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 Rob Bell is under fire for his latest book before it even hits the shelves.
March 1st, 2011
06:00 AM ET
Christian author's book sparks charges of heresyBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor Rob Bell, a pastor and author who has achieved rock star status in the Christian world, is preaching a false gospel, his critics say. And some of those critics are Christian rock stars in their own right. The pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bell has authored a book called Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, which ignited a firestorm of controversy over the weekend, weeks before it arrives in bookstores. On Saturday, in a blog post on the popular Christian website The Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor blasted Bell's new book, out March 29, for teaching "false doctrine":
Universalism, in its broadest terms, preaches that everyone goes to heaven and that there is no hell. Critics say it represents a break from traditional Christianity, which they say holds that heaven and hell are very real places. In most Christian circles, universalism is a dirty word. Taylor's post was quickly tweeted by several prominent pastors, including John Piper and Mark Driscoll, connected to the Gospel Coalition, a coalition of theologically conservative evangelical churches, and a full-blown theological controversy was on. By Monday, Taylor's response post had racked up a quarter million hits. Other bloggers, meanwhile, are calling Bell an outright heretic. Bell is not the first prominent Christian pastor to be recently accused of wading into theologically troubled waters. Bishop Carlton Pearson, once a mentee of famed Pentecostal televangelist Oral Roberts, has been run out of two churches and branded a heretic for preaching what he says is a gospel of inclusion with broad universalist themes. Last year, Brian McLaren - a popular Christian author and a former pastor - was accused of breaking with Christian orthodoxy and delving headlong into universalism in his book A New Kind of Christianity. But it's rare that theological arguments become top ten trending topics on Twitter, as Rob Bell did on Saturday. “To be honest, it was a pretty rough weekend,” Taylor said in a phone interview. The 34-year-old heads the editorial content for Crossway, a Christian publishing company in Wheaton, Illinois. Taylor he says his blog expresses his personal opinion not the opinion of the coalition. "We’re talking about the big things here, things that have been historically defined as orthodox, " he said. "I have a high degree of confidence in what God is saying and what we can understand." Though many things that separate Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians, “this isn’t one of them," Taylor said. "We’ve historically agreed on many things, the person of Christ, heaven and hell. This isn’t a peripheral academic debate. What Rob Bell is talking about gets to the heart of Christianity.” Taylor has not read Bell's forthcoming book in its entirety. His blog post was in response to the description released by Bell publisher HarperOne and a promotional video that features Bell. "Rob Bell hasn’t sinned against me personally,” Taylor said, which is why he did not go to Bell before making his comments public. Instead, Taylor said, Bell's book represents a clear example of false teaching. In the promotional video Bell refers to the nonviolent Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, and asks, "Gandhi's in hell? He is?" "And someone knows this for sure?" Bell continues. "Will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell? And if that's the case how do you become one of the few? " The video follows a trend in Bell's career as a pastor: he has long asked tough theological questions and challenged traditional answers. The short promotional video raises lots of questions without offering definitive answers. "What we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who God is and what God is like," Bell says in it. " The good news is that love wins." Those lines raised eyebrows for Taylor and others. "It is not preaching the gospel as found in the New Testament," Taylor said. "The New Testament is pretty clear if someone preaches a false gospel… that we are to reject that and have nothing to do with them." For all his hipster leanings - including black rimmed glasses - Bell has a traditional pedigree. He went to Wheaton College, the Harvard of Christian schools, and later graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. But the Mars Hill Bible Church, which Bell founded, is not attached to any denomination. Were it attached to one - the Presbyterian or Catholic church, say - his book and video could raise eyebrows in the hierarchy and might lead to a church trial that could result in Bell's expulsion. "A larger denomination would take his credentials and excommunicate him like they did to