TO THOSE AT MARS HILL



If you’re reading this, and you attend Mars Hill, you’re probably wondering, “Why does this guy hate my pastor so much?”  My response to Rob Bell’s book has nothing to do with liking or hating Rob Bell personally.  I’ve never met Rob Bell in person, nor have I had any communication with him.  My response is given out of a love for God and His word and a desire to see people understand and know the truth.  It is my desire to see those who have been influenced by Bell’s teachings to come out from under them and to make the word of God their foundation.  You cannot have the word of God as your foundation and adhere to what Rob Bell is teaching in his book, Love Wins.  In fact, if this is how Rob Bell teaches on a regular basis, then I suggest you put on your running shoes and run as far and as fast as you can away from Mars Hill.  It would probably do you good to just take a few months off of going to church and simply sit at home and read and read and re-read the New Testament over and over and over again.  Get out from being under Rob Bell’s teaching and soak yourself in nothing but God’s word.  If you can do that, I guarantee you that you will be a different person in three months.  You will be better for it.

One of the things Rob Bell does continually in his book is to talk about subjects without looking at all the different verses on the topic.  You cannot teach people on the “new meaning” of heaven and hell and salvation if you’re not willing to consider all the verses on a topic.  It would do you good to meditate on this verse:

       “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”  (Psa. 119:160)


It is the entirety of God’s word that is truth.  When you look at all the scriptures on a given topic, then you will be able to discern what the Bible teaches on a topic.  If you just cherry pick verses that agree with your predetermined position, then you will almost always be led into error.  You have to approach God’s word with no predetermined positions or assumptions, and then let the ENTIRETY of God’s word teach you truth on any given matter.  If you want to see just how important God’s word is, read Psalm 119.  The longest Psalm in the Bible is a Psalm about the importance of God’s word.  But the fact is, Rob Bell goes a step further.  Rob Bell obviously doesn’t take the sum of God’s word as truth because he cherry picks verses in his book, while leaving out multitudes of verses that also speak on the subject he’s presenting.  Rob Bell goes beyond that and gives new meanings to biblical words that are already defined by Jesus Himself.  If you love God and His word, then this should be of great concern to you.  In fact, if you do love God and His word and you attend Mars Hill, then you are probably already troubled by what you see and hear, and what I’m writing isn’t really all that surprising to you.

Remember, when you stand before God to be judged and to give an account of your life, Rob Bell will not be standing beside you in your defense (2 Cor. 5:10).  You will be accountable for what is written in your Bible.  Putting your faith in what Rob Bell or any other man says will not be a defense before God, if you end up believing and walking in a lie.  So again, I encourage you to take a few months off of going to church and just stay home and read and re-read your Bible.  Over and over and over again.  God will be faithful to teach you the truth. 

From experience, I already know how many people from Mars Hill will react regarding what I’ve written about Rob Bell.  For most people, they will not be able to get past the person, the personality.  You will be angry that someone has spoken “against” your pastor.  Your defense will not be the word of God, but it will be the person of Rob Bell.  Rob Bell is probably a nice guy.  He’s probably a caring guy.  In a way, he seems to be concerned about people.  He’s concerned about social justice.  He may have even impacted your life in a positive way, to some degree.  Because of this, you will naturally have a tendency to want to defend him.  I can understand those feelings.  But the great question is, whom do you love more?  Do you love God more or Rob Bell?  Whose word do you value more?  Whose word has more authority in your life?  Some of you will say God’s, but then you will not properly evaluate what Rob Bell says in light of God’s word.  That shows that you’ve put a man above God, and it show where your true allegiance is.  I used to go to a church that had much in common with Mars Hill.  The pastor there used to tell me, “Some people value relationships over truth, and some people value truth over relationships.”  He said this as if they were both equal.  But in God’s kingdom, you must always value truth over relationships.  That’s why Jesus said he did not come to bring peace but a sword. 

       Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For
       I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law 
       against her mother-in-law. 

       And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is 
       not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  (Mat. 10:34-37)

Can you believe that Jesus, the social justice peacemaker, came to divide families?  Does Jesus value relationship over truth or truth over relationships?  Jesus says that following the truth about Him will cause divisions, even divisions in one’s own family, and Jesus says that He came to bring this about.  Then Jesus says that if you love father or mother more than Him that you are not worthy of Him.  You can say you love Jesus, but if you put another person, even your own parents or children, above Christ, then you are not worthy of Christ.  If you put the person of Rob Bell above the truth of what Jesus Christ has taught, then you are not worthy of Jesus.  Those are not my words; that is clearly what Jesus Himself taught in Mat. 10:34-37.  Your willingness, or unwillingness, to search the scriptures and see if what Rob Bell has said is true, seeing that he is your pastor, will tell whether you put Jesus first or your pastor. 

So before you get upset with me and send me an angry email, please take the time to go through what both Rob Bell and I have written.  Check it against the word of God.  Read the scriptures in context and let God show you what His word teaches.  If you have a hard time believing that your pastor could write something that is wrong, then pretend Love Wins was written by some guy named Jon Doe.  Take your pastor out of the mix, if you can, and try to just evaluate what he has said by the word of God alone.  And please realize, I don’t encourage you to do this because I hate Rob Bell or just want to be antagonistic.  I do this because I want you to understand the truth that the Bible teaches, because I care, because God cares.  I want you to understand the truth about God and all His attributes.  I’m not trying to get you to go to my church or join some denomination.  My desire is that you would simply have a love for God’s word that supersedes a love for any man.  Having that type of love will save you from being swallowed up in the delusion and apostasy that so many find themselves in today…especially when the apostasy is cloaked in “good works.” 

So how will you respond?

Will you test all things?  (1 Thes. 5:21)

Or

Will you allow yourself to be led into a ditch?  (Luke 6:39)

May the Lord give you the grace needed to walk in truth.  


IN Christ,

Sean Scott

www.hellsbell.net
contacthellsbell @ Gmail.com


Click here to read:  Social Justice Jesus And His Disobedient Followers