You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
Rob Bell Still Scratching Those Itching Ears
Emergent Church pastor Rob Bell went out on tour with his latest mythical mystic musing: The gods Aren’t Angry. In Emergent Church Pastor Rob Bell Recites the Mystic Mantra for the New Evangelical Religion of Man’s Love of Self I quote Bell himself as he says:
There is a greatness [in mankind]. The writer here [of Psalm 8] uses the word “glory and honor” that resides in every single human being. Fragile and yet filled with the potential for glory and honor. I love how Nelson Mandela puts it in one of his writings. He says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
And then he concludes by saying, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. We were born to manifest the glory—put on display, to show—the glory of God that is within us.” He says, “you may be a dirt clod, but there is greatness and power and glory that resides in every singe human being.”
(Week 330 05/29/05, audio sermon 12:27-13:28, transcription on file)
Bell, in context, is absolutely not speaking about believers who are in Christ. He is clearly talking about all of mankind in general when he says, “There is a greatness...and glory...[in mankind].” As is the quote which Bell is referencing; the one he attributes to Nelson Mandela.
But this is simply not Christian theology—For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (Romans 7:18, NASB). And lest we get caught up in some stupid new perspective [read: revisionist history] of Paul, here is Paul’s Creator Christ Jesus of Nazareth speaking to His own disciples—“If you, then, though you are evil” (Matthew 7:11).
Let’s get this straight once and for all: Prior to the new birth—which is a new regenerated nature wherein God then comes to dwell within—there is absolutely nothing worth redeeming in mankind. In point of fact, this is what the opening text is clearly telling us—Christ died for the ungodly. But the us in that text is the elect who are in Christ; it does not refer to mankind in general.
Unless One Is Elect In Christ They Are Not Indwelt By God
And before we roll off course, you can back up the anti-Calvinist hate wagon because even Arminians believe that there is an elect in Christ. We would differ on how they get there. But the problem with the many closet inclusivists and closet universalists now slithering around in postevangelicalism and the emerging church is they are teaching that at the Cross God already redeemed all of mankind.
That’s why there is such a corresponding de-emphasis on repentance and holiness within this Emergent rebellion against the Bible. I cover some of this further in a post from last year called Rob Bell Says “All-ee in Free...Almost”. Maybe after another year of seeing more and more people come under The Spell of Rob Bell you’ll listen now.
O, and that quote from “Nelson Mandela,” to which Rob Bell referred to above; well, it wasn’t really from Mandela at all. Indeed it was not, and it now follows in full from its original source. This lovely sentiment of self (see—2 Timothy 3:2) that so deeply moves “Christian” pastor Rob Bell actually comes from the occultic book A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A COURSE IN MIRACLES by the Christ-hating New Age Guru Marianne Williamson:
‘our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us the most.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, famous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just some of us; it’s in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. And as we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (190,191, emphasis mine)
Now if you are under the spell of Bell then I admonish you in the Lord to ask yourself this critical question: What kind of a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ could agree with that above lie from the pit of Hell? But it is this kind of lunacy in the Lord that we are getting leaders in the Emergent Church like the Elvis of Emergent Rob Bell.
Men and women right now, these Emergent Hollow Men like Bell and his mystic mentor Brian McLaren are leading your kids into doubt where there IS no doubt. And if I were you evangelical parents I’d take a good long look at this passage from God’s Word:
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)
As you are now responsible for allowing these counterfeit Christian teachings from this emerging church cult of a new postliberal theology to spread their poison within the mainstream of the evangelical community by letting them teach your kids. Hear this; and you hear it good: This spiritual cyanide will kill evangelicalism just as dead as the poison from the original Cult of Liberal Theology—their evil parents—did the mainline denominations.
And of this there is no mystery...
See also:
ROB BELL IN A NUTSHELL: CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM
ROB BELL: MEET YOUR SPIRITUAL FATHER
ROB BELL, YOGA MASTERS AND JESUS?
ROB BELL AND KARL BARTH
