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Assassin Sirhan Sirhan says he can't remember shooting RFK
Amplify’d from endrtimes.blogspot.com
Assassin Sirhan Sirhan says he can't remember shooting RFK
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- More than four decades after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, his convicted murderer wants to go free for a crime he says he can't remember.
It is not old age or some memory-snatching disease that has erased an act Sirhan Bishara Sirhan once said he committed "with 20 years of malice aforethought." It's been this way almost from the beginning. Hypnotists and psychologists, lawyers and investigators have tried to jog his memory with no useful result.
Now a new lawyer is on the case and he says his efforts have also failed.
"There is no doubt he does not remember the critical events," said William F. Pepper, the attorney who will argue for Sirhan's parole Wednesday. "He is not feigning it. It's not an act. He does not remember it."
Sirhan may not remember much about the night of June 4, 1968, but the world remembers.
They have heard how Sirhan was grabbed as he emptied a pistol in the crowded kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel here where Kennedy stood moments after claiming victory in the California presidential primary. They heard how he kept firing even as his hand was pinned to a table. They heard how Kennedy, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was shot and died, changing the course of American history.
Parole Board members are bound to review those facts, but they won't consider the many conspiracy theories floated over the years.
Pepper, a New York-based lawyer who also is a British barrister, is the latest advocate of a second gunman theory. Believers claim 13 shots were fired while Sirhan's gun held only eight bullets and that the fatal shot appeared to come from behind Kennedy while Sirhan faced him.
Pepper also suggests Sirhan was "hypno-programmed," turning him into a virtual "Manchurian Candidate," acting robot-like at the behest of evil forces who then wiped his memory clean. It's the stuff of science fiction and Hollywood movies, but some believe it is the key.
How Pepper plans to use any of this to his client's advantage remains to be seen because it will have little bearing on the decision of the panel that must determine if Sirhan is suitable for parole. The board is not being asked to retry the case and lawyers may not present evidence relating to guilt or innocence.
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A Safe Refuge
Amplify’d from endrtimes.blogspot.com
A Safe Refuge
Our God is a God of mercy. With long-sufferance and tender compassion He deals with the transgressors of His law. . . . The Lord bears long with men, and with cities, mercifully giving warnings to save them from divine wrath; but a time will come when pleadings for mercy will no longer be heard. . . {Mar 67.2}
The conditions prevailing in society, and especially in the great cities of the nations, proclaim in thunder tones that the hour of God's judgment is come and that the end of all things earthly is at hand. We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another--fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed. . . {Mar 67.3}
The storm of God's wrath is gathering; and those only will stand who respond to the invitations of mercy, . . . and become sanctified through obedience to the laws of the divine Ruler. The righteous alone will be hid with Christ in God till the desolation be overpast. Let the language of the soul be:
"Other refuge have I none;
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, Oh leave me not alone!
Still support and comfort me.
"Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide;
Oh, receive my soul at last!"Maranatha, p.67
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Your Day in “Religion of Peace” “Peacefulness”: Islamic Terrorist Came Thru Mexico, Targeted Jews
Amplify’d from www.debbieschlussel.com
It’s odd that we haven’t heard much about the case of Brahim Lajqi, which has been going on for a few years. Maybe that’s because he fits none of the narratives that liberals, open borders advocates, and Muslim apologists want us to believe. Lajqi, an Albanian Muslim who trained in Bosnian Islamic terrorist training camps came here illegally, arriving in the U.S. through the Mexican border. He falsified immigration documents, and took steps to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Oh, and then there’s that one other tiny detail: he made threats against Jews, whom he specifically wanted to kill. But, strangely, as reader Duane points out, he wasn’t charged with committing a hate crime. Hey, anti-Semitism is still in fashion. (Just ask Charlie Sheen and John Galliano.) And by the way, Lajqi was here since the mid-1980s. So much for the myth that American culture “moderates” Muslims. We know it does not. They just adopt it for their jihadist purposes.
Shukran [Thanks], America, For Letting Us In to Carry Out Our Jihad
A Silver Spring man convicted of falsifying immigration documents had threatened to blow up the White House, the U.S. Treasury building, a federal courthouse and a Metro stop, vowing to “slaughter the enemies of Islam,” federal prosecutors said Monday in court.
