“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” -Romans 10:9, 13
“Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live... Jesus measures their eternal standings in terms of not what they said or believed but how they lived, specifically in regard to the hell around them.” -Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, pp.146, 148
Rob Bell is not a Christian! Okay, that may be too emphatic and I honestly cannot say that nor would I want to give the impression that I think I can. Sure, most people consider Rob Bell to be a Christian minister in a Christian church who writes Christian books. In fact, Rob Bell is listed as one of the 50 most influentuial Christians in America (#10). However, I do not believe that we can rightly call his ministry or teachings Christian and feel comfortable with that, since more often than not he appears to be shooting his ball at the wrong basket.
But why would I say such a thing? Well, first we should just look at what it means to be a Christian. The name “Christian” comes directly from the name “Christ”, which means “the anointed one,” and is taken to be a person who is a disciple of Christ and his teachings. The term first appears in Acts 11:26 saying, “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” In light of this we see that a fundamental motivation behind attaching the name “Christian” to something is that it is somehow associated with discipleship to Christ.
So, how does this affect Bell’s work? Well, if we look at the above quotes (as well as past posts) I believe that there is no honest way to say that Bell is advocating any sort of discipleship to Jesus Christ in his teachings. We see, as we read through Bell’s popular book Velvet Elvis that he gets off on the right foot saying, “While we were unable to do anything about our condition, while we were helpless, while we were unaware of just how bad the situation was, Jesus died. (p.145)” And then, Bell states, “Jesus died … for everybody” and that “[e]verybody’s sins on the cross with Jesus.” This may or may not be contentious, but we’ll deal with that later. The truly contentious part is what comes next:
“So this reality, this forgiveness, this reconciliation, is true for everybody…. This reality then isn’t something we make true about ourselves by doing something. It is already true. Our choice is to live in this new reality or cling to a reality of our own making.” (p.146)
Do you see it? Do you see the problem? What’s happened? Why now are we able to choose for ourselves which “reality” we live in? (And what’s with all this Matrix, rabbit hole mash-up language anyways?) If before Christ died on the cross we were “unable to do anything,” why is it that now we are? Or, if we are all now free from the burden of sin (which I believe is what Bell would say), how is it that we can still “cling to a reality of our own making,” which would itself be sin? Either our sin burden and God’s wrath have been removed for good or they haven’t. There must be a solution.
But, instead of solutions, we get more of the same. Looking at the above quote we see Bell state that “Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live.” But this is ridiculous. How possibly could a forgiven person wind up in Hell. What bit of good did God’s forgiveness do if it didn’t keep them from being damned? Charles Spurgeon puts it best in saying,
“He has punished Christ, why should He punish twice for one offence? Christ has died for all His people’s sins, and if thou art in the covenant, thou art one of Christ’s people. Damned thou canst not be. Suffer for thy sins thou canst not. Until God can be unjust, and demand two payments for one debt, He cannot destroy the soul for whom Jesus died.”
God is no god at all if he kills his son on the cross, “the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18), and yet does not remove his wrath and condemnation from us as he said (1 John 4:10, Romans 8:1).
And to top it off, Bell spits directly in the face of Romans 10:9 when he says that the people will be judged “in terms of not what they said or believed but how they lived.” The Bible clearly states, through Paul in the book of Romans, that confessing with the mouth and believing in the heart are the necessary requirements for salvation. Yet it is this proclaimation which Bell fully (and I would claim purposefully) denies.
So, in summary, to Bell we have a God who sent his son to die on the cross to forgive us of sins, the burden of which we were unable to do anything about beforehand, and now that everyone is forgiven we have the ultimate responsibility in determining our fate, and that being not through anything we believe or say, and not even about following Jesus, or relying on Jesus, or anything to do with Jesus, but solely upon whether or not we do “good” or “evil”. I must say that this is the most contrived load of horsecrap I have ever seen put together in one book, nevermind a book which the Christian community raves about and longs to “learn” more from.
I may not be able to judge whether or not Rob Bell is a Christian, but I can say that I am seriously concerned about the souls of the people who turn to his ministry for their spiritual guidance. As a Presbyterian pastor I read put it as eloquently as I could have ever imagined, “People will go to hell over this. You just don’t get up in front of ten thousand people on Sunday and play around with the Word of God.” Amen.
May 1, 2008 at 12:55 pm |
Hmm… I see that you are passionate about defending the Word of God from half truths, which I commend wholeheartedly.
I read your assessment of Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis passage and your refutation with Romans 10:9… if belief is our only requirement for salvation, then why is James 2:14-25 still considered canonical? Can “dead” faith still be enough of a basis for salvation? And how do you reconcile this belief in belief as being a basis of justification after Jesus tells the parable in Mt 21 about the two sons, and then extrapolates that the sinners will enter into the Kingdom ahead of those with right beliefs (Pharisees)?
