Apprising Ministries has been blessed of Jesus to be used as one of His leading online apologetics and discernment works for coverage of the warped and toxic teachings of EC leaders like the Emerging Church rock star pastor Rob Bell.

Sadly, mainstream evangelicalism became spiritually spineless and embraced the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church,  now upgraded to 2.0 with its newer, more clearly delineated, postmodern Progressive Christian theology, which these rebels against the final authority of the Word of God will often refer to under their circus “big tent” as Emergence Christianity. 

In Unrest With Rob Bell Inside Mars Hill Bible Church I told you of a meeting concerning Bell’s new book that was held last night at Mars Hill Bible Church; the video below is an excerpt of what Bell said prior to a question and answer period. I’m still discussing this with sources in MHBC who were there; so far one of them has told me that  they felt this “was essentially a snow job.”

The meeting “started off in the hallway [mall]” because they had desired it to have a “town meeting” feel; however, “with around 2,000 people there” it was very “crowded” with “nowhere to sit” meaning that the many “elderly people” who showed up had “no place to sit as well.” So the fire marshall, “who is a member,” suggested that everybody “move to the shed [auditorium]” so that people would be more comfortable and be better able to hear what was going on.

To be clear, Rob Bell did say that he “is not an universalist, believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation, believes in the Virgin Birth, believes Jesus is God.” My source got the impression that Bell’s “charismatic personality was in full force” and noted that “were no dissenters.”  There was “a question and answer time,” but they tell me “any pointed questions were deflected quite easily.”

It was “a rather calm and quiet meeting.” In closing this, for now, because of Rob Bell there is now a growing confusion on exactly what is meant by “universalism” because Bell has insisted that he is not adhering to it. However, in A Review Of Love Wins Of Rob Bell I showed you that Tim Challies and Aaron Armstrong, who read an advanced copy of Bell’s new book, told us that he advances what I’ve called the emerging mush god with a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart:

If Love Wins accurately represents Bell’s views on heaven and hell (at least if our understanding of the book accurately represents his views on heaven and hell), it reveals him as a proponent of a kind of Christian Universalism. He would deny the label as he tends to deny any label. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, you know how it goes…

Love does win, but not the kind of love that Bell talks about in this book. The love he describes is one that is founded solely on the idea that the primary object of God’s love is man; indeed, the whole story, he writes, can be summed up in these words: “For God so loved the world.” But this doesn’t hold a candle to the altogether amazing love of God as actually shown in the Bible. (Online source)

Finally today in God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of “Love Wins” Kevin DeYoung adds the following distrubing information about the mythology of Rob Bell:

Here’s the gist: Hell is what we create for ourselves when we reject God’s love. Hell is both a present reality for those who resist God and a future reality for those who die unready for God’s love. Hell is what we make of heaven when we cannot accept the good news of God’s forgiveness and mercy. But hell is not forever. God will have his way. How can his good purposes fail? Every sinner will turn to God and realize he has already been reconciled to God, in this life or in the next.

There will be no eternal conscious torment. God says no to injustice in the age to come, but he does not pour out wrath (we bring the temporary suffering upon ourselves), and he certainly does not punish for eternity… In the blog buzz leading up the release of Love Wins, there was a lot of discussion about whether Bell is or is not a Christian universalist. After reading the book, I see no reason why the label does not fit. Now it’s true, Bell believes in hell.

But he does not believe that God pours out his wrath on anyone forever (I’m not sure he thinks God actively pours out wrath on anyone at all). Hell is the sad suffering of this life (71). Hell is God giving us what we want (72). Postmortem hell is what we create for ourselves when we refuse to believe God’s story, when we resist his love (170-71, 172, 177). There is hell now and hell later. “There are all kinds of hell because there are all kinds of ways to reject the good and the true and the beautiful and the human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next” (79).

So why do I say Bell is a universalist if he believes in hell? Because he does not believe hell lasts forever. It is a temporary “period of pruning” and “an intense experience of correction” (91). Bell’s hell is like purgatory except his “period of pruning” is for anyone, not just for Christians who die in a state of grace as Catholicism teaches…

At the very heart of this controversy, and one of the reasons the blogosphere exploded over this book, is that we really do have two different Gods. The stakes are that high. If Bell is right, then historic orthodoxy is toxic and terrible. But if the traditional view of heaven and hell are right, Bell is blaspheming. I do not use the word lightly, just like Bell probably chose “toxic” quite deliberately. Both sides cannot be right.

As much as some voices in evangelicalism will suggest that we should all get along and learn from each other and listen for the Spirit speaking in our midst, the fact is we have two irreconcilable views of God. (Online source)

See also:

ROB BELL AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM

THROUGH ROB BELL “THE GREAT ENLIGHTENED ONES” TELL US MAN HAS DIVINE GREATNESS

SERIOUS QUESTIONS CONCERNING ROB BELL