Brahim Lajqi, 51, was not charged with attempting to carry out any terrorist threats [DS: Why the heck not?!], but prosecutors outlined the allegations in an effort to persuade U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus to impose a penalty harsher than the six months or less in prison recommended by sentencing guidelines.
Titus agreed and handed down a five-year sentence, saying it was necessary for the protection of the public.
“This is a defendant who articulated repeatedly a desire to engage in the most serious form of terrorism aimed at symbols most important to our country, including the White House and the U.S. Capitol,” Titus said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
Lajqi, an ethnic Albanian who came to the United States through Mexico in the mid-1980s, is a self-described “extremist militant,” who said he was trained by Bosnian Muslim rebels, according to court papers. He was angry about American military involvement in Kosovo in the 1990s, and “blamed all Albanian deaths in Kosovo on the United States,” the court papers said. He also talked about targeting Jews, court papers say.
HUH?! Did we not send American bombs and American troops to help these Islamic ingrates against Christians in Kosovo? Yup, they never appreciate when we help them. Serves us right, helping these “peaceful” America-hating, Jew-hating cretins.
Lajqi had previously pleaded guilty to lying on immigration documents. . . .
According to court papers, Lajqi and a confidential informant rode around the Washington area to view potential targets. Lajqi said the White House was his “number one spot” but also talked about targeting a Metro train at rush hour, the papers say.
During another trip, the documents state, he suggested blowing up the Treasury building to “make them bankrupt and broke,” and noted that a dump truck would be a good place to hold explosives.
Lajqi told the informant that he knew of weapons suppliers in Montana and Canada and that one of his brothers had connections, authorities said.
The court papers say that Lajqi told the informant they “deserve a good bomb in Capitol Hill . . . and White House. Maybe Capitol Hill more because lots of Jews live there.” That conversation occurred during a trip they took to West Virginia, where Lajqi unsuccessfully tried to obtain a commercial driver’s license that he said could be used to move weapons.
Only five years for this guy??? He’ll be probably be out in just over three, when he should be in prison for life. I’ve seen drunk drivers–who weren’t targeting America–get far more time. This is absurd.
America . . . desperate but not serious about the Islamic threat.
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Does Iran Govt Read Schlussel Site? Claims “ZION”ist Olympic Logo
Amplify’d from www.debbieschlussel.com
It appears the Government of Iran might be reading this site. Flash back to almost four years ago, when I wrote about the logo for the 2012 Londonistan Olympic Games. I noted that Rumor Mill News–a site run by a couple who claim to have been CIA operatives on whom the government plays mind control games–claimed the logo looks like the word, “Zion.” Well, now, Iran is claiming the same thing.
2012 London Olympic Games Logo . . .
Nearly four years later, the Iranian government (in addition to announcing it won’t allow Iranians to compete against Israeli athletes) has lodged a complaint with the International Olympic Committee and the committee in charge of hosting the London Games, claiming the same thing–the the logo is a secret Zionist plot to push the word “Zion” into our subconscious . . . or something like that. Iran is threatening to boycott the games if the stupid, “Zionist” logo isn’t changed.
“Unscrambled Zionist” 2012 London Olympic Games Logo . . .
Artwork by David Lunde, Design by Debbie Schlussel
More:
Iran objects to the logo for the 2012 London Olympics, contending it is racist [DS: Pot. Kettle. Black.] because it resembles the word “Zion” and warning of a possible boycott of the Games.
The secretary general of Iran’s National Olympic Committee said Iran sent a letter to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge. The letter claims the 2012 logo spells out “Zion,” a biblical term widely recognized to refer to the city of Jerusalem.
In comments carried by the official IRNA news agency Monday, secretary general Bahram Afsharzadeh said the letter urges other Muslim states to oppose the “racist logo.”
“There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries in the Games, especially Iran which abides by commitment to the values and principles,” the letter said.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel’s destruction and questioned historical accounts of the Holocaust.
So, what, if Iran is threatening a boycott. How many Iranian Olympic champions do you remember?
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Nation of Islam convention to include talk of UFOs
Amplify’d from seattletimes.nwsource.com
Nation of Islam convention to include talk of UFOs
The Nation of Islam, long known for its promotion of black nationalism and self-reliance, now is calling attention to another core belief that perhaps isn't so well-known: the existence of UFOs.
