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

Now before you get all up in arms about my using the phrase “warped and toxic,” keep in mind those are words Rob Bell himself used concerning someone like me who says that in this time of growing spiritual darkness and apostasy as the church visible needs “to get back to the Bible and just take it for what it really says” when he said:

Now please understand that this way of thinking is prevalent in a lot of Christian churches,…but this view of the Bible is warped and toxic, to say the least… This perspective is claiming that a person can simply read the Bible and do what it says…When you hear people say they are just going to tell you what the Bible means, it is not true. They are telling you what they think it means.[1]

Unless, well, your Rob Bell and the Emerging Boys that is. And people wonder why I have labeled this false move of God exactly what it is: A sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church—with its circus “big tent” Progressive Christianity aka Emergence Christianity; it’s got its own postmodern form of progressive/liberal theology, its own leaders who interpret the Bible for them, the EC claims to be Christian, and has now begun to outright deny cardinal doctrines of the historic orthodox Christian faith. Tragically, because mainstream evangelicalism embraced these Emergent fools, who’re merely rehashing old arguments once posed by their evil forebears in the original cult of liberalism, it has been poisoning its own younger sectors for over a decade now.

That’s why, in order to give you another peek at the bleak future of spiritually spineless evanjellyfish with its coming division and compromise of God’s Word, I recently wrote Evangelicalism Meet Thy Future; and for nearly six years now in articles like Is Rob Bell Evangelical? and Rob Bell Is Definitely Not Like Jesus, I’ve been warning you that Bell’s doctrine is certainly not at all in line with the historic orthodox Christian faith. This brings me to Rob Bell and Universalism by my friend Dave Marriott who reminds us:

The Christian blog world has been rocked this week after Rob Bell’s new book has been announced with the promotional video, LOVE WINS (from Rob Bell on Vimeo). Notable Christian bloggers Justin Taylor, Joshua Harris, and Kevin DeYoung have all weighed in.

Christianity Today blogger, Sarah Pulliam Bailey, has has responded with criticism for Justin Taylor and others for passing judgment before the book it is fully released.

John Piper tweeted, “Farewell Rob,” only to be blasted by Scot McKnight, who wrote to Bailey,

Frankly, John Piper’s flippant dismissal of Rob Bell is unworthy of someone of Piper’s stature. The way to disagree with someone of Rob Bell’s influence is not a tweet of dismissal but a private letter or a phone call. Flippancy should have no part in judging a Christian leader’s theology, character or status.

Taylor, Piper, DeYoung, and Harris have this right. After watching that video, how much more needs to be seen, heard, or read? Quite frankly, the content of book would have to completely contradict the content in the promotional video in order for Taylor and others to be wrong.

This new video does from Bell does not surprise me at all. I have been following Rob’s trajectory for the past several years. In one sense, I grieve for those who have been influenced by his teaching. I also fear for him, that blackness of darkness has been reserved for him. However, in another sense, I’m glad that he has been unmasked. (Online source)

Over these past fews years Marriott has done us a real service by wading through the postmodern Humpty Dumpty language while researching the new postmodern form of liberalism advanced by Rob Bell and has produced some very helpful articles such as Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Spencer Burke: More on hell and universalism and Rob Bell and Karl Barth’s Neo-orthodox Soteriology. When approaching the nebulous mythology Bell is weaving, which has a real affinity to neo-orthodoxy, the following from Dr. John MacArthur is crucial to understand:

Neo-orthodoxy is the term used to identify an existentialist variety of Christianity. Because it denies the essential objective basis of truth—the absolute truth and authority of Scripture—neo-orthodoxy must be understood as pseudo-Christianity… Neo-orthodoxy’s attitude toward Scripture is a microcosm of the entire existentialist philosophy: the Bible itself is not objectively the Word of God, but it becomes the Word of God when it speaks to me individually.

In neo-orthodoxy, that same subjectivism is imposed on all the doctrines of historic Christianity. Familiar terms are used, but are redefined or employed in such a way that is purposely vague—not to convey objective meaning, but to communicate a subjective symbolism… Thus while neo-orthodox theologians often sound as if they affirming traditional beliefs, their actual system differs radically from the historic understanding of the Christian faith. By denying the objectivity of truth, they relegate all theology to the realm of subjective relativism.

It is a theology perfectly suited for the age in which we live. And that is precisely why it is so deadly…[2]

In addition, as I showed you in Through Rob Bell “The Great Enlightened Ones” Tell Us Man Has Divine Greatness and Rob Bell On His Practice Of “Militant Mysticism”, Bell is also a mystic for whom his highly subjective personal experience is his guiding force rather then the proper Biblical spirituality of sola Scriptura, which Bell specifically rejects:

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…[3]

With alll of this in mind Marriott correctly informs us:

To Bell, since Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world, then the whole world is already reconciled to Jesus. The only choice now is not to make this reconciliation true – there is no call for faith and repentance. Rather, the question is: “Are you going to live in this new reality or will you cling to one of your own making?” It has been suggested that Rob’s work has been highly influenced by neo-orthodox theologian, Karl Barth…

If everyone is already reconciled to Christ, then the questions naturally follow: “Who goes to hell?” and “Is there a real place called hell?”… Ask Rob Bell if he believes in hell and he will tell you that he does. However, his comments in Velvet Elvis may suggest otherwise… (Online source)

You can read this article by Dave Marriott in its entirety and examine his thorugh documentation right here.

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End notes:

[1] Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005], 053, 054, emphasis mine.

[2] John MacArthur, Reckless Faith: When The Church Loses Its Will To Discern [Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1994], 27, 28.

[3] Bell, op. cit., 067, emphasis mine.

See also:

TRANSCRIPT OF LOVE WINS VIDEO OF ROB BELL

IS ROB BELL EVANGELICAL?

ROB BELL IS DEFINITELY NOT LIKE JESUS