Rob Bell's "Love Wins" Review--Full Length

Thank you for reading this review! First, I’d like to mention that I do not know Rob Bell personally and I am not familiar with much of his work. The review will include this current book, Love Wins, and the interviews related to it. This review will be divided into 3 parts: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. If you don’t like all the big words and theological terms, you can read the “Sweetened, Condensed Review” below this one. This way, we won’t be wasting each other’s time.

For those of you brave enough to move on, let’s start with

THE GOOD

Rob Bell makes much of the love of God. This is good. One of God’s greatest attributes is His love for us. It is His most popular attribute, to be sure. Without it, we would have been doomed following Adam’s initial sinfulness in Genesis 3. He could have just crumbled up the whole of the human race at that point (when you’ve seen two, you’ve seen them all, you know) and started over. He could have given up on us and done what He pleased in His anger and/or disappointment. He could have directed His love toward another race or another part of creation that would actually listen to Him and obey Him. But He didn’t.

Another good thing is that Bell tries to identify with and reach out to people who have become disillusioned with church and religion in general. That’s good, because there have been some horrendous things done and said in the name of God and Christianity that have really maligned the name and cause of Christ. God has been blamed for things He had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with. I will say, however, that some of the things Bell calls into question were not the problem, but the WAY they were presented. I may come back to that later.

Another good thing (to a point) is Bell’s desire to reach out to the needs of people, in a physical way, (ie; poor, starving, homeless, thirsty) and in taking care of the earth and the like. These are good things, but you have to get things in the right order before they work the desired result. Bell fails to do that. We may get back to that, too.

In the course of the book, Bell makes a number of statements and asks a number of questions that call on the carpet some issues that need some examination.

I like some of these entries:

“There is no question that Jesus cannot handle, no discussion too volatile, no issue too dangerous.”

“…the phrase ‘personal relationship’ is found nowhere in the Bible.”

“What you believe about the future shapes, informs and determines how you live now.”

“Eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts now.”

“First, one about our choices. We are free to accept or reject the invitation to new life that God extends to us. Our choice.”

Unfortunately, that about covers it for the good in this book.

THE BAD

Next, is the bad. Most of this is personal opinion and deals with stylistic issues. The WAY the book is written is off-putting to me. His style is quite different than others who tackle huge issues like this one. His book includes over 300 questions in 198 pages of text. Many of them are exploratory. Many others call into question things we take for granted in the Christian world that need to be called into question. Others are just really weird and made me scratch my head and wonder; “What in the world is this guy thinking????” He takes you to places of thought you’ve probably never ventured before. But, instead of starting from a place of Truth, taking you out to investigate these places, explaining as he goes, then bringing you back to that place of Truth to finish up; he goes waaaay out there, stops the proverbial car, then kicks you out, leaving you to find your way back to…well, somewhere. We’re not sure where one will end up and I don’t believe Bell really cares either. In his opinion, you can fend for yourself. This is intellectually irresponsible, to me. This is a tactic that could have been used 2 or 3 generations ago, when the general public had a much better grasp of the Scriptures…maybe. But we live in a generation that has a huge illiteracy when it comes to the things of God. When he takes people out to these wild places of thought, most are not equipped enough in the Word to find their way back to solid Truth. I know what he’s trying to do, but picks the wrong time in history to do this.

This is symptomatic of the Emergent Church movement. Bell and some others, like Brian McLaren, are masters of deconstruction. They are masters of putting their finger on some of the problems of the church, but are LOUSY at answering those questions with truth from God’s Word. Or as Oz Guiness said during program 1004 of the White Horse Inn; “so clear about everything that’s WRONG…but so UNclear about what is RIGHT.” Many of the questions in this book are never answered or resolved. They are meant to leave you hanging, calling you to question things that have survived hundreds of years in Christian thought, surviving the scrutiny of some of the greatest scholars in and out of Christendom. But Bell knows better and calls these things into question.

If you’ve seen the interviews with Bell on the talk show circuit, many of the hosts have tried to get straight answers out of him, only to fail and have to ask 3 or 4 times to get him to answer. Even then, his answers are circuitous and unclear, almost by design. The interview with Martin Bashir on MSNBC was cringe-worthy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-qgmJ7nzA I don’t know the guy’s spiritual condition, but he has a grasp on the very basic truths of the gospel. So much so, that he pins Bell to the mat and makes him squirm in his chair. I found it interesting that Bashir uses Bell’s very tactics from the book when questioning Bell himself. It’s just unfortunate that many won’t catch the irony of that. It’s almost as cringe-worthy as Joel Osteen and his interview with Larry King from 2005. Very sad.

Another thing that is bad is the scholarship of this book. During an interview, (http://www.christianpost.com/news/rob-bell-denies-being-a-universalist-49417/) Bell admits that he is not a theologian. That is no surprise. Nor is he a scholar, a good student of original biblical languages or history. Bell quotes scripture profusely, (he uses the TNIV--good grief!), but rarely gives notation of it’s origin and more often than not, takes things out of context. He also makes general historical claims, but again no footnotes or notations of origin. Time and space do not permit me to enumerate the whole of them, but let’s say, if his university English prof got a hold of this, and it were an assignment, he would fail. It would be marked up in lots of red ink.

THE UGLY

This part of the task is the hardest and will be the longest. It is akin to being a mosquito in a nudist colony…the question is; “Where does one start?” There is so much material. This will not cover every problem in the book, otherwise, this would be the length of his own book and I won’t do that to you.

