From Laurie Higgins:
Leaving a close analysis of [Rob] Bell’s strange unbiblical ideas to theologians, I will offer just a few observations:
- While Bell when talking about the “Other” implies that he is paraphrasing Jesus, he actually offers no textual support for such a paraphrase. In fact, there is no biblical support for the view that in order to love those who are different, we should affirm all of their feelings, beliefs, or life choices. And there certainly is no biblical support for the idea that the fruits of our faith include abandoning God’s design for marriage.
- Bell has offered no justification or evidence for his implicit claim that the legal recognition of marriage as inherently sexually complementary has been “actually destructive.”
- If Bell believes that those who support Jesus’ conception of marriage are a “dying subculture,” he is more shaped by the world than by Scripture.
- Where in Scripture does Bell see “adaptation” as God’s will for his church? Here’s what I see:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18).
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matt. 7:13-14)
