Book Preview: Francis Chan Tackles 'Love Wins'

From Charisma News Online:
In response to Rob Bell's controversial Love Wins, David C. Cook is rushing out former pastor and best-selling author Francis Chan's third book.

Scheduled for release July 5, Erasing Hell: What God Said About Eternity and the Things We Make Up "promises to be both controversial and confessional, directly addressing a variety of views on hell, the Bible and God," Cook said.

Co-written by Bible college professor Preston Sprinkle, the book will offer a comprehensive and thorough study on God's character, Chan said. Erasing Hell "is not a book that tells you 'here's what you ought to believe,'" Chan said in a video trailer for the book. "It's a book that helps you think through all the evidence out there—all of what Scripture teaches—and come to your own conclusions. ... We can't afford to be wrong about this issue."
Full article here. 

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I've watched the YouTube video preview of Francis Chan's upcoming book, Erasing Hell, and it looks promising. I certainly have what I believe to be a biblically sound view on this, so I dont expect or hope for this book to in any way shape my theology on this issue, but I actually look forward to this book being released. It seems like it will provide a good counterbalance to the Rob Bell's horribly heretical take on the issue and doctrine of hell. I dont think I'll be running out to buy Erasing Hell the day it's released, but I expect to get a hold of a copy soon enough. I hope it's as good as the preview video makes it seem it will be.

I especially like Chan's rationale and arguments about us humans needing to be careful not to try to subject the actions of the almighty God to our own human moral perspective. We should never forget we are mental, intellectual, and moral gnats compared to the mind and holiness of the God of Heaven. Anyway, the video speaks for itself. I certainly wont endorse the man's book before it's even released, but he seems to be already making some good points worth considering at this time.

Reflections On The "Rapture" That Didn't Happen.

 

 

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matt: 7:15)

It’s the day after. May 21,2011 has come and gone, and the supposed apocalypse has become the no-pocalypse. I find myself disturbed, saddened, and quite ticked off just surveying the after effects of the travesty of Harold Camping’s latest false prophecy --- after-effects which I think will linger for quite some time.  

At this moment Mr. Camping is missing in action (see story here)... perhaps hidden in an undisclosed location since being exposed as a fraud once again. This is not his first rapture prophecy that didn't come true; why anyone would ascribe ANY credibility at all to this man is beyond me.

By the way, I don’t feel like sugar coating my words here, so please don’t leave me any comments chiding me for being “too harsh” toward “Brother Camping”. First off, he’s not “a brother” in Christ by any means, and secondly, as far as I’m concerned, this false prophet deserves all the harshness he gets.

Anyway, reflecting on all this….

I feel bad for his duped followers who who sold their homes, others who quit their jobs, and those who practically emptied their bank accounts in anticipation of Mr. Camping's doomsday --- people such as Robert Fitzpatrick of New York, who spent $140,000 of his own money on this foolishness. (Story here) .
Then again, if people would just believe the word of God instead of the word of man, they'd save themselves a whole lot of grief. NO MAN KNOWS THE DAY NOR THE HOUR (Matt: 24:36). It was true when Jesus said it, and it's still true today. Anyone who chooses to believe what man says -- in contradiction to the words of Jesus -- is simply setting himself up for heartbreak... or worse.

I definitely feel bad for the children of these deluded followers who got caught up in this ---- children whose faith may well be irreparably damaged because of this debacle. How many of these kids will simply lose faith and totally harden themselves to the word of God after going through this experience? God only knows. The NY Times has a good story on the effect Camping and his doomsday scenario was having on families (like the Haddad-Carson family of Middletown, MD), who were being divided by his message. (Story here)

One preacher says Camping should repent for his false prophecy and the people he’s misled (story here.) But if he didn’t repent after his 1994 false prophecy, I don’t expect him to repent for his 2011 false prophecy. The man is simply shameless.

Clearly, the image of Christianity as a whole suffers, because this kind of nonsense reflects poorly on Christianity as a whole, whether we like it or not. This just gives mockers and skeptics another opportunity to blaspheme, and just makes it that much harder to reach people with the true gospel when people are continually exposed to the kind of flakiness promoted by people like Harold Camping and others of his ilk.  

To an extent, the advancement of the gospel is hindered, at least in the short term, since this just makes Christians seem like a bunch of crackpots. God only knows how many will point to this May 21 debacle as a reason they’ve become totally skeptical regarding Christianity. For some, this will just be a convenient excuse of course, but regardless, it just plays into the Devil’s hands as he tries to people’s minds and harden their hearts toward the gospel of Jesus. To be perfectly blunt, with this crazy deluded stunt, Harold Camping has done more to help the work of Satan than the work of God. The man should be ashamed of himself. But I doubt that he is. Truly the Devil is the author of confusion, and Harold Camping and Family Radio have become an instrument of the Enemy, who have done nothing here but serve to undermine and discredit the true saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

I consider this man to be nothing more than another of those wolves in sheeps clothing that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 7:15. Unfortunately, there will be more; and as bad as I consider Camping to be, many of those to come will be actually much worse than he is, as hard as that might be to imagine right now. May the Lord give wisdom to His people in these last days.