Rob Bell Interview

Rob Bell and many "emergents" are running away from the term in favor of no identity or label. But that has been his history.

 

Seems to be a pattern... Everyone wants to define their own label and disavow existing labels as pejorative. Problem is, the theology behind the labels still exists, label or not.

I see in on this board every day, and Rob Bell is but another out in the greater church world doing likewise.

All this is a product of post-modern thinking, which suggests (it cannot "state") that truth is created by the narrative of the individual or community instead of by a correspondence with reality or an accurate propositional statement(s) that describe it.

The way this works is if I disavow belief in something -- like a 5-year old -- it goes away and does not pertain to me. Good luck with that... Truth never goes away, nor does the Author and Judge of truth.

 

Is Rob Bell truly a Christian, or is he one of those dangerous deceivers Scripture warns us about repeatedly (Acts 20:29; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; Colossians 2:8; 2 Peter 2:1; etc.)?

http://www.gty.org/Blog/B110412?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4da7b4c8cb101fbe,0

 

Rob Bell is not, nor has ever been, emergent. Not really even close. He's a Wheaton-educated evangelical that emphasizes narrative theology and isn't it afraid to ask questions.

Did he go too far in his latest book? Maybe. Not sure, not having read it, but he's not emergent.

 

Actually, he is emergent, and in his case, in a pattern that merely culturalizes the stereotypical Protestant liberalism.

 

A couple explanations;

It is said that emerging Christians confess their faith like mainliners—meaning they say things publicly they don't really believe. They drink like Southern Baptists—meaning, to adapt some words from Mark Twain, they are teetotalers when it is judicious. They talk like Catholics—meaning they cuss and use naughty words. They evangelize and theologize like the Reformed—meaning they rarely evangelize, yet theologize all the time. They worship like charismatics—meaning with their whole bodies, some parts tattooed. They vote like Episcopalians—meaning they eat, drink, and sleep on their left side. And, they deny the truth—meaning they've got a latte-soaked copy of Derrida in their smoke- and beer-stained backpacks.
By Scot McKnight

The emerging, or emergent, church movement takes its name from the idea that as culture changes, a new church should emerge in response. In this case, it is a response by various church leaders to the current era of post-modernism. Although post-modernism began in the 1950s, the church didn't really seek to conform to its tenets until the 1990s. Post-modernism can be thought of as a dissolution of "cold, hard fact" in favor of "warm, fuzzy subjectivity." The emerging / emergent church movement can be thought of the same way....
http://www.gotquestions.org/emerging-church-emergent.html

 

I agree__________________