This very civil, very intelligent, debate about the legitimacy of homosexual relationships within Christianity is well worth 20 minutes of your viewing time. (Thanks to pastor friend Dennis McGuire for the link.) I’ll post some thoughts on this later, but I’d love to hear your observations.
Rob Bell and Andrew Wilson Discuss Homosexuality
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When Rob Bell says, “That’s a great, deep question; I’ll have to think about it more”, he reveals that he hasn’t thoroughly thought this issue completely through and is going by his own personal intuition in accommodating our cultural changes. I think that Romans 1 is extremely clear on this issue: it’s always sin. Is homosexuality more serious than fornication or adultery, or even masturbation? Sin is sin. A better definition of sin than Bell gives is ‘anything less than God’s perfect will at all times’. Only Jesus walked in the Father’s perfect will at all times. Bell does make a good point about Christian intolerance for seeming intolerance toward differing understanding of Scripture, but he is ignoring Andrew Wilson’s plain attempts to pin him down in giving a true Scriptural defense of his position. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” The Holy Spirit is the final arbiter in questions like these, and I don’t see Bell relying on Him. The world is at enmity with God; he seems to be unaware of that.
Once again Rob Bell shows his true colors. I believe in the authority of scripture as long as it doesn’t contradict my thoughts and feelings. Just because everybody is doing it does not make it right. The Bible is very clear on the subject of homosexuality. If Rob Bell wants to affirm gay marriage-fine. But do not deny the validity of scripture in doing so. Our culture does not define scripture-scripture should define our culture. Sadly that is not often the case.
IMO, this discussion is getting old, and muddying what should be clear waters.
I’m genuinely puzzled why Rob Bell has abandoned the Scripture as the canon, or measuring stick, for God’s assessment of character, action and conduct. Seems he’s in ‘slippery mode’, playing escape & evade on the present ‘hard’ issue, fearful of running cross grain to a cultural swing.
The scriptures, both old and new, are quite clear in context and principle on the issue of sexual immorality, of which homosexuality is one kind specifically mentioned. That said, we sin because we’re sinners, and the symptoms of our isolated, broken and defiant nature manifest themselves in different ways for every person. To demonize a particular group is an equal error.
We’re all sinners in desperate need of a savior, but that we’re all imperfect isn’t a license for continued, deliberate disobedience.
I’m in agreement with the posts from Nick Houze, Ron Williams, and Patrick Todoroff. The Bible is very clear on the subject of homosexuality: It’s a sin.
Rob Bell began well. His first few NOOMA videos were powerful, as was “Velvet Elvis,” his first book.
With great anticipation, I bought “Love Wins,” but could not get beyond the second chapter. So what happened to his theology along the way, I can only speculate – and that is that mixed-in from the beginning has always been Rob’s ability to translate the gospel in a way that communicates invitingly to contemporary culture.
But if the goal of appealing to current culture causes one to weaken, undermine, or redefine the Biblical definition of righteousness to win souls, then the question becomes: What are you winning souls TO? Are you not then just calling people to religion as you see it – man-made and man-pleasing?
God is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Heb 13:8
I will pray for Rob Bell. He rose to great notoriety, but got lost somewhere in his own shadow. A warning to us all.
” But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches,
go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.
This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.” Is 50:11
Oh my goodness, poor Rob Bell. Trying to talk to Church culture about the possibility of seeing certain parts of the Bible as being culturally bound when the Church as a whole doesn’t generally understand that it is culturally bound or what that even looks like. Talk about a cross to bear. I don’t know quite where I come down on this issue, actually, but I certainly appreciate what he’s trying to say about leaving room for the tent to be bigger than we think it is. I keep running into this topic lately, of how so many issues we find pressing in our times come down to a modern understanding of the world on one side vs. a postmodern one on the other, in which we begin to understand our own inability to see the world objectively since we live within it, and therefore need to still try to engage with our lives but leave a bit more room for the possibility that we don’t see the whole picture, even when it comes to our understanding of Scripture. And that’s scary talk for a modernist, whose whole worldview is based on rationality, logic, empirical scientific study, and objectivity that convince them they can come up with a final answer on what Scripture says or what is happening in the world–which is in itself heretical.
I think that the issue of homosexuality is abundantly clear in Scripture; it is unnatural and a perversion. So are all sexual sins. When we as sinners justified by grace through Christ Jesus’ death and resurrection do not allow the Holy Spirit to speak, we are prone to defaulting to our cultural biases.
The Bible is clear