Redeemer Church of Dubai: UAE

Liberalism...a slippery slope or a cliff's edge?

by Lenny Muthiah on March 2, 2011
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So Rob Bell is putting out a new book. “Love Wins” is the title.

Publicity for this new book includes a short, cool-without-trying-to be, video accompanied by a dramatic yet understated soundtrack that builds to a crescendo as the main point is driven home by, of course, Rob Bell. And what is that main point?

Love Wins.

What you believe and how you live don’t really matter all that much because at the end of the day love wins and we’ll all pretty much end up in the same place…or so goes the gist of Bell’s message.

Perhaps a better title for the book would be “Liberalism Wins”. Listening to Bell got me thinking…not so much about why he’s wrong but rather how he got there. The “Why He’s Wrong” is simple, it’s not biblical. I realize that that might be an oversimplification, but nevertheless true. The “How” he (or any Christian for that matter)  gets there though…that’s interesting.

How does a professing Christian end up spouting liberalism?  Do you just, while you are walking along the path of run of the mill everyday evangelicalism, stumble off the cliff’s edge into the canyon of liberalism? Or is it a far more slippery slope? A path where one compromise leads you round the corner to another, where the desire to tell people what they want to hear, feels somewhat soft underfoot. Familiar, gratifying, popular, acceptable are the signposts you see along the way and before long you end up where so many good intentions not under girded by a commitment to Biblical truth end up…in a valley of liberal thought.

Now, I don’t know if this is truly what Bell believes but if what he says in the video (veiled as a series of thoughtful questions) is anything to go by, then he questions the core of Christian belief. God sent Jesus to die for wretched sinners and that through faith in him alone, they can be reconciled to God. Is this popular – no. Is it Biblical – yes.

I realize more and more how silly all this must be to the non-christian, how hard a pill it must be to swallow that none of us are good enough for heaven, how exclusive it is that the majority will never get there and that a minority will, how unloving it is to preach this exclusive gospel. I realize how tempting it is to want to make some of this more palatable, more acceptable, more pleasing to the natural man.

The Bible tells me that the natural man is an enemy of God whose only hope of rescue from God's wrath is Jesus Christ.

I believe that this is the good news and if believing that garners more & more uncomfortable labels then so be it. Better sure footing on Biblical, gospel soil than to start down a path leading to a slippery slope.

LOVE WINS. from Rob Bell on Vimeo.