In a move that should have surprised no one, Rob Bell has come out in favor of “same-sex 
marriage.” It reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons where the twins Terri and Sherri were speaking to Lisa:
Isn’t it amazing that the same day you got a pool is the same day we realized we liked you? The timing works out great, don’t you think?
For Rob Bell and other people bailing on biblical truths, it goes like this:
Isn’t it amazing that the same day God told me that he changed his rules on marriage it made me more popular? The timing works out great, don’t you think?
The link has the video of him explaining his “new” views (Poison Control recommends watching it if you are out of Syrup of Ipecac) where he not-so-subtly undermined the word of God and said how we need to get with the world’s changes, because God is doing something new blah blah blah. He says we should work on the “real” problems, as if the problem of saving people from sin isn’t real.
Once again someone who mocks what God said in his word wants us to believe that God is telling him all his new ideas and changes. Right. I hope that all the youth groups that showed his videos are repenting.
Here’s a graph I made for Rob (the inspiration came from the World’s Best Sunday School Teacher)::
The liberal “church” has changed in the same ways culture has: Pro-legalized abortion, anti-parental notification laws, pro-gay marriage, pro-handing out condoms to kids, etc.
Think about this: Non-believers created the anti-abortion Hippocratic Oath and it took Satan 2,500 years to convince pagans to discard it. Then it took another 15 minutes for theological Liberals to go pro-abortion.
Isn’t it amazing? What great timing! The liberal church realized it had been wrong on these important topics for nearly two thousand years, and came to that conclusion at virtually the same time as the secular culture. That makes the world like them more, I suppose.
They also decided it was too embarrassing to believe in miracles, the authority of scripture, the exclusivity of Jesus, etc. Or did that come first?
Thankfully, many churches in the West aren’t buying it and most of the churches outside the West aren’t either. The first time I was in Kenya one of the full-time missionaries, a doctor from England, kept saying how the Kenyans were really disappointed in the U.S. when they heard about churches supporting gay “marriages.” It wasn’t like they were thinking, “Gee, those brilliant Westerners know everything, perhaps we should follow them.” It was more like, “Whoa, what are they thinking?!”
1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Eternity Matters 
The article from Huffpo cuts to the quick. “Bell went on to say that while it used to be fair to equate evangelicals with social conservatism, that assumption no longer holds true. More pointedly, he said, ‘I think we are witnessing the death of a particular subculture that doesn’t work.'” Ouch! So “evangelicals” (which used to those connected intimately conversionism (“You must be born again”), biblicism (“The Bible is the inerrant, God-breathed Word of God”), crucicentrism (“The center of the Gospel is the saving death and resurrection of Christ”), and activism (primarily sharing the gospel and loving others as Christ loved us), but now it’s “No hell” and “God changes His mind randomly” and “Only go with what works.” Bell is wrong about what “evangelical” means, but he’s not far wrong that an adherence to those four fundamentals is dying. Jesus said it would. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Thanks, Mr. Bell, for acting on 1 John 2:18-19. You’ve proved the point (and, oddly enough, John Piper’s tweet way back when).
(I do worry about your use of The Simpsons for your theology, though. :))
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(Sorry. Should say “…used to refer to those …”)
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Rob Bell may sell more books, but eventually, people will quit listening to him the way they quit listening to the liberal churches. After all, if the liberal churches are right in what they believe, why do we need to go to church at all?
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Exactly. That is why those denominations are dying out. Some people go out of habit, but why would you join? You could watch GLEE! and get the same “sermons.”
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Perhaps Rob Bell is getting more consistent then I realize…he’s left his church to go write books.
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LOL! I didn’t realize GLEE was that boring. 🙂
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After all, if the liberal churches are right in what they believe, why do we need to go to church at all?
Good question. Why bother if we’re going to be told that everything’s OK and that God doesn’t expect more of us or has no interest in holding us to a higher standard that what’s popular or “feels good?” How would that distinguish church from the world?
It reminds me of these people we have now who walk around saying, “He who hath no sin, let him cast the first stone,” always interpreted to mean that Jesus tolerates anything and everything with open arms, as long as we don’t ‘judge’ people.
I wonder if those are the ones He was talking about when He warned us, that some who had claimed His name would be told that He never knew them.
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Regarding the “he who hath no sin” part, I think most people have a warped understanding of the passage. During that chapter, Jesus is writing on the ground at the time, which some scholars believe he was writing the sins of those casting judgement on the accused adulteress, causing them to slink away. However, even if he wasn’t, his point stands that none of us have the capacity to judge another person on their sins, as we all have ours that are just as worthy of judgement. The true point of this parable is that the sole arbiter of judgement is God, and that it is not the responsibility of men to ensure that His judgement is carried out.
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Uh, then why are you judging people for judging if judging is always wrong? Also, there are many other passages where we are told to make judgments. The lesson is about not judging hypocritically.
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First, I am not a believer so any Biblical principles of whether to judge or not are moot, I was merely pointing out, as you said, that it is wrong to judge hypocritically, and in a more literal sense attempt to carry out God’s judgement on your own terms.
Second, you really don’t think there’s a problem with the moral of one biblical passage being “don’t judge”, yet others telling you to judge? Talk about cognitive dissonance.
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You must read it all. One passage says don’t judge hypocritically and another says stop judging based on mere appearances and make a right judgment. No cognitive dissonance at all. People who can’t or won’t read in context will misinterpret all sorts of things. Sadly, too many people just run around with quotes from the Big Book of Atheist Sound Bites.
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Sadly, too many Christians attempt to use their own interpretation of “context” to explain away many instances of dissonance in the Bible. The only point I was trying to make is every Christian believes that his own opinion of what a passage means is the one, true correct interpretation, and condemns all others as false or “out of context”. (Before you think I am equivocating, I am directly referencing the passage saying “make a right judgement”, i.e you alone are the one determining for yourself what is right, particularly when there is no clear justification.)
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You keep outing yourself. Now in your worldview, why would that be “sad?” What universal grounding of your nothingness to molecules to man would make that sad? (That’s rhetorical — I could ask that for nearly every comment you make but don’t have the time.)
Further, you are begging the question and assume dissonance. If you want to impress me, address the two passages I mentioned in their full context and explain how they can’t be harmonized. I find that most people can see the difference between “don’t judge hypocritically” and “never, ever judge under any circumstances.”
But again, you are taking that out of context. You ask as if the “make a right judgment” is the only verse in the Bible. There are a few more verses that tell you what judgments to make and how.
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I shamefully admit that I used to like Rob Bell. However that was before I knew about his goofy theology. It’s very easy to go off to wacky land when you want to sell books and be liked.
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Well, if it is true confessions time, I used to like Rick Warren. I would reflexively filter out a lot of his gibberish and focus on the legitimate points. I’m ashamed that I actually taught it in a Sunday school class. I’m glad God is forgiving!
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I think that Rob Bell is spot on and anyone who tells lies about what he said is going straight to hell.
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Good one!
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