A Need For Discernment!

The original Video has been taken down from YouTube therefore, I have added this David Platt Video in response to the teachings that were present in the Rob Bell video.

I must admit as I watched this video, I was shocked! Not shocked because Rob Bell had taught something not keeping with scripture (he has always been known for this). However, that even he would have departed from biblical and historical Christianity as far as it seems that he just has. Is Rob Bell a Universalist? Did he truly hint that God is to loving to send anyone to hell? Did he just hint that God was not one to be feared and that we do not need salvation from His just wrath? From this video it would sound very much so. One of the great causes for concern is that this man has a huge following among many people today (mostly young) and yet they drink what he says says up like water. All while he is denying many aspects of the very gospel all together.

Charles Spurgeon has once written; "Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong, rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right." 

I would say that this is something that I see within most of the ministry and teaching of Rob Bell. He is often found teaching some profound text of the bible, however, it is what is intermingled in with it that makes it so poisonous. With Rob Bell (along with so many others today) you really have to beware of what Spurgeon calls the "almost right" of what is taught. In the case of this video however, it is very clear and plain that Rob Bell is teaching out right heresies. 

Of false teaching J.C Ryle has written;  "That old enemy of mankind, the devil, has no more subtle device for ruining souls than that of spreading false doctrine. Outside the church he is ever persuading men to maintain destructive superstitions. Like a pirate, his object is to sink, burn and destroy. Inside the church he is ever laboring to sow heresies, to propagate errors, to bring faster departures from the faith. If he cannot prevent the waters flowing from the fountain of life, he tries hard to poison them. If he cannot destroy the medicine of the gospel, he strives to adulterate and corrupt it."

Sadly, Discernment is a word and trait that I would not say often times characterizes many confessing Christians today. So many continue to hold teachers and their words/teaching (books, videos and articles) up over scripture itself and the historical truths of the gospel. When I watched this video I was only further reminded of the fact that so many today have forsaken the Bible and are going the way of 2 Timothy 4:3-5; 

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wonder off into myths." 

Again listen to the words of J.C Ryle; "Heart-religion in too humbling to be popular. It leaves natural man no room to boast. It tells him, that he is a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner, and that he must flee to Christ for salvation. It tells him that he is dead, and must be made alive again, and born of the spirit (Regeneration). The pride of man rebels against such tidings as these. He hates to be told that his case is so bad." 

Believer, beware, such subtle and in some cases like these represented in this video non-subtle teachings are present everywhere we turn. I am often surprised at much of what has been (false teaching/thinking) transferred even to this country from the States. These days you must hold scripture close to your heart/soul and pray continually for true biblical discernment. We are not living in a day where you can be so half hearted in knowing the scriptures.

I could spend all day in this post and speak of so many things that cause me concern today. However, today I simply do not have the time. I want close this post with a good recommendation for a book on the subject of Discernment.

In "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment" Tim Challies digs into the practical theology of how to see growth in the area of spiritual discipline within the believers life. He strongly admonishes the follower of Christ in this age of easy believism, man centered-ness, and worldly approaches to discern well truth from error and right from wrong. Or, as he puts it, this book "is written for all those who believe that it is the duty of every Christian to think biblically about all areas of life so that they might act biblically in all areas of life."