I don't think I need to read fourteen versions of Dick and Jane to get the overall thrust of the story and that is pretty much how I feel about Rob Bell and his latest pile of liberal, emergent jibberish. I've read the same putrid assembly from the fellow before. For that sentiment, some of our esteemed postmodern "senior evangelical theologians" would brand me a fundamentalist but then, these are some of the same fellows who would embrace the adorers of Ellen G. White as within the fold of Arminian thought. Some of them, such as Richard Mouw, president of what has become the largest bastion of liberal, emergent theology in the world, Fuller, extol the virtues of Rob Bell with comments that in my opinion smack of unadulterated ignorance. Quoting from that great theological treasure trove, USA Today, Mouw stated the real hellacious fight is between "generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy. There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people." Of course, Rob Bell is one of the star products of Fuller's current liberal soup theology so should anything less be expected from Mouw?
Kevin DeYoung on the Gospel Coalition blog has written an excellent book review of Bell's Love Wins. It is more than enough to give me cause to keep this book out of the hands of children and impressionable adults. I do have a good use for it with regard to young pets, however.
4 comments:
Well said, bro. I found this blog from Sounds of Thunder
SLW has some good thoughts to share. Thanks for stopping by!
DeYoung is a Calvinist and critiques Bell from a Calvinist viewpoint, inlcuding offering some Calvinistic arguments such as God not really wanting all to be saved. Of course much of what he says may be fine and not touch on the Arminian vs. calvinist divide. But you would probably do better to point to some critiques from solid Arminian theologians, such as those by Ben Witherington and Timothy Tennet, which have been posted at the Society of Evangelical Arminians' website.
While I can understand a reluctance to use Calvinist resources for those issues we have division over, I think DeYoung gave a good, orthodox rebuttal of Bell's ideological theology. Orthodox teachings regarding hell are essentially the same whether one is Reformed Calvinist or Reformed Arminian. That said, I agree with you that there should be a good balance. I have read Witherington's comments and I posted Dr. Tennet's commentary on this book here on this site. I found the latter to be most useful of all I have read on the issue.
http://travelah.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-final-post-maybe-regarding-rob-bell.html
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