Unringing the Bell of Perversion and Blasphemy

It will not be difficult to unring Rob Bell, who is neither innovative nor Scriptural in his view of marriage. He appeared on Oprah (which is itself an indication of faultiness on the subjects of God and marriage). He has written a book, The Zimzum of Love, which may or may not be zooming to the top of the best sellers’ list. The subtitle is: “A New Way of Understanding Marriage.” Really? And what would that be?

Yes, Rob and Kristen Bell appeared on Oprah’s show, “Super Soul Sunday” in February to reveal the startling news that, when two people are married, they create space in their lives for each other. Who knew? Such revolutionary teaching! But there’s more. A husband and wife create their own energy field. This is just so cool! Probably their book contains many other dazzling truths, but the focus of attention from here on will be what is affirmed on page 16, where they give a wholehearted endorsement to homosexual “marriage.”

Rob Bell was the founder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Western Michigan. Having brought it to the status of a megachurch, he has left it and also drifted away from his evangelical roots. In 2011, he wrote Love Wins, in which he questioned the existence of hell. He is now a spiritual adviser for Oprah Winfrey and appears on Oprah’s OWN television network. His pattern of descent is anything but new. When people begin excusing one sin after another, there is no stopping place short of Universalism. If everyone will not be saved, at least no one will be lost.

The 2013 Interview

Before returning to current comments, Bell made certain provocative statements previously, which were reported in a post by Nicola Menzie on March 22, 2013:

I believe God [is] pulling us ahead into greater and greater affirmation and acceptance of our gay brothers and sisters and pastors and friends and neighbors and coworkers. [Many are] realizing that God makes some of us one way and some of us another, and it can be a beautiful thing.

“Gag me with a spoon”—to quote Valley Girl lingo from this era. “Love is such a beautiful thing,” did all right in 1977, when the Bee Gees included it in their #1 hit, “How Deep is Your Love,” but after nearly 40 years, it’s beginning to wear a little thin. Just about any practice under the sun is designated as “a beautiful thing,” but there is nothing about homosexuality that could be characterized as beautiful.

First of all, Bell can “believe in Robin Hood and brotherhood and rolling the ball in the hay” (from Mark Lindsay’s “Arizona” in 1970), but such wishful thinking does not make it so. On what objective basis can he say that God is “pulling us ahead” into accepting homosexuality? None at all! This is purely his own subjective opinion. The news and entertainment media—not God—have been pulling everyone ahead. Bell added a few more comments along these lines:

…you're seeing God pull us all forward into a greater realization that we need more love, we need more fidelity, we need more monogamy, we need more people who are committed to each other.

Why are we reminded of, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of” by Jackie DeShannon (1965)? One cannot help but wonder if Bell obtained his theological degree from Casey Kasem.

Second, no one is “realizing that God makes some of us one way and some of us another....” People are being taught that doctrine by newspaper columnists, talk show hosts, sociologists, and pseudoscientists. No proof has ever been offered. Possibly someone used that argument in Sodom; God destroyed them anyway. Someone may have used that argument in the first century, but Paul did not call it a beautiful thing. He said that it was vile and against nature (Rom. 1:26).

In additional comments, Bell said:

I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it's a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think that the church needs to adjust …this is the world that we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.

We all ought to be for fidelity, but first and foremost it must be to the God Who has revealed Himself through His Word (2 Tim. 3:16-17), by which we shall be judged (John 12:48). Those who want to be faithful to God will pay heed to Jesus’ words about the way God created one woman for one man in the beginning (Matt. 19:3-6). Romans 1:21-32 makes it plain that God did not design a man to be with a man or a woman to be with a woman, and that such arrangements are perverted.

When Bell claims the ship has sailed on that subject, he forgets that God built both the ship and the dock. (He created the sea, also.) A translation of what he is saying is that it looks like society is going to accept this sin; so “Christianity” should probably get on board with it. So, is this the world we are living in? Yes, we are also living in a world that accepts abortion, gambling, alcohol, marijuana, and a hundred other things. Why don’t we just legalize everything, including theft and murder and live in a state of moral anarchy? Apparently, Bell does not believe in the concept of sin—unless he would define it as disapproval of someone doing whatever he wants.

