I present this piece as a follow up to Rob Bell: “Bullhead” Guys as an illustration of just how conditioned people have become to defending these like emerging Hollow Men like Rob Bell who are themselves are neo-orthodox (at best) in their theology. True, Bell’s work is in general might be closer to the megachurches than it would be to the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church but his own blatant attack on sola Scriptura and constant misrepresenting the historic orthodox faith once for all delivered to the saints places him squarely in their corrupt camp.

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 3-4, NKJV)

Bullheaded Defenders Of Rob Bell

What you are about to see is comes from the comments section of the post as it appeared at Slice of Laodicea here. Please understand that this actually has very little to do with the person who calls himself “tom.” Rather he has allowed himself to become an excellent object lewsson of just how far afield people in the growing cult of Rob Bell are willing to go to defend this teacher of counterfeit Christianity. I praise the Lord that He moved Marty to come and set the record straight concerning this sad exhibition of non-thinking by “tom.”

“Tom” writes:

You mean to say these “hecklers” were hanging out in a bar with a Rob Bell video in their hands? Why would somebody do that? Sounds a bit odd and fishy to me.

Posted by: tom at September 30, 2006 08:45 AM

My response was:

tom,

I don’t know that this particular night these two guys were “hanging out in a bar,” nor do I know if the rock musician who is in those bars “300 nights a year” carries a Rob Bell Nooma video with him each night.

This much we do know, we have the eyewitness account from a Christian pastor and two others preachers of the real Gospel that these two guys were in fact in the area that night. However, they just might have been hanging out in the nightclubs because according to Rob Bell himself that’s where he and his brother “like to go.”

In a New York Times interview Bell said that the EIS tour was “an opportunity to talk at length to an audience that may not already be in the evangelical tent.” Then Bell tells reporter John Leland:

” ‘I just thought, What are the places my brother and I like to go to?’ he explained. “And it’s nightclubs and places where bands play. That’s where people go to hear ideas in our culture.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/08/us/08minister.html?ex=1310011200&en=e5d4fa17b3f39ca6&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

So it doesn’t really seem so “odd and fishy” at all to me after reading this…

Posted by: Pastor Ken Silva at September 30, 2006 09:22 AM

A subsequent note regarding where Rob Bell and his brother “like to go,” if you listen carefully to Bell’s Nooma video “Bullhorn Guy” you will hear Rob Bell himself–as the supposed superior Christian–say:

So, I’m going to see a band with my friends and as we’re walking to the venue, and up ahead on the sidewalk out front is this guy. He’s got one of these bullhorns and he’s yelling all this stuff…

With this actual incident pastor Marty describes in the above article we are clearly talking about something that Rob Bell is talking about in his “Bullhorn Guy” video. “Christians” who are coming from a “venue” on order to parrot to these open air preachers the same kind of mockery Rob Bell teaches them to in that video. This is yet another reason I am doing all I can here at Apprising Ministries to expose Rob Bell And His Emergent Cult.

Tom then responds to me:

Pastor Ken,

You wrote “I don’t know that this particular night these two guys were “hanging out in a bar,””

But the letter sent to you says “Well, two guys came out of a bar across the street and walked over to where we were and immediately started heckling the preacher…” Later the letter says “the church planter guy handed me a DVD…”

This particular story seems a little too convient for me to believe, thats all.

I’m not saying that this sort of thing doesn’t happen. When it does it is shameful. Even if one disagrees with this type of evangelism, there is a proper way to have discourse and a street arguement is not it.

Posted by: tom at September 30, 2006 11:09 AM

In an attempt to help him see the actual issues I replied:

tom,

Thank you, I am aware of what I wrote to you. Since I wasn’t there personally, of course I cannot “know” that what my brother pastor wrote is true, but his credibility is such that I have no reason to doubt his testimony.

