Ringing the Bell on Rob Bell

For those that don't know Rob Bell is an emergent pastor from Michigan and some have called him the next Billy Graham. He is respected widely among evangelicals as coming with a "new" twist on an old religion. He is making it "relevant" and "exciting" for a younger hip generation. Anyone who has been on the scene of Christianity for any amount of time has either came across his Nooma videos or his book "Velvet Elvis". The purpose of this blog is to do what so many others have done already. Explain to a younger more impressible group of evangelicals just what the gospel is and identifying bad teaching. I do this with a humble heart knowing I am talking to Pastors, youth pastors, lay leaders, elders and many others. I want to take journey into the teaching of Rob Bell and why it must be rejected by those "Commanded" to protect the sheep.

For a clear gospel link click here.

For the purpose of this blog and detecting heresy we have to start with what the gospel is NOT....

I just want to tackle the BIG baby food, obvious foundations for Christianity. Like Hell, The Bible, Salvation and touch on a few doctrines like the substitutionary atonement of Christ and universalism. These are the issues that those who are in the faith should be able to detect and call out those who deny them.

Lets take a look...

Rob Bell on the need for salvation.

Rob Bell:
“You can’t get enough points to get in with the Big Guy. You can’t do enough good deeds and then God will like you. One of the things the Spirit does is remind us that we belong. Period. Just exactly as we are. You are loved by God.”

Really Rob, how is that the Bible says things like God is angry with the wicked everyday? God will judge the world in righteousness? No murderer or liar or fornicator will enter the kingdom of Heaven. A man MUST be Born again to enter into Heaven. How Rob? If we are all loved by God just the way we are then why send Jesus? This is a flat out heresy line.


Rob Bell on the Bible's accuracy.

Rob Bell:
“The Bible is a collection of stories that teach us about what it looks like when God is at work through actual people. The Bible has the authority it does only because it contains stories about people interacting with the God who has all authority”
-Velvet Elvis, p.65

“…it wasn’t until the 300s that what we know as the sixty-six books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as the ‘Bible’. This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is. So when I affirm the Bible as God’s word, in the same breath I have to affirm that when those people voted, God was somehow present, guiding them to do what they did. When people say that all we need is the Bible, it is simply not true. In affirming the Bible as inspired, I also have to affirm the Spirit who I believe was inspiring those people to choose those books.”
-Velvet Elvis, p.68

[The Bible is a] “human product…rather than the product of divine fiat”

Wow, now the textual criticism and the historic agreement of the Bible is so elementary to any Bible believing seminary. For such a popular speaker to not only be able to actually explain how we Got the Bible we have today and how we can trust it but also to wash it away as just a book...just a human product. Rob, why believe any of it?

Rob Bell on Hell.
Come on this is an easy one.

”When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter–they are all hell on earth. Jesus’ desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth. What’s disturbing is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about Hell here and now. As a Christian, I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth.”
- Velvet Elvis, p.148

“Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. Ours or God’s.”
- Velvet Elvis, p.146

On the Fall:

“I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identify ourselves first and foremost as sinners. Now this doesn’t mean we don’t sin; that’s obvious. In the book of James it’s written like this: ‘We all stumble in many ways.’ Once again, the greatest truth of the story of Adam and Eve isn’t that it happened, but that it happens.”
- Velvet Elvis, p. 139

On “Ultimate Reality”:

“I don’t follow Jesus because I think Christianity is the best religion. I follow Jesus because he leads me into ultimate reality. He teaches me to live in tune with how reality is. When Jesus said, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’, he was saying that his way, his words, his life is our connection to how things truly are at the deepest levels of existence. For Jesus then, the point of religion is to help us connect with ultimate reality, God.”
- Velvet Elvis p. 83

On the Nature of the Atonement:

“So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody. Paul insisted that when Jesus died on the cross he was reconciling ‘all things, in heaven and on earth, to God. This reality then isn’t something we make true about ourselves by doing something. It is already true. Our choice is to live in this new reality or cling to a reality of our own making.”
- Velvet Elvis p. 146

On the Virgin Birth:

“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births?

But what if, as you study the origin of the word “virgin” you discover that the word “virgin” in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word “virgin” could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being “born of a virgin” also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse?”
-Velvet Elvis, p. 26

On Faith:

“Who does Peter lose faith in? Not Jesus; he is doing fine. Peter loses faith in himself. Peter loses faith that he can do what his rabbi is doing. If the rabbi calls you to be his disciple, then he believes that you can actually be like him. As we read the stories of Jesus’ life with his talmidim, his disciples, what do we find frustrates him to no end? When his disciples lose faith in themselves….. Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus’ life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of how capable they are. He sees what they could be and could do, and when they fall short it provokes him to no end. It isn’t their failure that’s the problem, it’s their greatness. They don’t realize what they are capable of….God has an amazingly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things. I’ve been told I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I’m learning is that Jesus believes in me….God has faith in me.”
-Velvet Elvis, pp. 133-134


Let me end with a couple videos that show how heretical Nooma videos are. If you have played them to your church STOP. You are not examining the teaching with the BIBLE.



The Biblical Response


The Gospel...Unkind?




You be the Judge!!!!

John Macarthur

Great experience this past week at Woodside Bible Church in Troy. What made it so great is the preaching of the word by Bible Teacher and numero uno of living preachers/theologians was none other than John Macathur. He preached on the prodigal son and I promise it was like no sermon you have heard on the text. He managed to condense five messages worth of material into one sermon and it just blew my mind. It got me even more excited for hermeneutics and the exposition of the word. I am just so thankful to had heard it. I also had the honor of asking Dr Macathur a question during the service. And in the way that only Piper and Macarthur can do he took it back to the word, applied it, chewed it up and threw it back at me to were I think I got reprimanded or excommunicated or something. But seriously the question was on the impact of evangelism in ministry and his answer went right to it. Saying that everything "in" the church we will do better in heaven. The church is meant to strengthen believers and make there lives a living testimony for the gospel and to proclaim it in a lost a dying world. It was great.

