charlesnestor.com

Is Rob Bell a Universalist?

Having just completed a 15 week sermon series on the 25 verses of the Epistle of Jude, I am definitely up on the New Testaments exhortation to "earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints". The opening line of my first sermon in the Jude series was this:

"War is hell!  At least that is the way that General William Sherman described it. He served as a General in the Union Army under Ulysses Grant during the Civil War, and he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy." 

What is interesting is that the very concept of literal Hell is what is being questioned these days and specifically in Rob Bell's new book: Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.  In a promotional video for the book, Rob Bell asks provacative and leading questions that would leave one at least speculating that he has fully embraced a Universalist theology.  With questions like these I might conclude that indeed he is a Universalist or he has constructed careful questions to stir the pot and sell a lot of books.

Rob Bell asks:

    Gandhi’s in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?

    Will only a few select people make it to heaven?

    And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell?

    And if that’s the case, how do you become one of the few? Is it what you believe? Or what you say? Or     what you do? Or who you know? Or something that happens in your heart? Or do you need to be     initiated or baptized or take a class or be converted or be born again? How does one become one of     these few?

The word in Jude 3 for contend is the Greek word epagōnizomai.The word comes from the athletic world – from the wrestling mat. It is a strengthened form of the word meaning “to agonize.”  The prefix ep means upon or against.  The word means to agonize against. This is a picture of that word:

Jude encourages all believers to "agonize against" for the gospel.  The gospel is precious and has been placed in the hands of true believers in sacred trust.  We must not become too complacent and comfortable to contend for the faith.

Those whom Jude warns about are men who have crept into the church unnoticed.  The word for unnoticed in Jude 4 is the Greek word pyrasdunno which means to enter secretly, slip in stealthily.  The idea of a stealth is that it’s undetected by radar.  These men have come in by stealth, unnoticed.  How?  Why?  Because they appear to be one of us.  They appear to be spiritual leadership.  They came in even as shepherds.  Jesus gave a warning against those who appear to be true spiritual leadership.

Matthew 7:15

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

Shepherd’s wore clothing made from the sheep’s wool.  These false shepherds wore sheep’s clothing. The false teachers Jude warns about were in the church.  They were pastors, shepherds.  Today is no different.  The question I have raised in this blog is:  Is Rob Bell a universalist (The belief that many or all will be saved without confessing Jesus as Lord).  I don't know the answer to the question.  But I guess we all will have a better idea of that when his book is released on March 15.  In any event, I for one have been praying that the church would rise up and contend for the the true faith and present Jesus Christ to a "lost" and dying world.

By Charles Nestor II

Can Anyone Know Anything?

Can anyone know anything?  Am I writing this post?  Is my computer really an Apple?  Is my desk made from mahogany wood? Does 2+2=4?  Does blood really contain the physical properties that we have discovered it has?  Does blood really take oxygen to our brain and keep us alive?

Reading some (not all) of the emergent material, some of the emergent leaders have said that they are not sure that anyone can know what the Scriptures mean.  That's not what I come away with from a reading of my Bible. 

If you were to sit down and start reading the Bible from the beginning all the way to the end of Revelation, you would see and understand the main and clear message of God's word.  You would know that God is the creator.  He created out of nothing.  Man fell.  God pursued man and setup a system of sacrifices by which man could approach and worship God.  You would see from the New Testament that the writers showed that Jesus fulfilled the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament and has provided completely for our salvation.

Let's face it.  The Israelites knew very little if anything about God when He brought them out of the bondage of Egypt.  So God began to educate them about who He was and that He was holy.  The law taught them about God.  The tabernacle in the wilderness taught them about God.  They began to understand a little bit of who He is.  Even though they broke the covenant doesn't mean they didn't understand it.  Just because I speed doesn't mean I don't "know and understand" what the speed limit is.

How do you make disciples if know one can be sure about much or anything?  Making disciples is making students.  Students learn.  Teachers teach.  There is sound doctrine that pastors/teachers are supposed to understand, know and teach to others who will in turn know it and be equipped by it for every good work.  Or can we not even know what a good work is?

Paul told young Timothy that all Scripture was profitable for doctrine.  That is it is profitable or beneficial for teaching.  Timothy was also told that it was profitable for training in righteousness.  Doesn't the Bible tell us what is righteous?  One thing I know for sure from the Bible is that I'm not to kill.  And just like I understand and know this, I know a lot more from reading, studying and being taught the Word of God. 

Yes, there are some obscure passages.  There are some things that we don't understand completely.  But one thing we can be sure about is the plan of salvation.  We can be sure about the main and essential teachings of the Bible and the gospel.  There is a God.  There is a plan of salvation.  And this is spelled out in Scripture from the creation, the fall, the law, the tabernacle, Jesus, the cross and the resurrection.

The New Heresy

Studying and teaching through the New Testament, you get a heavy dose of warning against false teachers and heresy. From my study, much of the heresy in the early church stemmed from a gnostic position. The New Testament heresies were mainly gnostic. Gnosticism basically had the idea that salvation was acheived by the possession of certain knowledge. This knowledge was often times secret knowledge. If you had this knowledge, you were saved.

As I read and study this new movement within Christendom called "Emergent", many (not all) in the emergent movement have taken what I perceive as an agnostic position. Some emergent leaders have made statements that we don't really know what the Bible says or what it means. They interpret the "know" Scriptures (John 8:32, John 17:3, etc.) as relational knowledge, like how you know your parents, spouse or friends.

In a recent article by John McArthur, he gets into the debate about truth, i.e., knowing truth and can it be known. He starts out with the context of the garden of Eden. It seems as though God "knew" that if Adam and Eve ate from the tree that they would "know" something (good and evil). McArthur goes onto argue that the Bible is readable and understandable. The article is about the perspicuity of Scripture. For all those who don't "know" what that means, the Bible is clear, plain and intelligible. In other words, you can read it and understand it. The basic tenets of the gospel are plain and intelligible.

Part of knowing someone relationally is knowing them factually. I would never have entered into a committed relationship with my wife had I not come to know and understand some "things" about her. It is the same with God. We come to know an inkling of who He is and what He has done, and so we want to "know" him relationally.