Personally, I can't stand Rob Bell's message. I think he could really benefit from reading D.A. Carson's excellent book
The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.
As Carson states, "this widely disseminated belief in the love of God is set with increasing frequency in some matrix other than biblical theology... I do not think that what the Bible says about the love of God can long survive at the forefront of our thinking if it is abstracted from the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the providence of God, or the personhood of God... Nowadays if you tell people that God loves them, they are unlikely to be surprised. Of course God loves me; he's like that, isn't he? Besides, why shouldn't he love me? I'm kind of cute, or at least as nice as the next person" (9, 11-12).
In fact, however, Carson's characterization is too soft. Numerous studies have shown that people don't think they are "at least as nice [or good or cute or skilled or intelligent] as the next person" they think they are
better than the next person. They think they are cuter, more skilled, more intelligent, and more morally praiseworthy. A very brief example of the plethora of studies which demonstrate this:
Campbell and Sedikides. "Self-Threat Magnifies the Self-Serving Bias: A Meta-Analytic Integration." Review of General Psychology.
Kruger and Gilovich. "'Naive Cynicism' in Everyday Theories of Responsibility Assessment: On Biased Assumptions of Bias." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Alicke, Klotz, Breitenbecher, Yurak, and Vredenburg. "Personal Contact, Individuation and the Better than Average Effect." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
But it sounds like Rob Bell doesn't want us to tell people about the fact that they are sinners and, therefore, justly under the wrath of God and in danger of hell. Of course people don't want to hear that message. The average person thinks he is better than the average person! No one likes to have their bubble burst and be told that they aren't as great as they thought they were.
Rob Bell says "There's so many people who just need somebody to listen. Not to preach to them and not to try to convert them, but to listen to their story..."
Really? Great, so someone will tell you their story and then maybe die the next day and go to hell... but hey, at least you got to hear their story...
Rob Bell says "When you tell me that I should follow Jesus so that I don't burn forever it sounds like a threat. As if like you scare people enough they'll all the sudden magically decide to love God and follow Jesus. But that isn't what Jesus did."
Really? So when Jesus preached to the people "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats... And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-31, 46) He was dangling a carrot in front of them and trying to scare them?
Or what about when Jesus said:
Mark 9:43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
Was he using cheap scare-tactics?
What about when Jesus said:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Wasn't Jesus just "threatening" people?
Rob Bell says "You just don't find Jesus waving heaven in front of people as some sort of carrot on a stick."
Really? What about where Jesus says:
Matthew 6:19–20 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
I don't know, but it sounds to me like if Jesus were living on the earth today and carrying out his ministry that Rob Bell would send him a link to his video and say "Yo, it's not helping dude... You have to get a pair of hipster glasses and a soul patch and just listen to other people's stories if you really want to make an impact!"
I thought Todd Friel's response was good. Rob Bell is Dr. Woo. Of course, I don't think Jesus is really "dangling a carrot" in front of other people's faces or using scare-tactics. That's just Rob Bells cheap caricature. It's just as much a caricature of the Bullhorn Guy as it is of Jesus.