Are we looking up to a broken system?

Yes! Ok so we all know that politics and Christianity can get way to played out about this time every 4 years or so. By this time and getting closer to November we are so tired of hearing the word politics that we can pull our ears off. So I do not want to go into this post with a political agenda. I want to tackle this issue of politics and the Christians proper view from a new angle that I don't think is touched on nearly enough.

Political anything in any country is a falling and failing system. Yes God appointed it and yes we are to be good responsible citizens of those offices. At the same time are Christians standing below the political "umbrella" looking up as if that is all we have or should we be above the system looking down?

Our hope is not in the outcome of this election (although we have hope for it) and our foundation is not in the Constitution of the United States (although we support it) but in the Word of God. Our hope is not in this world. We are to look down on a sinful fallen process and interject as much biblical input as we are asked but no more. That system does not belong to us and it never will. It belongs to the prince of the power of the air and as long as we are in this world it is yet another fallen system. We get so wrapped up with many secular humanist that we forget they are fighting for there life and hope. What are we saying when we get so vocal and so out of whack? That this is our only hope and its not. We have only a certain amount of time left. Use it and reach someone you don't know with the Gospel of Jesus Christ today.


Remind [the people] to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Worship Music

Worshiping God through Praise is an amazing thing and something to take with complete reverence. It is a fascinating subject and one that deserves our full attention. As I continue my wonderful study in Justification you can look for updates soon. I want to step back from that for a bit and talk about Worship Music. It just so happens to be the latest sermon series our Pastor is going through right now. You can listen to that message here...

http://www.mtmorriscommunitychurch.org/home/2259/2259/audio/Music%20in%20the%20Church.mp3

We are going through the book of Colossians verse by verse and this is such a fantastic subject. So many of todays "POP" Culture church services seem to be more bent on pleasing man in hopes that it please God by the effort rather than starting with what pleases God first and well ONLY. Once we see what it is that please God we should not wavier from that. Take the Biblical instruction and praise God in a way that He gets the glory.

Our churches get so up roared in what can be sung and what instruments can or cannot be used and we dont pay attention to the heart and the theology in the words. Contemporary churches seem to not want old wonderfully full hymnals and classic hymnal lovers dont want any contemporary biblical songs brought in. It is for God and both sides need to put there focus on Him with much prayer.

Here is an example of a very Biblical song that I think would not be brought into a church context and I agree it should not be. But for casual theological listening, this song is very edifying. Now it is a rap song and I will be the first to tell you that I am not into hip hop or rap or rock or metal Christian Music. I do think some of it is great but most of it falls very short. Please tell me what you think .

Well before I get more into the issue of Justification I want to update you on what has since happened with my Catholic Friend. He showed up to talk to me yesterday. He said that a leader of the church came up to him after mass and told him that what he brought up last week was very interesting and commented on the remarks I made about the necessity of the law and the inability to add work to justification. He asked him to tell it to him again and he again explained our conversation and told the guy that it is kind of strange because I take the Bible literally. The other man said he had been struggling with the point of the law and this helps clear things up for him. The other man told my friend that he would like to have more group talks about this subject. He was than told that I made the offer to come to the church and explain myself if desired. The leader (I don’t know the position) said that would be great but they both agreed that they needed to get the Priest Ok.

When he told me all this I was so blessed because I did not even imagine fruit like this would come to be. Then these two verses came to mind today.

Psalm 37:4†
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

What an amazing promise. When you look at your life and in your prayer time you count all your blessing. You are content with all that you have and could not ask for more. The only thing you want is more of God and He blesses you with fruit and obedience and you begin to walk in His ways. You act according the riches you have in Christ and speak. For all I know that man in that Catholic Church might be getting saved. I don’t know. I just thank God that he gives more than we could ever ask and blesses us so much. How can we not tell people?

Infused or Imputed??

I have been witnessing over the past year with a man whom I love dearly. He is a devote catholic and he and I have shared opposing views with much interjection from his current Priest. I feel as if I know this priest and I can almost foresee every swing back he will have toward me as he looks for spiritual truth. Over the years we have discussed the Law and its proper use, mercy, Holiness, and works. I knew our time together was coming to an end due to his soon retirement. I wanted to make sure he understood our differences and was clear on what the result would be according to scripture if he held his current views. I am sure I could have lead him to 100 "sinner prayers" but thank God that never happened. I knew if anything would save him it would be the word of God and the power there of. So I have been just knuckles down on the issues of Justification and if it is infused or imputed. I knew already what Scripture taught but I did not understand how Catholicism can come to some misunderstanding of infused righteousness.

Currently I am reading a book by Jonathan Edwards on Justification by Faith alone and it has been such a blessing to me. After going through several Catholic blogs I am shocked at the constant contradictions within the blogs. They say that works is necessary for salvation but there verses are ripped out of context and then seeing quotes for justification apart from the law is by faith. I just dont get it.

When we parted ways, I asked him if he would be willing to read Romans Chapter 4 and he declined. I asked why? He said he trust what the priest and myself tell him. I told him that we both could be leading him to hell and unless he checks for himself he will never get saved. He said he will be fine and I said no you wont not based on your goodness and he drove away and said "bye Gary". Be in prayer for him this week if you could. In the mean time I want to start tomorrow with a overview of Romans 4 and its clear unmistakable explanation of Justification by FAITH ALONE.

God Bless

On vacation

Will be back Sunday afternoon. Thought I would drop this promo....