Love Wins, by Rob Bell

This writer, Rob Bell, came to my attention when I was reading a post by a well-known Pastor and Christian leader and Bible teacher. So I decided to check out this book and sample its controversies for myself. Rob Bell is the Founding Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When the book was released, I did not follow the controversy. This book itself is written in poetic style, and Rob Bell poses numerous questions about the meaning of life, the mysteries and apparent paradoxes of Scripture and the realities and questions about man's inhumanity to man, which seems to be what Rob Bell defines as the essence of sin. The first chapter begins with this author's assertion about what add up to our questions about why God deals with us as He does, about why Jesus deals with us as He does and why he, Rob Bell, will make the case for how and why God's love will "win" in the end. This book ends with the author's acknowledgements and closes with a short bibliography.

This book is not an easy one to review. That is not because it is not easy to read. In a literary sense, it is good in its poetic form as that is how it is written. Rob Bell asserts things in his book that are what many want to hear. But if you, like me, read the Scriptures and let them stand on their own (or at least try to), you can see how, at every turn, this author uses human logic to question and even challenge the "hard teachings" in the Bible and calls them into question. Rob Bell attacks tradition. I'm the first one who challenges many of our traditions, seeing how many of them seem to be doing much more harm than good. I think especially of the practice of some of our denominational churches of the process of "confirming youth" and then admitting them as full members of congregations without stressing personal repentance and faith in the lives of these "confirmands." After all, as I read Scripture, we are asked not to log in so many hours of "study credits" and/or "service hours" while our hearts and lives remain unchanged. That, however, is not what Rob Bell objects to in his book. The traditions he objects to are the teachings on a literal Hell, God's justice and His wrath. These are unpleasant, uncomfortable teachings and they do not make anyone feel good. It does not make me feel good or comfortable, to know that God's wrath burns against any person who does not know or trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. It does not make me feel good or comfortable to know that God hates all sin so much that he says that He is "angry with the wicked every day." It certainly does not make me feel good or comfortable to know that there really is a literal Hell ad that the only qualifier for going there is simply not being perfect as God is perfect, meaning that even the nicest, most moral and religious people will end up in Hell just because they are sinners. But we do not get to take out of the Bible those teachings that do not square with our logic, that do not make us feel good or that make us uncomfortable. Rob Bell focuses heavily on the love and forgiveness of God. Indeed, God is Love but God is also Light. That is, He is holy and holiness is His identifying character quality. Rob Bell seems to forget that we are to "Consider the goodness and severity of God together." Focusing on the qualities of God that we like, while ignoring the others, makes our faith idolatry. I have no personal feelings against Rob Bell, and he expresses many of the concerns for social justice that go unaddressed in some of our Christian circles. Rob Bell does not deny Hell, but he reduces it to a mental state. He does talk about sin but he talks about it in terms of our hurting each other, but not our sinning against God. He even seems, at one point, to leave it open for any person to "come to Jesus in his own way" and he suggests that religious intolerance is the worst sin. But Jesus makes it clear that we are to come to Him on His own terms. Anyone is welcome to come, but only on His terms. I could not see how this book answers any questions for those people who want to know more about God and Christ. Instead, it raises them and confuses the reader. And the Bible tells us that God is not the Author of confusion!

I cannot recommend this book to any non-Christian or to any new Christian. This book exudes a cultural Christianity rather than Biblical Christianity. I only recommend it to Pastors so that they will educate themselves about this brand of teaching that some of their members may be following. Pastors need to not only read this book but compare it to the Bible, so that they will have done the due diligence that is needed to warn their flocks about the false teachings contained in this book. False teachings that worm their way into the Church are so dangerous because they are mixed with enough truth to make their errors hard to spot. False teachers never come to us and announce, "Hey! I'm a false teacher!" The Bible tells just that Satan appears to us as an angel of light and so do his servants. So our work is cut out for us, brothers and sisters in Jesus. Being surrounded by false teachings and false teachers is one of the prices, as I see it, that we pay for living in the free, affluent West. If you are reading this and follow Rob Bell, please check his teachings against your Bible. Ask God if you should sit under this man's teachings. If He says no, cut your ties with this man, praying for him and for all those who still follow him.

