Cardiff Street Pastors At Risk As Funding Is Cut
Life is Good!

Rob Bell - Love Wins. Shooting our own troops or defending the truth?

Images-1

In the last few years many Christians have enjoyed and been challenged by the Pastor of Mars Hill through his books such as Velvet Elvis, Sex God or Drops Like Stars or hearing on one of his tours or podcasts. I saw him a few years ago in Cardiff. He was pretty interesting.
Last night as I was preparing to begin a Street Pastor shift I could see a significant number of people getting worked up on twitter about his latest book, Love Wins. I think one of the interesting things about how the Christian grapevine works and the speed of social media is that this torrent of comment is comment is even before the book has been released!
The starting point of the controversy appears to be release of the description by his publisher Harper Collins. It Reads:
Fans flock to his Facebook page, his NOOMA videos have been viewed by millions, and his Sunday sermons are attended by 10,000 parishioners—with a downloadable podcast reaching 50,000 more. An electrifying, unconventional pastor whom Time magazine calls “a singular rock star in the church world,” Rob Bell is the most vibrant, central religious leader of the millennial generation. Now, in Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith—the afterlife—arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic—eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.
Unknown This was picked up by Justin Taylor on his blog site. Who whilst says he is reluctant to judge Bell's theology based upon a release written by an authors publisher then proceeds to pretty much make the judgement anyway. This was picked up by Mark Driscoll who retweeted the link. His popularity took the retweets to a whole new level! Cue the opportunity for tons of Christians to way in. Then John Piper weighed in with a tweet that said "farewell Rob Bell..." and linked to Taylor's site.
The central concern seems to be that Rob Bell may say that hell is empty because a loving God  would not send His children to Hell. This theology is called universalism and you would struggle to find any evangelical to buy into to this as it very difficult, if not impossible to sustain if you read what the bible says about heaven and hell. Let me be clear I can find no evidence to support universalism. However, I am in no position to condemn Bell's theology in this area as at this point I do not know what it is. I think he is right that how we view heaven and hell is fundamentally important. I also think what Christians believe and express, affects how people who do not share our faith, react.
I watched Bell's trailer film for the new book (posted below) and I think he is typically enigmatic within it. I guess this is to encourage us to buy the book. So I am intrigued, I am curious and ultimately I am interested enough to buy the book.
At this point the thing that is REALLY interesting to me is why on rumour, hear say, half information and gossip Christian leaders, lay people, church celebrities and those less well known are already getting hot under the collar. Is the excuse they have been waiting for to attack Bell? Do they enjoy picking the theological log out the eyes of others? Do they court controversy (as perhaps Bell does)? Are they just causing trouble? I am not sure, I will leave you to decide. However, I am reminded of a quote the Rob Parsons once shared with me "the Christian army is the only one that enjoys shooting its own troops".
Please understand I think it is important to defend truth but I think its important to know what someone else believes before you attack them!
 

Comments

Lizz

Hmm interesting blog entry Gary! And interesting theology from Bell's point of view.... it has piqued my interest enough and I think I'll buy the book - or at least borrow it from someone - to decide for myself before jumping to conclusions. I totally agree though that eternal life starts now (the minute we are saved)- we don't have to wait until we die for our eternal living to start! If we are saved our souls go on to Heaven when we die.
Anyway, looking forward to understanding more about Bell's theology about Heaven and Hell and studying it for myself.

Larry

you think it would be hard to find evangelicals who have his view of hell? I do, many I know do, greg boyd does, we are all just too scared to say on sunday.

Matthew evans

Very good post Gary, from personally booking rob to speak at an event in Swansea I am all to aware of his critics. It really frustrated me back then at the number of people who were being critical and jumping to conclusions without reading any of his books. Sadly this seems to be happening again with this latest offering.

