to understand then we could be God too. Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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4 comments:
Todd, I heard the hype about this book before it was published, so I wanted to know for myself if what they were saying was true. So I went to Barnes & Noble and read most of it. It is at least as bad as you say. Bell avoids making specific statements which he could be pinned down to, and instead asks questions: "Would a good, loving God send people to hell forever?" He suggests an answer, and it is not the answer clearly stated in the Bible. The theology Bell sets forth is not Biblical Christianity, but is rather some sort of postmodern humanism wrapped in Christian lingo. His conclusion is that hell is temporary, that God's love eventually wins everyone over, and that somehow, after death, people have additional opportunities to choose God and go to heaven. He pits God's love against his holiness and declares that love wins. But the Bible says that both God's love and holiness win. Bell invents a god who thinks and acts a lot more like Rob Bell than like the God of the Bible. He should be warned that God detests idolatry.
Gee, how long were you in Barnes and Noble?
It's not a long book. I just couldn't bring myself to buy a copy. I wanted to do a point-by-point analysis in my blog, but that would require me to fund Rob Bell, and I could not justify that.
Just google him if you want more info. I had to remove the video. It was driving me nuts.
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