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I've read the book twice and I've got some concerns about it, I just wanted to hear from other people what they thought.
I realise he's not the only post modern emergent church spokesman, there are others like Brian Mclaren. But my issue is that no one else has talked to me about Brian or any of the other guys, and Rob Bell's teachings have proved to be quite influential in my circle of friends and in my church.

My main concerns are:

His definition of Sin - that all it is, is not being all that God made you to be. This is not even biblical - I dont know where he's getting this from? Sin is the creature (us humans) wanting to live life apart from the creator (God), we want to be the creator, the controller of our destiny. We now deal with the legacy of how that has darkened our understanding and stuffed up our thinking.

His views on faith - especially concerned about the example of Peter walking on water as an example of Peter loosing faith in himself. If that was the case then why didn't Jesus give him stick for losing Faith in himself? This sounds more like pop psychology than biblically sound doctrine. Faith is taking God at his word, believing that God is who he says he is and it is a gift from God. I don't think Jesus got frustrated with us because he could see how much potential we had here on earth, I think His frustration shows us his humanity, and how he struggled with being fully God and fully Human.

His view of the atonement - saying that there are forgiven people in hell - whats up with that. I dont think Rob has done his homework on the atonement. If there are people in hell who's sins are forgiven then Jesus failed at what he did on the cross. Either that or he just made salvation possible for everyone, and secure for no one.

His view on the environment - every christian is an environmentalist? Surely not....I cannot imagine Paul and the apostles hugging trees or crying over the killing of animals. If anything in Genesis 1-2 we see that creation was incomplete without man, and that man was made to subdue the earth and be fruitful and multiply. The creation was made for our enjoyment.
I agree that mindless destruction of that is not the way forward, but hugging trees and becoming environmentalists can distract us from the true freedom we have.

His view on the Christian faith - Sure i'm up for "always reforming" but surely that doesnt mean repainting the Christian faith entirely? There are many sound doctrines that are clearly set forth in scripture that do not need to be repainted, or rehashed. I agree that we need to work these doctrines out as to what they mean for our culture today, theology must always be done in context.

These are just some of them, and I'm concerned that this book will not edify the body of Christ as much as Rob intends it to.
What do you think about Rob bell? Any other comments about his book(s)?? Good or Bad i'm after some perspective.

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Grant,

I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on it, but thanks for bringing this up. I had no idea Rob Bell was of that stripe and my church has been using his Nooma videos in some of our home group meetings. I may need to view those with a more critical eye and discontinue their usage.

Cale

or is Rob Bell speaking in a language that this generation understands?

I have also watched some of the Nooma DVD's .... and yes there are some things that make me want to get my bible to check it out .....

Which is not a bad thing !!!! .... they make us think!

But one of the most brilliant things I have seen in a good long while is Rob Bell's DVD called "Everything is Spiritual" .... it discusses Genesis and Christianity bringing in scientific findings from physics and cosmology ....

If I had teenagers going off to a secular university/college, I would make sure they had a copy to take with them.

in Christ

Dinah

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I havent seen that Everythings spiritual DVD but I have seen some NOOMAS - I'm happy with those. He's asking questions a lot of people are, and its making him popular. My problem is not with his noomas its with his book velvet elvis to keep that in perspective.

He's speaking to a whole generation of post modern people, saved and unsaved, and possibly telling them what they want to hear? I don't know - the whole emergent church / post modern movement is very hard to pin down, and by no means solely represented in Rob's church.

As I said before I had some specific concerns about the book and what he is propogating. I don't think its helpful for the body.

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Having read Velvet Elvis a couple times also, I understand your concerns (and respect the fact that you read it before having issue with him which is more than I can say for a lot of people I know), but at the same time I think Rob Bell has some pretty solid contributions to make. Being from his area in MI, I have visited Mars Hill (his church) a dozen or so times over the last few years, and often come away with an appreciation for aspects of our faith that to often are overlooked in Evangelicalism.

