Posted on 07/07/2018 8:00:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I heard a tragic story recently, some of the very bad fruit coming from Rob Bell's book Love Wins. (This was Bell's hell-denying book in which he effectively announced his apostasy from evangelical faith.) In light of a growing epidemic of deception in the Church today, a deception that is making people deaf to divine warnings, it seemed that now was a good time to share the story.
Earlier this year, a university student was responding to my lecture on God's love for the LGBT community during a time of Q&A. He tried to undermine the authority of the Scriptures and accused me of using violent language. To him, any form of justice or judgment was inherently violent, and he would have none of it as a professed atheist.
I subsequently learned that, just a few years earlier, he was planning to go into the ministry. He was an avid reader of the Bible. Then he read Love Wins, and it was downhill ever since. (This was according to a report from his roommate at that time.)
It would have been far better (and far more biblically accurate) if Bell had written a book titled Love Warns. That would have been in greater harmony with the truth. (Click here for my 2015 article titled "Love Warns.")
But we don't want to hear warnings today. We only want positive words. Words that make us feel better about ourselves. Words that increase our self-esteem and enhance our self-image. Anything negative will be rejected out of hand.
Don't tell me I'm on the wrong path. Don't tell me there's danger ahead. By all means, do not warn!
Everybody has to win these days. There can be no losers.
Every path is valid and every perception has truth.
Correction is a micro-aggression. Reproof is for our grandparents' generation. Rebuke is tantamount to assault.
Yes, that's the world we live in today. And I don't just mean in the secular, non-religious society. I mean in the Church. Preachers, do not warn!
On a daily (sometimes hourly basis, sometimes by the minute), we receive angry comments to our video "Can You Be Gay and Christian?" (Apparently, it continues to circulate on LGBT social media outlets, getting new viewers all the time who are furious with the biblical content.)
One viewer wrote, "Reported this as a hate video," which is the expected response these days. Telling the truth, even with love and grace, is branded "hate." Truth has become toxic.
This reminds me of a quote from the Christian musician and singer Keith Green (who died in 1982). He said, "I'd rather have people hate me with the knowledge that I tried to save them." Do we have any excuse for not trying?
Others viewers of our video were outraged that I would have the temerity to state that the Bible was God's Word and that it was still relevant.
Still others were shocked to hear me say that there is a right way and a wrong way. That we were created and designed by God with specific, moral intent. How dare I speak such things!
But it's not just here, in this controversial area of LGBT issues, that we find resistance. For years now, right within the Church, there's been a growing tide of no-judgment preaching.
We're only allowed to say nice things, to encourage. We're not allowed to plead with tears, to warn of coming danger, to urge our listeners to flee from impending judgment, be it in this world or the world to come.
Not a chance. Such preaching is dubbed "Old Testament" (as if the New Testament wasn't filled with warnings). Such preaching is called legalism and going back under the law (as if grace didn't plead and admonish). Such preaching is deemed out of style, inappropriate for our enlightened age.
As a result of this growing trend, rather than the flock being awakened, the congregants go like fattened sheep to the slaughter. Who will sound the alarm?
By all means, we should encourage. By all means, we should lift up. We should preach with love, preach compassion, preach mercy, preach longsuffering.
But we should warn our hearers and viewers of the consequences of rejecting that love and compassion and mercy and longsuffering. We should, in Paul's words, present (and consider) both the kindness and the severity of God (Romans 11:22). Both are essential to our right understanding of the nature and character of our Lord.
Decades ago, George Orwell famously wrote, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
Today, more than ever, we need to engage in this revolutionary act of telling the truth. If we who claim to know the Lord don't do it, who will?
Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.
Actually there is no judgment at all in Jesus. Zero. Christ died for your sins in total and complete one time atonement and propitiation. If you are pardoned there is no trial. The question is “ do you believe in Jesus , as the Son of God and go to eternal life or do you just go to the dirt? No judgment. Zip.
I see. No systematic theology student is raiderboy.
Good article, thanks for posting.
RE: If you are pardoned there is no trial. The question is “ do you believe in Jesus , as the Son of God and go to eternal life or do you just go to the dirt? No judgment. Zip.
This is what the Apostle John Said:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe STANDS CONDEMNED ALREADY because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” ( John 3: 18 )
I grew up in a Methodist church. In the early 70’s the ass’t pastor preached a message, saying there is no devil, no demons and no hell. Of course, he was offended when some said he didn’t believe the bible. If that message were true, who needs a savior?
Exactly!
Keith Green...
Good Stuff.
No one “just goes to the dirt”. All are resurrected, some to eternal life and some to eternal damnation. Jesus presides at the Great White Throne judgment of the unsaved (Revelation 20:11 and following).
Jesus said:
“For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”
John 5:22, 23
Endorsing destructive conduct is an act of hate.
Yep
You go to Heaven no matter what you do?
Tiller, the late-term abortionist who murdered thousands upon thousands of unborn babies, was a church deacon. He regarded abortion as a gift from God.
He went straight to Heaven, even though he was an unrepentant murderer of babies? Because he believed Jesus died for his sins?
Even if he doesn’t believe they were sins?
Or the BTK killer who was also a church deacon. He tortured dozens of women to death, he was basically unrepentant. He went straight to Heaven because he believed Jesus died for him, even though he was unrepentant?
Repentant sinners, sure...I believe they go to Heaven, even if they’ve done ghastly things, but people who don’t believe they sinned, they go to Heaven to, in your beliefs?
Ed
Do you accept John 3:16- 18 as the Gospel? Or do you not ? Do you think it an error or contridiction? It doesn’t say that if you “believe in Him “ plus this and plus this and plus this you have eternal life. Right? I find it of Satan when I see people stacking requirements on salvation which just aren’t there.. Salvation is as simple as the thief on the cross. Just accept as true Jesus as the Son of God or what you teach is false.
Also, did Christ die for our sins? I thought Christ died for our sins?
Two chapters earlier in John...3:18...he who does not believe is already condemned.
To be repentant and believe in Christ are the requirements for salvation.
Why do you take two verses out and declare them to be "the Gospel"? I can show you plenty of other verses that reject your antinomian OSAS view. Why aren't they also "the Gospel"?
The ultimate "authentic good for another" is eternal life in heaven. Any "love" that does not pursue, or at least acknowledge, that authentic good for another is fraudulent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.