This is the first installment in what proves to be a well supplied list of individuals who would do us all a great service by removing themselves from the public light.Overall, the list before me to be written on is vast. Be it Joyce Meyer, Brian McLaren, or a bevy of political figures chomping at the bit to become the next toilet America drinks out of, we're nothing short of popular individuals who are doing more harm than help.
Out of this entire list, I felt it most important to begin with the man who would consider himself a pastor, Rob Bell. Bell's current ministry is at Mars Hill, yet another church with a bizarre name which means nothing, preaching how happiness and self-fulfillment are the main reasons to become a Christian. Rob Bell's ministry is praised by CNN, who has crowned him as the next Billy Graham. I'm certain that if he can hear it, Billy Graham is rolling in his grave, even if he is still technically alive. The next Billy Graham? BILLY GRAHAM? The man who asked us "Hughhwhai (Why) dent (don't) yew (you) ternuh (turn) from yer (your) sin and repent?" Billy Graham never sat down his large audiences and told them that "Having sex is what connects the creature with The Creator" like Bell suggests in his recent muck entitled "Sex God".
Bell is a small man trying to fill big shoes, and how does he do it? By being intentionally controversial, mystic, and cryptic in areas where Scripture is actually obvious. Instead of holding the Bible as truth, Bell is famous for preaching "open-mindedness" (which is better understood as "empty-mindedness") in interpreting and relying on Scripture, with an emphasis on the possibility that modern science may routinely prove various parts of Scripture wrong, and that our theology should be loose enough to allow for these parts of Scripture to be understood from the eyes of unbelieving scientists.
Can you picture Billy Graham asking a crowded mass under the big top "Hughwhuuut (What) if the scientists eventually show us that Jesus wasn't born of a virgin, that he was the physical son of Mary and Joseph? Would your faith crumble?" Bell believes that we must have a loose enough reliance on Scripture in order to accommodate for Scripture to be proven false. Would you like some Starbucks Coffee with that Heresy?
Rob Bell, author of the intensely popular video production "NOOMA" on the very topic of Christian truth and the ministry of the emergent church: "This is not just the same old message with new methods. We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life."(http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/november/12.36.html)
Rediscovering Christianity, eh? Like Joseph Smith did? Show us the golden tablets!
Christians, if they believe their Bibles, must rely solely on Scripture for the definition of truth and the discovery of contradictions to the Bible must be looked at as products of failed reason and man's predisposition to reject God as illustrated in Romans 1. Any attempts to hybridize Christianity with an acceptance of the possibility that the Bible is actually part myth and part truth is ridiculous. The Bible claims to be the completely true Word of God. If it isn't true, it lies about itself and cannot be trusted for something so important as the eternal destination of an individual. Bell's theology creates a wave of ignorant shallow spiritualists he calls modern Christians. People see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear, say what they want to say, and feel what they want to feel. I on the other hand, smell a rat.
E.J. Wood is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. He has a BA in Political Science, as well as BS in Public Administration. He currently is authoring a book called "Closing the Book on Christianity: The Post-Modern Christian’s War Against the Bible".
Contact him at proantiundecided@hotmail.com
