Myth's space - Sharing the Word

I was fortunate enough to be able to go and see Rob Bell speak at an event he calls "the gods aren't angry". I went with my brother, my brother insisted on the way there that I was making a big deal out of this whole Rob Bell thing...I stated it was more serious then he thought...........

So after three hours of driving to Raleigh, NC we managed to get to our destination at a concert hall. Upon parking in the Garage we ran into a Nigerian named "Friday". He was a Parking attendant . Friday saw my brothers T-Shirt, my brother the radical Christian had a shirt that said "Jesus Loves me and my Tattoos", it also contained a small tattooesque skull and bones. Friday went up to him and in a very deep African accent pointed and said that Skull and Jesus do not belong, my brother said wow, I never even noticed that on there really. Friday then looked at me and my shirt. It was an Iron-On Transplant Ministries Promo Shirt. It said on the front "REPENT! It's a dirty word, but Jesus used it!", Friday scolded me to in his thick accent he said..."No No No...Repent is not a Dirty Word. It is Beautiful, If you tell someone to Repent it means "I Love You!", Me and my brother both amazed at the depth coming from his broken English thanked him and continued on our way...

The crowds were building outside and I met my former pastor from Lynchburg. As we were let in the first thing me and my brother noticed were the Mini-Bars allowing people to buy Pepsi, cookies, beer and hard liquors.My former pastor said "Well you never know it is Rob Bell" My first impression was that must be for the ballet people across the hall in the theater to the left of us...I was wrong. People were lining up and we saw someone walk into the hall with a cup of beer in hand. My brother who regularly sees the damaging effects of alcohol was greatly disturbed by this, (He is a designated driver for his friends)



But that's not the centrality of the issue. Because ultimately beer is a non-essential to the Doctrine, the doctrine has to be above all things.

I want to say that as I knew going into this that I should be on guard, I wanted to take the advice of a friend of mine who said "Just enjoy it" so honestly that was my plan, well it was until he started speaking.

Rob Bell came out to a applause, not greeting the audience or introducing himself but immediately sucking you in to his incredibly brilliant and captivating story telling methods. He started out telling stories of tribal god's and he built you up in history till we got to Abraham, there were several implications of how he got to God, he implied that our God was a result of thousands of years of other god's and how radical our God was from the others of the time, to an extent true however our God did not form from other god's and societies and cultures, Our God was always there and the other false gods were results of him, he discussed the History of how people started making sacrifices as a way to "Please God" and how they gave God offerings for fear of Judgement, until Abraham, then people gave offerings for Blessings. "Our God wants us to be blessed...This was radically different."

Prosperity preaching aside, it is wrong. Sacrifices were done not as a result of other god's but because God commanded it, it did not start with Abraham it started with Cain and Abel.

After he got up to the point of sacrifices he made it to Leviticus where he discussed that the point of Leviticus was to know where you stand with God. This is true to some extent, he talked about the peace offerings and how God wanted us to be at Peace..He mentioned being at peace a lot.

From Leviticus he came upon the Sadducee's, Rob Bell said these people profited off of the Guilt of mankind..."Imagine that" he said to robotic, worshipping laughter from the audience. This was a direct stab at fundamental Christianity and I would like to propose it was even more directly an attack of the Way of the Master evangelism process.



Then Jesus came, Jesus Christ entered the temple with a bull whip not because he was "Angry" but because that's how you made statements back then, you wrecked something in guerrilla form as a way to show significance. He was telling them that the temple was not needed anymore that they would destroy it and in three days it would be rebuilt.

He then went into what I feared was universalism and the attack on Guilt. Now upon reading this please keep in mind it is late and my memory is not as fresh. One thing is clear, Rob Bell is heavy on universalism.

You see According to Rob Bell Jesus died to save us not from hell, but from guilt so we can have peace.There is no need to be guilty with Christ's sacrifice and he is Right, The death of Jesus Christ takes away the weight of the Law. However he did not die on the cross to do make us feel better he died to save us from Hell and God's Judgement. Because well God is angry at Sin. Love, Joy Peace Patience are results of salvation not the reason to be saved. Man's greatest need is saving from the coming Judgement. Jesus took the wrath of God on his shoulders for us...We just need to do something to receive it.

Repent and place our trust in Christ.

This is where Rob Bell failed. Besides the night being so dry and shallow spiritually, Rob Bell hung the Good News from everyone like a cheesecake just out of reach of a dog. He never told us how to receive the Grace of Jesus Christ. He failed...it was a tragedy.

