It seems as though a new divide is taking place among evangelicals in recent days and - though I appreciate their passion for Scriptural teaching - I'm getting increasingly frustrated with Christian "celebrity" leaders like John Piper and Mark Driscoll, especially when they decide to call out (and even demonize) pastors and teachers that dare explore what I perceive as extraordinarily Christ-centered (albeit out of the box) ideas about the love of God. There are, and always have been two primary sides to the great debate within evangelicalism... Calvin and Wesleyan/Arminian. Nevertheless, more often than not, the two sides have respectfully (if not always gently) disagreed on issues such as sovereignty vs. freewill, inerrancy of Scripture, etc. When it comes down to it, for many centuries now, many groups of so-called Bible-believing Christians have recognized a core of shared beliefs, most clearly articulated in the ancient creeds. As I reflect on both the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed... neither of which have a lot to say about the afterlife. I think it's safe to say it is not much. Scripture itself veils the whole matter in mysterious language - not at all clear or comprehensive. I'm guessing that is on purpose. Perhaps because it is beyond our human capacity to comprehend, except "through a glass darkly", i.e., the revelation of the Holy Spirit to our spirit. God gives us exactly what we need for our salvation, right? Regardless, I think we can agree that one thing about eternal judgment is very clear: God is in total and complete control. He will surely do it with justice and grace... all motivated by and infused with His perfect love.
Regarding judgment, the Nicene Creed merely affirms:
He [Christ] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.And, by the way, regarding generosity of spirit among Christians it says:
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.What it all means to me is this: important as it may be, nevertheless, eternal judgment is simply not our domain - it is God's alone. And though we need to be wise and discerning... still, we absolutely must approach the issue with humility, fear and trembling. I don't think I would call anyone a heretic unless I truly felt they were setting up theological barriers, effectively preventing people from receiving the free gift of grace... that is, a renewed and restored relationship with God, available to the "whole world" through Jesus Christ. Our job is to be witnesses to the light of Christ, all while understanding the implications of continuing to live in darkness (both here and in the life to come). Honestly, with that in mind I don't see how Rob Bell qualifies as a false teacher. He doesn't deny the "bad" news of eternal judgment - he only challenges our modern assumptions about the degree and scope by which God will carry it all out in His perfect love.
Unfortunately though, I don't sense very much generosity among fundamentalist Calvinists these days. As a Wesleyan/Arminian Christian... I find that kind of insulting. More and more, I'm hearing and reading some pretty divisive things from leaders among the Reformed camp, which saddens me. Obviously, this has really come into focus with the Rob Bell book. It seems as though they believe they have a corner on truth (Truth?)... and the rest of us are false teachers, leading people to destruction. Where is the generosity of spirit between the differing camps of orthodox Christianity? Where is the gentleness of correction and disagreement? Where is iron sharpens iron? I've read some alarmingly mean-spirited things written by the aforementioned pastors... and of course, their vast crowd of blogger followers. As I said, many of them wrote Bell off as a heretic even before the book was released! All because of a four minute video? Really? Honestly, I wonder if many of the bloggers are merely perpetrating what their heroes tell them they should believe. For the past several years, Brian McLaren has been a favorite target of theirs... and now it's Rob Bell, who dared to write a book exploring the afterlife... a book he audaciously decided to call Love Wins. Yes, I saw the video... and yes, Rob Bell certainly seems to be enjoying stirring the pot just to sell more books... but nothing he has said or done seems to deserve the tone of the attacks by his chorus of angry critics. Come on... why not attack real heretics and false messiahs like Oprah, or Tom Cruise, or any number of New Age spiritual wackos that lead people into the lie of self-glorification? Yes, Bell asked some controversial, thought-provoking questions... and he even inferred the possibility that Gandhi could be in heaven. But does any human being know for certain where God might send someone like Gandhi in the afterlife? Do you or I know? Does Driscoll? I'm pretty sure only God knows. And clearly, God looks at the heart. So, is it evil to ask questions about our time-honored doctrines, so firmly planted in the Enlightenment and rooted in rationalism? Is it so evil to think God may have another way of invoking pure justice on his creation than by sending all non-Christians to hell forever? Does the concept of God allowing "evil" people into His embrace (beyond what we can ascertain from the pages of Scripture) really that offensive to us? Is the Bible crystal clear about these things... or has the Church been shaped by cultural truisms that may not be biblically-based whatsoever? So Piper disagrees on Bell's view of the afterlife... is that disagreement borne more out of what Scripture clearly says, or what contemporary Christian tradition says? Biblical interpretation has always been, and always will be, a difficult, humbling process. But more and more, it seems as though if you don't interpret the Bible the way some people do, then you're labeled a false teacher. And therefore, attacks can be justified. My question is this: at what point does protection of Scripture become Phariseeism? They killed Jesus for his outrageous claims about the love of the Father... all in the name of protecting the law of Moses.
I don't need everyone to agree with me, not by any means. Nevertheless, I do hope and pray that we brothers and sisters in Christ can continue to dialogue, can continue to debate, can continue to encourage one another... and in humility, help one another discover and embrace the love of God more profoundly as we journey along together on this beautiful, yet extraordinarily difficult path called Christian discipleship. In the words of my home-boy, Jesus (found in John 13:35), "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Amen and Amen! What a concept.
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