{"id":136,"date":"2015-02-23T11:36:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T16:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/?p=136"},"modified":"2020-02-10T14:58:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T19:58:28","slug":"an-appeal-to-rob-bell-come-home-if-it-ever-existed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2015\/02\/an-appeal-to-rob-bell-come-home-if-it-ever-existed\/","title":{"rendered":"An Appeal to Rob Bell: Come Home, If it Ever Existed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In 1992 I visited Wheaton College and met the members of a really cool student band called \u201c____ ton bundle\u201d<\/a>. These young guys, only five years older me, were indie before there was indie. Their shaggy hair, quirky glasses, and almost hipster grunge-style, before there ever was grunge, brought an edge to an otherwise white male, middle-class Midwestern band.<\/p>\n

I still have my cassette tape of their only album, \u201ctaking my donkey to town,\u201d even though I no longer own a cassette player.\u00a0 Fortunately, the album is online<\/a> including one of my favorite songs, Decorations of You.<\/em><\/p>\n

The song\u2019s lyrics are personal, raw, humble; the melody, sweet. The singer croons about his heart being a home, a home full of fear that he asks to be changed, cleaned, and renovated. He invites the God of the Bible into his home. God enters, strips it bare, and begins redecorating. \u00a0After renovation begins, he sings:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet my hallways always lead me to see Your grace,
\nand let my windows open up so I can see Your face,<\/p>\n

Decorate my life,<\/p>\n

Oh Lord, from my ceilings hang, simple chandeliers that give off light in Your name.<\/p>\n

If my heart is a home, I want it to be true,<\/p>\n

That you came in and filled it all with decorations of You.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Words to live by\u2014wanting our hearts, the way we live as Christians to be rooted in truth that points to who Jesus Christ is. Our home is decorated by Him and for Him.<\/p>\n

Why is this song, or this band significant? Because its leader and singer is Rob Bell.<\/p>\n

Soon after my visit, Bell gave up his dream of singing in a band to preach. He founded Mars Hill Bible Church, one of the largest non-denominational churches in America, which he pastored until 2012.<\/p>\n

It was also in 2012, twenty years later, that our paths crossed again when we spoke at one of his presentations, \u201cEverything is Spiritual Tour,\u201d<\/a> following the publication of his book, Love Wins.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

(In Love Wins<\/em>, Bell argues that emphasizing Jesus\u2019s teachings about hell is \u201cmisguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus\u2019 message of love, peace, forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.\u201d Obviously Bell completely ignores the description of \u201cFaithful and True\u201d in Revelation 19, what Jesus said about himself, or that Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in the Bible combined.)<\/p>\n

Since then, Bell has outspokenly supported gay marriage.<\/a> His latest book confirms his move deeper into apostasy<\/a>, knowing full well that what he claims is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. By doing so he does a great disservice to both Christians and non-Christians.<\/p>\n

Bell harms the gay community by promising gays \u201cfreedom to love.\u201d By endorsing the \u201cdepravity [to which] they are enslaved,\u201d Bell ignores the very claims he uses to negate hell: that Jesus forgives, restores, rebuilds, and offers freedom from all enslavement.<\/em><\/p>\n

The timing of Bell\u2019s \u201ccoming out for gay marriage\u201d right before four upcoming Supreme Court rulings on marriage is no coincidence. And choosing now to speak with Oprah who has made clear<\/a> her rejection of Christ is even more telling.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2019s advocacy appears to be is selfish and unloving. It also negates the purpose of the gospel, which offers far more than what Bell claims about gays who \u201clove each other and just want to go through life.\u201d Just going through life is not the purpose of life.<\/p>\n

Bell mocks the witness of Jesus Christ by suggesting to Oprah<\/a> that the church \u201cwill become irrelevant<\/a> if it rejects gay marriage.\u201d But far worse is his actual suggestion that the church no longer use the Bible (\u201cquote letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense\u201d) for moral reasoning or right living.<\/p>\n

If there ever was a definition needed, this is sadly a clear example of heresy.<\/p>\n

Which is why I appeal to Rob Bell to come home\u2014<\/strong>to the home you sang about in Decorations of You.<\/em><\/p>\n

Return to the newly decorated home \u201cthe world may criticize,\u201d in which your \u201cbeliefs are so different from the world\u2019s.\u201d Return to where you hoped that if the Lord walked through \u201cthis house of mine I hope my Lord is proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus and his followers clearly warned of what would happen to those who \u201cintroduce destructive heresies\u2026 seducing the unstable.\u201d Jesus promised that preachers are held to a higher standard and will receive a greater reward and a greater punishment.<\/p>\n

The \u201cblackest darkness is reserved for\u201d false teachers; they \u201cwill be judged more strictly\u201d and \u201cpunished most severely.\u201d (2 Pet. 2:8-13, 17; Matt. 23; Luke 20:47; James 3:1)<\/p>\n

False teachers \u201care 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.\u201d (2 Pet. 2:20-21)<\/p>\n

Rob Bell, return to those hallways <\/strong>you once sang about, to Seek His Face, to find God\u2019s grace\u2014if that home ever existed and any doors are still open.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the home you sang about was never more than an imaginary one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1992 I visited Wheaton College and met the members of a really cool student band called \u201c____ ton bundle\u201d. These young guys, only five years older me, were indie before there was indie. Their shaggy hair, quirky glasses, and almost hipster grunge-style, before there ever was grunge, brought an edge to an otherwise white […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1910,"featured_media":4044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[972,969],"tags":[188,187,180,184,177,185,186,178,179],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","category-sexuality","tag-heaven","tag-hell","tag-heresy","tag-oprah","tag-rob-bell","tag-salvation","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-ton-bundle","tag-wheaton-college"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Appeal to Rob Bell: Come Home, If it Ever Existed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1992 I visited Wheaton College and met the members of a really cool student band called \u201c____ ton bundle\u201d. 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