What was the worst thing Rob Bell said? He declared that repentance was "A Celebration" when you repent, you celebrate. This is so not true. I would argue that Repentance is the exact opposite of Celebration. Celebration is done after you repent, once you receive assurance of eternal life. But repentance is a Holy time between the sinner and the savior where the Sinner humbles himself before the God of the universe and says. Save me I have wronged you, Please do not let me wrong you again. This is no time to celebrate, it is a time to weep to be humble and to pray. Rob Bell never said we need to repent because according to him "It was already done", We already have it. Universalism.

It was just wrong...The whole story, the entire speech was terribly twisted with truth and deception that my brother caught onto his round about post modern speaking style in the first fifteen minutes and said that this guy is really off base and said he was sorry he doubted my opinion to begin with.

Afterwards there was one of the saddest standing ovations I have ever seen. It really is solom to see people just follow a leader off a cliff with no idea what they were about to do. Every Word Rob Bell said was clung to, every thought, every walk across the stage...

As we left outside there were two guys doing exactly what Rob Bell spoke against in NOOMA 009. They were open air preaching. My brother ran to them and sat between them among the steps, we waited for them to finish and shook their hands, for an hour and a half we watched them preach. The most arrogant, self righteous "Christians" came and mocked them, one of them stood right on top of the same stand and side by side with Jesse the open air preacher screamed "PEANUTS, Get your PEANUTS"

Me and my brother were in shock, these were people that were coming from the Rob Bell event, standing laughing at him who was mocking in a very "Christian" like manner.

As Rob Bell would say...And...everyone...was...laughing.

Then from nowhere I heard a deep African accent. It was Friday. He heard the preaching and came to listen, he Even was allowed to get off work for a few minutes. His smile was contagious and me and my brother greeted him as if we knew him for years. As the heckler Got down Friday went up to him and his posse and said "Why do you Mock a man who preaches the Word of God...Do you know that God is Authority?" He pointed where Rob Bell was, "God was not there tonight...God was out here", he pointed to Jesse.



I guess the accent of a tall African man humbles the proud for a minute because he quickly left. I talked to Friday and asked if people Open Air Preach in Africa, he said all the time. Open Air Preaching is only rare in America because we do not do it. Friday was not embarrassed of the Word being preached in the public square, he ran to it, and sat down anxiously getting off of work to listen to them. Friday was starving for the Word.

Afterwards while talking to Jesse and Kerrigan and Tony, a Rob Bell fan came up to us and asked us questions regarding pragmatism and Open Air Preaching, he was really humbled and Jesse and Kerrigan did a great Job of showing him the transformation of a regenerate sinner. Please pray for him,. Visit OpenAirOutreach.com for more information of Jesse and Kerrigan. They love the Lord, and want his Gospel preached everywhere, they truly have a heart for the Lost. If only everyone else did. If only Rob Bell did.

Marcus

Transplant Ministries: Rob Bell, Universalism and Nigerians

"Remember that it is not hasty reading-but serious
meditation on holy and heavenly truths, which makes
them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not
the mere touching of the flower by the bee which
gathers honey-but her abiding for a time on the
flower which draws out the sweet. It is not he who
reads most, but he who meditates most-who will
prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and
strongest Christian." Thomas Brooks

The apostle Peter wrote: Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered (1 Peter 3:7).

Living with your wife with understanding first of all involves mutual submission. Prior to commanding wives to submit to their husbands the apostle Paul taught that we are to submit to one another in the fear of the God (Ephesians 5:21). Submission is thus the responsibility of Christian husbands as well as of wives. Though not submitting to his wife as a leader, a believing husband must submit to the loving duty of being sensitive to the needs, fears, and feelings of his wife. In other words, a Christian husband needs to subordinate his needs to hers, whether she is a Christian or not.

In 1 Peter 3:7 Peter specifically notes consideration, chivalry, and companionship. Let's look at each of these qualities in turn.

Be Considerate
"Understanding" speaks of being sensitive to your wife's deepest physical and emotional needs. In other words, be thoughtful and respectful. Remember, you are to nourish and cherish her (Eph. 5:25-28). Many women have said to me, "My husband doesn't understand me. We never talk. He doesn't know how I feel or what I'm thinking about." Such insensitivity builds walls in marriages. "Live with your wives in an understanding way" is another way of saying, "Be considerate." It isn't what you get out of marriage but what you put into it that brings glory to God. Do you know your wife's needs? Have you discussed them with her? Have you asked her what kind of husband she wants you to be?

