Dr Paul Allen

OPRAH, ANUS. ANUS, OPRAH. (Photo credit: nayrb7 ) Oprah Winfrey has long been the leader in American guru aggregation, rounding up doctors, psychologists, planners, soothsayers, do-gooders, pastors, rabbis, and emotive specialists from all corners of life. Yet amidst the seeming diversity and specialization, the overall themes are rather predictable. Look inside yourself. Be yourself. Improve yourself. Launch yourself. Love yourself. And love others, too, I suppose. Yet lo and behold, Oprah’s Big-Tent Self-Helpism is about to expand its posts once again. This fall, Oprah will rally a handful of preferred prophets and “tastemakers” to embark on an eight-city weekend tour,  “The Life You Want,”  a celebration aptly titled for the self-obsessed. Though a tour of this variety is a first for Enterprise Oprah, and despite the booming promise of the  promotional trailer  — “ Oprah like you’ve never seen, heard, or experienced! ” — the aim and agenda are rather routi

Dante And Virgil In Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1850) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The wisdom of this question, I would argue, is that it gets at the real horror of hell. A lake of fire is a frightening thought indeed. The greater dread, however, is the duration of hell, that it never ends. This, I suspect, is what tempts some to try to tweak the church's historic view on hell, including everyone from John Stott to Rob Bell . Is it possible to posit a truly terrifying, painful hell that only lasts a time? Can we affirm the just judgment of God, and still hope that it will one day come to an end? Well yes you can posit it, but in so doing you would expose a lack of understanding of the scope of the evil of our sin, and a lack of understanding of the nature of God 's judgment. Sin, the church has argued, must be punished infinitely because we sin against an infinitely holy God. The problem with taking a cookie out of the cookie jar isn't the cookie, nor the c

Image via Wikipedia I suppose there is no topic in Christian theology more difficult to deal with, particularly on an emotional level, than the doctrine of hell.  In fact, the doctrine has become so controversial that it is almost never addressed! We seem to be allergic to any serious discussion of the doctrine of hell. In fact, there has probably never been a time in the history of the church when more people have challenged this doctrine than in our own day.  Liberal theologians like Rob Bell , of course, completely dismiss it as part of the mythological worldview of primitive people, a concept unworthy of the love of God and of Jesus .  Others, even within the professing evangelical camp, have created quite a stir by suggesting the doctrine of annihilationism, which says that the ultimate judgment of the sinner is not ongoing, eternal punishment in a place called hell, but simply the annihilation of the person’s existence, and that the great punishment, the great loss, that

Image via Wikipedia Written by RC Sproul.  I suppose there is no topic in Christian theology more difficult to deal with, particularly on an emotional level, than the doctrine of hell. In fact, the doctrine has become so controversial that it is almost never addressed. We seem to be allergic to any serious discussion of the doctrine of hell. In fact, there has probably never been a time in the history of the church when more people have challenged this doctrine than in our own day.  Liberal theologians completely dismiss it as part of the mythological worldview of primitive people, a concept unworthy of the love of God and of Jesus . Others, even within the professing evangelical camp, have created quite a stir by suggesting the doctrine of annihilationism, which says that the ultimate judgment of the sinner is not ongoing, eternal punishment in a place called hell, but simply the annihilation of the person’s existence, and that the great punishment, the great loss, that accom

Image by williamhartz via Flickr This week Rob Bell is in the UK and will be speaking at a number of events around the country. Our prayer is that many will see through his emotional appeals to the error that lies beneath. Rob argues in his book  Love Wins  that “No one can resist God ’s pursuit forever because God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (page 108).  Yet elswhere  he claims not to be a universalist . Therefore,  to be fair to him  and in the spirit of my  Arminocalvinist Spectrum  and  Evolution vs Creationism Spectrum  We need to construct a similar outline of different perspectives on this fundemental issue of whether there is a hell or not and hence whether everyone is saved. Five possible positions about hell and whether all are saved: All are saved irrespective of what they do or believe in this life or the next . I.e. Faith in Jesus is in no way necessary for salvation , and God saves all however they respond to him. All are saved irr

Image via Wikipedia Albert Molher: author The edition of  TIME  magazine timed for Easter Week features a cover story on the controversy over Rob Bell and his new book,  Love Wins . Interestingly, the essay is written by none other than Jon Meacham , the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former editor of  Newsweek  – TIME ’s historic competitor. Meacham, who studied theology as an undergraduate at the University of the South , helpfully places Rob Bell in the larger context of modern theology, even as he offers a basically sympathetic analysis. Meacham explains: The standard Christian view of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is summed up in the Gospel of John , which promises “eternal life” to “whosoever believeth in Him.” Traditionally, the key is the acknowledgment that Jesus is the Son of God , who, in the words of the ancient creed, “for us and for our salvation came down from heaven … and was made man.” In the Evangelical ethos, one either accep