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J. B.

God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of "Lov... - 0 views

  • Bell asks a lot of questions (350 by one count), we should not write off the provocative theology as mere question-raising. Bell did not write an entire book because he was looking for some good resources on heaven and hell.
  • As Bell himself writes, “But this isn’t a book of questions. It’s a book of responses to these questions” (19).
  • Bad theology usually sneaks in under the guise of familiar language.
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  • Judgmentalism is not the same as making judgments. The same Jesus who said “do not judge” in Matthew 7:1 calls his opponents dogs and pigs in Matthew 7:6. Paul pronounces an anathema on those who preach a false gospel (Gal. 1:8). Disagreement among professing Christians is not a plague on the church. In fact, it is sometimes necessary.
  • This is a book for people like Bell, people who grew up in an evangelical environment and don’t want to leave it completely, but want to change it, grow up out of it, and transcend it. The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder into liberalism or unbelief. Over and over, Bell refers to the “staggering number” of people just like him, people who can’t believe the message they used to believe, people who want nothing to do with traditional Christianity, people who don’t want to leave the faith but can’t live in the faith they once embraced.
  • Others—and they are in the worse position—will opt for liberalism, which has always seen itself as a halfway house between conservative orthodoxy and secular disbelief.
  • This is misguided, toxic, and ultimately subverts
    • J. B.
       
