Echoes in Eternity

Ron Paul gives a lengthy reasoning for his position on abortion. It's very good.

This is a very helpful interview of Rob Bell from the UK (with Adrian Warnock as an opposing viewpoint). I've posted the video of the full interview below, but you can go to the link to find short clips as well. The "Hell" one is particularly eye-opening. It's pretty clear that Bell is in no way an Evangelical, at least if we use the classical meaning of the term. Most of these issues and questions would be rather easily solved if people had a robust and Biblical understanding of election and salvation by grace.

This looks like a promising book.

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl Movie Trailer from Gorilla Poet Productions on Vimeo.

This is an excellent article (by a gay sports writer, to boot!) on the need for parents to raise kids properly, particularly in what they wear.

Here are some great suggestions for helping your kids understand and personalize Easter this Holy Week.

"Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?"

Imagine if Christians actually acted like they believed Paul was serious when he wrote that in 1 Corinthians 6...

I've had something slowly forming in my mind in regards to the current discussion by Rob Bell and others around the idea of God eventually overwhelming almost everyone with His love and bringing them all into eternal life with Him. Besides the fact that it makes it sound like God is a bit of a creepy wimp ("I'll eventually get you to love me, I'll just outlast you like a stalking ex-wife"), I wonder if it also implies a form of salvation by works (or earned grace, if you will). Aren't ALL people enemies of God in their natural state and equally bankrupt in spirit? Then why would some resist God for eons and others for just hours? If I come to Christ early in life, according to Bell's logic, doesn't that mean I have a better heart and am less an enemy of God than some atheist who takes nearly forever to bend his knee to God? But that's not Biblical. In my fallen state, I am just as much a worm as Christopher Hitchens and other God-hating atheists. It is only through Christ that I stand righteous before God. The only reason I came to God at all was due to nothing in myself but God's work within my hard heart. It seems like Bell's theology and doctrine actually do more to set up a hierarchy of sin and evil than a traditional Reformed theology and ultimately undermines the concept of salvation by grace alone. God chooses some for mercy, He chooses others as "vessels of wrath." AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOME BEING MORE WORTHY OR OPEN TO GOD THAN OTHERS. Paul tried his best to make that clear in Romans, even by anticipating objections to it, yet still people deny it.

I had the opportunity to go hear Rob Bell speak in person last night to a packed (2000 or so people) house. It was an interesting evening. While Bell continued his general taste for obfuscation and avoiding the issue, he did answer a couple questions quite honestly and forthrightly. One, which was similar to one that I had hoped to ask, came from a young man in front of me. In short, the man asked Bell that since he is a "big tent" Christian who claims that there are many good and helpful views and we shouldn't exclude anyone, is his theology big enough to allow for the possibility that one form God's love may take is in sending some "reprobate vessels of wrath" (to use the questioner's term) to hell, as shown clearly in Romans 9 (Romans 9:22 in particular). Bell said no, he won't accept that view. It was a stunning admission. His tolerance of other viewpoints is only for those who accept his doctrinal beliefs (and they are doctrine). And if someone dares to actually read Romans 9 for what it says, that is unacceptable. It was a great question, and an illuminating answer. The spiritual darkness in the place (a Church of Christ sanctuary) was palpable. When the aforementioned person posed his question, I saw smirks and sneers in the faces of the so-called Christian leadership in the front rows, people like Greg Boyd and Tony Jones. "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise..."

Pray that Bell and those who have swallowed his lies would come to see the truth and know that God is love but also holy. That He is both just and the justifier of all who believe. Flattening God out to a one-note god is making a god that resembles little of what we find in the Bible.

My men's pastor has written a very helpful post on the topic of Christians getting tattoos. You can read it here. I would add a couple small things.

1) I would go beyond point 11 and ask if getting at tattoo would honor their parents, even if obeying them is no longer an issue. Even if you're 39 and haven't lived with your parents for two decades, if they have a low view of tattoos and have verbalized this to you previously, would getting a tattoo dishonor them or have the potential for appearing to be in rebellion toward their wishes? If so, then you must have a really really good reason to ignore their wishes or you should abstain (even if you can answer the rest of the points well and Biblically).

2) Anyone thinking about getting a tattoo should not only consider the 16 points given above, but should also ponder long and hard the question of "why am I truly wanting a tattoo?" The heart is deceitful, after all. Is it merely a coincidence that tons of your friends are getting them because it is the cool thing to do and because the culture says that it is cool, or have you unwittingly become conformed to culture and peer pressure? It doesn't necessarily make it wrong that convicts, hip hop artists, and sports stars (oops, that's kinda redundant, isn't it?) are the primary people to be covering their bodies in tattoos, but it should make every faithful Christian pause. In 1 Peter 3, Christian women were warned to avoid the cultural trappings of fine jewelry and clothing and elaborate hairstyles and instead base their beauty and "coolness" on their inner Spirit-filled self. I believe Peter's words could well apply to the topic of tattoos.

These are two great articles on what makes a truly Biblical doctrine of Hell.

It has become common for Christians to describe hell as our freely chosen identity apart from God. Hell, it is said, is not so much where God sends the wicked, as much as it is what the wicked choose or create for themselves. This is the view famously espoused by C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce. Lewis argues that hell is our own self-absorption and idolatry let loose for all eternity. Hell is God’s way of saying “Thy will be done” to us when we refuse to say “Thy will be done” to God. Hell is what we get when we choose human freedom instead of divine salvation. The gates of hell may be locked for eternity, but they are locked from the inside. We refuse to give up the hell within us, so hell is what we get around us.

There is an element of truth in all this. As one way to look at hell, the Lewis version can be helpful. It emphasizes that no one in hell is truly penitent. God doesn’t punish people for a few sins in this life and then keep them locked up forever as they pour out their hearts in genuine faith and repentance. No, the damned never turn from their rebellion. They may regret their choices like the rich man in Luke 16, but they never genuinely repent.
...
But if that’s all we say about hell we are giving people a massively distorted view of divine punishment. Lewis’ depiction of God’s justice has an element of truth to it, but by itself it is monumentally misleading. Divine punishment–hell, in its eternal form–is not simply what we get because we make poor decisions or decide to live a selfish life. Hell is what we get because God is offended by our sin and punishes it. We see everywhere in Scripture that divine wrath is a curse on the ungodly, not a mere consequence for self-centered decisions. Hell is much more than God simply allowing us to have our own way and to experience all the bad effects of our choices. Hell is God’s active, just, holy wrath poured out on the disobedient.

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They will not be judged for their rejection of Jesus, of whom they have heard nothing... People will be held accountable and judged on the basis of the revelation that God has made of himself to them. And this revelation is unmistakable, unavoidable, and sufficiently pervasive and clear that the failure to respond as well as the turn to idolatry renders them “without excuse.” They will be righteously judged for rejecting the Father, not for rejecting the Son.

Perfect.

Robbed Hell - C.A.S.T. Pearls Presents from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

"There is no doubt that the traditional concept of hell has been under siege, particularly among intellectuals, so let me be clear: without hell, the whole of the Great Commission is undermined and the Gospel turned on its head. Without a Scripturally-robust understanding of hell and the afterlife, our faith is in vain. If all be saved in time, then none need be saved now." - C.S. Lewis