You can check out Rob Bell's website here.

The Ever-Present Threat of Terrorism: How Should We Respond?

There is a scary, threatening scourge among us. It has been entrenched all over much of the world and now threatens us in the West.

We have heard of journalists, aid workers and others being beheaded from these threats among us.

According to the media, even young girls and moms are being recruited into this depraved movement in the name of "finding meaning for their lives."

Attacks by those in this depraved movement are happening and causing much fear.

A country has been named as a haven for members of this depraved and dangerous movement and are threatening to kill US nationals.

Now, Japan is under threat of attack. Where will it end?

As Christians, how should we respond to terrorists and their threats? How should we respond to their activity that has long been taking place in other parts of the world, even against our own brothers and sisters in Jesus?

I am seeing online comments that "Islam is the cult of death" and "Islam is evil and Islamists must be stopped" and so on. Here at home, I have heard comments like,"We will not hesitate to take them on" and "I do not know if there are any good Muslims." This phobia and hatred of a religious people group is ever-growing. In fact, the bombing of the 12 people in Paris, France, was triggered by comments allegedly insulting Islam. This had enraged Islamists. Now I have not read the article in question and while I believe in free speech, I think that insulting anyone's religion should be off-limits. Yet those 12 people did not deserve to die over offensive speech! While this isolated attack on France was going on, Nigeria was suffering an attack that murdered up to 2000 people. Yet the media have given far more coverage to the attack on France, though it was isolated and involved 12 people, not 2000 people. (Yes, I know that one murder is one murder too many!). We saw the sea of humanity, the countless numbers of protesters in the streets of France. However, the attack on Nigeria has involved many more people who were murdered and it is by no means isolated. It is only one in many attacks that Northern Nigeria has suffered. The terrorist attacks that are starting to take place in the West and in isolated areas and on isolated people, have been taking place for awhile in much of the world. I think that it is too bad that we are growing more concerned about terrorism because terrorism has come to affect us personally and now we see that even females, in the name of "equality," are becoming involved in it! I have seen the sad sight of women in black burkas and with long guns, including a young mom who had left her husband and taken her son to "join the beheaders"! Recently, two girls, near my daughter's age, had been arrested by the FBI and extradited from Syria where they had joined ISIS to fight against the West. Their plea was "We did not know what we were getting into."

For awhile now, Rev. Franklin Graham, the son of the aging Rev. Billy Graham, has been openly angry at the praying of a Muslim prayer at a well-known University. He had been successful in getting the University in question to reverse its decision on this prayer. But there are other signs that Islam seems to be trying to take over the US in the name of "inclusiveness" and "tolerance." Malala, a 17-year-old girl, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as the youngest person ever to receive that award. Yes, we can admire Malala for her bravery in surviving an attack on her life when she was trying to go to school, and we can commend her advocacy in calling for education for all women throughout the world. In an earthly sense, Malala, a Muslim, deserves this award. She has written a book and she is open about her Muslim faith. I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with giving this girl this award, and she has promised that the funds from her award will go to the education of girls. Yet I notice a strange trend and it isn't making the news. Weeks ago, a public school was calling for Muslim prayer, and other campuses have done the same. Currently, a Christian nurse was "sacked" for praying with a Muslim person and helping this person with needs. Our politicians have been said to introducing Muslim prayer, garb and body poses, in the corridors of power. At the same time that Muslim rituals are allowed and encouraged, Biblical Christianity (I'm not talking about the watered-down, cultural version), is firmly discouraged. Are we really surprised?

We Christians in the West are beginning to experience, in mild forms, the harassment and persecution that many of our brothers and sisters in Jesus experience in much more severe forms. They often suffer beatings, crime, losses of loved ones, imprisonment and even death. Of course, none of us wants persecution for ourselves or our families. But it is a fact that persecution weeds out the true converts from the false coverts ad the committed from those who are using using God as a hobby. Persecution purifies us as a Church and as individuals. So how should we respond to all this terrorist panic? From my understanding of the Bible, we should do some things in response:

1). Pray. Pray for the terrorists and pray for their victims, especially our brothers and sisters in Jesus.

