Skip to main content

Home/ Christian Blogs/ Group items tagged Justice

Rss Feed Group items tagged

J. B.

Rob Bell on Hell, Part 2, and the Gospel | Bible.org Blogs - 0 views

  • Somehow for Bell God's rejection of people and judgment of them for not responding to His kindness and grace is a reflection on God and not on the one who has refused to respond to God!
  • Now where is the justice in this assessment of God by Bell? Our choice and refusal ends up being an indictment on God's character for responding by accepting the choice we made. And it is not as if God did not reveal the importance and consequences of the choice we make as He was making the offer.
  • what Bell misses is that this action was not made in the blink of an eye. It was a considered and revealed judgment that God announced would be his response if we refuse to acknowledge Him and His way and His right as God. God laid all his cards on the table long before we responded. God played His hand when He had Jesus die for us and offer us the joyous life Bell so well describes.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The result is that people are not challenged to reflect on how they think about and approach God with humility and faith; rather they can now blame Him for their own failures. We become a society of victims where we make the call on what makes God just.
IN Too

History has no Slaves « Reflections in the WORD - 0 views

  •  
    Though we can, and often do, suffer (poverty, war, alienation) for the sins of our ancestors, we are JUDGED for our own sins. We are not slaves to our History. We can make our own choices and we can choose righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
J. B.

Do not Ask for whom the Bell tolls…… A Chapter by Chapter review of 'Love Win... - 0 views

  • in the Preface there is the disclaimer— ‘nothing in this book has not been claimed before within the parameters of the broad stream of historic orthodox Christianity’  (p. x).   As it turns out, and as we shall see, this is actually not quite accurate, if one is referring to creedal or confessional or conciliar orthodoxy.  If one means no more that some church father somewhere at sometime said something like this before, whether we deem him to be making an off-handed comment or not, then perhaps this claim can stand.
  • What is entirely missing from this chapter is any sort of discussion of sin, sin as the alienating cause of human lostness,  sin as the reason why persons are not going to heaven.  Let me be clear that I think Rom. 1.18-32 is crucial to this question.  Unfortunately Rom. 1 is not dealt with in this first chapter and what texts he does cite he does not treat in any detail.  Rather Rob sort of flits from one text to the next like a butterfly hoping to drain the tiny bit of nectar in each flower.
  • people are not condemned to hell or judgment for what they have never heard about God.   What Romans 1 says is that the reality of God and God’s power is evident in all of creation, and people are judged for what they do with the light about God that they have indeed received.  What Paul says they do is that while they know God exists and is powerful, they refuse to acknowledge God,  the most primal sin of all. In other words,  most of the questions Rob raises in Chapter One are entirely irrelevant.     People do not go to Hell (whether in a handbasket or by some other means of conveyance)  due to ignorance of God or of Christ. 
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Rob wants to suggest that a just or righteous or holy or judging God is somehow not good news. Tell that to the oppressed Christians in North Korea.   Tell that to the ordinary citizens of Libya longing to be set free from a wicked and brutal dictator.  Tell that to the Jews during the Holocaust in WWII.   In a sin-soaked world,  Good News involves both redemption and judgment, both vindication and liberation, both holiness and love.    The God of the Bible is holy love.  Not love without holiness which would fail to deal with the cancer called sin.  And not holiness without love, for if that was the way God related to us all— no one could stand.     The Good News of and about Jesus Christ, who will be the final judge of the world, is that justice, mercy and grace are all a part of this story.
  •  
    The first of an eight part review of Rob Bell's book "Love Wins." By Ben Witherington III
1 - 3 of 3
Showing 20 items per page