Love Win's Critique: Chapter 1 (What About the Flat Tire?)

The purpose of this posting is to critically examine Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins. As with most of my other posts, I need to put down a few disclaimers…

1. Although he might be mistaken, Rob Bell is none the less a great influence in the world today and is a great pastor. Although I disagree with his views, I will not claim him to be a liar, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or the like.

2. In this post I will NOT prove Rob Bell wrong, instead I will state why he could be wrong and whatever evidence against his views. I am not God, only God knows the truth I can only get so close with human reasoning.

3. I will be using the NIV version of the bible unless otherwise noted.

4. In order to get the most out of this attempt, I will be writing a post on each chapter of his book. I cannot promise when or how often these will be written due to my busy college schedule but I will try my best.

5. Before writing each post, I will read the chapter in its entirety.

6. All of these points go for the upcoming writings as well.

Chapter 1: What About the Flat Tire?

In this chapter, Rob Bell introduces many questions to how one is saved. He gets these questions through many scripture verses. Here is a quote of after he introduces all of the questions…

“Is it what you say,

or who you are,

or what you do,

or what you say you’re going to do,

or who your friends are,

or who you’re married to,

Or is it what questions you’re asked?

Or is it what questions you ask in return?

Or is it when you do what you’re told and go into the city?”

This chapter is unfortunately a mere introduction and is not open to too much discussion. I will note one thing though. In each of the examples Rob bell uses, Jesus is the main foundation. All of these questions point to the simplicity of recognizing who Jesus is.

Until next time!

Josh Buel

A Critique of Camping’s Judgment day

This purpose of this blog is to offer logical reasons of why Harold Camping is mistaken in his claim that the world will end on May 21st, 2011. Please first note the following disclaimers.

1. I AM Bible believing Christian and I believe Judgment day will eventually come, perhaps even in my life time come.

2. Although I do believe Harold Camping is wrong, I respect him as an intelligent theologian and recognize he also is a Bible believing Christian.

3. I will be using the NIV version of the entire Holy Bible. (unless otherwise noted)

4. This Blog CAN NOT determine if Harold camping’s claims are right or wrong, it is simply a critical view of his opinions and the reader is encouraged to ponder which view is more plausible.

From here after, I will be reading through and quoting Harold Camping’s text posted on the family radio website. After each step I will explain or criticize what he has said. I will be using the following URL for his claims (http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/judgment/judgment.html)

“All quoted passages from this document will be in BOLD, all scripture quoted from the NIV will be in Italics"
The beginning of the document mainly deals with the truth of the bible and who God is, which I will assume is true. So, I will skip down to the first point of disagreement…

However, the Holy Bible tells us that Holy God is a God of great mercy, compassion and love. That is why He has given us in advance of the destruction the exact time of the Day of Judgment. The Bible tells us in Amos 3:7:
Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth his secret unto His servants the prophets.
There is no debate that God is a God of mercy, compassion and love.

The mercy however is not in the form of a date or time that he will return, but the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. It is important in scripture reading to look at the entire context of each verse. Amos 3:7 is a section of Amos that is speaking to the Israelites and their sins. In this chapter the prophet Amos is warning Israel of God’s impending wrath. Amos 3:13-15...

Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the LORD God Almighty. 14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the LORD.

As one can see, the quoted verse is taken out of biblical context; this cannot be seen as an indication of a date being revealed.

This next quote from Harold Camping’s document talks about the timing of God and how, mathematically, we can prove the year of judgment…

In 2 Peter 3:8, which is quoted above, Holy God reminds us that one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day. Because Holy Infinite God is all- knowing, He knows the end from the beginning. He knew how sinful the world would become. Seven thousand years after 4990 B.C. (the year of the Flood) is the year 2011 A.D. (our calendar).
4990 + 2011 - 1 = 7,000
[One year must be subtracted in going from an Old Testament B.C. calendar date to a New Testament A.D. calendar date because the calendar does not have a year zero.]
Thus Holy God is showing us by the words of 2 Peter 3:8 that He wants us to know that exactly 7,000 years after He destroyed the world with water in Noah's day, He plans to destroy the entire world forever.

There are two things wrong with this assumption. Firstly, 2nd Peter 3:8 again is misinterpreted. For reference, here is the complete verse. 2nd Peter 3:8…

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

One should notice now what the problem is with Camping’s translation. Although 2nd peter is indeed talking about judgment day, this verse is not meant to be taken literally as 1 day being mathematically equivalent of 1 year. If we did take this verse literally, 7000 years would have only been a week, in which we would be surely dead by now. The point is that God did not intend for this to be a message bet a metaphor of God’s mysteriousness and that his time scheme is not the same as ours. In fact, this passage is quoted from Psalm 90 when Moses is praying. Here is Psalm 90:4…

A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

Perhaps a better explanation of the context of 2nd Peter 3:8 would be the verses directly after it. Here is 2nd Peter 3:9-10

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

As one can see, these verses relate to God’s merciful and mystical nature, not about a specific date or even year of when he is returning.
The second problem with this thought is actually Ironic. Just 2 verses after 2nd Peter 3:8, we have Peter describing that the Lord will come like a THEIF. One should ask, why didn’t Peter say it will come like a parade or a rainstorm after dark clouds? That is because Peter is specific about what it will be like. Dictionary.com defines a thief as follows…

“a person who steals, especially secretly or without open force” (emphasis added)

Peter was deliberate when he used the term “Thief”. He meant to say that no one knows when the Lord will return. Consider someone said this: “Someone is going to steal from you in about a month, you should prepare.” What would you say to this? I would hope that you would at least be skeptical, knowing that a thief does not steal if he knows that someone is prepared. Harold Camping is the person saying this, only on a larger scale. I sincerely hope that you are at least skeptical.

I hope this text is making the gears in your head turn. Please leave any comments or questions you may have or even request me to write on another topic.

Also, I realize that there are other documents that attempt to prove that judgment day is in May 2011. I may get to them sometime, if you would like me to write about a specific quote or topic concerning this issue PLEASE EMAIL OR COMMENT!

God Bless!