      Clearly Bell thinks this must be a very important issue. If Bell is right, then the vast majority of Christians throughout Christian history have been teaching a misguided, toxic, and subverting gospel.... in effect, it looks like we are teaching a different gospel altogether.
  • It’s a cheap view of the world because it’s a cheap view of God. It’s a shriveled imagination
  • This bold claim flies in the face of Richard Bauckham’s historical survey: Until the nineteenth century almost all Christian theologians taught the reality of eternal torment in hell. Here and there, outside the theological mainstream, were some who believed that the wicked would be finally annihilated. . . . Even fewer were the advocates of universal salvation, though these few included some major theologians of the early church. Eternal punishment was firmly asserted in official creeds and confessions of the churches. It must have seemed as indispensable a part of the universal Christian belief as the doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation. (“Universalism: A Historical Survey,” Themelios 4.2 [September 1978]: 47–54)
  • Universalism has been around a long time. But so has every other heresy. Arius rejected the full deity of Christ and many people followed him. This hardly makes Arianism part of the wide, diverse stream of Christian orthodoxy. Every point of Christian doctrine has been contested, but some have been deemed heterodox. Universalism, traditionally, was considered one of those points. True, many recent liberal theologians have argued for versions of universalism—and this is where Bell stands, not in the center of the historic Christian tradition.
  • Universalism (though in a different form than Bell’s and for different reasons) has been present in the church since Origen, but it was never in the center of the tradition.
  • some of these are promises to God’s people, some are general promises about the nations coming to God, and others are about the universal acknowledgement (not to be equated with saving faith) on the last day that Jesus Christ is Lord. Not one of his texts supports his conclusion.
  • Even a cursory glance at John 14 shows that the through in verse 16 refers to faith. The chapter begins by saying, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” Verse seven talks about knowing the Father. Verse nine and ten explain that we see and know the Father by believing that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in him. Verses 11 and 12 touch on belief yet again. Coming to the Father through Christ means through faith in Christ. This is in keeping with the overall purpose of John’s gospel (John 20:31).
  • Bell cites Jesus’ words in John 3:17 that he “did not come to judge the world but to save it” (160). This Jesus, Bell says, is a “vast, expansive, generous mystery” leading us to conclude hopefully that “Heaven is, after all, full of surprises.” Bell’s lean into universalism here would be significantly muted had he gone on to Jesus’ words in verse 18: “Whoever believes in him [i.e., the Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Likewise, according to John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
  • The Greek word for “unite” is a long one: anakephalaiōsasthai. It means to sum up, to bring together to a main point, to gather together. It is like an author finishing the last chapter of his book or a conductor bringing the symphony from cacophony to harmony. It’s a glorious promise, already begun in some ways by the word of Christ.
  • The uniting of all things does not entail the salvation of all people. It means that everything in the universe, heaven and earth, the spiritual world and the physical world, will finally submit to the lordship of Christ, some in joyful worship of their beloved Savior and others in just punishment for their wretched treason. In the end, God wins.
  • If you don’t accept God’s story about the world and resist his love, heaven will be hell for you, a hell you create for yourself. We are supposed to see this in Luke 15 where both brothers are invited to the same feast but one can’t enjoy it. Heaven and hell at the same party (176).
  • The result is a simplistic formula: “God wants all people to be saved. God gets what he wants. Therefore, all people will eventually be saved.” This is a case of poor theologizing beholden to mistaken logic. If it is “the will of God” that Christians “abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thess. 4:3), does that mean God’s greatness is diminished by our impurity?
  • If he’s right, most of church history has been wrong. If he’s wrong, a staggering number of people are hearing “peace, peace” where there is no peace.
  • Bell figures God won’t say “sorry, too late” to those in hell who are humble and broken for their sins. But where does the Bible teach the damned are truly humble or penitent? For that matter, where does the Bible talk about growing and maturing in the afterlife or getting a second chance after death? Why does the Bible make such a big deal about repenting “today” (Heb. 3:13), about being found blameless on the day of Christ (2 Pet. 3:14), about not neglecting such a great salvation (Heb. 2:3) if we have all sorts of time to figure things out in the next life? Why warn about not inheriting the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9–10), about what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:31), or about the vengeance of our coming King (2 Thess. 1:5–12) if hell is just what we make of heaven? Bell does nothing to answer these questions, or even ask them in the first place.
  • Some Jesuses should be rejected, Bell says, like the ones that are “anti-science” and “anti-gay” and use bullhorns on the street (8). But wherever we find “grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness” we’ve found the creative life source that we call Jesus (156, 159).
  • At the very heart of this controversy, and one of the reasons the blogosphere exploded over this book, is that we really do have two different Gods. The stakes are that high. If Bell is right, then historic orthodoxy is toxic and terrible. But if the traditional view of heaven and hell are right, Bell is blaspheming. I do not use the word lightly, just like Bell probably chose “toxic” quite deliberately. Both sides cannot be right. As much as some voices in evangelicalism will suggest that we should all get along and learn from each other and listen for the Spirit speaking in our midst, the fact is we have two irreconcilable views of God.
  • Bell’s god may be all love, but it is a love rooted in our modern Western sensibilities more than careful biblical reflection. It is a love that threatens to swallow up God’s glory and holiness. But, you may reply, the Bible says God is love (1 John 4:16). True, but if you want to weigh divine attributes by sentence construction, you have to mention God is spirit (John 4:24), God is light (1 John 1:5), and God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). The verb “is” does not establish a priority of attributes. If anything, one might mention that the only thrice-repeated attribute is “holy, holy, holy.” And yet this is the one thing Bell’s god is not.
  • What’s missing is not only a full-orbed view of sins, but a deeper understanding of sin itself. In Bell’s telling of the story, there is no sense of the vertical dimension of our evil. Yes, Bell admits several times that we can resist or reject God’s love. But there’s never any discussion of the way we’ve offended God, no suggestion that ultimately all our failings are a failure to worship God as we should. God is not simply disappointed with our choices or angry for the way we judge others. He is angry at the way we judge him. He cannot stand to look upon our uncleanness. His nostrils flare at iniquity. He hates our ingratitude, our impurity, our God-complexes, our self-centeredness, our disobedience, our despising of his holy law. Only when we see God’s eye-covering holiness will we grasp the magnitude of our traitorous rebellion, and only then will we marvel at the incomprehensible love that purchased our deliverance on the cross.
  • The pain of hell is our fault. But it’s also God’s doing. Hell is not what we make for ourselves or gladly choose. It’s what a holy God justly gives to those who exchange the truth of God for a lie. The bowls of wrath in Revelation are poured out by God; they are not swum in by sinners. The ten plagues were sent by God, they were not the product of some Egyptian spell gone wrong. God’s wrath burns against the impenitent and unbelieving; they do not walk into the fire by themselves. Bell’s god is wholly passive toward sin. He hates some of it and says no to it in the next life, but he does not actively judge it. There’s no way to make sense of Nadab and Abihu or Perrez-Uzzah or Gehazi or Achan’s or Korah’s rebellion or the flood or the exodus or the Babylonian captivity or the preaching of John the Baptist or the visions of Revelation or the admonitions of Paul or the warnings of Hebrews or Calvary’s cross apart from a God who hates sin, judges sin, and pour out his wrath—sometimes now, always later—on the accursed things and peoples of this world.
  • Love Wins assures people that everyone’s eternity ends up as heaven eventually. The second chances are good not just for this life, but for the next. And what if they aren’t? What if Jesus says on the day of judgment, “Depart from me, I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23)? What if at the end of the age the wicked and unbelieving cry out, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16)? What if outside the walls of the New Jerusalem “are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Rev. 22:15)? What if there really is only one name “under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)? And what if the wrath of God really remains on those who do not believe in the Son (John 3:18, 36)?
  • Bad theology hurts real people.
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    A thorough critical review of Rob Bell's book "Love Wins" by Kevin Deyoung. MUST READ.
John Albert

