“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26)

Rob Bell Is Adrift

Although the person who wrote the comment that will follow below really doesn’t grasp why I am writing the things which I am currently concerning Rob Bell and the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church with which he is associated, nonetheless her eyewitness testimony is vitally important. This actually appeared on Slice of Laodicea where I am a contributor as a comment to my article Rob Bell’s “Bullheaded Guys” as it appeared on Slice right here.

The below testimony give even more weight to my thesis that Rob Bell has been drifting in his theology, as are all the emerging Hollow Men who adhere to a neo-orthodox (at best) view of Holy Scripture. I am also beginning to receive other letters from people who used to attend Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church as well bringing further corroboration of his downward slide. This in fact is the idea which I am trying to get across in Rob Bell and Karl Barth when I bring out that men like Bell are neo-orthodox (or worse) in their view of the Bible.

And once we open up to this kind of subjective and existential approach to Holy Scripture then our corrupt human nature becomes the basis for deciding what is or isn’t the Word of God in a given text. Study the history of the mainline denominations and their seminaries for yourself. Then you will personally see how quickly they went liberal after rejecting the inerrancy and verbal plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture. One of the first doctrines to go is the eternal conscious torment of the impenitent in a literal place that the Creator–Christ Jesus of Nazareth Himself–called Hell.

The next to go is the Biblical restriction of women being ordained to the office of elder, which opens the door for them to become pastors. I cover this heresy further in Thoughts on Women Pastors. And once these two things happen a denomination is as good as dead immediately. Now consider my piece called Rob Bell: Scripture Taught In A New Way which documents Bell as he schemes to open the office of elder to women at the church where he is pastor. Then look at the beginnings of an attack on Hell in WOTM Radio: Rob Bell “Bullhorn Guy”.

Rob Bell’s Emergent “Gospel” Is No Gospel At All

And the truth is that Bell had already begun his repainting of Hell in Velvet Elvis (VE). Gary Gilley puts it well in his review of Rob Bell’s VE when he points out that like other Emergent Church leaders Bell reimagines “the gospel message.” We do note that Bell does acknowledge Jesus Christ “coming to bring forgiveness, righteousness and restoration. But he is critical of people having to believe the right things (the gospel) to get ‘in’ (pp. 34-35).”

In fact this is where we see evidence of Bell drifting even further from the historic orthodox Christian faith when Gilley correctly points out:

Who is “in” or “out” does not seem to be an issue to Bell. He never discusses his position on universalism/inclusivism, but the implication is that God must have others who would not call themselves Christians (pp. 166; 146, 161)….Like many others today Bell uses familiar terms but gives them new definitions. For example, “Hell is a way of life out of sync with how God created us to live” (p. 147).

And Bell’s Emergent view of Heaven and Hell is dead wrong when he equates the Biblical doctrine of Hell, which is complete and eternal separation from the presence of God, to this temporal world. Bell says:

When people use the word hell, what do they mean? They mean a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be. Famine, debt, oppression, loneliness, despair, death, slaughter–they are all hell on earth.

Jesus’ desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth. [This is dominion theology and it is wrong.]

What’s disturbing is when people talk more about hell after this life than they do about hell here and now. As a Christian, I want to do what I can to resist hell coming to earth. (148)

Men and women there is absolutely nothing here upon this earth even remotely close to the unspeakably hideous fate of Hell. For proof we need only consider the horrifying cry of anguish from the Cross by God the Son when He experiences God the Father turn away from Him – “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, KJV)

And this drift by Rob Bell is inevitable to all who dare reject the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word of the one true and living God in Holy Scripture:

Our family has attended Mars for the past 7 years, basically since the start, and this past Sunday was our last time, due to struggling for years now with just the issues you have stated. What I want to stress, though, is that we weep for Rob and our Mars community, we are SO saddened by the directions they have been heading.

This is the first time I viewed your web site, and I don’t see anything but anger and hatred for Rob. We know Rob personally and we care for him, as we have have prayed for him for the past 7 years, along with the other leaders, elders, staff at Mars. I pray for God to break through the deceit the enemy has fed Rob, and bring him to repentence and restoration. Rob is not the enemy, but a deceived man.

Posted by: Sharon at October 2, 2006 10:59 PM