2). Reach out to the Muslims among us; the more of them that come to Christ the more we defeat Islamization.

3). If you can, donate to causes that make Christ know to unreached Muslim people groups. I began a fund-raising campaign that I would ask you to consider supporting. You can check it out here. Thank you!

Military Action or Changed Hearts?

It is early in the year when those whom we elected in last year's mid-term elections, have been officially taking their new positions of power. One party, which has not dominated many states or the Senate, has taken over after many years. In the Senate, little time has been wasted in pushing this party's agenda, especially with a controversial piece of legislation which supposedly is a major job creator. Since we have a President who is against many of this dominating party's policies, we can be assured of much deadlock and much not getting done at a legislative level. But not all needs to be lost.

I know that at this time, terrorists are unleashing their evil in the world. Most of us are aware of the terrible attack in Paris by Islamists, though we don't yet know whether they are ISIS militants or from some other terrorist group. It is clear that these Islamists are not playing with us; they mean business. They truly believe that they are doing a good thing! Just as we believers hold that the ultimate expression of our faith in Christ is shown by death for Him or His people, Islamists truly believe that their ultimate expression of faith is shown in killing for what they believe in. Thus, when their religion was attacked by satirists, Islamist militants did what they "believed" was "right": They killed to show their displeasure. It seems that we have not seen the last of these attacks, either. So what should we conclude about Islam and about something called "Islamophobia" that could flare up as a result?

At the same time, we are hearing about Boko Haram militants killing people in an entire village in Nigeria, numbering as many as possibly 2000. Hundreds of those Nigerian schoolgirls, kidnapped earlier last year, remain in the hands of their kidnappers, supposedly "converted to Islam." Daily, grisly accounts of the bloody handiwork of Islamist militants stream across my Newsfeed. It's overwhelming. It is said that the persecution of Christians in Iraq has reached "Biblical proportions." Some had said that "Islam is a religion of peace" and that what we hear about by Islamists, are the actions of a tiny minority who are not representative of the followers of Islam. Yes, most Muslims may be peace-loving people, whether they speak out against these atrocities or fear to do so for repercussions.

The government, no matter what party takes over, can do only so much about radical Islam. They can authorize military might against our enemies but they cannot change these people's hearts against us. The government, whose tool is force, can do only so much.

Many books have been written, from a Christian perspective, about Islam and terrorists. Many of them are written from a prophetic viewpoint, predicting that a major meltdown in the Middle East, especially between Arabs and Jews, and an invasion of Israel by Iran and so forth. On the other hand, missionaries to the Muslim world are countering what they see as "Islamophobia," by writing books telling stories about God's work among Muslims in the most hostile and violent hot spots throughout the world. According to these missionaries to the Muslim world, Muslims are very much on "God's front burner." God is responding to the fears engendered by Islamists and resulting in "Islamophobia," by revealing Himself to Muslims in often supernatural ways and transforming their lives so that they become exceptional followers of Jesus Christ who follow Him no matter what the price. They often endure being disowned by their families, ostracized by their communities, jailed and even die for the Name of Jesus. So what should be our response to the fear brought about by extreme Islam?
The government can't change one heart. Only God can do that. How does this pertain to Muslims or anyone? Well, if we know Muslims in our communities we can take a chance to befriend them and share Jesus with them. Yes, it is easier said than done and I am preaching also to myself. It seems that most Muslim movements to Christ are taking place outside the West. But many Muslims live in the West. They need Jesus too. We can pray for the many Muslims, in and outside of the West, who are enslaved and deceived by their religion. Between military actions and our prayers and outreach, we can win the war on terror. Agree?

