I’m starting this blog post by setting out, up front, that I am NOT jumping into the debate around whether or not Rob Bell is a heretic, universalist, or anything else for that matter. In fact, I’m going to leave Rob and his new book, Love Wins, out of this. I am not a theologian, and I am not interested in taking a side on whether or not this book will damn anyone to the hell they don’t believe in.
I might have just lost a lot of you who thought this was yet more fodder for Bell bashing, but if you are still reading this, you might be asking yourself why on earth I would start a blog post like that in light of the recent thunderbolt that struck the Twitterverse on this subject and its aftermath. The truth is I’ve been more focused on the reaction than the debate, in an effort to understand why there is a tendency to name and classify absolutely everything and every thought around us.
I realized this morning that the answer to my question was in Genesis 2:19, where we learn that “the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” God actually brought each living thing to Adam so that he could name it. Adam gave it a name, and it was so. Adam was given the exclusive right to name that which he was given dominion over in the Garden of Eden. This verse points to a “soul DNA” explanation for man to have the propensity to classify and name the things around them.
There where however, exceptions – two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, were named by God. The latter was specifically excluded from man’s control – eating from that tree was the only prohibited act in the garden. Man’s tendency to name and differentiate theology, movements, and schools of thought just might be an sinful overextension of the naming rights that were given to man in the Garden.
I would be cautious about naming anything that God didn’t bring to me for that purpose, and I’d be just as careful about what knolwedge trees I am eating from too.
So true! This whole thing about Rob Bell and his book is so ugly, arrogant, and judgemental. I haven’t read the book and actually don’t intend to. How could I possibly critique or judge the message or the intent. All the fuss came even before the book was released, and people read it completely. I also wouldn’t comment on someone’s work unless I spoke to the author in person. It is about relationship, and to understand the author’s clear intent. At that point I could agree or disagree, without attacking and condemning.