by Larry DeBruyn
A Critique of Rob Bell’s Pan-Spiritual Worldview
“Some have wandered away from . . . a sincere faith and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.” (1 Timothy 1:5-7)
Among emergent church leaders there exists a growing trend to merge the secular with the sacred, to mingle the unspiritual and the spiritual. Emergent reality is viewed to be a monistic whole. For example, Rob Bell states that, “everyone is spiritual.” He says,
Maybe you’ve heard somebody say, “I’m just not into spiritual things.” Are you . . . are you a human being? Yea! Too late! The issue is not whether you’re a spiritual being, or you have a spirituality. The issue is whether your eyes are open and you’re aware of it. You cannot deny what is central to your make-up as a human being. In the Hebrew language there is no word for spiritual. If you would have said to Jesus, “Jesus, how’s your spiritual life?” What? What do you mean? Because to label one area spiritual is to label areas not spiritual. It’s absolutely foreign to the world of the Scriptures. It’s absolutely foreign to the worldview of Jesus. The assumption is that you are a fusion of two realms. And a human being occupies a totally unique place in the universe . . . Everything we do, we do as an integrated being–one-hundred percent physical, one-hundred percent spiritual.
To prove his everything/everyone-is-spiritual templet, Bell quotes Colossians 3:17 where Paul states, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus . . .” He then concludes,
What were they saying? Every act is a spiritual act. It’s whether or not you’re aware of the implications of what you’re doing. [1]
While in contrast to the Greek language (adjective, pneumatikos), there is no Hebrew word “spiritual” per se, that does not mean that the concept of it is foreign to the Old Testament. Paul wrote of the Exodus Israelites:
“Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” (Emphasis Mine, 1 Corinthians 10:1-5)
Are we also prepared to say that like Abraham and David, Saul and other of Israel’s and Judah’s wicked kings were spiritual, but just didn’t know it? Are we to think that the idolatrous Israelites were spiritual in a Godward way (See Exodus 32:1.), and just didn’t know it?
Bell’s sweeping generalizations, especially from the perspective of the New Covenant, are not true. Jesus did not affirm a monistic pan-spiritual worldview. He told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). The apostle Paul also distinguished between a “natural man” and a “spiritual man,” between persons who have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, and those who do not (1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:9). Therefore, he told the Corinthians that, “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Paul contrasted that person to the spiritual individual who “appraises all things” (1 Corinthians 2:15). Paul also states that “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7; Read 8:5-9; Compare Romans 7:14.). He contrasted “the deeds of the flesh” with “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-24). Not everyone and not everything everyone does is spiritual.
In contrast to what Bell confidently affirms, pan-spirituality is not the scriptural worldview, and if such an assumption is scripturally and spiritually inaccurate, then so too are the interpretations, implications and applications arising out of it. This is why John admonished believers, “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
Pastor Larry DeBruyn
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FOOTNOTE
[1] Transcribed from “Rob Bell: Everything is Spiritual,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poi3imQkQsQ.
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