{"id":1877,"date":"2011-03-14T13:03:13","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T20:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2011-03-14T13:03:13","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T20:03:13","slug":"mark-galli-i-think-doesnt-really-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2011\/03\/14\/mark-galli-i-think-doesnt-really-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Galli, I think, Doesn't Really Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Galli’s CT review<\/a> of Rob Bell’s book, on the whole, seems balanced and decent.\u00a0 Maybe it’s a bit too <\/em>balanced and decent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think Galli is right in his basic conclusion that the Gospel is shown to be even more robust and more beautiful when we take account of the full Biblical witness to judgment.\u00a0 Indeed, a crucial part of the “good news” — even a crucial part of the Cristus Victor model of the atonement — is that Christ’s victory judges and destroys evil.\u00a0 A primary reason we ought to long for Christ’s return is that evil will be exposed, judged, and defeated forever.\u00a0 Justice is an essential part of the good news.\u00a0 Judgment is an essential part of justice.<\/p>\n

But it’s this very issue of “justice” that prompts the questions Rob Bell has had the courage to raise.\u00a0 Galli acknowledges that Bell raises important questions, but Galli himself seems afraid to give them voice.\u00a0 Instead, he whips out the “L” word (“Liberal”) — the Evangelical equivalent of an F-bomb — which he kinda-sorta applies to Bell, and then mumbles past the questions.<\/p>\n

Here are some realities I wish Galli had acknolwedged:<\/p>\n