Associated Press
The Nation of Islam, long known for its promotion of black nationalism and self-reliance, now is calling attention to another core belief that perhaps isn't so well-known: the existence of UFOs.
When thousands of followers gather in suburban Chicago this weekend for the group's annual Saviours' Day convention, one of the main events will include a panel of scientists discussing worldwide UFO sightings, which they claim are on the rise.
The idea of seeking the divine in the skies is deeply rooted in the Chicago-based Nation of Islam, whose late leader Elijah Muhammad detailed in speeches and writings a massive hovering object loaded with weapons he called "The Mother Plane" - although religion experts, Nation of Islam leaders and believers offer very different interpretations of what exactly happens aboard the plane, its role or how it fits into religious teachings.
It's one of the group's more misunderstood - and ridiculed - beliefs, something organizers took into account when planning the convention, which starts Friday and ends Sunday with Minister Louis Farrakhan's keynote address.
"There's enough evidence that has been put before the world and public," Ishmael Muhammad, the religion's national assistant minister, told The Associated Press. "There have been enough accounts and sightings and enough movies (documentaries) made, I don't think you would find too many people that would call it crazy."
During last year's Saviours' Day speech, Farrakhan for the first time in years discussed in detail a vision he had in Mexico in 1985 involving an object he calls "the wheel." Using charts, photos and drawings, he spent almost four hours describing how he was invited aboard and heard Elijah Muhammad speak to him. Farrakhan says that experience led him to inklings about future events.
Farrakhan, 77, has said the wheel, with its great capacity for destruction, contains the "wisdom to purify the planet," but has harmed no one so far. He also claimed there have been governmental attempts to cover-up proof of the wheel, which he says many call UFOs.
Nation of Islam leaders often quote Biblical references to the prophet Ezekiel - along with Elijah Muhammad's teachings - when it comes to the wheel. In his book of articles on the subject, Muhammad described a planet-sized manmade vessel that orbits earth and is purported to be loaded with 1,500 planes or wheels, words that have since been used interchangeably. Their purpose is unclear.
Some experts have made comparisons to the Biblical concept of Rapture, which teaches believers will be taken up to heaven, while everyone else will remain on earth for a period of torment, concluding with the end of time.
Why the Nation is turning more attention to the wheel now isn't certain. One explanation could be an attempt to keep longtime Nation of Islam followers happy after recent years during which Farrakhan has haltingly tried to move the group toward more mainstream Islam and pushed for the inclusion of other groups like Latinos and immigrants, said Jimmy Jones, a religion professor at Manhattanville College in New York.
The history of the highly-secretive group - which doesn't release membership or the number of mosques - has been marked by splinter groups and fracture.
"This is a way that the Nation of Islam defines itself," said Jones about the wheel's significance.
But Ishmael Muhammad, who is widely considered a potential successor to Farrakhan, said reasons for the recent interest is simply that it's a core belief.
He said the theme of the convention, which commemorates the birth of the religion's founder and is expected to draw more than 10,000 people this weekend, is about scientific analysis. Another session is about natural disasters and what those events mean religiously.
"It is written, that these things would happen," he said about Scripture. "We should prepare for such calamities."
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Wars and rumors of wars
Amplify’d from www.lcg.org
Wars and rumors of wars
Wars and rumors of wars. No, I’m not referring to the name of the third full-length album from the band The Chariot. I’m referring to real wars between nations and ethnic groups all over the world. One cannot read the history of man without reading about the endless conflicts of one tribe massacring another; of one nation at war with another. Century after century, nations and empires arise and then cease to exist as a result of war. And the aftereffects linger for decades, hundreds of thousands of orphaned children, widowed women left homeless, crippled bodies of the survivors, destroyed infrastructure and long-lasting economic ruin.
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars … For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt 24: 6, 7). Christ spoke these words on the Mount of Olives nearly 2,000 years ago. History has proved Him right. In just the last century, over eight million fellow human beings lost their lives in World War I. Almost three times that many were wounded. An additional six million civilians died. Two decades later, World War II posted much larger casualties, with 14 million soldiers losing their lives, and 34 million civilians. World War II was labeled “the war to end all wars.” It was shortly followed by such conflicts as the Korean War, then the Vietnam War. Numerous others occurred, no less devastating for our fellow human beings who were directly affected.