me,” Bishop Pearson told CNN. By Sunday evening, Pearson was getting sent articles about the Bell flap. He said it reminded him of his days as a charismatic leader of a big church in the largest Pentecostal denomination. His questioning of hell from the pulpit led to his ouster. "What happened to me is happening to Rob Bell," Pearson said. "If you denounce hell, it's like you are denouncing God. You’re going to be called a heretic." “I thought my people loved me and would walk through the valley of the shadow of death with me, but they didn’t,” Pearson said. Bell's church did not respond to requests for an interview. His Twitter feed has been silent since he posted about writing a piece for CNN's Belief Blog a few weeks ago. His publicist at HarperOne said he would not be doing publicity until his book hits shelves. soundoff (2,200 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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>> "If you haven't committed what is, essentially, infinite harm, why should one receive infinite punishment?" <<
I believe a good Biblical case could be made: that to sin against an infinitely Holy God, IS infinite harm to His Holiness. All one has to do is look at the sin of Adam, through which biological an Spiritual death entered the world and infected all of Mankind, to see the infinite harm of sin (had not God sent His Son as Savior for those who believe, ALL would perish). Apart from Christ, our sins have infinite consequences. What may seem a "small" sin, in the eyes human beings, is an infinite sin to a Holy God - deserving of infinite punishment. And only Christ, the infinitely perfect God/Man, can atone for sin.
Anyone who can claim that someone is a universalist by reading only the front and back cover of a book is either quasi-omniscient or deeply and unfortunately ignorant. Unfortunately, I am not inclined to this the former. Sorry folks: the people who continue this talk of false gospel (previous to the release) are simply making fools of themselves.
A few years ago Mars Hill Bible Church hosted an event called, “Isn’t She Beautiful”, and I remember Rob spent about 90 minutes walking through every verse in the New Testament that dealt with this subject. I do not remember a clearly stated position in his conclusion, but he raised an illuminating point about the mystery of the gospel and the veracity of interpretations, considering the context of each verse.
First of all, I have unashamed love for Rob. He has been a constant presence of grace, and a true friend to me during a season of relentless heartache.
One of the reasons I love Rob is because is healthy enough to handle the push back and even the slanderous criticism that often accompanies someone in his position.
I am an unapologetic member of the choir, belting the “love wins” anthem. I have personally handed out hundreds of these bumper stickers and shared the story behind the story…
And this is the tension: For those who have been around long enough to remember the series of teachings that introduced the slogan “Love Wins.”, we remember the bedrock of this resolution was about the power of the resurrection.
And practicing resurrection became the inevitable result of disciples who had experienced this reality.
It had nothing to do with everyone making it into heaven.
How can I begin to tear down and criticize what has not even been released yet? These haters need to learn how to put things in context, then find some edifying way to build up the body of Christ in humble dialogue.
If Rob Bell clearly leads us to believe that God is too nice to create eternal separation from chosen rebellion, then I will be the first to openly disagree. But if Eugene Peterson (!) endorsed this work, and CS Lewis is a source of inspiration, then I think Rob is doing exactly what he does best: Punch you in the brain with a provocative question and then quietly dismiss himself to another thought…
http://www.jldepoy.blogspot.com
Look in your heart and you will know what is.
Free speech – Does it really exsist? A lot of what is here says no.
Rob Bell has been an inspiration to many. Let God be his judge not us.
How can we hear one another when we say, "I am right and can never be wrong and you are wrong and you can never be right.?"
How can we hear one another when we say, "I am right and I can never be wrong. You are wrong and you can never be right.?"
HEY!!!! I HAVE AN IDEA!!!! why dont we all READ his book before making any judgements... a radical thought, I know...
"If Jesus were to come back and see what is being said in his name, he'd never stop throwing up."
– my favorite line from Hannah and Her Sisters.
we are all products of the original CREATOR inguenuity,the POWER that transcends all powers. And like any product of meaningful functional use we are heaven sent with precise instructions. our mission is accomplished.
oh ok.
Definition of Christianity: the belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree
- Unknown.