The idea of community and social justice not only is instrumental to his theology and frequently neglected by the American church, but more importantly these are not faddish principles, they leap off the pages of the Prophets and the Gospels especially if we have eyes to see.

Also, I think his focus on the environment (which in his sermons does not amount to tree hugging) is rooted solidly in A) the fact that God in Genesis put humanity on earth at least in part to care for his good creation, and B) the creation really is a good thing that matters to God, and as we see in Romans 8/ Revelation 22 our future hope is a resurrected life on precisely this restored creation.

Certainly we should approach Bell and all human theologians with discernment, but if he can bring these themes to more prominence in the Church, and challenge Christians to think more deeply and critically about their faith than we ought to thank him for that. Also, I can't say that Rob Bell is exactly 'emergent', a lot of his ideas and focuses come from authors who are not emergent themselves and much of the stuff that McLaren and others say I would be pretty shocked to hear at Mars.

mslater link removed

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I haven't read Velvet Elvis though I've been told to and I've got a brother and several friends that have. My general rule of thumb is if they're not dead or unpopular they're probably not worth reading. I'm not a fan of fad books. As to what I can say about the topic, if you google search mark driscoll and rob bell you'll eventually find a couple interviews or articles where Driscoll lays into some of these very concerns being raised here. Having heard Driscoll's reasons and seen no fruit from Rob Bell in my friends I don't expect I'll ever read him. Also, today I read an article on Driscoll's Mars Hill site about some interesting stuff happening under Bell's leaderhsip. Check that out here.

Seems to me that this is a theme of those who dismiss Bell and others like him who are saying important things for the Church to hear, the ‘I’ve never read it but he is wrong’ position. You don’t have to agree with Rob Bell, I dont always agree with what he writes, but please, if your going to take issue with any authors theology read them for what they are really saying ,and not just what their detractors say who rarely if ever display them in the proper light since they are trying to disprove them.
Also, not every theologian who is alive and widely read is a ‘fad’. Indeed an unwillingness to engage what is current in theology and instead cling to a very specific range of historical authors very much limits one in theological learning. Also, it often leads to an unfortunate Christian sectarianism which relies on certain authors one sympathizes with and ignores those one dislikes, real life and real theology is much more complicated than that.




Driscoll has his own issues and reasons for dissing Bell, not all of which are well founded. Regardless, I think it is a disservice to any author (from Calvin to Barth to Erickson etc) to judge their validity by our opinions of certain peoples actions who may like their books…

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Pastor Bob DeWaay wrote a rather extensive review of this book in his Critical Issues Commentary.

http://cicministry.org/commentary/worldview0029.htm

My General concern with Bell is that he plays fast and loose with the biblical text, and his movement needs some solid exegetical and theological work behind it if it is to have any lasting meaning. I respect the work he's done, and is continuing to do, but there needs to be something solid behind his reasoning otherwise it will just be another fad.

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I wouldn't really say that Bell plays "fast and loose" with scripture...his training and perspective are largely based in traditional Jewish understandings of scripture, which can be drastically different from most "evangelical" theological concepts, but it really just boils down to how we interpret the Bible. Bell, like most theologians who study higher criticism, doesn't seem to take every single word literally. Literalism is very problematic anyway, but to deny it doesn't mean that you're "wrong", just that you have a different perspective. And one of the points he makes in this book is that we've dug ourselves into a rut of believing that scripture means one and only one thing to every single person, but it's just not logical.

I for one very much enjoy his perspective...and if you think he's radical, try reading some Shelby Spong. That oughta rattle your cage a little.

I began reading it and it really hit me wrong. I told the store owner and he said he had some concerns. I whent on and read some other books and increased in my understanding of what I believed,( I was fresh and green. New you might say) and eventually came back to Velvet Elvis and began reading it again. I was able to appreciate it more and actualy bought several coppies to give away. That wa years ago, 5 or 6 years. Not to long ago I saw it in another book store and picked it up and began reading in a random spot. I was shocked. Almost everything I read seemd almost heredical. I can appreciate some of his views but I would not want it to be what my children learned from.