Reflections from Your Assistant Librarian

 

Over the past 3 months I've been working at the TBS library.
It's a pretty sweet gig, patrolling over 15,000 books and over 1000 journals.
The bulk of them are theology books, but also history, language, biography, and philosophy.

Working here has taught me 2 things:
1 - Out of all the books that I could be reading here,
I want to first be reading the Bible. No book is greater than God's Word.
2 - From the books that I will get to read even if I read on average 1/week that averages to 1000-3000 for my lifetime (that's read, not speed-read). TOPS.
Conclusion - I better pick good ones to spend my time on.

Now for some obvious reasons - for academia, school, job - we won't get to pick a large portion of these - maybe up to 300 of them.
So that's 10-30% of our reading - gone.

So what about books from Inveterate Syncretists like Rob Bell?
Should we read his books? Maybe - for your job or school.
By choice? I wouldn't recommend it.
All you need to do is watch this interview of him and read this one and that should about sum up his position.
Why don't you bash his new book Scott? Honestly - I'm not going to read it. So I won't, if you have - do it in love, praying to restore him - and you should mail his church your review of it: 3501 Fairlanes Ave, Grandville, MI 49418.

Agreeing with John MacArthur here, Bell's position is pretty clear.
His illustrations from life are lucid and clear and his rationale persuades many.
But does it stem from the Bible?
How does he even use the Bible?
It's pretty clear from his own mouth that the Bible and it's logic doesn't coincide with his. Rather he shapes his logic from ripped pieces of the Bible. Laying his own context and redefining the terms that the authors use.
Unless you need to read his material, don't.

Read your Bible and read recommended works by pastors and theologians who you trust, who affirm God's Truth as revealed in the Bible. Who affirm salvation through faith and repentance in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean only read theology or Christian biographies. Read novels, history, adventure, bio, autobio, and philosophy! Read lots and choose wisely. Not only in theology books, but in everything you get to read. Recognize God's sovereignty in your finite choice. It's true though, we won't get to read them all.