When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
– Stephen Roberts
Faith-based and organized, christianity has grown to be much more so diversified and radically changed over the years. It is much better to have faith in a brother than faith in a mystical belief written by a group of prophets that may have had to get their GED at the public school they went to.
I believe that the Bible teaches that heaven and hell are in this world, in the course of our lives here on earth. To live a life in accordance with the teachings of Christ delivers us from the hell of living unrighteously.
of course what you can't say and what you can say are two different things, because someone always has their hands on the orb.
Like those in the past, the writer's of prophecy... people who predict things are my enemy, because when you predict something, there will always be a follower to make it true. You feel like making a revelation, some reader with ambition will become a millionaire to make the revelation come true. I do not predict things, therefore I am, and will not be after I die, because when I die, I will be like a squashed fly.... which is just a squashed fly.
Didn't you just predict what will happen to you after you die? You just broke your own rule. And as the prophecies about Christ were impossible for anyone to arrange (none are as simple as earning a million bucks), your self-fulfilling claim is rather hollow.
Religion is there to comfort the living, you can't pull the wool over my eyes, when you die, you just die.... enuf said.
IBrian, what makes us human is the fact that we are body, soul and spirit and made for eternity. Thats why death is so ugly because we were made to live forever and there IS eternal life in Christ. This I can promise you with all my heart you need only to reach out to this person of Jesus Christ and see that nothing else satisfies like a deep and meaningful relationship with your creator as you lean on His wisdom especially as given in that most amazing piece of literature ever written, the Bible.
IBrian, what makes us human is the fact that we are body, soul and spirit and made for eternity. Thats why death is so ugly because we were made to live forever and there IS eternal life in Christ. This I can promise you with all my heart you need only to reach out to this person of Jesus Christ and see that nothing else satisfies like a deep and meaningful relationship with your creator as you lean on His wisdom especially as given in that most amazing piece of literature ever written, the Bible.
May you know the peace, love and joy that comes through serving the risen Christ and being his friend.
"If you haven't committed what is, essentially, infinite harm, why should one receive infinite punishment?" You are confusing two aspects of punishment: duration and degree. For anyone who goes to hell, the duration - forever - is the same. But the degree to which one is punished varies. It's like everyone who goes to hell gets thrown into the oven forever, but some are placed in an area of the oven that's heated to 1000 degrees, while others are placed in an area that's heated to 2000 degrees. So no matter how large or small your sins are, you will burn forever, but at a temperature propotional to the size of your sins. Why forever? Because once you're judged guilty of sin, when do you stop being guilty of sin? Say you commit a crime, and you burn a thousand years for it. At the end of those thousand years, you're still guilty of that crime, right? So you deserve to burn another thousand years. And on and on and on - you never stop being guilty, so the punishment never stops. That's the reason why it's necessary to repent and accept Christ's sacrifice for your sins: so long as you are protected under the umbrella of Christ's sacrifice, you will not be judged guilty of any of your sins if you die, and you can spend eternity in heaven instead of being eternally punished for your guilt in hell.
That's infinite punishment for finite harm; ergo, YHWH is an evil tyrant if he exists (which is highly unlikely anyway). While one may have done an act, that does not equate to one needing to have infinite harm visited upon one's self for committing an act of finite harm. One does not continually put a toddler's hand on a hot frying pan for weeks because he used a crayon on the walls; that goes beyond excessive and into outright malicious abuse. Same with YHWH, as Hell is infinite and lasts well beyond sane punitive measures, since even the most meek and inoffensive people who have few sins would burn forever as well.
It's always silly to me that some people still, even today, try to say that someday everyone will go to heaven regardless of how they lived or believed. If that were true, there would be no reason to convince anyone to live a good life or preach the Gospel because...who cares, since everyone is going to heaven anyway?
Exactly. How can you extort somebody if they already know they will be rewarded no matter what.