I guess I’ll start with one of the biggest problems I encounter in this book. This would be Bell’s imbalance, raising God’s attribute of love above every other attribute that God has in his nature. There is a balance in God’s nature that exists in no one else’s character and nature. Man cannot elevate one part of God’s character above all the others. Similarly, we do the same when seeking after the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. We really look for the love, joy and peace thing, but turn away a bit when Paul gets to patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We like the first three, so we elevate them over the other six. God calls those nine components the FRUIT (singular) of the Spirit. It’s different petals of the same flower. If you have three big, manly petals and six scrawny ones, the flower looks terribly weird. Bell conveniently leaves out God’s holiness, righteousness, justice and a bunch of others, only to create a terribly weird God who has no balance. But Bell spins this God wildly, so you only see the parts he wants you to see, which, to Bell, is a win.

Again, Bell makes much of God’s love, but to the exclusion of His holiness, righteousness and justice. Bell’s good news is wishy washy because he doesn’t understand what the bad news is. Nowhere in the book does he bring up the holiness of God or His justice, except to mock the teaching of these things in the past. From the beginning, page viii, he starts with the mocking;

“This love compels us to question some of the dominant stories that are being told as the Jesus story. A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love peace forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”

And for God to be holy enough to punish sin, Bell goes off on God; calling HIM imbalanced. Go figure.

“Millions have been taught that if they don’t believe, if they don’t accept in the right way, that is, the way the person telling them the gospel does, and they were hit by a car and died later that same day, God would have no choice but to punish them forever in a conscious torment in hell. God would, in essence, become a fundamentally different being to them in the moment of death, a different being to them forever. A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormenter who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony…If God can switch gears like that, switch entire modes of being that quickly, that raises a thousand questions about whether a being like this could ever be trusted, let alone be good.” (p 174-175)

He has to water down, (change is actually more accurate) the good news, as he basically throws out the bad news and calls it toxic teaching. Then takes away the holiness of God, so he can be sure that no one will accuse God of being a schizophrenic. Here’s the problem, you can’t have good news without the bad. The bad news is really bad. God is holy and righteous and cannot tolerate sin. Man is created in Genesis (which Bell calls the “Genesis poem” for some reason) perfect. By chapter 3, we’re informed of his failure, his fall, his sin against God. This sets man against God. God promised that if man disobeyed, man would die. Yes, physically, but also spiritually. Hundreds of years later, his body dies (oh, to live to be 930…), but he died immediately the day he ate the fruit. This sin problem has been passed down to every generation through history and is a problem for us all before we even start. Paul wrote; “for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Cor 15:22 NAS) This all boils down to imputation. Imputation is a big word that means “credited to one’s account.” Adam’s sin is imputed to us, that is, credited to our account, even though we haven’t done anything to deserve it. No, it’s not fair, but there is more to imputation later, but we’ll leave it here for now.

We have to understand, this is NOT the American system of justice. You are NOT innocent until proven guilty. You are guilty until you are pronounced innocent by the Judge of All Life. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Eph 2:1-2 NAS. “and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (v3) Guilty. Dead. “Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Eph 2:12-13 NAS

Rob Bell NEVER mentions anything like this in his book. How about some familiar verses, like John 3:16-17?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. NIV

Why? Keep reading…

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Romans 1:18-21 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

Dead before you start. Condemned before you live. This is the bad news. “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” Isa 64:6 NAS. “Rab. Mosheh ben Maimon interpretatur 'idiym, vestes quibus mulier se abstergit post congressum cum marito suo. Alii pannus menstruatus. Alii panni mulieris parientis.-"And we ben made as unclene alle we: and as the cloth of the woman rooten blode flowing, all our rigtwisnesses."-Old Manuscript Bible. (from Adam Clarke's Commentary). Our righteous deeds are compared to a used, menstrual cloth. That’s the best we have to offer. He is holy and we offend His perfection by our very being. None of us shall stand with any merit before Him and live. It’s bad news and it belongs to all of us. We ALL deserve wrath and punishment (Rom 3:10-18). This is not popular these days and Bell doesn’t like it, either, so he skips it. Bell doesn’t like the prospect of a biblical Hell, so he changes that so it means whatever you want it to mean (p 70-71), though he never really comes out and says that. Hell is more what goes wrong and is bad here, not where spiritually dead people, when physically dead, will be separated from God and spend a conscious eternity suffering. Not fair? Nope, but a perfect, holy, righteous God calls the shots.

But this is what makes the good news so good!

Rob Bell’s message is that God loves them. That’s great. If there is no bad news, then the fact that God loves them is no big deal. I suppose it’s there just in case you have a bad hair day or something (or like me, when both of my hairs get out of place, it’s horrible!). But if it is like Paul wrote, again, in Romans 3; “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) 6 May it never be! For otherwise how will God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just, (NAS) then we have a problem, don’t we? You won’t find those verses in Rob’s book.

Bell spends a lot of time quoting Jesus in his discussion of heaven and hell in their respective chapters. On pages 26-27, Bell writes of Jesus’ encounter with the rich guy who asks Him “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Bell writes, rightly, of the fact that this is the most important question for many of us in the Christian world. So he continues;

“The rich man’s question, then, is the perfect opportunity for Jesus to give a clear, straightforward answer to the only question that ultimately matters for many.

First, we can only assume, he’ll correct the man’s flawed understanding of how salvation works. He’ll show the man how eternal life isn’t something he has to earn or work for; it’s a free gift of grace.

Then, he’ll invite the man to confess, repent, trust, accept, and believe that Jesus has made a way for him to have a relationship with God.

Like any good Christian would.

Jesus, however doesn’t do any of that.”

