Orthodoxy has gotten defensive and hipsters have become defiant over the promotional video for
Rob Bell's upcoming book,
Love Wins. In the video, Bell asks a series of controversial questions about Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife that have left many wondering if he has become a Universalist. For those who don't know, Universalists believe that Salvation will be offered to all rather than the traditional view of a select (or elect) few. The entire Christian community, especially a few people over at
The Gospel Coalition, seems to be up in arms about this, with both sides picking up their stones and preparing. I've done the tough work for you and have the controversial text from the video written here for you as well as the video. So let's hear it. After reading the text and seeing the promo video, are you offended? Are you ready to write off Rob Bell as a heretic? Do you find the idea that everyone might go to Heaven to be offensive or appealing? Does love win, and what does it look like? I'll reserve my opinion, it's time to hear yours.
Will only a few select people make it to heaven? And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell? And if that’s the case, how do you become one of the few? Is it what you believe or what you say or what you do or who you know or something that happens in your heart? Or do you need to be initiated or take a class or converted or being born again? How does one become one of these few?
Then there is the question behind the questions. The real question [is], “What is God like?”, because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the gospel of Jesus, is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus. And so what gets subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that, that we would need to be rescued from this God? How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?
This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian faith. They see it as an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies and they say, why would I ever want to be a part of that? See what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who God is and what God is like. What you discover in the Bible is so surprising, unexpected, beautiful, that whatever we have been told and been taught, the good news is actually better than that, better than we could ever imagine.
The good news is that love wins.
4 comments:
...I guess I wonder if he's not posing these questions to entice one to read the book, rather than stating his own opinions. Possibly stepping out to ask these questions for those people who don't understand or who haven't yet been exposed to the full explanation of who God is (and if we're being honest I'm not sure I even fully understand everything I should)? Maybe the context of the book is completely opposite of what he's implying in this promo?
Or, I could be wrong and Rob Bell is just now showing what he truly believes in? Who knows, but I bet a lot of people will read the book to find out (including myself).
I've wondered the same thing. I see no reason to jump to conclusions just because he recites questions that millions of people ask. He could simply be trying to identify with the audience before revealing his answer. I certainly will be reading the book as well. Perhaps before his speaking date at Belmont Church here in town on April 5.
I tend to agree with Kevin DeYoung at TGC. He's teaching through a series of leading questions whether or not he intends to. Our understanding of heaven and hell are indeed critical to the faith and especially to evangelism and the meaning of the cross.
That said, controversy sells books. This could just be a brilliant PR move, but I do think damage is being done here. All questions and no answers? Validating people's questions is good, but is he also affirming false conclusions about the nature of God? Time will tell.
Thanks for commenting Chris! I read the article at TGC and am not necessarily on the same page. I have a hard time with the expectations from everyone for Bell to be perfect. Nobody has perfect doctrine, and given that God is infinitely beyond our comprehension we will never get to that point. It's one thing to state that you believe someone to be wrong, to gently restore them as Paul calls us to do, but it seems that most of these people already have stones in hand.
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