Rob Bell is a pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, an author, a speaker, and he has a popular Christian video series. He has for a long time been considered “controversial” for reasons that I cannot personally understand. Some people consider his theology to be liberal, but what does that really mean? It seems to me that whenever someone claims that someone’s theology is liberal, it means that the person’s theology is based off of the Bible rather than church tradition or the things society implies. If that is the case, then you can consider my theology to be liberal. When Christians have confronted Bell about his beliefs, he has always either been able to present sound scripture to support them, or his accusers haven’t had any scripture that have an relevance to the situation to prove him wrong.
Rob Bell is releasing a new book titled “Love Wins” with the tag line “A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived”. I have not had the opportunity to read the book, so I cannot comment on it. This post is about the attention it’s getting and the accusations people are throwing at Rob Bell.
I think this is a classic case of Christians being ready to jump the gun and accuse someone of blasphemy without even knowing what the person is talking about. If you aren’t aware of what all is being said, then I wouldn’t think you should be worried. But if you are curious, HERE is probably the most prominent blog post being circulated on the matter. And I think THIS is definitely something worth reading.
If you don’t have the time to visit those websites, I’ll give you my quick summary of the situation (though, I do recommend that you take a look for yourself). Rob Bell’s new book “Love Wins” is going to be about heaven and hell. Presumedly covering the questions “are they real” and “who goes where?”. Some are saying that Bell is a universalist, which essentially means that he would believe everybody goes to heaven. They are mostly citing the publisher’s description of the book that says “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.” As well as the video below from Rob Bell himself.
Nothing I have read or heard suggests to me that Bell has written anything related to universalism. Nothing suggests to me that he believes everybody goes to heaven. To me, nothing suggests that the book contains anything that is against God’s Word. In fact, maybe just the opposite. In the video he’s asking the questions that a lot of people want to know the answers to. It seems to me that he is probably making a case for God not being some bully with a burning desire to send people to hell. It’s my guess that he will explore the ideas that God doesn’t send people to hell, but rather he’s trying to save them from hell. I don’t get the sense that Bell is going to say anything crazy with this new book. He simply said some things and asked some questions to get you thinking, that’s what he is best at.
If the book comes out and I’m wrong, and he does believe everything that people are claiming. If he truly is a universalist, then I wont agree with him. At least not away. He would need some very firm Biblical reasoning behind his beliefs for me follow suit. I don’t claim to have everything figured out, but I don’t believe everyone goes to heaven.
This whole thing just seems like a needless mess to me. There is no reason that controversy should surround a book that hasn’t even come out yet. People are assuming things based off of a video and a publisher’s description, neither of which say anything remotely definite. Harsh words are being said, and it all just seems pointless and stupid to me. Just like I don’t think anyone can tear something down that they haven’t even read, I don’t feel that I should be defending something I haven’t read.
I could be wrong about my assumptions about the other people being wrong. We’ll have to wait for the book to come out to see. I just cannot understand why people would stir this up the way they did. Even if they were right, I don’t believe it was handled correctly.
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