“We need to affirm people wherever they are”? Seriously? Does that include those guilty of white-collar crime, cocaine addicts, alcoholics who abuse their wives and children, and child molesters? Should we just accept bullies wherever they are? Notice the stark contrast:

Rob Bell: Affirm people wherever they are.

Jesus: Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

There is something a tad bit suspicious when a mere human being has an easier message to follow than the Son of God!

Courageous?

Brian MacLaren, the guru of the “emergent” church, shares Bell’s views. He has commended him for his courageous stand. He would probably commend Eve for taking the chance to become like God, Jezebel for being such an original thinker, and Judas for his money-making skills. God did not commend Sodom and Gomorrah for their courageous stand and wonderful fellowship when they unanimously surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that the strangers among them be turned over. He destroyed the cities.

When the nations of Israel and Judah “courageously” began to worship false gods and made graven images, God sent His prophets to condemn them—not commend them. When the one-talent man courageously hid what he was entrusted with in the earth, his Master condemned him to outer darkness. So why is it today that those who claim to be representing God and know which way God is pulling us find that everything the Scriptures condemn is wonderful and loving?

A Little Companionship

In further efforts to try to justify his pro-homosexual couple rationale, Bell ruminated:

One of the oldest aches in the bones of humanity is loneliness. Loneliness is not good for the world. Whoever you are, gay or straight, it is totally normal, natural and healthy to want someone to go through life with. It's central to our humanity. We want someone to go on the journey with.

So, does that make sense? If so, we ought to send someone to live with Charles Manson immediately because, as an isolated mass murderer behind bars, he must be fairly lonely by now. And that should go for all other prisoners; loneliness cannot be good for them, either. And then one must also be considerate of all those husbands who deserted and divorced their wives of 20 or 30 years in order to marry someone younger. One should just ignore the heartache, the pain, and the scars left behind. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to marry again in order to avoid loneliness? Never mind that their spouses may be lonely the rest of their lives, not to mention living with undeserved guilt.

The Bible

The reader might well be wondering how religious “leaders” such as Bell can make all of their recommendations in light of what the Scriptures teach. The answer is that it is really no problem for them at all. Bell has convinced himself that churches that do not support same-sex marriages will "continue to be even more irrelevant." Whoa! Really? Has he been hanging out with Rubel Shelly? The fact is that sin is always relevant. Sin made it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross, just as it makes it necessary for us to repent. Does anyone recall John coming in the wilderness and preaching, “The time for relevance is at hand”? It all boils down to this: Who knows what is more relevant to mankind—God or Rob Bell? But it gets worse.

…the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense, when you have in front of you flesh-and-blood people….

Probably, we should not be surprised that the founder of a mega church could be suffering from megalomania. The first (and obvious) response is: Quoting from letters 2,000 years ago is not our best defense; it is our only defense! Only the Word of God carries with it any authority (Matt. 28:18). Have there been some Scriptures written more recently? Or does Bell simply think that all mankind should take his word for how things ought to be in the 21st century? Paul wrote: “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37). Paul also commended the Thessalonians because they received his word as it is in truth, the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). Bell, by his own admission, does not believe the truth.

Second, did Peter not have flesh-and-blood people in front of him on Pentecost? Yes, and some of them crucified Jesus; but he did not water down the truth to make it more palatable. Was Paul not standing before flesh-and-blood idolaters on Mars’ Hill? Yes, but he preached against the sin; he did affirm them where they were. Ephesus had been a good congregation for many years, but Jesus threatened to remove their candlestick unless they repented (Rev. 2:1-7). God does not give people a pass these days, either; He “commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30-31).

Asked what he thought the future would hold, Bell asserted that the church would continue to “evolve.” No, it won’t. Man-made churches may; emergent churches may; those that ignore what the Scriptures teach may, but they are not the church Jesus built (Matt. 16:18) nor the one for whom He shed His blood (Acts 20:28). All those church plants that the heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted (Matt. 15:13). God did not design an evolving church; Jesus is not the Head over an evolving church. True Christians are obedient to God’s arrangement, which is sufficient. Our final response to Bell is in words he will understand—from the 1969 song by Steam: “Na na na na. Na na na na. Hey, Hey-ey….”