Recently I heard of a new book that came out titled, 'Love Wins: A book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived' by Rob Bell. I have a book by this pastor, 'Velvet Elvis', and I remember thinking how uncomfortable I felt about his teaching. I have read a few commentaries on the new book and I have come to find that Bell believes that God loves us so much that in the end he will not let anybody go to hell. I think this is one of the greatest heresies in the world right now. Without there being a hell why would Jesus have to to earth to make right what Adam did wrong? Clearly Rob Bell believes in a different Jesus. Jesus spoke more on hell than any other topic.
Jesus was so serious about avoiding hell that he said this, 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where“‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched. 49 Everyone will be salted with fire.
Now, I'm not recommending that people should start cutting off limbs, but this is how serious Jesus takes sin. After all he died a horrible death so we did not have to face this punishment. As I have come to think more about this, I have realized how serious I need to get about getting rid of sin in my life. Paul gives a great take on this in the Epistle to the Ephesians 5:3-5:
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person--such a man is an idolater--has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
So no dirty jokes,swearing, foolish talk, and bad tv shows. I recently gave up watching One Tree Hill. It took me weeks, but I managed to do it! The Holy Spirit convicted me about his like you could not imagine. Believe me, I have not mastered all of these I wrote above but through the Holy Spirit convicting me daily I believe I may one day get a pretty good handle on it. It has been very hard for me to do this. However, as Christians, this is what God expects from us.
For Christians that are reading this I would recommend asking the Holy Spirit to convict you about things you are doing in your life that you know are wrong. I hear of quite a few tv shows that people watch who claim to be Christians. We should RUN from these things and not let them get a foothold in our lives. The more things that you give yourself to, the harder it will be to turn away from it. Your witness will be ruined and you will not take sin as seriously.
The apostle Peter gives a great warning about this is 2 Peter: If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
I'm going to leave you with some words from Jesus in Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Does this mean that we can become perfect? No, not in this life. I swore today. I thought quite a few mean thoughts about people today. (With the debt commision debacle today it was mostly aimed at politicians.) Am I proud of it? No. However, I know it's wrong and as the days go by I have noticed that I don't do it as much. Believe me, if it weren't for my faith in Jesus, it would be much, much worse.
So getting back to my main point, please do not take lightly the grace God has given us these few years that we are on this planet. Now is the day of salvation.
Having read "Love Wins", I can say the danger of Bell's teachings is his willingness to raise questions and his unwillingness to provide answers to those questions. He misses the justice of hell by overemphasizing the love of God. How God chooses to deal with us after we die is up to God and, quiet frankly, the bible doesn't spend a lot of time going into specifics on this.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree, Brent. I think we know exactly what is going to happen to us after we die. If we are believers in Christ, we go to heaven. If we are not, we go to hell. I would have to say that anything else is our own vain imagination.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed what you wrote Chris !! Praise God.
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