Denny Burk writes:
From Cathy Lynn Grossman at USA Today:
Richard Mouw, president of the world’s largest Protestant seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary based in Pasadena, Calif., calls Love Wins “a great book, well within the bounds of orthodox Christianity and passionate about Jesus.
The real hellacious fight, says Mouw, a friend of Bell, a Fuller graduate, is between “generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy. There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people.”
I think this quote from Mouw portends the shape of the coming debate. Bell’s book begs the question of whether or not universalism is within the bounds of orthodoxy. Mouw says yes, and I’m sure a number of others will join him.
Watch closely those who rally to Bell going forward. There is a real dividing line here, and I don’t think that is all bad (1 Corinthians 11:19). For evangelicals, there can hardly be a more serious question. I hope and pray that very few will follow Bell to the wrong side on this one.
2 comments:
Yeh. We should just let those professional seminary profs tell us what to think about heresies. God forbid we act like Bereans or anything.
I agree with anonymous' comment. Seminary professors do not get to dictate "what to think about heresies".
On the use of the term "evangelical": I think I have to agree with Carl Trueman's assessment in his recent book "The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" that the term "evangelical" has pretty much lost its meaning. It has become a vacuous term.
It's certainly not surprising that the president of Fuller would support Bell, because they try to cast a wide net. They want to give a pass to Bell and other who hold to the same views because they don't want to appear judgmental. Being judgmental is really bad in our culture today.
I would agree with Jonathan Leeman's conclusion in his book "The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love": that the western church needs a restoration of biblical discernment and church discipline. Also, if you read Schaeffer, he recommends that liberals be disciplined in the church. I think this is almost never done, but you see the mess that is caused when we fail to lovingly do this.
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