access heaven today! - 0 views

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    Survive and thrive in these tribulation times by learning about the gate to heaven encoded in the bible! http://www.biblecodegatetoheaven.com/ access the gate to heaven in this life time.
alexis sullivan

Love - Associated Content - 0 views

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    This is a religious short story written by Alexis Sullivan. In this story God (called Love) has created Earth, watches our birth, is with us throughout our life, and holds us when our life ends and we reach heaven.
Marie Lin

Sometimes It's Not Good to Be so "Blessed" - 0 views

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    By focusing too much on the here and now, many people are depriving themselves of having something wonderful to look forward to, a home in heaven, free from all the cares and sorrows of this world.
Marie Lin

Life lessons from Ecclesiastes - 1 views

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    With the way things are going in the world, sometimes it's hard to think of things as ever getting any better. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 explains there is a season and a time for everything that happens under the heavens.
Brian Jones

Do I Have To Be Baptized To Go To Heaven? - 0 views

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    you might be surprised by the answer
IN Too

The Night Before Christ-mas Redux Remix Reviz « Reflections in the WORD - 0 views

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    And there in a cave, in a cradle of hay,Our Savior was born on that first Christmas Day!The Father was watching in heaven above,He sent for His angels, His couriers of love.
IN Too

Manger Bed: Free Food for Stall « Reflections in the WORD - 0 views

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    Physical food only sustains our temporary bodies for the few years we live here on earth. It takes spiritual food to give us spiritual strength to "walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16, 25) and to fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons (2 Corinthians 10:4) against spiritual foes (Ephesians 6:12) as citizens of the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:5).
jessahfelton

The Apathetical Man - Gregory Martin Mcleod | Home - 0 views

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    Today we as mankind need hope, without any doubts. We need hope in something greater than that of our governments, teachers, doctors, and so on. Even though these are good for us, we still are sometimes without the understanding of true reality. Today, we can have a greater hope in something greater than you can imagine. Just look to the heavens my friend. Just think, everything that your eyes can see, your eyes can hear and your fingers can touch will be gone, like a vapor one day. It isn't a matter of "IF" it is a matter of just "WHEN." Then what?
jessahfelton

The LGBTQ Community - Marilyn Taplin - 0 views

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    For heaven to come to earth "the world" must come to an end. The end of the world is a good thing. In scripture, the end of the world is not speaking of the end of the earth or the population of the earth.
C L