There was the Gulf War with Iraq, wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Tajikistan, Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, Congo, Algeria, Slovenia, Croatia, Abkhazia, Chechen, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Darfur, just to name a few. In addition there are ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria and the Israeli West Bank and Gaza Strip. North Korea and Iran threaten to escalate tensions to the level of war. There is a palpable fear of war between the United States and Iran, Israel and Iran, the United States and North Korea, and North Korea and South Korea.
Waves of civil unrest, demonstrations, riots and chaos are threatening the governments in Egypt, Yemen, North Africa and Algeria, Tunisia and the Ivory Coast. There are rumblings in Burma, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, and Xinjiang in China. Due to failures in prosecuting criminals and militants for the violence they bring, and distrust and growing dissatisfaction with weak or unpopular leaders, there are potential conflicts in Columbia, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Venezuela, Sudan, Tajikistan, Haiti, Guatemala and Mexico. The Middle East is always a powder keg. It is a time of uncertainty, anxiety, and perplexity.
War is now changing. It’s becoming less conventional. It still results in death and destruction, but now it’s called “hybrid war.” It is a fusion of war, terror and crime. There are no clear battle lines, no contested territory and no easily identifiable difference between combatants and noncombatants. The enemy may be a stateless entity and live among the population in urban areas. Movement of the enemy may be on public thoroughfares or even public transportation systems. Targets may be innocent civilians in public places.
As it says in Romans 3:10-17, there is none righteous. None understand and seek after God. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.
Will the prophesied “Battle of Armageddon” soon occur? Will the earth be destroyed? What will happen to you, your family and friends? The Bible reveals horrific and frightening events are just ahead. But it also reveals an encouraging hope. Go online at tomorrowsworld.org, or write today for your free copy of “Armageddon and Beyond.”
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Caritas: the takeover begins
Amplify’d from www.americamagazine.org
What changes are coming to Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s vast global charity? There are many things still unclear about why Lesley-Anne Knight (pictured), CI’s British secretary-general, has been unexpectedly prevented from applying to renew her term. But one thing is in no doubt: the Curia is planning some radical structural changes, and Dr Knight is seen as an obstacle.
“The Holy See wants a change in the way it works with Caritas and says this requires a change in the person of the secretary-general,” reads CI’s February 18 statement.
Caritas is an odd hybrid: both NGO and church organism, at once a single body with its HQ in Rome and a highly decentralized operation, a "Confederation", dependent on local bishops’ conferences. No one questions its size or reach. Its 165 federated organizations – known as Catholic Relief Services in the U.S., Cafod in the UK, but mostly going by the name of Caritas -- assist 24m people worldwide, employing some 440,000 people, with a budget of around $5.5bn. When people talk of the Catholic Church being the world’s largest civil-society organisation, it’s often Caritas, rather than the networks of schools and parishes, which springs to mind.
On 15 February the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, wrote to the bishops’ conferences of the world to explain why the Vatican was not going to renew Dr Knight’s mandate following the CI’s general assembly in May. In the three-page letter, reported by The Tablet last weekend, Cardinal Bertone said Caritas needed a stronger Catholic identity. The next four years, he explained, would need to focus on “harmonizing the theological dimension of Caritas Internationalis … with its role as an organization operating on the international stage”. This would require, he said, greater cooperation with other ecclesial bodies and with Vatican dicasteries that have an “interest” in CI activities. Caritas’s advocacy work, he explained, needs to be better coordinated “in strict cooperation with the Holy See, which is specifically competent in this regard.”
A firmer Catholic identity and tighter bonds with the Vatican? Why not ask Dr Knight to effect these changes?
The head of the Pontifical Council Cor Unam, the Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah, has made clear that her competence is not in question. And Cardinal Bertone in his letter insists that denying her a second term “is in no way to cast doubt on her merits or diminish the appreciation for the services she has already rendered”. Which begs the question of what the problem with her is.
