I thought I was done with the Rob Bell posts. But when I heard that he appeared this morning on my favorite talking-head program “Morning Joe,” I knew I had one more. The video of Bell’s appearance is above. There’s nothing new here and certainly nothing hard-hitting. The only thing new that I got from this is that apparently Mika likes what he’s selling. The others sounded like they weren’t very interested in the interview. FWIW.
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Martin Bashir Talks about Bell Interview
I wrote earlier this week about Martin Bashir’s hard-hitting interview with Rob Bell. If you’ve been under a rock this week and haven’t seen it yet, be sure to take a few minutes and watch it now. Commenters under that earlier post have been asking about Bashir’s own faith commitments. They note that some reports paint him to be an atheist while other reports indicate that he is a Christian. What’s the truth? Bashir answered that question earlier today when he was interviewed on Paul Edwards’ “God and Culture” radio program. Bashir discloses that he is a committed Christian and that he attends Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New…
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Mohler Leads Panel Discussion of “Love Wins”
Earlier today Albert Mohler moderated a discussion of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins. I was grateful to participate in the conversation along with Russell Moore and Justin Taylor. Watch above, listen below, or download audio here. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/Panels/20110317-bellpanel.mp3]
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Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
The band “Mercy Me” has a running gag on their YouTube channel called “The Cover Tune Grab Bag,” in which they do fun covers of popular songs. Many of the videos look like they are shot backstage with the guys just goofing around. In any case, it’s pretty entertaining to see the band let their proverbial hair down. On Sunday, they posted what is probably my favorite video to date: a cover of the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” Watch above. If you want to see more, their YouTube channel is here.
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Review of DeYoung Book
Tim Kimberley of Credo House Ministries has written a short, favorable review of Kevin DeYoung’s Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day (Crossway, 2011). I appreciated his advice about how to use this book. He writes: “If I were to start doing a study with someone. Maybe a mentor-type situation with a person in their teens, twenties or thirties this is one of possibly 3 books right now I’d consider reading with them.Â
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Martin Bashir Takes on Rob Bell
I don’t know what else to say. This interview is devastating. It exposes the inconsistency of Bell’s argument. Bell wants to be a universalist without taking the name, and Bashir won’t let him off by a facile appeal to “paradox.” Watch above or read the transcript below.
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Justin Taylor and Rob Bell on GMA
George Stephanopoulos interviewed Rob Bell today on “Good Morning America.” The segment was titled “Pastor Claims Hell Does Not Exist.” The lead-in report includes remarks from Justin Taylor, and I agree with him entirely. “Rob Bell… is obscuring God’s word. He’s teaching false doctrine. And he’s unorthodox in his beliefs.” A clip from Albert Mohler’s interview a couple of weeks ago also appears in the segment. Watch the rest of it above.
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Lisa Miller Interviews Rob Bell
Earlier this evening Lisa Miller of Newseek interviewed Rob Bell about his new book Love Wins. If you want to see where the rubber meets the road with the theology in Rob Bell’s book, then you’ll want to watch this. Miller actually does a good job of pressing Bell on some key points. I think she understands the affront of the cross, and even Rob Bell’s inclusivism is offensive to her because it still relies on Jesus as the savior of the world. Unfortunately, Bell fails to state a clear gospel message. Instead, he gives short pat answers and tells lots of stories. Interestingly, Miller calls him a universalist inspite…
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Richard Mouw on “Love Wins”
From Cathy Lynn Grossman at USA Today: Richard Mouw, president of the world’s largest Protestant seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary based in Pasadena, Calif., calls Love Wins “a great book, well within the bounds of orthodox Christianity and passionate about Jesus. The real hellacious fight, says Mouw, a friend of Bell, a Fuller graduate, is between “generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy. There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people.” I think this quote from Mouw portends the shape of the…
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Revising Hell into the Heterodox Mainstream
Much has been made of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Before the book was even released, promotional materials seemed to suggest that Rob Bell would be heading in an unorthodox direction in this book. Now having read the book, I am convinced that the promotional materials were correct. Bell has launched out into a heterodox, unbiblical accounting of sin and judgment, the cross and salvation, heaven and hell. He pictures a God without wrath who would never create a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked. No one needs salvation from God’s wrath; they…