"Rock star" of the Emergent church, Rob Bell has recently published a new book "Love Wins: Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived." While the book is not set to release until March 15th, it has already created massive controversy and brings the question of heresy to the forefront of the discussion. In his book, Bell supposedly espouses the notion that a loving God and loving Savior a: would never condemn anyone to hell, and b: that the love of God is more powerful than any sin, therefore, no one is going to hell.
This does seem to be wonderful, right? Unfortunately, it would be devastating. First, it makes a mockery of the Holiness and Justice of God. All those stories of God obliterating entire Nations in the Old Testament are meant to show us one thing: that God is intensely jealous of His own Glory and Holiness, and that all those who offend it are objects of wrath and in need of a Savior...Jesus Christ. Secondly, it dethrones God of His rightful place in the center of the universe and places us there. If Bell is right, then ultimately we are more valuable to God than He is to us, He obviously needs us in some way in order to be complete. Third, it joins the angry mob at Calvary and spits on Christ at the cross. While it would seem to magnify His love, it actually makes a mockery of it. Christ's love shown on the cross is intensely focused on redeeming His Bride, the church, and that out of a white hot passion for the glory of the Father. If His sacrifice covers literally the sins of the world, then that means it includes the sin of unbelief. It includes atheists, totalitarians, secular humanists, racists etc. I do not think God receives any glory in that. He receives glory when people like that, by grace through faith, turn from their sins in humble repentance and confess Christ as Lord and Savior. Fourth, it completely destroys the truth God's Word, the Bible...it becomes heresy.
So how does Nouthetic counseling fit in? Like the Law in the Bible, disorders point us to one main truth...we have a serious problem. Sin, and being sinners by nature and objects of Gods wrath (Eph 2:1-3). Not only are disorders able to be used by the Spirit to bring an awareness of our natural state, but they are also able to bring a small taste of what Bell would consider to be an impossibility pertaining to our potential eternal state, Hell. Anyone who has suffered from depression, OCD, suicidal thoughts, addiction to pornography, eating disorders etc, can attest to intense anguish and tears...temporarily. In Matthew 8:12 Jesus Himself attests to the reality of a place of eternal "outer darkness...weeping and gnashing of teeth". But (see Eph 2:4-10), He also holds out hope, peace, atonement for sins, and the means of being eternally restored to the Father by His blood. If He is able to redeem us from our eternal state, is He unable to restore us from our temporal state?
To verify what I have said about Bell's new book you can check out his website and watch a short video about it.
What may be most significant in what this book's certain popularity (Emergent movement to the core) exposes is your comment, 'If Bell is right, then ultimately we are more valuable to God than He is to us, He obviously needs us in some way in order to be complete.' - And what a triumph of Satan this position is... I am among the most who need to re-order who is the creator and who is the created on a day-to-day basis. Great truth Mal! As followers of the true Christ and Savior, let us pray for those who fall to false teaching and consider our own ways that fail to make the values of God more precious than our own.
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