i don't hate

I don't hate Rob Bell. Yet I must say that he is a caricature of the blending of the world and Christianity - for which Jesus our Lord has nothing good to say. I recently posted a negative review by Timothy Tennent of Bell's latest book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Matt Dabbs then reminded us that when judging a new work we should be careful not to read into it past works by the author. Dabbs' take on the latest book was positive. While I think we should be mindful of past works if some filling in the blanks is needed, we should, as Dabbs warns, take care not to change the meaning of what is said based on old movies and perceptions of the author. We must be gracious to both those we agree with and those we disagree with - and in a discussion, focus on the point at hand and not add smoke and mirrors to the debate. So to the point at hand, Rob Bell is not qualified to speak rightly into a Christian discussion. His worldview is fallen.

To quote Bell in reference to the variety of sin in our lives, "God made some of us one way and some of us another. And it can be a beautiful thing." This typifies the problem with Bell's thinking. He rightly speaks about honoring others but he bases it on a lack of understanding of what the root problem is - a problem shared by all of us. Sin. Worse, a sinful nature. Bell somehow thinks that our diversity in sin is beautiful and should be honored.

Bell goes on to say that "God is pulling us all together. We need more love. We need more fidelity. We need more monogamy. We need more people who are committed to each other. It's not good for us to be alone." Bell then speaks of the pain and heartache of broken lives. His problem is he sees the solution as God inviting to sin more rather than to repent.

Bell thinks the sinful worldview is a refining fire - which is correct! But he thinks the refinement is to replace the Biblical view with the fallen view. Again - he misses the notion of repentance and redemption. He proffers the idea that conforming to the fallen view will "bring life" and is "liberating".

As Steve Addison says, Rob Bell has lost the plot.