That is correct, he doesn’t tell him the way, in this particular case, but He DOES let him know what is NOT the way. Bell’s dealing here is the wrong approach to heaven and hell. Jesus is leading the transition from the Jewish law to the gospel. He is stirring up the establishment, but in reality, the law has not yet been fulfilled by his completely righteous life, the wrath of God has not been propitiated, or completely satisfied, by his death, and the victory over death, hell and the grave has not yet been established by His resurrection. Quoting Jesus on heaven and hell can be a bit premature. Once the gospel is completed (after the resurrection), THEN we are able to clearly distinguish God’s prerequisites for entry into His presence. To borrow a frequent Rob Bell phrase; “this raises another important question.” What is the gospel? This is a question Bells avoids like the plague. Since he leaves out the bad news, there is no gospel, or “good news,” which is what the term means.

The gospel is explained by Paul this way: “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” 1 Cor 15:1-4 NAS

What is the good news? God institutes this massive system of law and sacrifices to teach man that he can’t keep the law and he can’t make God happy by himself. How can God be made happy? God will be satisfied when man gets his act together and lives a perfect life, as required in Mt 5:48; “Be perfect, like your heavenly father is perfect. Boy, we’re really toast now. But God sends Jesus, born of a woman (Gal 4:4, fully a person, but not inheriting Adam’s sin nature), conceived by the Holy Spirit (fully God, as His origin is a perfect Father), to live that sinless life for us.

Again, we go back to imputation. The problem arises as Adam & Eve had their sin credited to our account, even though we didn’t do anything to deserve it. When Jesus dies on the cross, He has lived a perfect and sinless life. In addition, takes on Himself the sins of the world, bearing them in His own physical body. Did the perfect Jesus do anything to deserve to die for my sin and your sin?? Not fair? Totally not! But God the Father takes all of our sin and imputes them to Jesus, credits them to Jesus’ account and they are eliminated. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor 5:21 NAS. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I John 4:10) This satisfies the wrath of a perfect and holy God. This undeserved gift (Eph 2:8-9) is given on our behalf, but as with any other gift, it is not efficacious unless it is received and acted upon. Like a couple of years ago when my dad sent me a homemade birthday card. He prints them from his computer and folds them a couple times and puts them in a small envelope. Several weeks after receiving it, he calls and says;

“When are you going to cash the check I sent you?”
“What check?”
“The check that was in the card.”
“There was no check in the card.”
“Yes there was…”

Turns out that it wasn’t put in the second fold, where the printing was on the card (and where I would have seen it), it was stuck in the first fold, before it actually became a card. Weeks later, it was gone, as was the check and I didn’t get that birthday gift. Why? Because I never received it, it was never credited to my account. He did write a new check, it did arrive. I then acted upon it by cashing this check and receiving the full value of that gift.


Rob Bell is right when he says that God did the work and we don’t have to DO anything to secure our salvation. But his idea of people benefiting from the gift of God is more by osmosis than by receiving. To borrow from Kevin DeYoung’s review; “According to Bell, salvation is realizing you’re already saved. We are all forgiven. We are all
loved, equally and fully by God who has made peace with everyone. That work is done. Now we are invited to believe that story and live in it (172–73).” Funny, John wrote in John 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” NAS Faith is the element that pleases God (Heb 11:6) and that faith has to be put toward the proper object of faith, the Gospel; accomplished outside of us, in our stead, for our benefit, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This smacks of exclusivity, which Bell clearly doesn’t agree with (154-55). He loves inclusivity and on 155 he says; “what Jesus does is declare that he and he alone is saving everybody.” Christianity is an exclusive way, narrow with grass grown up on it. Jesus said I am THE way, THE truth and THE life and nobody gets to the father but by me (Jn 14:6). Period. Martin Bashir nails it when he says; “You’re creating a Christian message that’s warm, kind and popular for a contemporary culture…basically, you’re amending the gospel, the Christian message so that it’s palatable to contemporary people who find, for example, the idea of hell and heaven very difficult to stomach. So here comes Rob Bell and he’s made a Christian gospel for you! It’s perfectly palatable. It’s much easier to swallow.”

The truth of the matter is, Rob Bell has a different gospel than the one in the Bible. His gospel, along with other Emergent church leaders, make the gospel more about doing rather than believing. His criticism is accurate of those who believe but their belief results in no one’s physical benefit (ala James 2:15-17). But he and the other EC leaders replace belief with getting busy and taking care of people’s needs. Here we have the cart before the horse. Notice Eph 2:8-9
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” Gotta get that squared away first. Then, in light of what has happened to us, Paul continues with v. 10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. NAS After our eternity is confirmed by believing the gospel and receiving eternal life, then, out of gratitiude to God for granting us His grace and mercy, we then serve Him by serving others. NOT the other way around. The change comes in our positional (heavenly, judicial) standing, then it is to be shown in our practical. Much like the book of Ephesians does. Chapters 1-3 talk primarily about the positional, then, in light of that 4-6 talk about how do we walk that out in everyday life?

Rob Bell also has a chapter on “Does God Get What God wants?” And assumes that the answer is yes. He asks; “Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?” Talk about loaded questions. Will everybody be saved? No. Why does God waste time and ink to say “whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son?” If God gets what God wants, then He could leave out the condemnation part and whistle a happy tune while writing the happy parts. Paul wrote; “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” NAS

And Peter chimes in; “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” NAS 2 Peter 3:9 But does everyone get saved? That’s what God wants. Bell says yes, but the scripture is clear, it’s not happening. Not now, not ever.

