Friends of mine will tell you that I have a tendency to turn conversations towards theology. I can’t help it – it’s a topic I’m passionate about. In a recent conversation, a friend was telling me about the journey that he is on in an effort to grow closer to God. He’s engaging in the [...]
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Prominent (and hilarious) Christian blogger, Matther Paul Turner, the man behind the mask of Jesus Needs New PR started a brief conversation on his Facebook today, asking whether an evangelical can be a universalist and linking to an article. The article is worth the read, but I think the conversation that ensued was more interesting. [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Bible, Christianity, Eschatology, God, Heaven, hell, Jesus, Matthew Paul Turner, Theology | 3 Comments »
And then there are those whose lessons about heaven consist primarily of who will be there and who won’t be there. (p. 25) … It’s very common to hear talk about heaven framed in terms of who “gets in” or how to “get in.” (p. 50) The Emergent church peeps all play a familiar tune [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Book Review, Christianity, Eschatology, God, Heaven, hell, Hypocrisy, Rob Bell, Theology | Leave a Comment »
Here’s where I’m at with Bell’s book: the whole thing is a house of cards. Actually, perhaps a more fitting analogy would be that it is a brick wall. Each brick represents an argument that Bell makes in favor of a limited hell. With this bricks, he’s constructed a wall, and it should be clear [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Book Review, Christianity, Eschatology, Gospel, Heaven, hell, Jesus, Redemption, Rob Bell, Salvation, Scripture, Theology | 1 Comment »
If you’re going to talk about hell, it’s pretty much a given to talk about heaven. And in Love Wins, Rob Bell does. After asking a lot of questions in the first chapter, questions that any serious Christian needs to wrestle with, he jumps right in to a chapter about heaven. In the vein of [...]
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There’s something Rob Bell should be praised for: his innate ability to discern legitimate questions that can and should be asked of the Christian faith. So far as that goes, Bell is a genius. He has taken the time to really think through and identify potential holes in orthodox Christianity, specifically, as it pertains to [...]
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When the Christian world blew up a few weeks ago about Rob Bell, I didn’t know whether I was going to end up buying and reading the book or not. Despite, at one point, being a very big fan of Rob Bell (if you’d like to read other posts I’ve written where I mention him [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Bible, Book Review, Christianity, Eschatology, Love Wins, Rob Bell, Theology | 3 Comments »
First, watch this: C.S. Lewis once observed that, in a world where we’re likely to be so self-focused that we ignore God completely, pain has the ability to soften our hearts and open our eyes to the reality we often ignore. For many, no doubt, this reality hit closer to home than they [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: America, Apathy, Bible, Christianity, Church, Comfort, Culture, God, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Pain, Preaching, Redemption, Salvation, Scripture, Theology | 2 Comments »
There’s an underlying assumption that goes mostly unnoticed which dramatically affects the nature of so-called Christian preaching: That Christians don’t need to hear the Gospel. At least not with any degree of regularity. They already know the Gospel, many say. Why continue to preach something that they already know?!?! A few rhetorical questions in response: [...]
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I’ve been having an ongoing conversation with someone about the need for preachers to point to Christ in their sermons and I realized that while we both affirmed preachers should do so, we disagree rather emphatically about what it means to do it. So, I thought I’d offer a few thoughts on the matter. To [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Christianity, Church, Gospel, Jesus, Redemption, Salvation, Sermon, Theology | 2 Comments »
