Truth War Central

God in a Box or God As HE Has Revealed Himself?

Here is an excerpt from an important article published at ExtremeTheology.com entitled "God in a Box or God As HE Has Revealed Himself":

Today, if you happen to be conversing with a group of CHRISTIANS and you boldly, confidently, and succinctly talk about God and His characteristics, attributes and what He has done you are very likely to be accused of 'putting God in a box'?

One of these Christians might even throw a Rob Bell quote or two in your face and tell you that you need to not be so arrogant and should adopt a more humble hermeneutic. According to Bell, 'The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody we made up.' (Velvet Elvis, Page 25)

Poppycock!

In the scriptures we have God's revelation of himself and that divine self-revelation gives us some very hard neat lines and definitions about who God is, what He is like, what He has done and what true worship of Him entails"

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Rob Bell: The gods Should Be Angry

Jesse Johnson from Pulpit Magazine has an insightful review of Rob Bell's "The Gods Are Not Angry" concert tour. Johnson's review documents the subtle but deadly message of Rob Bell. Said Johnson:

"I am convinced that the emerging church is largely early 20th century liberalism, with cooler hair…

This was a one-man show. It was all Rob, for all 90 minutes. No music (except for an awkwardly-mixed conclusion), no notes, no Bible, no lectern, no breaks…

There were more dark rimmed glasses in the room than bibles. The entire night was an illustration of style-over substance…

But Bell went from there into what can only be described as careful and planned ambiguity. It was obvious that he is a smart person. When he rattled off the Mesopotamian and Sumerian gods by memory, he established that he is no dummy. So when he ended the night without explaining why the sacrifice of Christ appeased God’s anger, without explaining atonement, without even touching substitution, I can’t help but note the effort that took. He spoke for over 90 minutes on the sacrifice of Christ without explaining sin, or the resurrection—which is the same as not speaking about the sacrifice of Christ…

Instead, he walked around an alter for 90 minutes, without talking about the wrath of God against sin being poured out on Christ. He did not say, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.” He did not say, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”…

He did not tell them “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Instead he said, “The gods are not angry anymore.”

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Rob Bell and Karl Barth’s Neo-orthodox Soteriology

Seeing clearly has an excellent post that explores the striking similarities between Rob Bell's soteriology and Karl Barth's. According to the article:

Barth and Bell confuse the availability of salvation to all men with the objective reality of the salvation of all men — there is a huge difference. Salvation is available to all, but not true already for all.

If man is already reconciled to God, then why does Paul command the Corinthian readers to be reconciled to God? Aren’t they already reconciled? Instead, shouldn’t he have commanded them to live their lives in this new reality?

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Critique: Rob Bell…Velvet Elvis (movement 1)

The Seeing Clearly blog has posted the first part of an excellent critique of Rob Bell's book" Velvet Elvis".

Click here to read it.

Rob Bell Sermon Review

The author of the Seeing Clearly blog has an excellent review of Rob Bell's sermon on Mark 2. He takes Bell to task on the missing element of his sermon, Jesus Christ. Click Here to Read It.