Secondly, “will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?” NO. As we’ve already seen, we all have a sin problem before we commit our first volitional act of sin. Before we make our first choice in life, right or wrong, we’re condemned already. But he loads up the questions so the ingrained fairness in us answers the way he wants and leans you to his position and against the biblical position. He asks in a way that you pick one or the other, with neither being right or fair questions. This is his MO throughout the book.

I guess we could begin wrapping this up with the question about the Rob Bell/Universalist idea. When asked, he denies it and says “No, I’m not.” But it’s strange to see the bedfellows who have jumped on the bandwagon of Rob Bell. Many universalists out there are rejoicing that Rob is swinging to their side. Some are a bit cautious about proclaiming victory, but others are all over it, glad that there’s an “evangelical” saying the same thing they are. One example is here: http://www.evangelicaluniversalist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=1624 I had another great link I copied, from another universalist who was a classmate of Bell’s at Wheaton, but I lost the place I copied and pasted it. Grr. Anyway, do I think he’s a universalist? Yes. When the gospel is replaced with something else, when nobody is in trouble with God, when it is not necessary to respond, in this life, to God’s incredible offer of salvation to rescue us from ourselves and the sin nature we inherited, but God’s love will ultimately win no matter what, yeah, that about covers it.

CONCLUSION:

Rob Bell is not qualified to write a book on these kind of deep and essential subjects. When you’re not a theologian or a scholar and you play fast and loose with context and terminology, stay away from any form of academia and spare us the drama and embarrassment, please. We like to see Christian ministers represent God well when on the talk show circuit. We don’t like to cringe when watching and hope none of our skeptic friends saw it, either.

Rob Bell has no business being a pastor. He has degrees and diplomas from bible colleges and seminaries, but is not doing God’s business as a leader in his church, which is ultimately God’s church. Though he is a rock star with phenomenal popularity, he is intellectually dishonest, spiritually shallow and part of a movement that is out to redefine Christianity and break it away from it’s historic and biblical roots. Early in the book, he tips his hand about what it’s all about. Not the eternal state of people who are dead in their sins and the sin nature inherited from Adam, but it’s about what happens here. He writes;
“For some Christians, this is the question, the one that matters most. Compassion for the poor, racial justice, care for the environment, worship, teaching and art are important, but in the end, for some followers of Jesus, they’re not ultimately what it’s all about.(p.26)”

Implication: for some followers of Jesus, like me, it is, but for him it’s not about eternal destiny, it’s about advancing a social agenda. This is why I say Rob Bell has no business being the pastor of a church. He should be the leader of a civic or social organization, like one of the ones he lists in the back of his book on p 202. THAT is where his heart is, not leading people to Jesus and the cross. He is not a minister of the gospel, since he has no gospel to preach. Go serve people in that way, but leave the spiritual for someone who has a clue about the eternal ramifications of your ambiguity about sin, the real God, holiness and the remedy for spiritual death and separation from God..

This book is poison to someone who has just enough knowledge to be dangerous, but without the tools to evaluate Bell’s claims according to the Truth of Scripture. Without being able to read the map, Bell leaves you out there…somewhere…and there you are. Dangerous stuff.

I think I’ll stop here. There are other great reviews (maybe even better than mine) that can shed additional light on this murky subject.

The definitive review is Kevin DeYoung’s at the Gospel Coalition;
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/files/2011/03/LoveWinsReview.pdf His work is extensive, tho he struggles as I did with what to cover and how to cover it, as there was so much to address.

Thanks so much for reading. Congratulations on making it this far! I hope it gives you food for thought and the scriptures will give life to your soul. May Jesus be our all in all for all of eternity.

Rob Bell Review--Sweetened, Condensed Version

Welcome to the short version of my review of Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins. Yes, this is the short one, believe it or not. Here are some thoughts, without much comment, to give you an idea of what’s going on here.

Rob Bell makes much of the love of God. This is good.

Bell tries to identify with and reach out to people who have become disillusioned with church and religion in general. That’s good, because there have been some horrendous things done and said in the name of God and Christianity that have really maligned the name and cause of Christ. God has been blamed for things He had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with.

Another good thing (to a point) is Bell’s desire to reach out to the needs of people, in a physical way, (ie; poor, starving, homeless, thirsty) and in taking care of the earth and the like. These are good things, but you have to get things in the right order before they work the desired result. Bell fails to do that.

The WAY the book is written is off-putting to me. His style is quite different than others who tackle huge issues like this one. His book includes over 300 questions in 198 pages of text. Many of them are exploratory. Many others call into question things we take for granted in the Christian world that need to be called into question. Others are just really weird and made me scratch my head and wonder; “What in the world is this guy thinking????” He takes you to places of thought you’ve probably never ventured before. But, instead of starting from a place of Truth, taking you out to investigate these places, explaining as he goes, then bringing you back to that place of Truth to finish up; he goes waaaay out there, stops the proverbial car, then kicks you out, leaving you to find your way back to…well, somewhere. We’re not sure where one will end up and I don’t believe Bell really cares either. In his opinion, you can fend for yourself. This is intellectually irresponsible, to me.

Another thing that is bad is the scholarship of this book. Bell admits that he is not a theologian. That is no surprise. Nor is he a scholar, a good student of original biblical languages or history. Bell quotes scripture profusely, (he uses the TNIV--good grief!), but rarely gives notation of it’s origin and more often than not, takes things out of context. He also makes general historical claims, but again no footnotes or notations of origin. Let’s say, if his university English prof got a hold of this, and it were an assignment, he would fail. It would be marked up in lots of red ink.

