John Piper stated about 15 minutes ago in a tweet, “Seriously, as before, may you fare well, Rob Bell.http://dsr.gd/otctwX.”  Bell is stepping down as the lead pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, reports Christianity Today.  Click on the link above for the full scoop.

Interesting enough, Bell is stepping down as pastor right after he released his ever controversial book, Love Wins, this past year.  Should be interesting to see what Bell does now!  What books will he put out?  What speaking tours will he now go on?  What controversy will he find himself in while trying to stay as far away from debate as possible.  There is one thing for certain — whatever happens, Bell will probably happily find himself there.

-GG

Rob Bell is dead wrong with his redefinition of “hell.”  He redefines hell in an unbiblical fashion.  Following his discussion of his universalism in Velvet Elvis, he writes,

Heaven is full of forgiven people.  Hell is full of forgiven people.  Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.  Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for.  The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust.  Ours or God’s (146).

On the next page Bell defines hell as a “way of living out of sync with how God created us to live” (147).  He defines hell one more time by asking the question about what people mean why they use the word “hell”; he claims that people mean “a place, an event, a situation absent of how God desires things to be” (148).  In contrast, using Bell’s preferred translation – the TNIV, the word for hell is used thirteen times; in every occurrence, it refers to an eschatological place of judgment. “Hell” is nowhere defined in the Bible as Bell defines it.  He cites absolutely no Scripture in support of his position in Velvet Elvis.  In light of the ample scriptural evidence against his redefinition this present writer wonders why Bell has provided such a definition.

In Love Wins he offers some scriptural support for his position (for a full critique of his position please see Kevin DeYoung’s full critique of Bell’s new book).  Yet he fails to take seriously the claims of Jesus in the verses cited below and also Bell fails to cite any actual source to support his redefinition of hell.  Thus, he is making up his own “hell” in this new book.  To be certain, though he may want to suppose hell is different from an actual place as Jesus explains, Bell is only fooling himself.  The Bible is clear – a literal, eternal place of judgment awaits those who do not come to Jesus for salvation.  Our task is still to preach the gospel to sinners on their way to an actual hell.  To my remarks Bell would probably claim that he believes in literal hell (Love Wins, Kindle edition).  Yet, when he writes “literal” he wants his readers to keep in mind Bell’s redefinition of hell.  To that I would simply examine the Scriptures below and also what is recorded in Revelation in order to reveal his errors.  Perhaps our readers could comment on this post as to how they would refute him if given the chance.

(1)Matt 5:22, 5:29, 5:30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15,  23:33; Mark 9:43, 9:45, 9:47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6; 2 Peter 2:4.  The TNIV was searched via biblegateway.com.

In this article Ben Montoya discusses part 2 of his interactions with Rob Bell’s ‘Velvet Elvis.’  This heavy, but very important article on Rob Bell is something that all 20-somethings who care about the foundation and authority of Scripture should read and work through. [...]

Many Christians only stress the importance of Bible reading.[i] While that task is important, more should be stressed.  That is, it also matters how one interprets the Bible.  It is often in the task of interpretation that false teaching, heresy, etc., are founded and thus spread.  We at TVN, however, want out readers to be cautious of bad interpretations lest they fall into some of the same errors.  Hopefully by looking at the error in Rob Bell’s approach to interpretation, our readers will learn from his mistake. [...]

In his first article with TVN, Ben Montoya begins a series on revealing who Rob Bell is, what he believes, and what he writes about concerning his views on Jesus, the Trinity, and Scripture in his popular book “Velvet Elvis.” [...]