Monday, February 28, 2011

Jesus: The only way to God

BLUF: Jesus is the only way to God. Holy love wins.



Rob Bell's forthcoming book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (scheduled for release on March 29, 2011), is already causing no small controversy in some circles (partly because of its marketing video, reviews of some pre-published chapters, and comments by some who know Bell and his teaching well). See links below to some related blog posts. I expect many will write critical reviews soon after the book is released, but I also expect that there will be nothing in Bell's book that hasn't already been adequately addressed by minds who have forgotten more than Bell (and I) will ever know.

  • Rob Bell: Universalist? (Justin Taylor contributes fair but cautious consideration and encourages readers to pray for Bell.)
  • Rob Bell Outs Himself (Denny Burke biblically answers each of Bell's questions in the promotional video above)
  • To Hell With Hell (Kevin DeYoung provides eight reasons we need God's wrath, excerpted from his book Why We're Not Emergent.)
  • Rob Bell and the Judgmentless "Gospel": Holy Love Wins (Trevin Wax briefly comments about his short trek in Bell's teaching, discusses three reasons why the "judgmentless gospel" is attractive and what the heart of the problem of such a false gospel is, and concludes the kind of love that wins in the end is holy love.)
  • Rob Bell, Hell and Why I Hope I'm Wrong (Joshua Harris reminds readers "to remember that all discussion about hell ... should be done with heavy hearts. Hell is what our sin deserves (Eph. 2:3). Hell is what God in his love has rescued us from. And we are not rescued from hell by our merit or the rightness of our doctrine. We are rescued from God's wrath by the self-giving love and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (Rom. 5:8-9). We are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8). So there should be no glee or triumph in our tone in seeking to proving this biblical doctrine. Our hearts should break for the lost and for our own coldness of heart towards their spiritual condition. This conversation should lead us to redouble our prayers and our evangelistic, risk-taking efforts to proclaim the hope of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, to the ends of the earth.")
  • At the Speed of the Web (Tim Challies)
  • More on the Intolerance of Overtolerance (Phil Johnson)
  • Rob Bell, Tribes, and Our Tendency Towards Idolatry (Zach Nielsen)
  • Universalism as a Lure? The Emerging Case of Rob Bell (Albert Mohler)
  • Two Thoughts on the Rob Bell Brouhaha (Kevin DeYoung blogs about Justin Taylor's post and whether or not (1) Taylor needed to go to Bell first before airing public criticism, and (2) Taylor needed to remain silent until Bell’s book is published.)
Good description of a false gospel: “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” -- H. Richard Niebuhr, Kingdom of God in America (1937), p. 193 [HT: Justin Taylor]

UPDATED: March 1, 2011.

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