I’ve only met the Zimbabwe-born Dr Knight a couple of times. She radiates intelligence and competence. Colleagues speak of her with great respect. She is sharp and sassy and confident. There are reports that she has drawn the ire of Vatican officials with “occasional blunt criticism about the church bureaucracy”, which sounds like her. But it’s not as if Vatican bureaucracy is above criticism.
Caritas members are appalled. CI’s president, Honduran cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez de Maradiaga, has made clear his “incomprehension” at the decision. The CI bureau -- Cardinal Rodriguez, Knight, the organization's treasurer and seven regional presidents -- met Feb. 5 and asked Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, to discuss the issue. But they had no luck. According to Caritas, its leadership “deeply regrets the decision of the Holy See”.
Dr Knight’s predecessor, Duncan MacLaren, who was secretary-general for two terms (1999-2007), says there is “outrage” in the Confederation, not least because the decision appears to trample on CI’s canonical autonomies. “According to the statutes, a list of candidates must be presented timeously to the Holy See which then rings the secretary of the applicant’s bishops’ conference to ascertain whether the candidate is in good standing with the Church,” he explains on the Australian Jesuit website Eureka Street. The list is then sent to the 165 members of the CI confederation, whose Executive Committee selects its favoured candidate, who is presented to the General Assembly for ratification. “It is completely within the statutory right of the Holy See to refuse even an incumbent candidate,” says MacLaren, “but not to judge how that candidate has fared in his/her job in terms of management”.
In short, the candidate is elected by the members, not appointed by the Holy See. The Vatican’s only role is to ensure that they are in good standing with the local Church. “If Knight was in good standing with the Church four years ago, what has changed?” he asks.
MacLaren’s article suggests longstanding tensions between CI and Cor Unam, the Pope’s organisation for charity. A 2004 letter negotiated with the Holy See, Durante L’Ultima Cena, gives Cor Unum a special role to seguire ad accompagnare the activities of CI. According to MacLaren these words (meaning “to follow and accompany” ) are wrongly translated on the Vatican website as “supervise and guide”, suggesting that Cor Unam has a view of itself as overseeing CI which is not recognized by CI.
MacLaren’s contempt for Cor Unam shines through. Its staff were “not qualified” in Caritas’ work and were “usually silent” at joint meetings. They seemed to regard their role as “inquisitorial not collegial”, he says, recalling how the Vatican charity’s then president, Cardinal Cordes, attended a major CI meeting on Catholic identity for just a few hours before departing to spend three days with the Communion and Liberation movement in Warsaw. He contrasts the poor relationship with Cordes with the highly fruitful one with Diarmuid Martin (now Archbishop of Dublin) when he headed the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, as if to make clear that it’s not with the Vatican per se that CI has had difficulties, but with certain dicasteries within it.
Cardinal Sarah’s remarks seem to underline this clash of cultures. “We can be competent in organising but lack some qualities for co-ordinating work or for reinforcing the Catholic identity”, he said, referring to Dr Knight. He mentions “new internal challenges”, including the revision of CI’s statutes, challenges which, he says, “involve internal collaboration, the Catholic identity of the confederation, cooperation with the Holy See, greater participation of the various continents, a proper understanding of the proper autonomy of each Caritas member of the confederation.”
Read between those lines, and Dr Knight – together with the rest of CI’s leadership – stands accused in some Vatican quarters of being too independent of the Curia, too much like secular NGOs in its approach to development, and failing to reflect the developing-world – and presumably more traditional – approach of its member organisations.
Some have suggested that Dr Knight's bona fides were undermined by her statement she made for CI in the wake of Pope Benedict's remarks on condoms and Aids last November. Some took it mean she had suggested there had been a change in the Vatican's position; the Vatican's position, of course, was that no such change took place. Yet it's hard to read the statement and come to that conclusion.
"We're just as much in the dark as anyone else", a source close to Dr Knight told me.
This looks like a Vatican coup in some ways reminiscent of the takeover of English liturgical translations from ICEL, the body appointed by 11 bishops conferences. That takeover also had its origin in a dispute over authority with the Congregation for Divine Worship under Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez. A standoff between the CDW and ICEL resulted in Rome revising the principles of liturgical translation, replacing ICEL’s leaders, and putting in place a Vatican watchdog, Vox Clara, to oversee the revisions. At the time it was seen as a blow for Vatican centralism against bishops’ conferences. But such moves are never only about power. The Vatican tends to intervene in this way only if it believes that important principles are at stake.