Be Chivalrous
By God's design, a wife is to be the special object of her husband's love and care. As "a weaker vessel" she is under his authority and protection. "Weaker" doesn't mean weaker spiritually or intellectually, but physically and perhaps emotionally. Scripture indicates that in several places. For example, in Jeremiah 51:30 we read, "The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, they stay in the strongholds; their strength is exhausted, they are becoming like women; their dwelling places are set on fire, the bars of her gates are broken" (cf. Isa. 19:16; Jer. 50:37; Nahum 3:13). Babylon's army was compared to women because it was afraid, without strength, and defenseless.

It's not a negative thing for a woman to be a weaker vessel. In making the man stronger, God designed a wonderful partnership. One way a husband can protect and provide for his wife is to practice chivalry. Whatever happened to the custom of opening the car door for your wife? Some husbands are fifteen feet down the driveway while the wife still has one foot out the door! Look for ways to be courteous that you know she will appreciate.

Be a Companion
"Giving honor" is another way of saying, "Treat your wife with respect" while "grace of life" is a reference to marriage. "Grace" simply means "a gift," and one of the best gifts life has to offer is marriage. Thus when Peter says to give her respect as a "fellow heir of the grace of life," he is commanding husbands to respect their wives as equal partners in the marriage. Another way to win her to Christ is to cultivate companionship and friendship. That necessitates sharing your life with her and developing mutual interests. Think about things you can do together. One of the secrets of a happy relationship is finding commonality.

These aren't mere casual suggestions. According to Peter, your applying them has a direct bearing on how your prayers are answered. Since those prayers would include petitions for her salvation, don't neglect being considerate, chivalrous, and a companion to your unsaved wife.

Valentine's Day may be the one time each year that most husbands let down the macho exterior and actually demonstrate their love for their wives in tangible ways. You might shower your wife with flowers or candy, or take her out on a romantic evening. Some of you may even make greater sacrifices, such as cleaning the house, treating her to breakfast in bed, or buying some cherished gift. But once the day ends, so does Prince Charming, and you revert to your normal self and usual role.

Ask many Christian husbands to summarize their biblical duty in one word, and they will answer, "Leadership." Scripture answers the question with a different word: love.

There is no doubt that God's design for you if you're a husband includes the aspect of leadership. But it is a leadership that flows from love and is always tempered by tender, caring affection. The husband's proper role as a loving, nurturing head is best epitomized by Christ, who took the servant's role to wash His disciples' feet (John 13:3-17).

It is significant that before the apostle Paul instructs husbands and wives how to love each other that he calls for mutual submission. The New American Standard Bible renders Ephesians 5:21 this way: "Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." That's a general command to all Christians in all contexts.

Husbands are no exception to this rule. The love you are to show your wife involves submission. It is colored and characterized by meekness, tenderness, and service. It is a humble, servant's love, like that of Christ.

Submission is what sets the stage for Paul's instructions to husbands: "Love your wives" (v. 25). The whole idea of the husband's headship is a comparison to Christ. The husband's headship over the wife is likened to Christ's headship over the church. "The husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church" (v. 23). Therefore your love for your wife is supposed to be like Christ's love for the church: "Love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (v. 25).

The sacrifice of Christ is the very epitome of what love calls for. First John 3:16 says, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us." Jesus Himself said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13).

Without actually using the word love, the apostle Peter describes your love for your wife: "Husbands, likewise, dwell with [your wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life" (1 Peter 3:7).

The headship-submission relationship is not about inherent superiority and inferiority. Many wives are frankly wiser, more knowledgeable, more articulate, and more discerning than their husbands. Yet God has ordered the family so that the man is the head. That is not because the wife automatically owes the husband servile deference as his inferior--for she is not to be treated as an inferior, but as a sister and joint heir. The reason for the divine order is that your wife is the weaker vessel--more to come about that in a moment--and you therefore owe her sacrifice and protection.

My challenge to you husbands is to make every day a Valentine's Day for your wives. Make the following three actions a daily priority in your relationship with your wife and you will be fulfilling your Christlike, sacrificial duty toward her.

Consideration

"Live with your wives in an understanding way," Peter says in verse 7 (NASB). He's speaking of being considerate. This is opposite the cave-man mentality some today would advocate. It's incompatible with the kind of independent, proud, self-absorbed machismo many seem to think epitomizes true maleness. It calls for understanding, sensitivity, and meeting your wife's needs. It involves a sincere effort to understand her feelings, fears, anxieties, concerns, goals, dreams, and desires. In short, you must be considerate.