Witnessing to People Who are Hurting * EffectiveEvangelism.com at ChristianAnswers.Net - 0 views

  • If there has been a death, tell your friend that you are sorry about their loss. Be sure to show genuine sympathy, concern and sensitivity. Look for ways you can help in real, tangible ways. House cleaning? Yardwork? etc. Coping: Ask God to give you the grace to be all you can be for your loved one or friend. Pray for love and patience. Your loved ones will need you now more than they have ever needed you. The best thing you can do for your loved one who is suffering is to be there for them and to help them prepare for that day. A question to ask is "Are you ready to meet your Creator?" If he or she answers no, then you have a great opportunity to tell your friend that the Creators greatest desire is for us to have a personal relationship with Him.
  • we need to show a deep empathy for the person who has been through suffering as we gently take them through the Law. This may take a little practice, but it is something in which each of us must become proficient, if we want to see the lost come the Christ. This is how to best handle the sensitive issue of witnessing to someone who is hurting. Tell him that you are sorry about his loss. Again, make sure that you show genuine sensitivity, then do what a surgeon would do with a severed jugular vein. Turn immediately to the serious issue at hand - the person's salvation. Unless he was a Christian, stay clear of any talk about whether or not the loved one who died went to Heaven or Hell, by saying that God is good and that He will do that which is right on Judgment Day.
  • Say something like, "When we are confronted with the issue of death, it can often make us think about the issues of God, and about our own eternal salvation. Do you ever think about God? Do you consider yourself to be a good person?" Then gently take him through the Law. If there is any offence, apologize and change the subject. But more than likely you will find that by talking about his personal salvation, it will be like a complete subject change, and therefore there wont be offensive. If he is bitter at God and that is hindering him from opening his heart, gently let them know that many people have suffered terrible losses in this life, and they have let that suffering bring them to the Cross, and consequently to everlasting life. An analogy that may be helpful is to say that if someone offers to lift you out of quicksand, don't let the fact that you don't like the color of their skin or you can't understand why they are wearing certain clothes, etc., stop you from giving your hand to your rescuer. God offers to lift us out of the quicksand of death itself. Tell him: "Let Him pull you out, and once you are saved, ask your questions. If you don't get an answer in this life, you are guaranteed to get one in the next."
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  • Be very careful not to give the impression that God was punishing the person for his sins. Instead, speak about the fact that all around us we can see the evidence of a “fallen creation.” Explain how in the beginning there was no disease, pain, suffering, or death. But when sin entered the world, it brought suffering with it. Then gently turn the conversation away from the person who died to the person who is still living. Ask if he has been thinking about God, and if he has kept the Ten Commandments. Then take the opportunity to go through the spiritual nature of God's Law. Someone who has lost a loved one often begins to ask soul-searching questions about God, death, and eternity. Many people are so hard-hearted that it takes a tragedy to make them receptive to God.
C L

What about the issue of suffering? Does this prove that there is no God and that we are... - 0 views

  • The issue of suffering is not something the Christian should avoid. It is glaring evidence that man has rejected God; all is not well on board the flight. It works for our cause, not against it. All these things, pain, disease, droughts, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. should cause the thinking person to investigate the claims of the note of God's Word, and see its explanation.
  • However, the ultimate convincing agent is, of course, the unbending Law of God. It is the knowledge of the Law and the fearful consequences of transgressing its precepts that should cause fear to kick in, and hopefully common sense should then cause the sinner to seek after the Savior, who lovingly died and rose again, so that they might be saved.
C L

