Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Religion May Become Extinct In Nine Nations!

This BBC headline is shocking! What is even more shocking is the list of nations that are becoming irreligious: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. You can see from this list that these are all historically Christian nations. Three are English speaking countries. Some are historically Catholic; some are historically Reformed; and one is historically Lutheran. You can read the article at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197

How can this be happening? What are the causes? How can the religion of the martyrs waste away to extinction???

How can those who once sang: The Word they still shall let remain Nor any thanks have for it; He’s by our side upon the plain With His good gifts and Spirit. And take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife, Though these all be gone, Our vict’ry has been won; The Kingdom ours remaineth, abandon the faith?

The decline of Christianity in these nations did not happen overnight. It began with complacency. It began when people took their Christian heritage for granted. It began when parents and grandparents thought little of passing the faith on to their children.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

So What's wrong with Rob Bell and his new book?

American pragmatism strikes again! Because Rob Bell is the pastor of a megachurch, what he says must be true. Get ready for people to start pushing his kind of non-Christianity. Here's a review to let you in on the whole story:

God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of “Love Wins”


Wednesday Update:

Another article on the same subject:


"This brings us to the controversy over Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. As its cover announces, the book is “about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived.” Reading the book is a heart-breaking experience. We have read this book before. Not the exact words, and never so artfully presented, but the same book, the same argument, the same attempt to rescue Christianity from the Bible.

As a communicator, Rob Bell is a genius. He is the master of the pungent question, the turn-the-picture-upside-down story, and the personal anecdote. Like Harry Emerson Fosdick, the paladin of pulpit liberalism, Rob Bell is a master communicator. Had he set out to defend the biblical doctrine of hell, he could have done so marvelously. He would have done the church a great service. But that is not what he set out to do.

Like Fosdick, Rob Bell cares deeply for people. It comes through in his writings. There is no reason to doubt that Bell wrote this book out of his own personal concern for people who are put off by the doctrine of hell. Had that concern been turned toward a presentation of how the biblical doctrine of hell fits within the larger context of God’s love and justice and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that would have been a help to untold thousands of Christians and others seeking to understand the Christian faith. But that is not what Bell does in this new book.

Instead, Rob Bell uses his incredible power of literary skill and communication to unravel the Bible’s message and to cast doubt on its teachings."