Often it boils down to listening. You must understand your wife's heart. How can you express a sacrificial love that meets her needs when you have no earthly idea what those needs are?

That is frankly a struggle for most men. It is not something that comes naturally to us. Like our children, we wrestle against our own sinful tendencies and selfish desires. But God calls us to be models of sacrificial love in our families, and that begins by being considerate.

Chivalry

The wife is "the weaker vessel," according to Peter. In what sense are women "weaker?" This has reference primarily to the physical realm. Women are, as a class, physically weaker than men. Now, it is undoubtedly true that there are some men whose wives are physically more powerful than them. But that is unusual, and I believe that even in those exceptional cases, the principle still applies. You are to treat your wife with a gentle chivalry. You can do this in a thousand ways, from opening doors for her to moving furniture and doing the heavy work around the house.

A loving husband would not say to his wife, "After you've changed the tire I'll be glad to take you to the store." We serve them with our strength. We treat them as the weaker vessel, showing them a particular deference in matters where their physical weakness places them at a disadvantage. First Peter 3:7 actually suggests that God designed women to be under the protection of a man, benefiting from his strength. And serving our wives by lending them that strength is one of the main ways we show them a Christlike, sacrificial love.

Communion

We're to regard our wives "as being heirs together of the grace of life." Men and women may be unequal physically, but they are equal spiritually. Treat your wife as a spiritual equal. While you're legitimately concerned with the task of spiritual leadership in your home, don't forget the responsibility of communion before God with your wife as a joint heir of His grace. Your role as her leader does not mean you are her superior. Both of you are utterly dependent on divine grace, and you are heirs together of that grace.

In the Song of Solomon, the wife says of her husband, "This is my beloved, and this is my friend" (5:16). I love that expression. She rejoices in her love for him, but it is not just his romantic devotion that thrills her. It is not his machismo or his leadership that causes her heart to sing. What is it? She is glad that he is her friend. That's the kind of relationship husbands should cultivate. It is a deep sense of intimate, equal sharing of spiritual things. It is a communion together like no other relationship on earth.

Here's a simple way of summarizing sacrificial love: The Spirit filled husband loves his wife not for what she can do for him, but because of what he can do for her. That is exactly how Christ's love works. He loves us not because there's something in us that attracts Him, not because He gains any benefit from loving us, but simply because He determined to love us and delights to bestow on us His favor.

Did you realize that love is an act of the will, not a feeling? It is a commitment to the welfare of its object. It is a voluntary devotion. It involves sacrifice, consideration, chivalry, communion, courtesy, and commitment. It is precisely the kind of love you owe your wife. And if you are willing to obey God, by the power of God's Spirit, you can muster that kind of love for your wife.

Adapted from What the Bible Says About Parenting, by John MacArthur. © 1998 by John MacArthur.  Used by permission.

Your Child's Gre

Your Child's Greatest Need

by
John MacArthur
Adapted from What the Bible Says About Parenting: God's Plan for Rearing Your Child by John MacArthur.

