You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Rob Bell Scratching Those Itching Ears

Emergent Church pastor Rob Bell is out on tour with his latest fantasy: The gods Aren’t Angry. In Emergent Church Pastor Rob Bell Recites the Mystic Mantra for the New Evangelical Religion of Man’s Love of Self I quote Bell himself as he says:

There is a greatness [in mankind]. The writer here [of Psalm 8] uses the word “glory and honor” that resides in every single human being. Fragile and yet filled with the potential for glory and honor. I love how Nelson Mandela puts it in one of his writings. He says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”

And then he concludes by saying, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. We were born to manifest the glory—put on display, to show—the glory of God that is within us.” He says, “you may be a dirt clod, but there is greatness and power and glory that resides in every singe human being.”

(Week 330 05/29/05, audio sermon 12:27-13:28, transcription on file)

Bell, in context, is not speaking about believers who are in Christ. He is clearly talking about mankind in general when he says, “There is a greatness [in mankind].” And so is the quote Bell is referencing, which he says is Mandela. But this is absolutely not Christian theology—For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (Romans 7:18, NASB). And lest we get caught up in some stupid new perspective [read: revisionist history] of Paul, here is Paul’s Creator Christ Jesus of Nazareth to His own disciples—“If you, then, though you are evil” (Matthew 7:11).

Let’s get this straight once and for all: Prior to the new birth—which is a new regenerated nature wherein God comes to dwell—there is absolutely nothing worth redeeming in mankind. That is what the opening text is clearly telling us—Christ died for the ungodly. But the us in that text is the elect who are in Christ, and not mankind in general.

And you can back up the anti-Calvinist hate wagon because even Arminians believe there is an elect in Christ. We differ on how they get there. But the problem with the many closet inclusivists and closet universalists now slithering around in the emerging church is they are teaching that at the Cross God redeemed all of mankind.

That’s why there is such a corresponding de-emphasis on repentance and holiness within this Emergent rebellion against the Bible. I cover some of this further in a post from last year called Rob Bell Says “All-ee in Free…Almost”. Maybe after another year of seeing more and more people come under The Spell of Rob Bell you’ll listen now.

O, and that quote from “Nelson Mandela” which Rob Bell referred to above; well, it wasn’t really from Mandela at all. Nope; it now follows in full from its original source. This lovely sentiment of self that so deeply moves “Christian” pastor Rob Bell actually comes from the occultic book A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A COURSE IN MIRACLES by the Christ-hating New Age Guru Marianne Williamson:

‘our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us the most.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, famous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just some of us; it’s in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. And as we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (190,191, emphasis mine)

Now if you are under the spell of Bell I admonish you in the Lord to ask yourself this critical question: What kind of a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ could agree with this above lie from the pit of Hell?

UPDATE: As further example of the spiritual blindness that you are allowing into your youth groups, concerning the above referenced by emerging church hero Rob Bell, a disciple of Erwin McManus from Mosaic writes:

There has been alot of confuaion [sic] over who said it… many have attributed it to Mandela, including the hit movie Akeela and the Bee. (Online source)

O, we can only imagine the howls of profanity in Emergent circles were I to use a hit movie as a primary source to bolster my opinion; but that aside—for the sake of our young in the Lord pray tell me—what “confuation” can there possibly be with these lovers of “mystery” [read: Christian skeptics] when I just showed AGAIN that this is an exact quote from A Return To Love by Marianne Williamson!?!

Yet it is this kind of lunacy in the Lord that we are getting from fools like emerging church leader Nathan Neighbour, distinguished futurist Erwin McManus and the Elvis of Emergent Rob Bell. It’s the old adage: Don’t confuse me with the facts, I have already made up my mind. And then Neighbour commits the fallacy of the false analogy:

Regardless, one should not look at the speaker, but what was spoken. If Marilyn Mason [sic] were to say “God is omnipotent over all creation, and reigns in the heavens above”, would it be less true because he said it and not John MacArthur? No. What if the Manson quote was then commonly mistaken as a statement by John Piper – would it then be accptable [sic] to accuse them of following Manson by ahearing [sic] to the words that are true? Of Course not.

So, it is rediculous [sic] to say that “Bell agrees with New Age Guru Marianne Williamson” when he uses one of her quotes that is commonly mistaken as Mandela’s. (ibid.)

Please; is he really this spiritually obtuse? The statement used in his analogy is TRUE (apples). The statement by Williamson—from her book, hello!—is FALSE (oranges) as I just showed in the clearest terms from the Bible itself. Men and women, these Emergent Hollow Men like Rob Bell are leading your kids into doubt where there IS no doubt. And if I were you evangelical parents I’d take a good long look at this passage from God’s Word:

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

As you are now responsible for allowing these counterfeit Christian teachings from this new cult of liberal theology to spread their poison within the mainstream of the evangelical community by letting them teach your kids. Hear this; and you hear it good: This spiritual cyanide will kill $evangelicalism$ just as dead as the poison from the original Cult of Liberal Theology—their evil parents—did the mainline denominations.

And of this there is no mystery…

See also:

ROB BELL: MEET YOUR SPIRITUAL FATHER

ROB BELL, YOGA MASTERS AND JESUS?

ROB BELL AND KARL BARTH