Bell’s imbalance, raising God’s attribute of love above every other attribute that God has in his nature. This is bad. God ends up as some imbalanced, weirdo who isn’t really clear on who He is or what He wants to accomplish in the world.

Again, Bell makes much of God’s love, but to the exclusion of His holiness and justice. And for God to be holy enough to punish sin, Bell goes off on God; calling HIM imbalanced. Go figure.

The truth of the matter is, Rob Bell has a different gospel than the one in the Bible. His gospel, along with other Emergent church leaders, make the gospel more about doing rather than believing. His criticism is accurate of those who believe but their belief results in no one’s physical benefit (ala James 2:15-17). But he and the other EC leaders replace belief with getting busy and taking care of people’s needs. Here we have the cart before the horse. Notice Eph 2:8-9
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” Gotta get that squared away first. Then, in light of what has happened to us, Paul continues with v. 10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. NAS After our eternity is confirmed by believing the gospel and receiving eternal life, then, out of gratitude to God for granting us His grace and mercy, we then serve Him by serving others. NOT the other way around.

Rob Bell also has a chapter on “Does God Get What God wants?” And assumes that the answer is yes. He asks; “Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?” Talk about loaded questions. Will everybody be saved? No. Why does God waste time and ink to say “whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son?” If God gets what God wants, then He could leave out the condemnation part and whistle a happy tune while writing the happy parts. Paul wrote; “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” NAS Secondly, “will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?” NO. We all have a sin problem before we commit our first act of sin. Before we make our first choice in life, right or wrong, we’re condemned already. But he loads up the questions so the ingrained fairness in us answers the way he wants and leans you to his position and against the biblical position. He asks in a way that you pick one or the other, with neither being right or fair questions. This is his MO throughout the book.

About the Universalist question. When asked, he denies it and says “No, I’m not.” But it’s strange to see the bedfellows who have jumped on the bandwagon of Rob Bell. Many universalists out there are rejoicing that Rob is swinging to their side. Some are a bit cautious about proclaiming victory, but others are all over it, glad that there’s an “evangelical” saying the same thing they are. Do I think he’s a universalist? Yes. When the gospel is replaced with something else, when nobody is in trouble with God, when it is not necessary to respond, in this life, to God’s incredible offer of salvation to rescue us from ourselves and the sin nature we inherited, but God’s love will ultimately win no matter what, yeah, that about covers it.

My conclusions.

Rob Bell is not qualified to write a book on these kind of deep and essential subjects.

Rob Bell has no business being a pastor. He is not a minister of the gospel, since he has no gospel to preach.

He should be the leader of a civic or social organization, like one of the ones he lists in the back of his book on p 202. THAT is where his heart is, not leading people to Jesus and the cross.

It is dangerous stuff in the wrong hands. Lives not rooted and grounded in the Bible can easily be swayed by his confusing, but engaging style of writing. If you haven’t bought it, don’t waste your time or money. He and the publishers have made enough off of us reviewers already.

Thanks for reading! For the more detailed review, you can go one post newer than this when you’re ready to read for a while

God showed up at work today

This morning, I had an interesting discussion with a co-worker. After clocking in, he asked me for a few minutes of my time at break, which would be an hour later. He said that he always respected my opinion and would like to ask me a question about something.

This threw my mind in overdrive and I started to pray about this encounter. I have a lot of great opinions (at least I think I do), but if this was going to be a spiritual matter, I wanted to be sure I was giving him God's thoughts and not mine.

Time came for break and this friend came and asked me about a verse in Matthew 5, where Jesus said; "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. His question was; "did He really mean that literally, or was that just an expression? My answer was "yes." Now that you're confused, let me explain myself...

The Older Testament (neither one of them are new anymore, you know) give us what we know as the Law. The Law as it was given was to rule the people of Israel in a governmental way, but even more than that, Galatians says, it was given as a school master, a tutor, really, a moral overseer, until faith would be revealed. It was intended as an insurmountable obstacle, to crush or break us and make us realize that we were completely incapable of living up to that perfect standard of God's law, 'cause if you break one, you're guilty of breaking them all.

There were a group of people in Jesus' day that felt they had the corner on keeping the Law. They were called the Pharisees. They knew the Law backward, forward, inside out and upside down and every which way to Sunday. They prided themselves on being able to do what the Law commanded...outwardly, that is. When Jesus came, He saw these guys and spoke to a few of them and found out what they were really made of. He knew they really weren't keeping the Law, they were just players in a competition amongst themselves. They were showing how "holy" they were and basically implying that everyone that wasn't in their group were scuzbag sinners. One encounter that was quite telling in Luke 18. Let's look in.

18 And a certain ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 "You know the commandments, 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" 21 And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." 22 And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, "One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad; for he was extremely rich.

Hey Jesus, what do I have to DO to inherit eternal life? Jesus told him to keep the Law (knowing that he really couldn't do that). He replies that he's been doing that since he was a kid (outwardly). Then Jesus exposes his heart and tells him to sell all his stuff and come and follow Him. The saying goes that a fool and his money are soon parted, but not so with hard hearted, crooked, conniving Pharisees in their exclusive club. He went away sad, cause he loved his stuff more than he loved God.

