Hell

Under the post, "Intown's Brian Prentiss comes out of the closet...," one reader asked, "How long before the PCA ends up in the same slough of despond, and heaven knows what else, that has claimed most of the PCUSA?"

Since the PCA is a largely southern denomination, her failures will always lag behind other denominations, and her wealth will give it a better face than most. But she'll have to stop giving northern liberal churches/pastors a pass despite knowing disciplining them won't get good press. At this time the PCA's failures aren't even in the same ballpark as the PC(USA). At this time.

The troubling thing is that the PCA is following the same path the PC(USA) and her predecessor denominations followed in trusting famous men of wealth and influence rather than following little boys named "David" with just a slingshot who are determined to slay the giant using "only" the means of grace: discipline, from the least formal private discussion and exhortation all the way to heresy trials.

In this context of Intown, Pastor Prentiss has been giving signs of heterodoxy for years and I'm guessing nothing has been done by anyone on any faithful personal level. That's the norm within PCA presbyteries. We don't want to deal with men individually through private remonstrance and exhortation and rebuke, and that for a whole host of reasons including...

At a classical music concert, all the applause is self-congratulatory. - David Jeremy Bayly

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that three men have been standouts in the volume of Baylyblog posts warning against them: Tom (N. T.) Wright, Darryl Hart, and Tim Keller. Each of these men has shown himself adept at drawing away disciples after him who will join in his rebellion against crucial parts of Biblical faith. Tom Wright denies God’s Creation Order, Darryl Hart denies the Church’s calling to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all creation, and Tim Keller denies the Biblical doctrines of sexuality, Creation, and Hell.

The most striking thing about these men is their abuse of language...

Christian faith has always unapologetically been affirming of “stuff” - physical stuff. So affirming of stuff, in fact, that the entire world is scandalized by it. Some might say that one problem with our godless generation is its denigration of stuff; like a child in formation within his mother’s womb. The reason such a child may be incautiously discarded (killed) is that it is said to be nothing more than a mess of tissue - you know, it’s “just” stuff.

The word 'gnostic' is so abused of late that it can refer to nearly anything—so nebulous, it defies concreteness. This is a sad irony. But the fact remains, Christians have always scandalized the world by our unapologetic affirmation of stuff—insofar as our spirituality is divorced from stuff, some form of dualistic juju is wreaking havoc on our very humanity. It is a violent form of dualism which rages against our identity—an identity created by God which is identifiable through our bodies... 

Here's a comment just left under an older post critiquing Tim Keller's sashaying around the Biblical doctrine of Hell. I'd be grateful if a couple of you good readers would help lead this brother back to the green pastures where sheep may safely graze. Time is short for the next couple of weeks as my brother and I work together on a writing project for which we'd ask your prayers.

I desperately want to keep my Christian faith, but the doctrine of hell is so disturbing! I just don't see how I could ever really believe that some of the people I see every day might have to endure some form of eternal torment. It doesn't seem like there's any way to reason with this kind of a doctrine. It is just so wrong, so revolting. . . and yet, the bible is so clear about it:"eternal fire." I think that we don't know how bad hell's going to be, but we just have to trust God that it will be just punishment. This is not very easy for me to do. . .

If you're willing to respond, please do so here under this post.

A brother in Christ forwarded this letter he'd just sent to Pastor Kevin DeYoung responding to DeYoung's review of Rob Bell's recent book attacking the Biblical doctrine of Hell. It was an encouragment to me and the brother gave me permission to post in here for your encouragment, also. As far as I know, Pastor DeYoung has not responded. (TB)

* * *

Dear Pastor DeYoung,

I just read your excellent review, "God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of Love Wins by Rob Bell". I hadn't read Bell before, but I  recently read his Hell chapter and was shocked at how bad it was--not just in its theology, but, as you point out, its crude and sophistical use of Bible passages...

This by kind permission of Chris Carmichael of the Sacred Sandwich. Thanks for your good work, Chris.

(Tim, w/thanks to Tenile: One blogger produced a very, very rough transcript of Martin Bashir interviewing Rob Bell and I asked Tenile Victorsen if she'd give us a good one. Here it is. If you find an error, please let us know and we'll correct it. Interspersed in the text are a few comments of my own in black text between brackets, italicized.)

Bashir: One mega church pastor has ignited a theological firestorm by suggesting that our response to the Christian message in this life will not necessarily determine our eternal destiny. In his book Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Rob Bell says that ultimately all people will be saved, even those who’ve rejected the claims of Christianity. He argues people will eventually be persuaded by God’s love, postmortem, in the life to come. [Note how straighforward Bashir is stating Bell's thesis. As we enter the murkiness of Bell's words, we must remind ourselves of this straighforward warning from God:  "...it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment..." (Hebrews 9:27)] Pastor Rob Bell joins us now. Good afternoon, sir. Before we come to talk about the book, just help us with this tragedy in Japan. Which of these is true? Either God is all-powerful but he doesn’t care about the people of Japan and, therefore, they’re suffering, or he does care about the people of Japan but he’s not all-powerful? Which one is it? [Do we really have to choose between these two, Mr. Bashir?]

Bell: I begin with the belief [Let the listener understand he means no offense to those with a different belief.] that God--when we shed a tear, God sheds a tear. [Hallmark card sentiment, but the scale of the senitment doesn't match the scale of the horror. Pastor Bell trivializes the massive death and destruction of the earthquakes and tsunamis, or the terrible suffering of the Japanese people. Just one tear? Whole cities destroyed and "a tear" for Pastor Bell and "a tear" for God?] So I begin with a divine being [Speaking to the Areopagus surrounded by the pantheon of gods, the Apostle Paul declares: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth..." (Acts 17:24). Speaking to the world today in the midst of our pantheon of gods, Pastor Bell can't even bring himself to use the definite article to refer to his god. It's not "the God Who is there" but "a divine being."] who is profoundly [Adverbs weaken arguments but strengthen sentiment. Pastor Bell adores adverbs.] empathetic, compassionate and stands in solidarity with us. [Actually, God stands in solidarity only with those who, by faith, are "in Christ" and His Church. Concerning all others, the ax is at the root. Thus note how, by leaving "us" undefined, Pastor Bell denies the distinction between the Church and the world. This denial of distinctions is central to his false prophecies and is a defining prejudice of post-moderns--Pastor Bell's target audience.] Secondly, the dominant story [To speak of the work of redemption recorded in Scripture as a "story" reminds me of what everyone said when the planes took down the World Trade Center on 9/11: "It was just like the movies." The false images of movies helped our mind's eye to see...

(Tim) Some time ago, I panned another bad book from Inter-Varsity Press--this one on sexuality. Yesterday, the author of the book commented here on Baylyblog saying she wanted to know what our readers thought of her book itself rather than its pre-publication press release.

Rob Bell's followers have whined about people coming to a judgment against Bell's heresies based on his pre-publication video clip, but this is crazymaking. Here's my response to the IVP author and it works with Rob Bell's video ad for Love Wins:

Authors control their book's pre-publication press releases (and video ads), as they also control their bios. Your press release was meant to get people to read your book, but it backfired--with us at least. When the release backfires and is a negative incentive, you did your job well. You told people what your book was about and where it stood and they made an informed decision that they would not send you royalty money and not waste valuable time reading...

(Tim, w/thanks to Random Thoughts) You could spend all day posting proofs of Rob Bell's wickedness. Without swallowing my time or yours, here's Rob on the extent of the Atonement and the nature of Hell:

Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. Ours or God's. (Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p.146)