Sunday, May 01, 2011

A Response to Rob Bell

Rob Bell is a pastor. He founded a church in Michigan called Mars Hill Bible Church. He became a celebrity in Christian culture with a series of teaching videos he produced called the "NOOMA" series and writing a book entitled Velvet Elvis. I've only seen a few of the NOOMA videos. They are well produced teaching tools that are engaging, informative, and sometimes challenging (unfortunately many people haven't seen any of these videos because they are overpriced-$10 for a 10-14 minute video is kind of steep and there are 24 videos in the whole set). I was first introduced to Bell at a Bible study where we watched one of the NOOMA videos. Later, a friend I worked with at camp recommended I read Velvet Elvis and I did. The book had some interesting points, but it wasn't as powerful as I thought it would be. Anyway, Bell's star has continued to rise in the ghetto of Christian culture, but that's all changed in the past couple of months with the release of Bell's latest book, Love Wins. In this book, Bell admits that he's a universalist (there is no Hell and everyone goes to Heaven) and, therefore, a heretic. Bell reaches a massive audience and Love Wins is causing lots and lots and lots of controversy. Below is a video that I recently came across (thanks to Justin Taylor) that is a great response to Bell's recent claims that illustrates the fallacy in his new claims. It's intelligent, engaging, and hilarious. Enjoy.

Robbed Hell - C.A.S.T. Pearls Presents from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

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