Is "Going to Heaven" or "Going to Hell" the inclusive result of the Gospel that Jesus taught? Really? Not in the New Testament that I read.
The reason we give people the gospel is because it is good news for their life right now, and Jesus sets out a way for us to live right now, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Those who are only Christians and try not to sin so they can go to heaven 1, don't understand grace and 2, still want to sin and are hoping and betting that heaven is better then the pleasure of sin.
I dont believe in universalism but I had to come to terms that if it were true I would still choose to find the narrow path. The "Way" is better than doing whatever I lust after.
Interesting how even radio talk show hosts are experts in theology and know who's heretical and who's not. I'd put money on it that if Jesus came back today, he'd be labeled a heretic and scapegoated just like he was 2000 years ago. Let's see, I think Jesus said that everything boils down to love God and love your fellow human beings. Today it doesn't sound like love is very deep with most so-called "Christians". Rob Bell, you keep on asking questions–God loves you for it, and is probably laughing at the vituperation it's raising.
The two Great Commandments as stated by Christ are: (1) love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind; and (2) love thy neighbor as thyself. Matthew 22:37-40. Why is it that almost everyone forgets the second one? I'm just curious.
Very interesting subject. As usual, there exists a heated debate (which is fine) wherever a clear inconsistency in fundamental Christian faith exists.
The inconsistent fundamental beliefs:
1) "I am the way and the truth..... no man cometh unto the Father except by me.
2) "God is Love"
Clearly, a loving God will not banish the last 4000 years worth of Chinese people to Hell simply because they were born in an area where no one even knows that there was such a person as Jesus.
And yet, Jesus says no one can come to Heaven without him.
Let the debate continue.... But PLEASE consider the idea that if there really is a God, and he really is our father, and he really is as good and loving as we think he his, THEN HE HAS ALREADY THOUGHT OF THIS PROBLEM, and has made provisions for those good people who die never hearing of Christ.
Is there a Hell? Well that's a good question. I think any of us who raise children realize the disastrous result of NOT placing consequences with actions. If there is no punishment, then there clearly can be no law with any meaning. Realistically, there MUST be punishment if there is to be law, or the commandments would be worthless. I don't presume to know exactly what HELL means, but I do believe to every broken law, there is affixed an eternal punishment that will be held to us if we do not repent.
In the mean time, I hold also to the belief that God has already included a proviso in his plan for humanity that will offer those good people of the earth who died without knowing about Christ some kind of chance to be judged based on their hearts, and their love for their neighbors. I'm sure those people will be every bit as happy to know Christ after they die as any Christian.
Very interesting subject. As usual, there exists a heated debate (which is fine) wherever a clear inconsistency in fundamental Christian faith exists.
The inconsistent fundamental beliefs:
1) "I am the way and the truth..... no man cometh unto the Father except by me.
2) "God is Love"
Clearly, a loving God will not banish the last 4000 years worth of Chinese people to Hell simply because they were born in an area where no one even knows that there was such a person as Jesus.
And yet, Jesus says no one can come to Heaven without him.
Let the debate continue.... But PLEASE consider the idea that if there really is a God, and he really is our father, and he really is as good and loving as we think he his, THEN HE HAS ALREADY THOUGHT OF THIS PROBLEM, and has made provisions for those good people who die never hearing of Christ.
Is there a Hell? Well that's a good question. I think any of us who raise children realize the disastrous result of NOT placing consequences with actions. If there is no punishment, then there clearly can be no law with any meaning. Realistically, there MUST be punishment if there is to be law, or the commandments would be worthless. I don't presume to know exactly what HELL means, but I do believe to every broken law, there is affixed an eternal punishment that will be held to us if we do not repent.
In the mean time, I hold also to the belief that God has already included a proviso in his plan for humanity that will offer those good people of the earth who died without knowing about Christ some kind of chance to be judged based on their hearts, and their love for their neighbors. I'm sure those people will be every bit as happy to know Christ after they die as any Christian.