Travis said…”I also corrected him for certain beliefs, and asked how he came to those conclusions, was it form scripture or was it from himself?”

I think you are definitely on the right track man. Just watch the video clip above where Rob Bell talks about Jesus having faith in us because he trusts that we can do it. This whole humanistic worldview is nowhere found in the Bible and I think this is the question that is going to get at the heart of the errors of the emergent church. “Where is your humanistic worldview supported in the Bible?” The answer is nowhere as you have noted Travis. We will be praying for you and look forward to hearing specific rebuttals made by your friend. Come to think of it, why don’t you send him a link to this article and we can discuss these issue together. God bless brother.

Peter, I have been bugging you for a review of Bell’s Velvet Elvis ever since you read it! I think now is the time brother. I will thank you ahead of time for the time you put into a review. God bless your studies in seminary brother and when you get some time, write that review!!!

Driscoll sees the main problem with Bell and others like him, which is just about everything they teach. They are overreacting to a notable problem in many evangelical churches, which is basically, that many who profess the faith, lack the authentic Christian lifestyle in keeping with their confession. But, most of the Emerging Church neither deals with the problem or confesses the orthodox doctrine of the faith. Also, the EC sells out the historic Christian confession in the name of being relevant to our culture.

If you read Bell, it won’t be that hard to critique his views. Just keep a Bible handy.

Keep pointing to Scripture.

I have a friend at work, (He is a genius, literally) but he follows Rob Bell, not to the “T” but enough to where I see the “fruit of the Bell” coming out of him.

In my dealings with him I tried to get him to understand there is essential beliefs that make a Christian a Christian, and that there is absolute truth, I pulled from Keller on a couple of instances, about his core beliefs, mainly about judging others beliefs and as long as one believes in Christ then he is a Christian. I also corrected him for certain beliefs, and asked how he came to those conclusions, was it form scripture or was it from himself? It blows my mind how people that are very intellectual, do not research there own religious beliefs, ie, both major news network anchors, they spend all there time researching gossip and news but forget about what the scripture says.

I was hoping you could shed a little light on how I can approach some one like Rob Bell.

That’s exactly what I meant. And notice the wonder of the atonement, if you are a true believer all of your sins have been atoned for by Christ. And to be clear, the objects of God’s mercy and grace (the elect) by no means deserve to be given the favor of God. I am a saved sinner who did not in the past, does not currently, and will never in the future deserve the grace of God. Praise God from whom all blessing flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!

“The three great acts of the Holy Trinity for the recovering of lost mankind are-election by the Father, redemption by the Son, calling by the Spirit-as directed towards the same persons, and as securing their salvation infallibly.”

-J.I. Packer, Introduction to John Owens the Death of Death and the Death of Christ.

Tom N-U, specific people implies a particular redemption or the L (limited atonement) in TULIP. Moreover, specific sins implies the fact that if you are apart of the elect of God (if you are a believer) then Christ died for all of your specific sins committed prior to your conversion, as well as any sins that are being committed currently, as well as the sins that will be committed in the future. In short Jesus paid it all for his people. I believe in a substitutionary atonement which means that our (believers) due punishment was placed on Christ as he suffered and died on the cross.

I affirm the three acts of imputation:
1st Adams guilt and sin (original sin) to all of mankind.
2nd The sins of the elect being imputed to Christ meaning that He atoned for their specific sins dying the criminals death that they should have died.
3rd Lastly, Christ’s righteousness being imputed to or transferred to our account so that God views us in the righteousness and perfection of Christ.

I deny any universal atonement views or that Christ died for sin in general or sins like lying, stealing, murder themselves generally. If Christ died to atone for all sin in general of all people universally then all men would be saved. Since all men do not have faith in Christ it is clear that not all are saved. If it is true that Christ died for all sin universally and all men are not believers then either you will move to universalism which teaches that everyone will in fact go to heaven regardless of religion or belief or you end up having an atonement for sins that fails. It fails because IF Christ came to the earth to die for sin in general and people go to hell then there are people in hell that Christ died for, hence His mission in the atonement failed. I deny this view and hold to the historic Calvinist interpretation of the atonement. Read my paper entitled For Whom did Christ die for more on this if you are interested as well as my second post above discussing John 6.

I get the doctrine of election, but what “specific sins” are you sayng Jesus died for? Stealing, lying, adultery, blasphamy? Seems to me Jesus died for all sins. 1John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” ESV

You wrote: “So does God have faith in us or not? Someone give me a one word answer!”

No.

“And did Jesus have faith in Peter when he got out of the boat?”

No.

I hope this helps.