The Way of the Master by Ray Comfort

This book is about the author's assertion of why our modern evangelism methods are generally failing. He claims that the modern methods, especially the "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" form of evangelism, not only does not work in producing what he calls "true conversion," but is positively harmful to its products when things like temptation and trials come into these converts' lives,illustrating that modern thus disproving the glowing promises that following Jesus will give us "better lives." This author provides numerous statistics as to how so many crusades of mass evangelism, plus "follow up attempts," prove that the overwhelming majority of these converts don't continue in their faith thus showing that modern evangelism has overwhelmingly not worked. He provides numerous anecdotes from his own life and the lives of others, to show that his methods work. He declares that the strong presentation of the Law, in preparing sinners' hearts for the Gospel, is the missing ingredient from modern evangelism. He includes an appendix of testimonies of those who have had success in adopting his methods of evangelism, or who believed themselves to be "false converts" who have applied the Law to their hearts and lives and have become "true converts."

I have found this book hard to digest and to process. I did not expect this book to be so in-you-face. This author seems to not make allowances for neuro-developmental disorders, much less mental illness. Assurance of my salvation has always been an issue, possibly because of a very sensitive conscience. This book has triggered that issue for me in a major way. I know that Scripture commands all followers of Christ to make our callings and election sure and that it is wise to "get it right" on something as serious as where we will spend eternity. Also, I am a product of this modern evangelism that this author soundly criticizes. Plus, I know that my recently diagnosed ASD, accompanied by social anxiety, has paralyzed me in the area of witnessing in face-to-face contexts though I readily confess and witness about Christ online and in in "real-life" writing. Ray Comfort gets very in-you-face with believers who do not share their faith, even questioning the reality of their salvation. He interprets the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in an evangelism context, likening the Rich Man to the spiritually wealthy Church, and Lazarus with the unsaved sinner who is begging for Jesus to be his lifeline. Because of the setting of this parable the Rich Man (Christians) lifting their yes up in Hell, and of Lazarus (the sinner) rests in Heaven, Ray Comfort's interpretation of this parable does not work. Yes, we are incredibly wealthy in spiritual riches and should share that wealth, but Ray Comfort's interpretation does not compute with me. There is something in this book to disturb and unsettle everyone who may read it, from "false converts" who believe they are saved because they "prayed the sinner's prayer," to Christians who are not actively witnessing, to Pastors who have watered down the Gospel, have omitted the Law and conceal the "offense" of the Cross in their preaching. I'm still digesting and processing this book!

This book is not light, easy or entertaining reading. It is well-written but its message is emotionally hard to digest and receive. I recommend this book but with disclaimers to all who read it. Pastors should read it because the Law, after all, needed to prepare the hearts of sinners for the Gospel. We cannot assume that just because people say they know God or even serve and follow Jesus, means that they are saved. This is profoundly disturbing, sad but true. Ray Comfort arms himself with statistics to show that many conversions are "false conversions." I recommend this book for every Christian, especially if you have become complacent in your faith. This book will give you much-needed strong medicine to rudely awaken you out of your complacency. If you are a person who has "asked Jesus into your heart," walked forward in a meeting, raised your hand, or "prayed a sinner's prayer," this book will jolt you to not be too quick to believe that you are safe or okay.

Christians & New Year's Resolutions

This is that time of year when we swing from getting all caught up in the materialism and consumerism that so often go along with the Christmas season, to trying to undo our excesses by making New Year's Resolutions. It happens every year.

The presents are all opened and some gifts have been returned. Many of us have credit card debt that will take a long time to pay off. Many of us are struggling with "the Christmas letdown" and the "holiday blues."

Many of us overate over the holidays; now many of us are launching new diets and exercise programs to "work off the holiday pounds."

Many of us maxed out our credit cards when we went Christmas shopping and gave more to charities than we normally do during the year; now many of us are setting up budgets and repayment plans to make up for it.

Many of us are aware that we have bad habits that need to go, so we launch programs to conquer these offensive behaviors.

I don't know what to think of New Year's Resolutions. I have stopped making them long ago and I have no plans to start this tradition. A much overlooked but simple fact is that nowhere do I see anywhere in the Scriptures that we need to depend of "turning over a new leaf" and making New Year's Resolutions to change behaviors that we want to change. Yes, I have my temptations, too, including general social anxiety. I know that each of you who may read this have yours also. But there is one thing you can do, a simple thing, that will make 2015 far better for one child than 2014. You can sponsor that child and change that child's life forever. You can visit here.

This bottom photo is provided courtesy of Compassion International.