This is all background for the Matthew 5 question. That part is what we know as The Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus starts it, it says He saw the crowds following him, so He sat down, His disciples took front row seats and He began to teach. But guess who's also in the crowd? Yup, those Pharisee guys, with the elegant robes and long tassles, 'cause that's how they roll. They want to see this upstart teacher, this Rabbi who wasn't from THEIR group and what He had to say. And say it, He did. He starts all nice with the Beatitudes, but by verse 17, He starts on the Law, just for those guys out there on the fringe of the crowd, trying to blend in. He almost mocks them as He tells the people "unless you have more righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees, you won't make it to heaven." Then He dashes everyone's hopes by ripping their righteousness apart, saying, "You've heard it said..." (external), "but I say to you..." (let's go deeper, let's go into the internal, into your heart). He hits them with example after example from the Law and exposes their intents and motives and gets to verses 27-28. Yeah, we're finally here.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; 28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Did Jesus mean that literally? Yes, he did. But it was meant as more than that. I told my friend that it was meant to obliterate my and your illusions of holiness and righteousness. We don't have any. Period. You may think that because you may not commit the big, obvious, outward sins that you're doing pretty good. Guess again. Romans 3 is clear. "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Isaiah wrote that even our best stuff is like filthy rags to God. Our filthiness is a horrible offense to the perfect God of the universe. Our hearts are deceitful and wicked above all things. Who can know it? Jeremiah wrote.

When I mentioned Romans and Jeremiah, tears came from his eyes and he became downcast. He remarked that so many people tell him how great of a guy he is and he said "but I'm not." I said "you're right. and neither am I." I had to stop him, "Before you lose hope, there's more." I reminded him that any goodness he has inside him comes from God, as a gift. In the midst of the rubble of our lame and puny righteousness, after God gets done destroying it, there is the beauty of His grace. When we understand the magnitude of our wretchedness, then we then understand the magnitude, in the other direction, of the gift we receive from Jesus. Even while we were sinners, Christ came and died for us, Romans 5 tells us. He didn't have to, He wanted to because He wanted to get us back on right terms with God!

The Pharisee asked the wrong question. You can't DO your way to heaven. If you could work for it, God would owe it to you like your boss owes you a paycheck if you work on your job. God doesn't do it that way (see Romans 4 for that one). "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast." Eph 2:8-10 He gives it as a gift, because we have nothing of any worth in ourselves to trade Him for it. Nothing we have is anywhere near the worth of Jesus' blood. We belive our way to heaven. John wrote about it in his first book; "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Most of this was shared in a capsulized form in the 10 minutes we had for break. There's a lot more to it and I hope one day we can sit down and share some more. The verses that were the good news part seemed to encourage him. But the point is, reader, we're all in the same boat. We may think we're ok because we don't cheat, steal, cuss or chew or run with girls that do, but God sees your heart. Has it been washed clean by the blood of Jesus? If it has sometime in the past, what condition is it in today? God offers us a daily cleansing, a spiritual bar of soap, if you will, when John wrote; "If we confess our sins(agree with God that what we did was wrong), He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 Believing in Jesus is the big bath, the shower that gets rid of our nasty past life. It writes our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. It gets us to heaven when our time here is done, but the daily confession, straight to God, is the bar of soap, the daily cleansing that keeps things right between us and God. All of it is a gift to be received, as God offers it freely to all. So reach out. Take it, go ahead. It's yours if you just will. If you have any questions about any of this, please ask! It would be an honor to help you.

More precious than....????

People magazine's cover today had a picture of Yeardley Love, the University of Virginia student who was recently murdered. The pictures and reports indicate that this girl had it all going for her--a good family life, lots of talent, smarts, good looks and even with all this, humility and generosity. The reports indicate that her ex-boyfriend may be responsible for this heinous crime. Regardless of who is responsible, it is horrific and unthinkable. A promising life snuffed out.

Here's my problem with this scenario. Maybe it's just me, but this sounds like a repeat of other stories we've read and seen in the media. All the way back to Jon Benet Ramsey, maybe before, pretty much all of the headline stories of those abducted and/or murdered have been attractive, "beautiful" girls; mostly white and blond. I read that story today and shook my head and my heart. Terrible, terrible stuff. But the back of my head asked this question--what if the girl had been the opposite of this one, or Jon Benet, or Jaycee Dugard? What if she had been 5'-0" tall and 235 pounds, mixed race kid with a history of trouble and a face only a mother could love? Do you think the media coverage would be the same? I honestly don't think so. I think the world and the media have the fascination with those they consider beautiful and therefore, more precious or valuable than others.

We humans see with our eyes and make judgments based on what we see. God sees with a totally different viewpoint and makes perfect judgments. He sees through the visual to the reality of the matter. Like when the Israelites wanted a human king so they could be like all the other nations. Somehow, God being their king wasn't good enough. Go figure. Anyway, Saul was their first king. Good start, but flubbed up mightily at the end. God appointed the prophet Samuel to go find the next king at the house of Jesse over in Bethlehem. God let him know that one of Jesse's sons was going to be the one. Ol' Samuel makes the trip, sees the sons in order of age and with every one, Samuel says to himself; "Woo! Look at this one! He's GOT to be it!" On each occasion, God said "Nope. Next son!" Samuel was confused about this, but God told him; "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Sam 16:6-7 NAS

Samuel's basis of worth and qualification for kingship was all about what he saw. Like the media and the rest of the world. God says the worth comes from the inside. To God, we're all in the same boat. We've all been created in the image of God. The only part of His creation done like that. We're special! However, we're all sinners and we fall far short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). That stinks! We all need help overcoming our faults and failures. Aha! But God loves everyone so much, that He sent His Son to die for all of our sins (Jn 3:16 as seen in football stadiums nationwide). Not because we deserve it (see the we're all sinners part), but because of the worth that He sees in each one of us. He doesn't see which side of the tracks you came from, how much you weigh, the color of your hair (if you have some, that is), how many friends you have, (real or Facebook) or if you made good grades in school. Heck, He doesn't even care if you've ever been to church in your whole life. You're still special to God! And God has made it easy to become His child and enter His heaven. The requirement is the same for all; "But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan--this rebirth comes from God." John 1:12-13 NLT Our need is all the same and God's remedy for our need is all the same. Our worth is not based on things we can see, but on what God puts in us.

