Rob Bell - Is it heresy on tour? (SOLD OUT!)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 5:27PM This is such a sad situation. Mark Driscoll has accused Rob Bell (of the Nooma DVD series) of heresy.... Here's the full story:
Heresy on Tour?
Popular pastor/author Rob Bell's controversial message: God loves you.
Since late September blogs have been buzzing about Mark Driscoll's remark at the Convergent Conference labeling Rob Bell a heretic. Bell's broad popularity (due primarily to his books, NOOMA videos, and podcasts) make Driscoll's accusation all the more serious. Out of Ur has stayed out of the fray - until now. Rob Bell was in Raleigh, North Carolina last week as part of a 22 city tour. Leadership correspondent Chad Hall was there to report on the event.
When the babysitter arrived the night before Thanksgiving, she asked of our plans for the evening. Last week it was a concert, and three weeks before that we were headed to dinner and a movie. Tonight, my wife and I were going to.... I stumbled for words to describe Rob Bell's latest tour. I could tell by her eyes that she stopped caring about thirty seconds before I stopped trying to describe the event.
Bell's "the gods aren’t angry" tour packed about two thousand souls into Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium for what wound up being a 90 minute sermon.
Bell is a popular writer, speaker and pastor, and I found it easy to see why he's so popular. As a friend commented after the event, "The dude has some mad communication skills." Wearing an all black outfit (save a bright white belt) that could have placed him as a member of Green Day, Bell presented an insane amount of information in a style that held my attention and quickened my spirit.
In a nutshell, Bell talked about how humans - since the earliest cavewoman and caveman - try to appease the forces that bring or withhold life. These human attempts led to formation of god concepts and religious practices, which grew ever more sacrificial and eventually led people to harm self and sacrifice children in bold attempts to assuage anxiety about the gods' opinions of us. Like some sort of Ken Burns without a camera, Bell incorporated tons of tidbits and insights from history, cultural anthropology, theology, sociology and literature to weave a compelling story of religiosity that’s led to the anxiety-riddled human condition wherein we wonder, "Have I done enough?"
Into this system where humans guessed at what the gods want and then trying to give it, God spoke to Abram. Now the deity did the initiating. And the word from God was for Abram to forsake his father’s household: which Bell equated with forsaking the old system of trying to appease the gods. Rather than trying to bless the gods, Abram's role was to be blessed by God. This was big revelation number one.
According to Bell, big revelation number two came in Leviticus. He said that this strange and seemingly backward third book of the Bible is best understood as a gift from God to help alleviate people’s anxieties. Rather than leave us guessing and grasping for some elusive set of conditions by which God would be pleased, God presented Abram's lineage with an exact recipe for living and sacrificing, thus removing all doubt that God was not angry with them.
Bell said that big revelation number three came in Jesus. The sacrificial system outlined in Leviticus became corrupt and only led to more anxiety than it relieved. So at just the right time, God revealed that he never really needed our sacrifices anyway. Using quite a bit of humor, irony and pure wit, Bell painted a caricature god who is not complete without what people can provide or perform. Using various sayings from Psalms, Micah, Jesus, Paul’s letters and Hebrews, he drew an alternate picture of the divine: a God who is not dependent on what we do, but who freely loves and pours blessing on us.
The problem, according to Bell, is not that God is angry with us, but that we think God is angry with us. Thus, Jesus' purpose wasn’t to change God’s mind about us, but to change our mind about God: to notify us of God’s lack of anger and to free us from the prison of our misconceptions so that we can truly live well. The place of church and religious ritual is to remind us of our standing with God and freedom to live lives of sacrifice and service.
This tour stop still has me thinking. The sense I got from Bell is that the whole problem to be solved is a mental one: people are not aware of the already-true fact that God is not angry with them. I'm wrangling with the notion that what Jesus changed is not God’s opinion of me, but my opinion of God. For some reason, this makes me think of Jesus as a Post-It note from God telling us what has been true rather than making it true. I'm ready to dismiss this as too insignificant, except that Bell convinced me that the alternatives leave us with a small god who needs sacrifice to be appeased.
I'm not ready to canonize Rob Bell, nor am I ready to fire up the Driscollian flame thrower and burn him a heretic. I chalk up my questions and concerns to the fact that no sermon - even a 90-minute one delivered with incredible veracity – can cover everything.
Chad Hall is an executive coach with SAS Institute Inc. in Cary, NC. He's also the co-author of Coaching for Christian Leaders: A Practical Guide and Vice President of The Columbia Partnership.
Personally, I think Rob Bell is one of the most sensible, level headed, and effective teachers of the Gospel in years... He knows the Bible, he reads and uses it, and his message is responsible and well rounded. The fact that he tries to bring in people whom the traditional Church has excluded (people who look different, think different, and act different to mainstream society) is quite refreshing. I seem to remember the scriptures speaking of someone else who was accused of fraternizing with 'sinners' - perhaps Rob Bell represents more of the mind of Christ than many of his detractors!?
Technorati tags: Rob Bell, Nooma, heresy, Mark Driscoll
Reader Comments (4)
Who is "Phil" Driscoll? Mark Driscoll, like Rob Bell, also reaches those who look, think and act differently from mainstream society (look up Mars Hill Church, Seattle). That is not the reference point from which this particular detraction came.
Hi Ted,
Thanks for the correction! Where the heck did I get Phil from? I've fixed it up.
I have had a look at their website (for anyone else who would like to check it out, it is well worth the effort - here is the http://www.marshillchurch.org/" REL="nofollow">link)
A brief view of his http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Driscoll" REL="nofollow">wikipedia entry shows that he is certainly unique. Although it would seem that this is not the first time that he has caused sensation with a comment?
It would certainly seem to me that he needs to cultivate some restraint and care in his caricatures of persons or groups that differ from his perspective... I quote "article on The Emergent Church, Mark Driscoll was quoted as saying, "There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity."
This guy sounds like a fairly typical patriarchal, testosterone driven, stereotypical "America is King and we'll fight for that right" kind of guy...
I could be very wrong, so please set me straight if I am. However, he does seem a little brash and unrestrained in his criticism of others...
I recognise this in him, because I am often the same.
Ted, thanks for the comment, and also for helping me to find out a bit more about this incident and Mark Driscoll.
Regards from a COLD (summer?) in South Africa.
I listened to the Convergent Audio when it first came out and I remember Driscoll stating a number of concerns about Bell - I'm not sure that he actually called him a heretic.
My own view is that Driscoll is reaching many unchurched people with the gospel - and its a gospel that isn't afraid to speak about sin. His reformed convictions come out clearly in his preaching - but so what - he sticks to his theological convictions. Yes he has stuck his foot in it in public on one or two occasions but he has always been humble and repentant when called to task by other Christian voices.
If you're looking for another take on Bell's tour check out http://www.buzzardblog.com/buzzard_blog/2007/11/rob-bell-the-go.html" REL="nofollow">Justin Buzzard's comments.
Estelle Lobban says:
Hello all from the UK (but still missing the biltong!)..
A suggestion from this side: listen to a few of Mark Driscoll's sermons first-hand online (Mars Hill) and you will then draw conclusions for yourselves.
I have found him not to be perfect (I'm not either!) but humble, going after unity with Christians - even though not always in agreement. He loves Jesus and the Holy Spirit is adding new believers to their church - many of them. He will be the first to say it is not about numbers, but about discipleship etc.
Listening to him for yourselves will give you the best vantage point from which to discern.
Kind regards en groete,
Estelle