Harold Camping and Rob Bell: Two Sides of the Same Coin, Part 2

Here's one reason why people like Harold Camping and Rob Bell are two sides of the same coin. Two more reasons coming next week.....

1. They both believe that the meaning of the Scripture is not within the words themselves. Harold Camping is a civil engineer and approaches the Bible as such. He's looking for the math of the Scriptures. He trying to crack the Bible code through the use of mathematics. In his mind, if you do the equations right then you get ALL of the right answers. He approaches the Bible as a modernist. A modernist says 'I can understand truth by applying my mind properly.' Camping believes that the meaning of the Scripture is underneath the words. If you know all he knows, then you'll really know. On the other side of the coin, Rob Bell approaches the Bible as a mystic. He's wants to revel in the mystery of the Scripture. He approaches the Bible as a post-modernist. A post-modernist says 'because of the diversity of our world, truth is not cross cultural but is intensely personal and individually understood by what I experience.' To Rob Bell the meaning of the Scripture is not mainly contained in the words of Scripture but is mystically understood. To Bell, the meaning of the Scripture is above the Scripture. 'Don't get caught up with the detail of the words', he might say, 'get caught up in the grand mystery of it all'.

Jesus says, that to his disciples "has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God but for others they are in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear. (Luke 8:10)" The idea that Rob Bell promotes that Christianity is a continual reveling in unanswered questions is not compatible with the Bible. This way of thinking cannot be substantiated by the Old or New Testament. Jesus says in Luke 8 that his disciples come to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God but that unbelievers are blind and deaf to this meaning. The Bible repeatedly says that true faith is a growing realization of who God is and how He works, with growing certainty (Deut 29:29, Isaiah 43:10, John 17:3, Rom 8:16, Heb 11:1). At the same time, the idea that all of the things that we ever wanted to know are answered in the Bible is not accurate. This is where Harold Camping has gone astray. Harold Camping is in trouble because God repeatedly gives warnings against mapping out a detailed timeline in order to ascertain the day of Christ's return (Matt 24:36, Mark 13:32). The meaning of the Bible is neither below or above the text. The meaning of the Bible is within the words themselves. The meaning of the Bible is right in the text. It is the Words that are true and powerful( Jn 17, Rom 10). It is the Words that impart life (Gen 1, Ez 37). It is the words that reveal Jesus Christ (Lk 24:27). The meaning of the Scripture is plain and these words will be saving and transformative when God applies them by His Holy Spirit (2 Thess 2:13-14).

Harold Camping and Rob Bell: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Few people have made more noise in Christianity in 2011 then Harold Camping and Rob Bell. Harold Camping is an 89 year old radio Bible preacher. It's sometimes hard to believe that Camping has any audience at all. He speaks with a ridiculous monotone. He wears suits that look like he purchased them from the Salvation Army in 1975. His radio stations and websites are completely outdated. Over the years he has taught that the church is under the control of Satan so Christians should abandon their local church. He has taught that torment in hell is not eternal and the occupants of hell will eventually be annihilated. He taught the end of the world was to come in 1994. He later predicted the beginning of judgment on May 21, 2011. He has since said that the judgment has begun but it is a "spiritual" judgment. The end of the world is still coming on October 21, 2011.
You might think that Harold Camping couldn't be more different than Rob Bell. Unlike Camping, Rob Bell is 40 years old and probably thinks that Harold Camping is a kook. Rob Bell created a stir in 2011 by writing a book that questioned what Christians have traditionally believed about hell. Camping says that the judgment of God is a terrible thing while Rob Bell insists that the judgment that God brings will not be painful but rather a wooing process similar to how a romantic boy gets a girl to like him. Rob Bell is seemingly hip and accessible to young people. He dresses cool and wears those cool square glasses and tells great stories. He's an entertaining communicator. He's got an entrepreneurial flare to his ministry. Rob Bell is no annihilationist. He believes that hell is virtually empty and if it does exist it is not a physical place. Rob Bell openly questions Christian beliefs like the atonement, election, and sovereign work of God that Harold Camping clings to. But despite these glaring differences, Harold Camping and Rob Bell are two sides of the same coin. In other words, they look different but they have similar value. Here are three values that Rob Bell and Harold Camping share. The conclusion comes next week....

Arrogance and Humility

Well, everyone's blogging about how Christians should respond to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Maybe I'll write about it next week but I think it may have been done to death (insert joke here).

Below is a great clip by an educator/pastor named Doug Wilson. Wilson has openly criticized Rob Bell and comments on how American Christianity has inverted the definitions of arrogance and humility. I hope you enjoy it.

http://desposyni.blogspot.com/2011/04/doug-wilson-on-arrogance-and-humility.html