We should be upset by the murder of Miss Love. God is. But our prayers need to go up as well for the hundreds, even thousands of young people abducted and/or murdered each year that will never make the cover of a magazine or the front page of the newspapers, as well as for their families. Those whom the rest of the world would call "unlovely" are just as valuable to God as the others who get the media attention. This should be our viewpoint as well. Help us Lord, to see as You see, so we can get it right and minister to ALL who have needs, as You see fit.

God hates the bleating of sheep

Now, before you lash out at me, thinking I am attributing to God a stance He does not take, just hear me out and I trust you'll catch my drift here. It's been a while since I've blogged, so this has been swirling around in my head for a while.

God loves all His creatures, even the stupid, wooly guys that baaa at you. He even loves me, faults, foibles and all. The longer I live, the more that amazes me.

God and I have this thing going. I asked Jesus to be my Savior on August 26, 1982. Since then, He's been trying to get me to look and act like Him. I was warned that this process was coming. In some areas, He is having good success. In other areas, He probably wonders how I dress myself every morning. He gently woos me by the Holy Spirit so I will change without a whole lot of fuss, muss or general commotion. Sometimes, when the gently part doesn't work, He breaks out the heavier stuff, anywhere from the trusty old "clue-by-four," to stopping just short of nuclear weaponry. There are things in our lives He just doesn't want in there and will work the rest of our lives to get rid of them, 'cause until then, we will be tripped up or hindered in our personal lives in a way that doesn't please Him.

I've been thinking about the first king of Israel, a guy named Saul. He was a guy from the neighborhood, you could say. Kinda tall and lanky (I Sam 9:2), but a regular guy nonetheless. Once God caved to the people in I Samuel 8:9 about having a king at all (God was the only king they really needed, He reminded them), He told the prophet to make Saul king. They anointed him and gave him the speech about all the things he shouldn't forget once he gets there (like we try to do to politicians today...STILL doesn't work!), blah blah blah. Fast forward to I Samuel 15. God has an assignment for the king. This is the Phil Paraphrase--

"Saul, you know the Amelekites, right?"
"Right."
"They've been a thorn in our side ever since Exodus 17, right?"
"Right!"
"I want you to go and kick their butt. EVERYONE'S butt. I want you to turn that joint into a parking lot and I want everyONE and everyTHING killed. Got it?"
"Got it!"

Sounds easy enough. Saul gathers 210,000 men and goes at it. He was doing great. Then it happened. It says;
"And he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly;" 1 Sam 15:8-9 NAS He went about 90% of the way, then decided he'd do God a favor and give Him some of the best of what the enemy had to offer. Shoot, God wouldn't get His anthropomorphic panties in a wad over one lousy heathen king and some dumb old sheep, would He? Let's find out...

Early the next morning, after the dust had settled from the battle, Samuel the prophet is having his quiet time with God and God tells him about the events of yesterday. Samuel at this point is beyond old, so he's not into the whole war thing anymore. He didn't SEE what Saul did, but God told him to confront Saul and let him know that GOD was watching and He's not pleased. Samuel goes to meet Saul as he comes back and Saul greets him with an enthusiastic "Samuel, good to see you! God bless you, man! I took care of it. Mission accomplished!! (v 13)" Samuel replies with that prophet's tone of voice that nobody really wants to hear;
But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" 1 Sam 15:14-15 NAS Saul was busted and he knew it! So he does what we do so often...pass the buck. "Oh. yeah. that. Well....the people took the best stuff so it could be sacrificed to the Lord YOUR God" (15:15) Yeah, yeah, it was them, not me that disobeyed.

The exchange goes on, but point is, God points things out to us so we can erradicate them from our lives. Some things are small and God doesn't push as hard on those things. They're also not near as hard to get rid of as some others. But, as noted earlier, there are some things that He just can't stand to have there, cause it keeps us from looking like Him, that keep us from having a good testimony before the community or the church. Sometimes, that's the stuff that keeps us from getting a good night's sleep. We know what He told us. We know what the Word of God says about that thing. But we go as far as WE can or WE want, then stop. Nobody else knows you didn't REALLY forgive that creep, but God does. You name your own poison, we all have at least one, many of us, more than one. We get like Saul. We hear what the command is, we know that the enemy in our lives is to be completely taken out, killed, deep sixed. Then we go at it and all is well, until... Yup, WE decide that we're not going all that way with that. We try to justify it by saying that we saved the best of what there was. God doesn't want or need the "best" of what belongs to the enemy! If we finish the task and go full out with God, people might think we're crazy. But, next time we come to God for our quiet time, God says; "what's up with all the bleating of sheep I'm hearing??" The bleating of sheep, the reminder that we DIDN'T do everything He asked or commanded. The sound of compromise. That we're busted and we know it. And God will keep replaying that sound every time until we get sick of hearing it and go all the way where God is calling us, doing what He's told us to do.

You say; "But I can't do that!" You know what? You're right! But the power to do what God calls you to do comes from the God who calls you to do it, just for the asking! That Holy Spirit that tries to woo you first? He's the one with the power. When you believe in Christ, that same Spirit lives in you to enable you to do what God wants. (He's also the one that does the whispering in your inner ear about what God wants to fix in your life...)