4granted

An important step in clarifying your beliefs is to talk about and even defend them. So the fact that the publicity campaign for Rob Bell’s book has provided an impetus for Christians to actually do theology (to figure out what they think about God) is a positive thing. Even if you disagree with Bell, it’s important for Christians to wrestle with what they believe. Another great resource on heaven, what it's like and who will be there is “Heaven Revealed” by Dr. Paul Enns, released this week by Moody Publishers. I recommend it. Here’s the amazon page: http://dld.bz/P8sz

Rob

Just read a really good review of ' Love Wins' here http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/files/2011/03/LoveWinsReview.pdf

What it highlights to me is the danger of good presentation skills without adhering to correct biblical study including the importance of reading a passage in context. It appears that too many times passages in 'love wins' are taken out of context.

Concerned that our generation seem more bothered about glib nice sounding arguments without letting the bible and history taken in correct context speak for itself. Check out the full review it's well worth it.

Rob

Dave Ahl

Universal Salvation is NOT a new idea. Everyone seems to be commenting on this like it's brand new but it's been a major controversy in the Christian Church since its earliest days. Around 215 in Alexander, Origen argued that since the first fall (of Adam) was universal, so all, including Satan himself, have the chance to work back towards God's original purpose. All will be saved, since all come from God. Although the Church in both East and West turned its back on Origen's vision of a universal salvation (universalism), that was hardly the end of it. Evagrius Ponticus (435-499), a leading monk in the Nile Delta, who influenced generations of monks to come, echoed Origen's universalism and repeatedly asserted that even those suffering in Hell kept those imperishable seeds of virtue. No wonder that his Church decided he was dangerous. But the idea lived on. Isaac, a seventh century monk from Qatar who was briefly the Bishop of Nineveh, took up the notion of Origen and Evagrius that in the end all will be saved. He wrote, "It is not [the way of] the compassionate Maker to create rational beings in order to deliver them over mercilessly to unending affliction."
While the Catholic Church rejected the idea of universalism, it did have a certain comforting appeal and, in fact, was reborn around 950 as the idea of a middle state between heaven and hell called Purgatory, a concept found nowhere in any Bible. As MacCulloch says in his monumental book, Christianity: The First 3,000 Years, "Few people can regard their drearily unspectacular sins as justifying hellfire, but most would agree with the Alexandrians that life on earth provides hardly enough time to remedy even those sins and enter Heaven without further purgation. Penance could be done in this middle-state, which was time-limited, and which moreover had only one exit, not to Hell but to Paradise."
Universalism without Purgatory continued to be put forth over the centuries so it should be no surprise that a populist preacher raises it again today. Yes, Bell says, "Love Wins" is not universalism per se, but I'm reminded that "a rose by any other name..." The big question in my mind is: How do you deal with it? The answer: Read and study the Bible.
--Dave Ahl, www.BibleStudyMen.com

David Lazell

Mr. Bell is a wolf. Jesus (Matthew 7) warned us about such people, so did Paul (Acts 20).

Stay away from Bell's false teaching and keep to God's infallible word.

Chris

I’d actually say that Love Wins is somewhat of a Rorschach Test (http://prophets-priests-poets.info/2011/03/25/love-wins-rorschach-in-a-binder/): If you can’t stand Bell, or have always questioned what he had to say, you will read the book through that lens and find what you’re looking for. If you’ve been on the fence about him, you’ll still be there. If you’ve read him charitably in the past and found that, even when you disagree, he is still within the stream of orthodox Christianity, you will still find that he’s there. One of his stated purposes in the book is to get folks to study what is actually in Scripture, and to ask the tough questions – and accept fuzzy answers and to be charitable to others who do, as well. For example, here is an examination ( http://prophets-priests-poets.info/2011/03/27/what-the-hell/ )of what the Scriptures actually say about hell, and it is possible to take them seriously, yet come up with a different answer than eternal, conscious torture.

CW

Purgatory is a soiled word, but the concept exists in the Bible as the word "paradise", where Jesus assures the crucified sinner he will be after death. Not heaven. Not hell. A place for our immortal souls to rest before being re-united with our transformed bodies (Resurrection)before the Final Judgement before Christ.

Grace has saved me.
Grace is saving me.
Grace will save me.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)