A number of pastors and theologians wrote some great reviews to Rob Bell’s “Love Wins.” I don’t feel the need to repeat them, only that I thought it important to read the book for myself and provide my own thoughts for the people at Passage Church. Because of the extraordinary publicity this book received, the influence of Bell, and the fact that many evangelicals WANT Bell’s version of the afterlife to be true, I thought it important to provide a commentary.
So, in short, hell wins.
If what Bell says is true, then the orthodox, Christian understanding of hell for the last two thousand years is evil. Not just wrong, evil. It is oppressive, bigoted, against the good of humanity. I couldn’t imagine the forces of hell wanting anything more.
Twenty-first century Americans are asking the question, “How can a loving God send people to hell?” But the Bible doesn’t answer that question. When we become Christians we don’t just get answers to OUR questions, we get new questions. That is part of the “renewal of our minds:” as we submit to the Bible, we see things from God’s perspective, not ours. Even our questions change.
For that is the essence of understanding: to see where another is coming from — not bringing our paradigms or experience to what another person is saying. This seems to be what Bell’s friends and fans are demanding for Bell, but in fairness, Bell needs to do that with the Scriptures. For the Bible doesn’t answer the question, “How can a loving God send people to hell?” It answers the question, “How can a holy God accept sinners?” And when we understand biblical questions we get biblical answers — answers that humble us, but amaze us.
Bell is a communicator that knows how to elicit strong emotional responses from his audience. This is not a bad thing. But he is playing to all the wrong emotions – namely the emotional desire for God to be like us, answering to us, not for us to be like him, answering to him. Of course, Bell doesn’t mock God, he mocks the people of God who hold to the historical understanding of the Scriptures and the church. He’s got an easy scapegoat (some metaphors still apply), but a holy God is still on trial. As Saul learned on the road to Damascus, when the people of God are maligned, so is Jesus (“why are you persecuting me?”).
That’s why in “Love Wins” hell wins. The age-old strategy of the serpent is to ask questions that call into question the goodness and wisdom of God’s word. Satan did this in the garden of Eden by focusing on what God restricted, making God look like He wasn’t good. The Deceiver would want us to think that we have just misunderstood God — that we can decide for ourselves what is good and evil.
Sound familiar?
It’s so funny that this is on your blog today… I was researching Bell’s book & reviews on it last night and have been reading this (http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/files/2011/03/LoveWinsReview.pdf) today.
Your last paragraph is so interesting and true. I hadn’t thought about that.
I am a Christian but I do not claim to know everything about the afterlife. Let’s be honest – the scriptures are more than vague on the subject of hell. Modern translations termed the word “hell” from Greek mythology. The Hebrew scriptures do not mention hell. The more accurate translation of Hell that Jesus spoke about was a literal place in Jerusalem that was often used as a symbolic term. See below:
The lake of fire has a meaning similar to that of “the fiery Gehenna [hell fire, King James Version]” that Jesus spoke of. (Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:47, 48) Gehenna occurs 12 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, and it refers to the valley of Hinnom, outside the walls of Jerusalem. When Jesus was on earth, this valley was used as a garbage dump, “where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast.” (Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible) The fires were kept burning by adding sulfur to burn up the refuse. Jesus used that valley as a proper symbol of everlasting destruction.
What a good comment about how the Bible changes our questions (e.g. How can a holy God accept sinners?). If that doesn’t hit the bedrock of the Gospel message, I’ve been believing in a false message for years.
Love wins because it operates within the entire person of God, who by the way has many other attributes that Bell cleverly decides to ignore.
Thanks for the post, Dave.
“The age-old strategy of the serpent is to ask questions that call into question the goodness and wisdom of God’s word.”
Couldn’t have been more accurate.
Good word, bro! Thanks for reversing the question to it’s proper direction!
Hey Dave, been enjoying many of your blog postings on Resurgence website. So good to see how God has used those gifts he’s given you. Keep preaching it and writing it brother.
I happened to catch Mars Hill Church (Michigan) podcast this week and Rob Bell started off his “teaching” by saying and I quote (to the cheers of the crowd) after each pause:
“My name is Rob….I live in Grand Rapids, MI…I’m a Christian…I believe in Jesus…I believe Jesus is the way…I believe in Heaven…I believe in Hell…I believe the Bible is God’s Word…and I’m not a Universalist because I believe God’s Love is so great God let’s You decide…I believe in the communion of the Saints…I believe the Church is the fullnesss…I believe in the new Heaven and the new Earth…I believe in healing…I believe in Miracles…I believe in Salvation…I believe in the power of Prayer…I believe God is alive and working…I believe there’s been a Resurrection…and a new creation is bursting forth right here in the midst of this one…AND……………….I also believe it’s best to only discuss books you’ve actually read.”
Interesting. He goes on and I paraphrase, “thanking the congregation for their kindness towards the people who are not loving and are about fear instead of faith during the last few weeks. He says the Gospel is known by it’s Fruit. All the best doctrine and dogmas can be a “clanging symbol”. Love is the greatest commandment. He says the book is about, “Hey Jesus didn’t come into the world to say hey it’s going to get better later…The Divine took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” You can trust that Grace paid the bill and then let’s partner together to help make this world what God dreams it could be. It’s an urgent invitation to trust and ask what is Jesus wanting us to do? Jesus is brilliant…not the “Christian package”. He calls the book a good old fashion Bible study working through all the ways people have made Christianity their own. If we actually listened to what Jesus actually said…it’s revolutionary. He says he always comes back to God’s Love…it’s for everybody. Jesus came to offer us this love to see it, experience it, trust it, and then send it to others. It is for right now.”
I think though he asks some great questions it’s a missed opportunity with his far-reaching popularity to tell the whole truth and to bring clarity to the Gospel bottom-line. He says in his book that “the conversation is divine”–that’s where the “feet planted in mid-air” comes in….very emergent-like. The very highjacking of the Christian faith he complains about and is correct about in a lot of ways he ends up doing himself. I don’t see God as Ultimate in the way he questions things. And Rob says himself in the book that the very answer lies in the questions he’s posing –so are we to assume he is really asking those questions or is it on behalf of others? He plays to our natural inclination of avoiding conflict and looking for what would make sense to “man”—what the human heart defines as good, fair, and just. The problem is I make a terrible god and I have to deny my own untrustworthy heart and place it on Him completely because like you said we are not Him so I will defer to Him.
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