Rob Bell, Universalism and Nigerians

Rob Bell, Universalism and Nigerians.

I was fortunate enough to be able to go and see Rob Bell speak at an event he calls "the gods arn't angry". I went with my brother, my brother insisted on the way there that I was making a big deal out of this whole Rob Bell thing...I stated it was more serious then he thought.

So after three hours of driving to Raleigh, NC we managed to get to our destination at a concert hall. Upon parking in the Garage we ran into a Nigerian named "Friday". He was a Parking attendant . Friday saw my brothers T-Shirt, my brother the radical Christian had a shirt that said "Jesus Loves me and my Tattoos", it also contained a small tattooesque skull and bones. Friday went up to him and in a very deep African accent pointed and said that Skull and Jesus do not belong, my brother said wow, I never even noticed that on there really. Friday then looked at me and my shirt. It was an Iron-On Transplant Ministries Promo Shirt. It said on the front "REPENT! It's a dirty word, but Jesus used it!", Friday scolded me to in his thick accent he said..."No No No...Repent is not a Dirty Word. It is Beautiful, If you tell someone to Repent it means "I Love You!", Me and my brother both amazed at the depth coming from his broken English thanked him and continued on our way...

The crowds were building outside and I met my former pastor from Lynchburg. As we were let in the first thing me and my brother noticed were the Mini-Bars allowing people to buy Pepsi, cookies, beer and hard liquors.My former pastor said "Well you never know it is Rob Bell" My first impression was that must be for the ballet people across the hall in the theater to the left of us...I was wrong. People were lining up and we saw someone walk into the hall with a cup of beer in hand. My brother who regularly sees the damaging effects of alcohol was greatly disturbed by this, (He is a designated driver for his friends)



But that's not the centrality of the issue. Because ultimately beer is a non-essential to the Doctrine, the doctrine has to be above all things.

I want to say that as I knew going into this that I should be on guard, I wanted to take the advice of a friend of mine who said "Just enjoy it" so honestly that was my plan, well it was until he started speaking.

Rob Bell came out to a applause, not greeting the audience or introducing himself but immediately sucking you in to his incredibly brilliant and captivating story telling methods. He started out telling stories of tribal god's and he built you up in history till we got to Abraham, there were several implications of how he got to God, he implied that our God was a result of thousands of years of other god's and how radical our God was from the others of the time, to an extent true however our God did not form from other god's and societies and cultures, Our God was always there and the other false gods were results of him, he discussed the History of how people started making sacrifices as a way to "Please God" and how they gave God offerings for fear of Judgement, until Abraham, then people gave offerings for Blessings. "Our God wants us to be blessed...This was radically different."

Prosperity preaching aside, it is wrong. Sacrifices were done not as a result of other god's but because God commanded it, it did not start with Abraham it started with Cain and Abel.

After he got up to the point of sacrifices he made it to Leviticus where he discussed that the point of Leviticus was to know where you stand with God. This is true to some extent, he talked about the peace offerings and how God wanted us to be at Peace..He mentioned being at peace a lot.

From Leviticus he came upon the Sadducee's, Rob Bell said these people profited off of the Guilt of mankind..."Imagine that" he said to robotic, worshipping laughter from the audience. This was a direct stab at fundamental Christianity and I would like to propose it was even more directly an attack of the Way of the Master evangelism process.



Then Jesus came, Jesus Christ entered the temple with a bull whip not because he was "Angry" but because that's how you made statements back then, you wrecked something in guerrilla form as a way to show significance. He was telling them that the temple was not needed anymore that they would destroy it and in three days it would be rebuilt.

He then went into what I feared was universalism and the attack on Guilt. Now upon reading this please keep in mind it is late and my memory is not as fresh. One thing is clear, Rob Bell is heavy on universalism.

You see According to Rob Bell Jesus died to save us not from hell, but from guilt so we can have peace.There is no need to be guilty with Christ's sacrifice and he is Right, The death of Jesus Christ takes away the weight of the Law. However he did not die on the cross to do make us feel better he died to save us from Hell and God's Judgement. Because well God is angry at Sin. Love, Joy Peace Patience are results of salvation not the reason to be saved. Man's greatest need is saving from the coming Judgement. Jesus took the wrath of God on his shoulders for us...We just need to do something to receive it.

Repent and place our trust in Christ.

This is where Rob Bell failed. Besides the night being so dry and shallow spiritually, Rob Bell hung the Good News from everyone like a cheesecake just out of reach of a dog. He never told us how to receive the Grace of Jesus Christ. He failed...it was a tragedy.

What was the worst thing Rob Bell said? He declared that repentance was "A Celebration" when you repent, you celebrate. This is so not true. I would argue that Repentance is the exact opposite of Celebration. Celebration is done after you repent, once you receive assurance of eternal life. But repentance is a Holy time between the sinner and the savior where the Sinner humbles himself before the God of the universe and says. Save me I have wronged you, Please do not let me wrong you again. This is no time to celebrate, it is a time to weep to be humble and to pray. Rob Bell never said we need to repent because according to him "It was already done", We already have it. Universalism.

It was just wrong...The whole story, the entire speech was terribly twisted with truth and deception that my brother caught onto his round about post modern speaking style in the first fifteen minutes and said that this guy is really off base and said he was sorry he doubted my opinion to begin with.

Afterwards there was one of the saddest standing ovations I have ever seen. It really is solom to see people just follow a leader off a cliff with no idea what they were about to do. Every Word Rob Bell said was clung to, every thought, every walk across the stage...

As we left outside there were two guys doing exactly what Rob Bell spoke against in NOOMA 009. They were open air preaching. My brother ran to them and sat between them among the steps, we waited for them to finish and shook their hands, for an hour and a half we watched them preach. The most arrogant, self righteous "Christians" came and mocked them, one of them stood right on top of the same stand and side by side with Jesse the open air preacher screamed "PEANUTS, Get your PEANUTS"

Me and my brother were in shock, these were people that were coming from the Rob Bell event, standing laughing at him who was mocking in a very "Christian" like manner.

As Rob Bell would say...And...everyone...was...laughing.

Then from nowhere I heard a deep African accent. It was Friday. He heard the preaching and came to listen, he Even was allowed to get off work for a few minutes. His smile was contagious and me and my brother greeted him as if we knew him for years. As the heckler Got down Friday went up to him and his posse and said "Why do you Mock a man who preaches the Word of God...Do you know that God is Authority?" He pointed where Rob Bell was, "God was not there tonight...God was out here", he pointed to Jesse.



I guess the accent of a tall African man humbles the proud for a minute because he quickly left. I talked to Friday and asked if people Open Air Preach in Africa, he said all the time. Open Air Preaching is only rare in America because we do not do it. Friday was not embarrassed of the Word being preached in the public square, he ran to it, and sat down anxiously getting off of work to listen to them. Friday was starving for the Word.

Afterwards while talking to Jesse and Kerrigan and Tony, a Rob Bell fan came up to us and asked us questions regarding pragmatism and Open Air Preaching, he was really humbled and Jesse and Kerrigan did a great Job of showing him the transformation of a regenerate sinner. Please pray for him,. Visit OpenAirOutreach.com for more information of Jesse and Kerrigan. They love the Lord, and want his Gospel preached everywhere, they truly have a heart for the Lost. If only everyone else did. If only Rob Bell did.

Marcus



Bull Whip Guy





Rob Bell Have Faith in Ourselves