False Teaching the Gospel = Apostasy

Rob Bell a pastor at Mars Hill, Grand Rapids, Michigan says that our gospel message today is completely contrary to the Bible. He states,

Salvation is the entire universe being brought back into harmony with its maker. This has huge implications for how people present the message of Jesus. Yes, Jesus can come into hearts. But we can join a movement that is as wide and as big as the universe itself. Rocks and trees and birds and swamps and ecosystems. God’s Desire is to restore all of it.[1]

Not only has Rob thrown the salvation of God’s elect out, but he has incorporated everyone including the unelect with the elect, in the work and redemption of Jesus Christ.  In this corporate process, one-day restoration will come to ALL that has been corrupted.  However many other doctrines change in Bell’s theology.  Bell also has said,

“By this I do not mean cosmetic, superficial changes like better lights and music, sharper graphics, and new methods with easy-to-follow steps. I mean theology: the beliefs about Gods, Jesus, the Bible, salvation, the future. We must keep reforming the way the Christian faith is defined, lived and explained.”[2]

Statements like this are not meant for Scripture nor for teaching the Gospel, but only false teaching at its’ best. Mr. Bell you can change your house, your car, or the way you dress (which you do so often), change your plans for your dinner date, things that are changeable can be changed. Things which are not changeable should not even be considered to be changed. Absolutes like God Himself, Jesus Christ, the theology, salvation for His elect, and the future events that will take place one-day, are not subject to change because Scripture does not change them, but only makes them after the character of God Himself, the unchangeable.

False teachers has lost the meaning behind Scripture, lost focus of Scripture, and lost focus of teaching the absolute truth to today’s hearers.  Essential doctrines should not be changed, nor can they simply because one says they are like that of Mr. Bell.

The point of the matter is, when one starts changing these doctrines, he or she has changed the gospel its’ self. When one changes Scripture to fit what they think, and what they want it to mean, they’ve lost not only the truth, but also they’ve lost the need of the gospel for their own lives. One cannot change biblical doctrines; in doing so they lose a purity of the gospel. Scriptures are meant to reprove, rebuke, or exhort man back to Christ. Belief otherwise is not the same gospel.  A person cannot change God, Jesus, and the Bible and still have a correct view of the gospel. Furthermore, salvation cannot be altered as Rob Bell has attempted to do.

In the postmodern culture today, men have always wanted to change the Scriptures to their itching ears as Paul told Timothy. They have sought after a means of intellectual knowledge for their own sake, and not the sake of the gospel. Paul warned Timothy of this time when men would not “endure sound doctrine.” Men would leave the faith, and seek after their own pleasures, and for their own wants. Men would “turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turn unto fables.” Liberal theology, with its thoughts and philosophical mindset behind Scripture, has no valuable contribution to the field of theology. Rather, it harms the gospel, leads people astray, and distains them for condemnation. Galatians 1:6-9 summarizes apostasy well.  It does us well to heed the words.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, ‘If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.’

How well are you preaching and teaching the truth of the Gospel and all of its doctrines that it consist of? Preach Christ crucified and may the Gospel 1st be offensive to man’s nature, and secondly be saving to man’s soul.

[1] Rob Bell,. Velvet Elvis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 109-10.

[2] Ibid. p. 12.