Friend, this happens in court rooms every day and eyewitness testimony is used in the Bible itself e.g. Luke 1. If you wish to accuse this pastor and two other ministers who represent Christ of lying because their testimony seems “too convient” to you that’s your prerogative.

I just think it’s a decision on your part that is lacking wisdom.

Posted by: Pastor Ken Silva at September 30, 2006 11:22 AM

Tom’s response was:

Pastor,

That is some advise that I can’t agrue with, and something I was considering even before I read your post.
The only thing I would say is that if one believes this testimony you have to believe the whole thing. You began questioning whether the “hecklers” came out of a bar or not. If part of it is questionable than how does the whole stand up?

Posted by: tom at September 30, 2006 12:02 PM

To which I replied:

tom,

I mean this politely. I personally did not, and do not, question the report of my brother pastor at all. I was simply saying I’d concede that I couldn’t “know” exactly what happened simply to make my point to you if that’s what you needed because you questioned it.

So this question doesn’t apply to me: “If part of it is questionable than how does the whole stand up?” I don’t think any of it is questionable in the least because I’ve had plenty of personal experience with those who are caught up in the Emergent cult now following Rob Bell.

This describes exactly what I have encountered with them. One need only go to Apprising Ministries and read “Love Letters From Emergents.” Also see Henry’s astute comment above. Tom, I will be praying that you’ll follow my previous advice. :-)

Posted by: Pastor Ken Silva at September 30, 2006 12:12 PM

And then finally we hear the following from pastor Marty himself:

Tom,

I am the pastor who sent the email to Pastor Ken Silva. However fishy it may sound, the whole thing is true. These two guys came out of a joint,and were carrying cups in their hands (which they said contained Diet Coke). They told us they had been in the bar.

The one guy boasted about being in bars 300 nights every year and it not being a problem. Why the other guy had a Rob Bell DVD on him, I don’t know. I wondered that myself. Maybe he retrieved it from his vehicle before they came over to where we were.

The man that was preaching at the time can be heard a block and a half away when he gets cranked up, so its possible that they heard him, remembered the DVD in the car and decided to go take care of this real live “Bullhorn guy.” I have no idea. All I know is what happened and what they told us. Incidentally, I captured the whole thing on a digital voice recorder which we use on the street at the recommendation of the Christian Law Association.

I haven’t gone back and listened to it, so I don’t know how intelligible it is because honestly the five of us were all pretty much talking at once! Up to this point I hadn’t given Rob Bell as much as a passing thought, so I certainly didn’t conjure the whole thing up in order to make him look bad. I knew of Ken’s website and told him of the encounter because I thought he would find it interesting.

Wolves like Bell need exposed so that they can’t devour the sheep. Ken is one of the few on the web exposing this emergent cult. To God be the glory!

Posted by: Marty at September 30, 2006 02:56 PM

The Flawed Philosophy Of Postmodernism Doesn’t Ring True

But this is exactly the kind of a-logic that we are seeing in this focused on “me” alleged postmodernism and their pet argument “guilt by association.” However, what has been lost in all the rhetoric from the Emergent Church is that the faulty philosophy of postmodernism is really all about the self. Someone simply says: “I will believe whatever I want to believe and you can’t tell me I’m wrong.” As I’ve said before, picture a pouty fourteen-year-old being told they can’t do something they want to. Off they go slamming the door of their room (which their parents provide) in order to become lost in the little fantasy world they wish to see.

In the end, this doesn’t really change anything and this philosophy of pouty postmodernism just will not work. Try going into a bank and saying, “Reality to me is that this piece of paper I’m going give you says that I have a million dollars in this bank and noew you must hand it over to me. Well, this person would soon get to meet “Police Guy” who would later introduce him to “Judge Guy” and then a door to a room–a very real prison cell–would be slammed yet again. No, how much better to turn away from this spiritually bankrupt Emergent Church mumbo jumbo, which has the form of our religion but denies its Power, and become a follower of the real Jesus Christ of the Bible.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8, NASB)