Tag: love
“Love Wins” Controversy
“I can’t believe in a God that would send someone to a place like Hell.”
“What kind of loving God would send people to Hell?”
“Who gets to decide who gets into Heaven and who has to go to Hell?”
Rob Bell addresses these common questions in his upcoming book, Love Wins, which has already stirred massive controversy by his implications that no one will go to Hell. Below is the video trailer that he himself has released, which is largely responsible for the widespread controversy. I’ll attempt to address the questions he raises as concisely as possible…
- “Gandhi’s in Hell? He is?!? And someone knows this for sure?” My Answer: I don’t know. And no human could possibly know for sure.
- “Will only a few select people make it to Heaven?” My Answer: As far as the Bible is concerned, yes. Matthew 7:13,14
- “And will billions, and billions of people burn forever in Hell?” My Answer: I have no idea how many it will be, but yes, many, many people will go to a real place called Hell. Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:15
- “And if that is the case, how do you become one of the few?” My Answer: Turn away from your man-made attempts at pleasing God and pleasing yourself, and give your life to God by placing your faith in Jesus, who lived a sinless life, died as a substitution for humanity, and rose again on the third day proving to be God. John 3:16-19, Romans 3:23-28, Romans 10:9-13
- “And then there is the question behind the question. Like: What is God like?” My Answer: This a great question. A loaded question, but a great one. I’ll answer this in a separate blog post this week.
- “So what gets subtly caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God.” My Answer: Jesus is God. Jesus dying for humanity is God taking upon Himself His own righteous judgment for man’s rebellion. His holiness demands that wickedness be eliminated. His love demands that mankind be pardoned. The cross is the greatest evidence of God’s holiness and love.
- “How can that God ever be good?” My Answer: Bell is defining “good” based on getting what we want (Heaven) without the consequences (Hell). The real question would be, “How could a pure, perfect and holy God allow wicked humanity into His heaven?” But to answer the question, God is good in every sense by virtue of His willingness to die for sinful man, allowing us the opportunity to experience both His love and holiness. Romans 5:6-11, 1 John 4:7-12
I sense that we are no where near done talking about this, and that I a likely to hear from many of you in emails and through the comments. I welcome your interaction, but let’s keep it civil, please. More posts WILL follow about these issues…
Blessings,
John
Challenge #2: Pray for the church
Edgewood Challenge #2: Pray for the church one hour a week.
Ok, so earlier I talked about our first challenge as a church – to read through the entire Bible over one year. But this second challenge requires us to pray in addition to read the Bible. I already know what you’re thinking. And I totally agree! Read the Bible and pray?!? Man, some churches are so demanding!!! And not just pray for an hour a week, but to pray for an hour a week for the church. That doesn’t even include praying for other important stuff, like our food 3 times a day! So why are we doing this and how do we actually accomplish it instead of adding to a list of New Year’s resolutions that have already been broken?
Well we’re doing it because we understand the power of prayer. A praying church is a healthy church. We’re also asking the entire church to take this challenge because, as a church, we are dependent on the supernatural, Holy Spirit power of God moving among His people. That’s not something we have direct control over. So you and I better be in touch with the One who said He would build His church. In Acts 5:34-40 we read the story of Gamaliel warning the other Pharisees not to be to hasty in punishing the apostles who were preaching the Gospel and he made this observation in verses 39 and 40, “If this is of man, it will come to nothing. But if it is from God, you cannot stop it. You my even find yourself fighting against God!” The same is still true of the church today: If we attempt to do this “out of man” it will come to nothing. But as individuals, and as a church, if we become a part of what God is doing, we are unstoppable!
So pray for your church! 1 hour broken up between 7 days comes out to about 8.5 minutes a day. But let’s not count minutes with God and just round it to a nice even 10 minutes! How do you pray for your church for 10 minutes every day? Great question. Glad you asked! Here are some ideas to pray for 10 minutes for your church everyday.
- Monday: The staff and our families. To see who we all are and what we do, click here.
- Tuesday: Our Children, Teens, and Families.
- Wednesday: The Sick, Elderly, Widowed, and Home-bound.
- Thursday: The people in the Quad Cities who are far from God and need to know Christ.
- Friday: Our Friday night program, Celebrate Recovery
- Saturday: Saturday Night Service (The Awakening)
- Sunday: Sunday Morning Service and the Youth Service (Elevate)
With each of these, try to get specific. So for Mondays, maybe focus more of your 10 minutes on a different staff member each week. On Thursdays, think of specific people that you are going to invite to a service with you this week. On Tuesdays focus on the kid’s program coming up, or the teen’s summer camp trip. You get the idea. You’ll find that 8.5 – 10 minutes is easy to fill. Aditionally, you’ll feel closer to God and your church family.
Where there’s little prayer, there’s little power. But with much prayer, there’s much power. Let’s be a power house in the Quad Cities!
Blessings,
John