For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. (2 Peter 2:21)

Rob Bell Sliding Back Further Away From Biblical Christianity

In his post Not the Gospel of Jesus. Not Anywhere Near It Greg Gilbert of 9 Marks points us to a recent interview with Emergence Christianity icon Rob Bell, which ran in Christianity Astray Today, a magazine that can barely be convicted of being evangelical. Gilbert first points us to where CT’s Mark Galli, who conducted the interview with Bell, asks how the Emerging Church pastor would present the gospel:

How would you present this gospel on Twitter?

I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at odds with an impulse within you that said that this little thing might be about something bigger—those tiny little slivers may in fact be connected to something really, really big. (Online source)

To paraphrase Bell’s friend Emergent Church spokesman Doug Pagitt: wow. wow. wow. just wow. Gilbert now continues:

Really?  That’s it?  That’s the gospel?

Honestly, what does one say in response to something like that?  I suppose one could say a lot, like I did here, here, and here.  And kind of here, too.  Or you could just say what should be boringly obvious to any orthodox, not even to mention evangelical, Christian–

Bell’s answer to Galli’s question is sub-Christian.  It is not the message of Christianity.  It is not saving.  It is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is not even anywhere near it. (Online source)

Men and women, there’s very good reason why teachers in the “long tradition” of counterfeit Christianity like Rob Bell speak so much of unity in “this new heaven and earth here” supposedly being brought about by their mush god of  “militant mysticism.” Consider the following from Arthur Pink in Another Gospel:

Satan is the arch-counterfeiter. The Devil is now busy at work in the same field in which the Lord sowed the good seed. He is seeking to prevent the growth of the wheat by another plant, the tares, which closely resembles the wheat in appearance. In a word, by a process of imitation he is aiming to neutralize the Work of Christ. Therefore, as Christ has a Gospel, Satan has a gospel too; the latter being a counterfeit of the former. So closely does the gospel of Satan resemble that which it parodies, multitudes of the unsaved are deceived by it…

The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great “brotherhood.” It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to the “best that is within us.”

It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed. It endeavors to occupy man so much with this world that he has no time or inclination to think of the world to come. It propagates the principles of self-sacrifice, charity and benevolence, and teaches us to live for the good of others, and to be kind to all.

It appeals strongly to the carnal mind and is popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature man is a fallen creature, alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins, and that his only hope lies in being born again. In contradistinction to the Gospel of Christ, the gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works. (Online source)

And then John MacArthur hits the bull’s-eye concerning the man-love of these Emergent rebels against Sola Scriptura like Rob Bell when he says:

I think that it is so important to know this. In a time like this of tolerance, listen, false teaching will always cry intolerance. It will always say you are being divisive, you are being unloving, you are being ungracious, because it can only survive when it doesn’t get scrutinized. So it cries against any intolerance. It cries against any examination, any scrutiny—just let’s embrace each other; let’s love each other; let’s put all that behind us.

False doctrine cries the loudest about unity. Listen carefully when you hear the cry for unity, because it may be the cover of false doctrine encroaching. If ever we should follow 1 Thessalonians 5, and examine everything carefully, it’s when somebody is crying unity, love, and acceptance. (Online source)

See also:

ROB BELL, PETER ROLLINS, AND QUEERMERGENT’S ADELE SAKLER

ROB BELL DOES NOT ADHERE TO SOLA SCRIPTURA

ROB BELL IN A NUTSHELL: THE BIBLE

IS ROB BELL EVANGELICAL?

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

PEOPLE-PLEASING POETS, PROPHETS AND PREACHERS PETER ROLLINS WITH ROB BELL

EMERGENCE PASTOR ROB BELL TO HAVE FRIEND PETER ROLLINS IN CONFERENCE