But it's hard to see what principles might be at stake here. Pope Benedict's 2007 encyclical Caritas in veritate signalled what some saw as a new approach to development, with greater emphasis on taking prophetic stands as a witness to the truth. Yet Caritas workers at the time (2007) never saw CiV as a threat to its modus operandi.
I asked a senior source in Rome about the move against Dr Knight. "It's complicated", was all he would say.
Whatever else it is, this shake-up is an assertion of control by Vatican departments suspicious of CI’s autonomy and global reach. Reforms may be coming which establish a direct supervisory role for Cor Unam and other dicasteries. But for what purpose? The liturgical translation fiasco should serve as a warning. Interference from above can create more problems than it solves.
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Universalism as a Lure? The Emerging Case of Rob Bell
Amplify’d from www.albertmohler.com
Universalism as a Lure? The Emerging Case of Rob Bell
As is so often the case, most of us first learned of Rob Bell’s new book by means of Justin Taylor and his blog, “Between Two Worlds,” at the Gospel Coalition. Justin reminds me of the steady folks at the National Hurricane Center. He is able to advise of looming disaster with amazing calmness. That is why I took special notice of Justin’s stern warning: “It is unspeakably sad when those called to be ministers of the Word distort the gospel and deceive the people of God with false doctrine.”
Why would Justin feel the need to issue such a warning? He was writing about Rob Bell’s forthcoming book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, due to be released on March 29 by HarperCollins.
The publisher’s statement about the book is clearly intended to provoke controversy:
Fans flock to his Facebook page, his NOOMA videos have been viewed by millions, and his Sunday sermons are attended by 10,000 parishioners—with a downloadable podcast reaching 50,000 more. An electrifying, unconventional pastor whom Time magazine calls “a singular rock star in the church world,” Rob Bell is the most vibrant, central religious leader of the millennial generation. Now, in Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith—the afterlife—arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic—eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.
Now, Rob Bell and others within the Emerging Church movement represent what can only be described as a new form of cultural Christianity. Bell plays with theology the way a cat plays with a mouse. His sermons, videos, books, and public relations are often more suggestive and subversive than clear. They are also artistically and aesthetically superior to most of what is to be found in the video section of your local Christian bookstore or on the Web.
Time is running out on the Emerging folks. They can play the game of suggestion for only so long. Eventually, the hard questions will be answered. Tragically, when the answers do come, as with the case of Brian McLaren, they appear as nothing more than a mildly updated form of Protestant liberalism.
The publicity surrounding Bell’s new book indicates that he is ready to answer one of the hardest questions — the question of the exclusivity of the Gospel of Christ. With that question come the related questions of heaven, hell, judgment, and the fate of the unregenerate. The Bible answers these questions clearly enough, but few issues are as hard to reconcile with the modern or postmodern mind than this. Of course, it was hard to reconcile with the ancient mind as well. The singularity of the person and work of Christ and the necessity of personal faith in him for salvation run counter to the pluralistic bent of the human mind, but this is nothing less than the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation.
Universalism and the various inclusivisms are exactly what Justin Taylor suggests — distortions of the Gospel that deceive the people of God (and non-Christians as well).
But what if all this is just clever advertising? What if Rob Bell’s book turns out to be an affirmation of the truth? Did Justin jump the gun?
There is good reason to doubt this. The most powerful argument about the book comes in the form of a video offered by Rob Bell himself. In the video, he pulls no punches. In his clever and artistic way, ever so artfully presented, he affirms what can only be described as universalism.
We must await the release of the full book in order to know what Rob Bell is really saying, but his advance promotion for the book is already saying something, and it is not good. The material he has already put forth does demand and deserve attention.
The Emerging Church movement is known for its slick and sophisticated presentation. It wears irony and condescension as normal attire. Regardless of how Rob Bell’s book turns out, its promotion is the sad equivalent of a theological striptease.
The Gospel is too precious and important to be commodified in this manner. The questions he asks are too important to leave so tantalizingly unanswered. Universalism is a heresy, not a lure to use in order to sell books. This much we know, almost a month before the book is to be released.
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.
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