I’m not claiming that works alone can justify us before God, but I am claiming that Bell’s statement that people are judged not by beliefs but by actions is not completely unbiblical. I do believe that the Bible is a living, breathing Word, and that by extension it is inerrant because God is inerrant. BUT — I do believe that there are many tensions of understanding contained in the many books and passages of equally inspired writing that comprises the current 66-book canon.
And mostly, I’m saying, I find it to be slightly counterproductive to choose to parse the teachings of Rob Bell or other “emergent” leaders solely for the purpose of catching them in a heretical pose. I’m not assuming that is your motive, but from the comments I read of yours in the Out of Ur blog relating to the “Why I’m Not An Emergent” book (I know that’s not the real title I just don’t feel like looking it up after I closed that browser window) and reading a few of your posts on this blog… that’s what it looks like.
I apologize if you feel like I’m being harsh… I don’t have any outward affiliation with Rob Bell or any other emergent leader, but I am 31 and doing my best to follow God’s leading.
Mostly though I just like good conversation.
So tell me what you think about this whole belief/works tension.
May 1, 2008 at 3:21 pm |
Jelani,
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and to write such a thoughtful response. This is certainly the type of impassioned conversation which I want to engage in through this medium. As for what you have said, I wan to deal with it in two parts. First, I want to address the issue of justification by works or faith. Secondly, I will speak to my feelings about the emergent teachers and why I feel it is so crucial to analyze deeply what it is that they are saying.
To begin with, so anyone reading will know, justification is God’s act of pardoning sinners and accepting them as righteous before him. Without this declaration of righteousness then we would be wholly unable to stand in God’s presence (i.e. be in heaven) and thus, justification is the crux issue of what it means to be saved. Therefore, the main debate is over how exactly is God able to pardon our sins and declare us righteous, is it though our adherence to his laws and the doing of good deeds or is it solely through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross? Moreover, whose righteousness do we have, ours that we have earned or Christ’s which has been given to us?
From the outset, I will tell you that I believe whole-heartedly in both justification by faith with the imputation of Christ’s righteousness AND the teaching of James 2:14-15. I believe that James 2:14-15 serves as a template for those who would want to say they believe and keep living in the way that they are. It is a condemnation of those who would say that they have saving faith and yet their lives do not reflect what the Bible teaches that faith will produce. This is classically known as Free Grace theology and I believe it is the driving force behind what I have been calling “Nominal Christianity.” It is what is evidenced by people in our culture who say they are Christians and then keep on living however “the hell” they want to. So, in James 2:14-15, James is not saying “unless you have works then you are not saved” but instead he is saying “the person who says they have been saved and yet does not display the fruits of that regeneration should reevaluate if they truly have a saving faith.”
Moreover, I believe that justification by faith is the Biblical teaching because of Romans 10:9, as you said, as well as Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” This verse clearly puts the doing of works into open contradiction with the act of salvation, the declaration of righteous in front of God. This is repeated in Romans 3:28, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” as well as Romans 3:23-24, 26 and Galatians 2:16. Through these (and many more verses) we see that justification (salvation) comes “by grace, through faith.”
Then, why must there be works? Because, coincident with the act of justification comes the regeneration of the heart, through which our hearts are awakened and made sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and his guidance in our lives. From this also comes a call to obedience and to the production of the fruits of the Spirit (i.e. good works). See Ezekiel 11:19-20 and Galatians 5:19-26.
So, why do I find it necessary to analyze and dissect the writings of the emergent leaders? There are a few reasons. First, my main purpose is not to try and find some little heresy in an obscure passage. I am trying to demonstrate that from cover to cover these authors are developing a theology which, when all put together, will at minimum, be unedifying, and at most will destroy the soul. I believe that I have tried to give a thorough handling to “Velvet Elvis” and “The New Christians,” as well as digging into very available statements by Brian McLaren. Why then does it appear that I’m “parsing” each individual phrase? It is because all of these new teachers share a common problem, that being that they are purposefully vague in describing what they believe. Moreover, when they do expose it, they almost always do so in a deceiving way and in a way which tries to “stick it to” traditional orthodoxy, embellishing the abuses of that particular doctrine without going into the truth of it.
Beyond this, these teachers are becoming very prolific. Young people from across or outside of all denominations are picking up these books because they are tired of what they see Christianity as being and they envision in these guys a fresh way of thinking. And yes, some of that thinking is helpful. But, when the good methods are peppered with (really) bad theology, then a book which may helpful in methods can become harmful in false teaching. As I replied on “Out of Ur,” a lot of the readers of these books are immature “believers” and in their hands they will be unable to parse through the bad teachings. This is what scares me, that these books will catch the eye of an undiscerning person and will lead them astray even worse than they already were. Yes, they aren’t completely bad, but as Paul shows in Galatians, adding anything to the Gospel and misleading people as to the nature of God and salvation is not something you want to do.
In the end, I think that we would be well reminded of John’s words in 1 John 4:1-6, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”