John MacArthur on Rob Bell: “a Brother to Embrace or a Wolf to Avoid?”

This is the question that John MacArthur seeks to answer in a post on his Grace to You blog:

The post begins:

If Christopher Hitchens or Deepak Chopra penned a book that scoffed at the biblical teaching on hell, we would not be surprised. So why would anyone be shocked or confused when Rob Bell writes Love Wins? Has Bell shown any more commitment to gospel truth, or any more devotion to the principle of biblical authority than Hitchens or Chopra?

MacArthur continues,

Is Rob Bell truly a Christian, or is he one of those dangerous deceivers Scripture warns us about repeatedly (Acts 20:29; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; Colossians 2:8; 2 Peter 2:1; etc.)?

It’s a fair—and necessary—question. Christ’s famous warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing is given to us as an imperative: “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16). Our Lord clearly expects His true disciples to be able to spot spiritual imposters and wolves in sheep’s clothing—especially those who are purveyors of deadly false doctrines.

Rob Bell certainly fits that category. He relentlessly casts doubt on the authority and reliability of Scripture. He denies the Bible’s perspicuity, disavows its hard truths, and ridicules some of the most important features of the gospel.

Mid-way through the post we find,

Historic evangelicalism has always affirmed the authority, inerrancy, and sufficiency of Scripture, while declaring (as Jesus and the apostles did) that the only way of salvation for fallen humanity is through the atoning work of Christ, and the only instrument of justification is faith in Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the gospel.

Rob Bell believes none of those things. His skepticism about so many key biblical truths, his penchant for sowing doubt in his hearers, and his obvious contempt for the principles of divine justice as taught in Scripture all give evidence that he is precisely the kind of unbelieving false teacher Scripture warns us about.

Bell is an inveterate syncretist who loves to blend “progressive” and politically correct dogmas with eastern mysticism, humanistic jargon, and Christian terminology. His teaching is full of barren ideas borrowed directly from old liberalism, sometimes rephrased in postmodern jargon but still reeking of stale Socinianism.

What Bell is peddling is nothing like New Testament Christianity. It is a man-centered religion totally devoid of both clarity and biblical authority. read more, bold added

This is John MacArthur’s take on Rob Bell and Love Wins.

While I’m often slow to categorize, if it can be demonstrated that Rob Bell has indeed “disavows its hard truths, and ridicules some of the most important features of the gospel,” and has denied the tenets of Historic Evangelicalism, which makes it Christian, then I must join John MacArthur and say that Rob Bell is a “Wolf to be avoided.”

As a footnote, Rob Bell does believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation.  It’s in Love Wins.

Now it’s true that Rob Bell can say that Jesus is the only way to salvation but cast serious doubt as to what this really looks like.

Neither do I believe we need to shy away from labeling Rob Bell “a wolf to avoid,” if such is the case.  Come on!  Let’s not be naive.  The Bible talks about false teachers in the last days.