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Cecil Andrews, 29 Edengrove Park, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AZ, Northern Ireland Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net Quick Links - Home - Assorted Articles - Audio/Video - Ministry Newsletters - Words of Wisdom |
“Love
Wins” by Rob Bell:
Distorting
the teaching of Scripture:
In recent weeks much of
professing Christendom has been buzzing with comments and reviews of Rob Bell’s
latest book called ‘Love Wins’. On
Premier Christian Radio in the UK Rob Bell has been airing an advert for his
book and he is very keen to emphasise that in apparently “only 12 verses” does
the Lord Jesus Christ make direct reference to ‘hell’ – the clear inference by Mr Bell is that ‘hell’ obviously does not figure all that highly in God’s thinking if it is “only”
mentioned 12 times by His Son.
This is a very
deceitful and deceiving line of approach by Rob Bell – consider how many times
the Lord mentioned the absolute necessity of being “born again” in order to see or enter “the Kingdom of God” – in John chapter 3 the Lord mentions it
directly or indirectly about 5 times – that is a lot less than His 12 references
to ‘hell’ so does that mean the need
to be “born again” is of even less
of a consideration in God’s thinking than the question of ‘hell’?
Such a conclusion would
be ridiculous as is also Rob Bell’s suggestion about God’s thinking on ‘hell’ because the Lord apparently “only”
mentioned it 12 times.
Because of His
over-emphasis on ‘God’s Love’ Rob Bell has great difficulty with the Bible’s
teaching on ‘everlasting punishment’
in ‘everlasting fire’ (see Matthew
25:46 & 41). He fails to recognise the supreme attribute of God, namely His
Holiness (see Isaiah 6:3 & Revelation 4:8).
Because of His GREAT
Holiness we learn in Habakkuk that God is “of
purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity” (Habakkuk
1:13). Only “born again” believers
who by faith alone have been clothed in the very righteousness of God Himself
(see Romans 3:21-22) shall be able to dwell eternally in God’s heavenly
presence – all others will be excluded – that is the clear teaching of the
parable of the Wedding Feast that we read about in Matthew 22:1-14.
For me the message of
the Bible is not so much one of “Love Wins” but rather one of “Holiness Rules”.
A number of reviews of
the book have been published and one that I feel will be of help is by Pastor
Kevin deYoung and it is located on http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/03/14/rob-bell-love-wins-review/
Another provisional
revue is by the UK based Evangelical Alliance and in one part they write “Rob Bell is a valued brother in
Christ and has felt it important to raise publicly some difficult areas of
Christian theology that many people feel uncomfortable with” –
such a statement serves to once more underscore just how unreliable Evangelical
Alliance [remember their
approach to Steve Chalke and the ‘penal substitution’
question] has become over recent decades.
Cecil
Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 1st April 2011
APPENDIX
A
recent in-depth review of ‘Love Wins’ by
Pastor Larry DeBruyn has come to my attention and it
is simply a must-read for those who want to see an excellent biblical critique
of Mr Bell’s book.
The
review is located on http://guardinghisflock.com/2011/05/09/love-loses/
Cecil
Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 1st June 2011