Rob Bell Suggests Bible Not Relevant to Today's Culture

Former Mars Hill church Pastor Rob Bell has been raising a lot of eyebrows for his evolving views about Christianity and the Bible.

Bell and his wife, Kristen, recently appeared with Oprah Winfrey on her "Super Soul Sunday" program, where he suggested the Bible is irrelevant to today's culture.

"We're moments away. I think the culture is already there. And the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense," he told Winfrey when asked about the Church embracing gay marriage.

His wife admitted that churches across the nation are still split on the issue, but added that those who maintain an orthodox view on homosexuality are "regressing."

"I think there are a lot of people, who as they see culture moving, their response is to dig in deeper, is to, like, hold their ground, fight against it," Kristen Bell said. "So I think that there are both things happening. There are churches that are moving forward into that area, and there are churches who are almost regressing and making it more of a battle."

Dr. R.C. Sproul, Jr., host of the "Jesus Changes Everything" podcast and a teaching fellow for Ligonier Ministries, said nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, he said that by casting aside the Bible's relevance, Rob Bell has diminished his own relevance.

"The irony, of course, is that though he is sitting next to one of the most influential women of our day, Oprah Winfrey, though he is on national television making this claim, the irony is that this is how Rob Bell has made himself so unbelievably irrelevant," he said in a recent post.

"When we push against the Word of God which is an immovable rock, sooner or later we will find ourselves cursing the Word of God, and spitting on it. And that is where Rob Bell has found himself," he said.

How should Christians respond to the pressure to abandon traditional, scriptural view of homosexuality? Dr. Sproul spoke more with CBN News about Bell's remarks and more. Click play to watch.