‘So of all the questions raised in the book, the most important question every reader must answer is this: Is it true?’ (Kevin DeYoung)
Let the conversation turn to the topic of Rob Bell and people first say how much they like the guy personally, but they just don’t like what he has been writing lately.
Bell, of course, is senior pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI, and the author of Love Wins that’s getting a lot of media attention. The book is all about universalism, the view that all people will be saved or brought back to holiness and God.
It’s not a topic that interests me. What does intrigue me is how so many ministry leaders make a bestseller out of what is dubious research. A number of pastors push out the e-mails and blogs giving Bell some left-handed compliments.
Well, not everyone. One pastor shared some pastoral guidance with his congregation. Yes, he’s been a fan of Bell’s work in the past and even defended Bell against criticism. “But his latest book [Love Wins] is irresponsible, at best,” Mark Connelly, lead pastor of Mission Community Church, Gilbert, AZ, wrote his parishioners. He has three concerns for Bell’s book: “First, while perhaps not condoning full blown universalism, Rob takes the reader right to the doorstep and invites them in. Second, Rob uses poor methods of biblical interpretation, and misrepresents the history of the church, to support his proposition. And third, Rob introduces a new version of the Bible story, which is clearly different than the story told by Jesus, the Apostles, and the church for the past 2,000 years,” Connelly advised.
Noting that he has read the book from cover to cover, Connelly says he feels compelled to caution his congregation “against embracing the false teaching Rob puts forth in Love Wins.” In so writing, he brings great courage and pastoral leadership in addressing the book with his church.
In the same week seminary president Albert Mohler came out in his blog with a scathing analysis of another book, Is God a Christian? by R. Kirby Godsey. There’s a bit of history about Godsey, a previous book, and his presidency of Mercer University in Georgia, that you can look up for yourself.
But, says Mohler: “There are different forms of universalism and inclusivism within theological circles today, but the most intellectually embarrassing form of pluralism is the very one that Godsey champions,” Mohler says. “He writes as if all the religions of the world are basically similar, when even a cursory knowledge of the belief systems of the world reveals how dissimilar they are. Godsey does not even privilege monotheism, arguing that Christians should see adherents of all other religions as ‘equals before God.’” Godsey’s book is “not really a serious work of theology at all” and Mohler concludes with calling it “an unmitigated theological disaster.”
So what is the issue here? It is about false teaching.
“Bad theology hurts real people,” says Kevin DeYoung, senior pastor of University Reformed Church, East Lansing, MI, who developed a 21-page analysis of the Bell book. A review that, he says, “is about the truth, about how the rightness or wrongness of our theology can do tremendous help or tremendous harm to the people of God.” Put Bell’s book in the latter category.
It is rather more about Christians who should know better, thrusting a sharp stick in the eye of faith and Christianity, at a time when so few people know their bibles, when the popular culture scolds religion at every turn, when church attendance continues to fall, when religion is drummed from the marketplace, when media and film use every occasion to denigrate the church.
Canadian author and apologist Stephen J. Bedard says that “pastors should develop an apologetic culture in their churches as the need for Christians to defend their faith has increased significantly,” reports The Christian Post. Bedard says that more churches need to articulate what the Gospel is. “Only when they know what the real thing is will they be able to respond to the counterfeit,” says Bedard.
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