When it comes to a good night's sleep, it's the counting of sheep that is reported to work. The bleating of sheep will keep you awake. Let's make the decision to obey God. Once the sheep are quieted, we can sleep soundly, knowing we're in the center of His will and He is pleased.

It's almost time...

Time has flown by! It's almost time again for the National Association of Letter Carriers' Food Drive, coming up Saturday, May 8th. Because of the generosity of our customers, we're approaching the ONE BILLION pound mark in our donations, all of it going to local food pantries where it was collected. You can make your plans now on how you can help those in need in your area. More to come, but had to put a bug in your ear, so to speak, as it's coming soon!

It's never too early...

The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) annual food drive is coming up Saturday, May 9, 2009. Last year, a record total of 73.1 million pounds of food was collected to help those in need. Unfortunately, in many areas of the country, food banks were depleted almost completely by the bevy of natural disasters that have struck. Here, many were without power and water for upwards of 3 weeks due to the widespread ice storm. It was the worst natural disaster Kentucky had ever seen. Again, I would encourage you to be watching for your community to announce their involvement in this effort. If everyone helps a little, it all adds up to a lot and many families less fortunate than yourself will be blessed. Stay tuned!

You Never Know Who's Going To Read These Things...

In Nov of 06, I blogged a marvelous blog called "So What?" inspired by my high school history teacher, Ralph Witkovich. Wouldn't you know, I get a letter in the mail today from the very same "Mr Wit," commenting on my blog and giving an update on his life in the 24 years since I saw him last. Whooda thunk it? But I have to say, that letter just made my day!! Hmmm....I may have to blog a special blog about Mr Wit sometime and tell some of the more "interesting" things I learned from him. In the meantime, I need to craft a letter in response to his and keep this line of communication open. To be continued....

(BTW, Mr Wit, you did call us jaspers, but you called us chumps quite frequently as well....)

Time Still Flies

This year is flying by!!! I haven't blogged much this year...mostly because I haven't had time. They're killing us at work, awaiting 5 fresh bodies to help take up the slack.

Thanksgiving is past us already and Christmas is coming quickly. It has already been over a year since my cancer surgery. Things are well and God is good. I did get Thanksgiving off and enjoyed time with friends very much. God has had to remind me to slow down and count my many blessings and cultivate a thankful heart. From the greatest (the salvation found by grace through faith-Eph 2:8-9) to the very least, it is good to give thanks to the Lord. James 1:17 reminds us that every good and perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of Lights in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. And some of the blessings come in creatively wrapped packages, oftentimes appearing as things we don't count as blessings...like troubles, trials and tribulations. God is also teaching me and some of my friends about this sort of thing, showing us that He's got it all under control and we can trust Him with everything. Thanksgiving is a great kickoff to the Christmas season. May we all stop every day and count our blessings and show our thanks to God not so much with words of thanksgiving just in a 6 week season each year, but with a life of Thanks-living.

The Master's Voice

Alas, another mail route illustration....

Over on 18th street in our town, there is a dog that I really dislike. He is a German Shepherd mix and probably about 85 pounds, maybe a little more. He has a large collar and a very large chain. His attitude is terrible and he wants to chew up everything and everybody that passes by. He tried to get under a fence one day and take me out, but I noticed he was able to get up on the fence awfully easily, so when he tried something, I hosed him down with my dog repellent. It works (evil snicker).

The other day, I had a certified letter for the owner. As he signed his life away and the dog continued to bark and jump around furiously, I told him what I thought about his dog, that I didn't like his attitude. He said "hang on," and shouted the dog's name. Instant silence. It was nice. He said, "His name is Iceberg. I could take you over there right now--he would just sit there and you could pet him. He's really a good dog." I politely declined the offer and finished the business at hand, but got to thinking about that later in the day.

I've hollered things at that dog before and it didn't make one bit of difference. I've told him to shut up and put a sock in it. I've sprayed him one day and the next day, he's back snarling and barking at me. But when he heard his master's voice, everything changed. He acted totally different, totally under control, had a totally different demeanor. When not under the master's influence, he is out of control and does not play well with others. God showed me a true to life comparison between me (and you) and that dog.

Without being under the Master's control....when we can't or won't hear His voice, we subsequently act in ways that are seemingly out of control, not pleasing to the Master nor to those around us. Paul wrote in Galatians 5:19 that the deeds of the flesh are evident, and he listed them at that time. When we are in charge of our lives there is a tendency to allow ugly things to show up that we don't want to cultivate in our lives. He followed that immediately with 5:22-23, the fruit of the Spirit which includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (NAS). These grow in our lives when we MAKE the time to take in God's word and find out what He wants us to be like and from cultivating a ever deepening relationship with Him through times of prayer. Prayer is just a 2 way conversation with God. We, of course, tell God what we would like and what weighs heavily on our hearts, but it's also where (if we wait around for a while) we learn to hear the Master's voice.

Iceberg had heard his master's voice enough that when he heard it, he stopped what he was doing and listened. No other voice could accomplish in Iceberg's life what his master's could. Whatever the master ordered is what Iceberg would do. What about me and you?? Have we heard our Master's voice enough that we actually know it when we hear it?? And if we hear it, do we drop what we're doing and actually listen and DO what he tells us???

I can't answer for you, but I have some work to do in this area. But now that Iceberg has taught me a lesson, I can go forward from today, knowing that I have to always be listening for MY Master's voice. And only when I've got that down will I be able to live a truly victorious and successful Christian life in the eyes of God. I still don't like Iceberg's attitude toward me and I'd still like to slap him every morning I go by him, but I can better appreciate his attitude toward his master's voice.

I like this one!