The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Ray Vander Laan

So a close friend of mine lent me some videos by this guy. I've seen one guy link him with Rob Bell but I'm not building a case based upon that. I do know I saw about a half hour of his teachings from Fire on the Mountain and he referenced the Koran in one of his statements about how "Marah" should be translated.

So I was wondering if any on the board could tell me more about this person as I am feeling the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

anything about the man personally, although I have heard the name on rare occasions.

Here's a couple of links that may be helpful if you haven't already seen them. And, of course, I do NOT endorse the authors' views nor critique since I know nothing about them either.

- Ray VanderLaan Analysis
- Wiki on Rob Bell (there is definitely a "connection" between these two men.)
- Rob Bell and His Echoes of Ray VanderLaan

I also get suspicious when I see Zondervan as the publisher of his books, as well as who he is associating with and lauded by.

Well I appreciate the links one of them lead me to something that has a bit of substance to it. One of the things I noticed on VanderLaan's website was his insistence that you needed to think like a "Hebrew" to truly understand the scripture. That just set off all sorts of alarms about the perspicuity of scripture doctrine and the sufficiency of scripture doctrine. I see that he graduated from Westminister and was ordained a pastor by the CRC. On his personal biography page it says he is in graduate studies in Jewish Studies at the Yeshiva University. So correct me if I am wrong but what does yeshiva studies have to do with Christianity? They don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah so wouldn't their hermeneutics be wrong?

Anyway I talked to my friend about the sufficiency and perspicuity of scripture and he hadn't heard anything about it. So going to look up some articles for him and send them to him.

Interesting that James Dunn, E. P. Sanders and N.T. Wright all did studies on Jewish religion, culture, history, etc., and the result was the "New Perspective on Paul" along with its offspring, e.g., Shepherdism and Federal Vision. Peter Enn's focused his study on the writings of pagan cultures and concluded that the contents of the Bible were influenced by these pagan cultures. And, I am sure there are many other "scholars" and non-scholars out there who all take a similar approach, which is to deny the internal testimony and self-attestation of Scripture to one degree or another which leads to a distorted (non-creedal) view of inspiration, a less than inerrant and/or infallible view therefore of the text and finally a diminishing of the authority of the Bible.

The Highway, of course, has a section on Scripture here: Sola Scriptura.

And, IF you are up to it, there is a very good book you can read/download online [i]A Disputation on Holy Scripture[/i] by William Whitaker which deals among other things the perspicuity, authority and interpretation of Scripture. This was a polemical work written against the Roman State Church but it is still very applicable generally to all who would take a non-historical, non-creedal view of the Bible.

Thanks Pilgrim I believe I gave one of the Highway's excellent albeit shorter articles on sola scriptura as well as some other short articles that I found on Monergism's website on sufficiency and perspicuity of scripture. Don't want to overwhelm the brother.

Peter

It just came to me where I remember the name Ray Vander Laan.
A few years back a Bible study group I was involved in watched a DVD series by him where he taught in various places in Israel.

I actually liked this series, mainly because he went to where historians believed certain events happened.
For instance, places where Jesus preached to the multitudes. In another video, Ray preached in a local fishing boat that was designed much in the same way as in Jesus time.
I thought this method of teaching was very good and made the Bible come alive.
Now, if I watched this series again today would I like it?
Hard to say, but it sure was an interesting back drop to teach the Scriptures.

As to his association with Rob Bell, I hope not. But then again in what capacity was he associated with him, I don't believe in guilty by association.
I do suspect that Ray Vander Laan is Arminian in his theology, not because I thought it was evident in his videos, but because the videos are put out by Focus on the Family.

Tom

Hi Peter

As I often do when I am research a subject, or someone I like to go to the horse’s mouth if possible.

In this particular case, I did just that to find out in the hopes of finding out if there are ties between Rob Bell and Ray Vander Laan.

As you know Rob Bell is Emergent and it isn't hard to find quote's on the internet from his books about what he believes.
I actually sent some quotes from Bell's book 'Velvet Elvis' to Ray Vander Laan.

Here is what I sent him.
"I see the Bible not primarily as God's revealed word but as the expression of the spiritual experiences of God's people down through the ages. ...We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiences the living God. Doubting the one true God."

The Bible is a "human product...rather than the product of divine fiat."
Consequently, the Bible is helpful not primarily as the factual revelation of God's real'
acts of history, but as a metaphor to help us understand our own experiences."

I was actually very surprised to see how fast Ray Vander Laan responded back to my e-mail.

"Thanks for your passion for the text. I consider Rob a friend though I have had no contact with him in several years. I did not mentor him personally though he has credited my work as haveing influenced him. The four statements you make I would completely disagree with. I take the Bible as the inspired infallible word of God. Thanks again. RVL"

Please do not misunderstand me, the fact that he considers Rob Bell a friend actually sends a red flag up for me, but at least this major tenet of the Emergent Church is not one of Ray’s beliefs.

Tom