If you've been a parent for any time at all, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that your child came into the world with an insatiable faculty for evil. Even before birth, your baby's little heart was already programmed for sin and selfishness. The inclination toward depravity is such that, given free reign, every baby has the potential to become a monster.
Original sin is the biblical doctrine that explains your child's sinful proclivity. It means children do not come into the world seeking God and righteousness. They do not even come into the world with a neutral innocence. They come into the world seeking the fulfillment of sinful and selfish desires. Scripture also teaches a doctrine called total depravity, referring to the extent of original sin. Although the outworking of the sin nature does not necessarily attain full expression in everyone's behavior, it is nonetheless called total depravity because there is no aspect of the human personality, character, mind, emotions, or will that is free from the corruption of sin or immune to sin's enticements.
Put bluntly, sin is not learned—it is an inbred disposition. Your kids got their sinful nature from you, you got it from your parents, your parents got it from their parents, and so on, all the way back to Adam. In other words, Adam's fall tainted the entire human race with sin. Both the guilt and the corruption of sin are universal. The apostle Paul wrote, "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12, emphasis added). "Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men" (v. 18), meaning we inherited the guilt of sin. And "through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners" (v. 19), meaning we inherited the corruption of sin. No one is exempt. No one is born truly innocent.
That means that left to themselves, your children will pursue a course of sin. And left entirely to themselves, there is no evil of which they are incapable. You may find that hard to swallow, especially when you see them as newborns. Infants seem to be the very epitome of chaste, precious, childlike innocence. But don't let the cute cheeks, the playful coos, and the bright eyes fool you — those children are a miniature version of you! The depravity that lives in their hearts is just waiting for the opportunity to express itself.
So how should the doctrines of original sin and total depravity impact your parenting? Before I answer that, let me show you three parenting approaches that miss the mark.
Focus on Behavior
Many parents go off track by focusing all their efforts on controlling their child’s behavior. Be careful. If you concentrate all your energies on correcting external behavior, or staving off misbehavior with threats of discipline, you may be doing little more than training a hypocrite.
I've seen that happen repeatedly. I know Christian parents who think their parenting is successful because they've taught their children to act politely on cue, to answer with "Yes, Sir" and "No, Ma'am," and to speak to adults when spoken to. While that kind of behavior control may appear to work wonders for a time (especially when the parents are nearby), it does not address the root problem of depravity. Sinful behavior is a symptom of a sinful heart.
Focus on Environment
Other parents try to control their child's environment. They attempt to build a cocoon around their kids to isolate them from bad influences. They restrict their children's exposure to television, ban popular music from the home, and sometimes forbid contact with children whose parents may not share their same parenting philosophy.
While I do think you should shield your kids from the experience of evil, you need to teach them to be wise and discerning when confronted with evil. They won’t learn those lessons if they are completely isolated. The isolationist approach merely produces naïve children who are gullible and vulnerable, defenseless in the world.
Try as you might, you won't be able to isolate your children forever. When the day comes that they venture out into the world, they need to be prepared with discernment skills and wisdom to detect and resist the enticements of the devil and the world. If you choose to shield them from an evil environment, you are ignoring the enemy within them — a depraved heart. But if you win the heart, you win the child.
Focus on Self-Esteem
A very prevalent approach today is to build a child's self-esteem. That method assumes that if a child sees himself as good, noble, and wonderful, he'll not only behave better, but he will also treat others better. This method turns self-love into a virtue.
The truth is that much of the modern effort to spark kids' self-esteem is simply pouring gasoline on a runaway fire. It encourages already selfish kids to think they are justified in wanting their own way. It makes you as a parent think you have to defer to the child, no matter what, because the child has a right to express himself freely, so he feels good about himself. All of that only escalates out-of-control behavior and feeds the worst tendencies of human depravity. Want to ensure that your child will become a delinquent? Feed his self-esteem and then compound the problem by refusing to correct him when he is wrong.
Self-esteem is based on an unbiblical perspective that denies original sin and the doctrine of total depravity. The Bible has nothing positive to say about self-esteem, self-love, or any other variety of self-centeredness. It teaches your child to deny himself, not love himself (Luke 9:23).
Focus on the Heart
There's only one remedy for your child's inborn depravity: the new birth—regeneration. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, "That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit… [Therefore,] you must be born again" (John 3:6-7). "Born of the flesh" with a sinful bent, your children have no power to free themselves from sin's bondage. They lack the Holy Spirit and thus have no capacity to please God or obey Him from the heart (cf. Rom. 8:7-8). Until your children are born again, they are dead in "trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1).
So your top priority as a parent is to be an evangelist in your home. You need to teach your children the law of God, show them their need for a Savior, and point them to Jesus Christ as the only One who can save them. If they grow up in your home without a keen awareness of their need for salvation, you have failed as a parent in your primary task as their spiritual leader. Teach them the gospel and ask God to perform His sovereign work of regeneration.
One word of caution about that — if you try to force, coerce, or manipulate your kids into a profession of faith, you may pressure them into making a false profession. The new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit, and your child's salvation is a matter that must ultimately be settled between him and God.
Don't approach parenting by focusing on the symptoms rather than the heart. If you attempt to modify your children's behavior, isolate them, or bolster their self-esteem, you will not only exacerbate the problem, you will fail to reach to the heart of the matter. But if you teach them about their sin and need for the Savior, and if you live a life that models what you are teaching them to be, you can rest your hope in God's grace for the salvation of your children.
Adapted from What the Bible Says About Parenting: God's Plan for Rearing Your Child by John MacArthur.
© 2000 Grace to You.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "John MacArthur Collection" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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atest Need  --  John MacArthur