The Cape Town Commitment - Lausanne Movement - 0 views

  • Discerning the will of Christ for world evangelization
  • Unreached and unengaged peoples
  • thousands of people groups around the world for whom such access has not yet been made available through Christian witness
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  • pastor-teachers. We will make every effort to identify, encourage, train and support them in the preaching and teaching of God’s Word
  • evangelism at the centre of the fully-integrated scope of all our mission, inasmuch as the gospel itself is the source, content and authority of all biblically-valid mission
  • Oral cultures The majority of the world’s population are oral communicators, who cannot or do not learn through literate means, and more than half of them are among the unreached as defined above. Among these, there are an estimated 350 million people without a single verse of Scripture in their language. In addition to the ‘primary oral learners’ there are many ‘secondary oral learners’, that is those who are technically literate but prefer now to communicate in an oral manner, with the rise of visual learning and the dominance of images in communication.
  • Christ-centred leaders
  • only those whose lives already display basic qualities of mature discipleship should be appointed to leadership
  • Leaders must first be disciples of Christ himself
  • authentic Christian leaders must be like Christ in having a servant heart, humility, integrity, purity, lack of greed, prayerfulness, dependence on God’s Spirit, and a deep love for people
  • ability to teach God’s Word to God’s people
  • long-term work of teaching and nurturing new believers
  • long that God would multiply, protect and encourage leaders who are biblically faithful and obedient
  • accountability within the body of Christ
  • focus more on spiritual and character formation, not only on imparting knowledge or grading performance, and we heartily rejoice in those that already do so as part of comprehensive 'whole person' leadership development
  • Half the world now lives in cities. Cities are where four major kinds of people are most to be found: (i) the next generation of young people; (ii) the most unreached peoples who have migrated; (iii) the culture shapers; (iv) the poorest of the poor
  • All children are at risk. There are about two billion children in our world, and half of them are at risk from poverty. Millions are at risk from prosperity. Children of the wealthy and secure have everything to live with, but nothing to live for.
  • God can and does use children and young people - their prayers, their insights, their words, their initiatives - in changing hearts
  • For God to send labourers into every corner of the world, in the power of his Spirit; For the lost in every people and place to be drawn to God by his Spirit, through the declaration of the truth of the gospel and the demonstration of Christ’s love and power; For God’s glory to be revealed and Christ’s name to be known and praised because of the character, deeds and words of his people. We will cry out for our brothers and sisters who suffer for the name of Christ;  For God’s kingdom to come, that God’s will may be done on earth as in heaven, in the establishment of justice, the stewardship and care of creation, and the blessing of God’s peace in our communities. B)    We will continually give thanks as we see God’s work among the nations, looking forward to the day when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
Jason Bao

席琳狄翁《 o come all ye fairhful》齐来崇拜 - 0 views

  • 《O Come All Ye Faithful》O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.Come and behold Him, born the King of angels;RefrainO come, let us adore Him,O come, let us adore Him,O come, let us adore Him,Christ the Lord.True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal,Lo, He shuns not the Virgin’s womb;Son of the Father, begotten, not created;RefrainSing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;O sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!Glory to God, all glory in the highest;RefrainSee how the shepherds, summoned to His cradle,Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;We too will thither bend our joyful footsteps;RefrainLo! star led chieftains, Magi, Christ adoring,Offer Him incense, gold, and myrrh;We to the Christ Child bring our hearts’ oblations.RefrainChild, for us sinners poor and in the manger,We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?RefrainYea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;Jesus, to Thee be glory given;Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.Refrain
Ebey Soman

Kleep - Video Page: My Jesus, my Savior - 0 views

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    An amazing heart warming video of my savior who shed his blood for my sins on the cross of Calvary. For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only begotten son that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.
Pastor Jeff Lilley

Daily Word of God: Daily Word for Sat 5/30/2009 "Let God Clean Your House!" - 0 views

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    Daily Word of God Devotionals are Powerful, Motivating, Practical and Inspiring. Written to Turbo-charge your day and stimulate your spiritual appetite and do "Whatever it Takes" to focus on Christ. Remember, "A cheerful heart is good medicine..." (Prov 17:22a) For Reservations at Our Fathers House, Please Enter John 3:16
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