In May I interviewed Tim Willard and Jason Locy authors of Veneer. (Read interview here.) These guys are not only friends, but they are articulate, insightful, and authentic students of Jesus and cultural trends.
Recently, I sat down with these guys at a Taco Mac in Atlanta. After hearing their hearts, I knew I had to bring them to Columbus and they agreed on November 11th. You won’t want to miss this special evening that will challenge your living, stimulate your thinking, and inspire your being.
Yet, a third option is emerging…celibacy and it’s proposed by people like Wesley Hill, a self-professed Christian Homosexual, in his new Zondervan book, Washed and Waiting.
I tackled these issues and many more in my sermon from Sunday titled Homosexuality: The Tone, Truth, and Takeaways.
You can listen to it here and even download the powerpoints.
A few other links related to homosexuality taken from my outline.
Additional Study—NARTH (Research) http://narth.com/, The New York Times, My Ex Gay Friend, http://nyti.ms/iS849S (June 16, 2001), Talk on Homosexuality http://bit.ly/oTmOWz
Book- The Truth about Same Sex Marriage by Erwin Lutzer.
I had the opportunity to sit down (digitally) with Tim Willard and Jason Locy and ask them 5 questions about their new book Veneer. But first, the book trailer (their hearts come through loud and clear AND without any Veneer).
Kary: What made you write Veneer?
Tim & Jason: In our earliest conversations around the topic we noticed how inflated the culture had become: Enron, Madoff, housing industry, suburbia McMansions, four-dollar coffees, really smart phones, branding. In the church world, the relevance movement was in full swing as churches tried to look more and more like culture. We couldn’t escape the reality that society seemed to be influencing the church instead of the church influencing society.
Our questions centered on what culture looked like and how it was affecting us as humans, as Christians, and the church in general. We eventually came to the realization that these societal issues were by-products of our human condition. And we wanted a different way, for the world, Christians, and the church to act.
So the idea for Veneer was born.
Kary: Guys, what is the Big Idea behind Veneer?
Tim & Jason: Veneer is a thin, surface level, coating that manufacturers apply over an inferior product in order to increase the perceived value of the product. People have a veneer too. We all struggle with things that we think are “inferior.” Our inferiority comes from the scars and scrapes and dings of life. Things like self-doubt or failed relationships or lost jobs or problems with kids—things that often embarrass us. So we veneer our scars with a shiner version of ourselves.
Kary: In the book, you talk about the language of culture. What is that?
Tim & Jason: The language of culture is a way to say, “What does culture celebrate and find acceptable?” As people, we look to the broader culture and try to adapt to what we see everyone else doing. The language of culture gives us various ways by which we can veneer as we try to mimic the world of celebrity, buy in to the promise of consumption, and place our trust in the hope of progress. Eventually, most of us live our lives covered in this language because we’re afraid or embarrassed about what lies beneath.
Kary: How can we, as individuals and the church resolve the problem of veneer?
Tim & Jason: We use the metaphor of antique wood to contrast veneer. Unlike veneer, antique wood is beautiful because of the scars acquired over time. In our efforts to fit in with society veneering ourselves with fake perfection seems right. But if we view ourselves as antique wood, beautified by the scars of life, then our perspective shifts. Through the lens of redemption, then, we can see that the things that caused pain or embarrassment in our lives fade away.
In order to view ourselves in this way, however, we must exchange the language of culture for the language of God. We find the language of God in relationships, in love, and in an abiding life. Together, these ways create for us a life that allows the stripping of our veneer while a full life, focused on others, takes shape. The second part of the book unfolds the language of God and challenges readers (and us) to seek spiritual renewals and to exchange the language of culture with the language of God.
How did writing this book change each of you?
Tim & Jason: For me (Tim) the process of writing the book revealed the subtleties of veneer. It’s when I think that I have no veneer that I need to reassess and dig a little deeper–sure enough, there it is. It also challenged me to evaluate my relationship with God. Was I just going through the motions? Was the relationship “me” centered or Christ centered? I was also challenged to seek times of honesty and renewals with my wife. How were we doing? Were there unresolved hurts? The unveneered life can be challenging, but also beautifully freeing.
For me (Jason) the process has challenged me to seek honesty, or openness, in my relationships. So much of what keeps us from one another goes unsaid and eventually it’s the unsaid that erodes us personally and relationally. I really value when the ones I love, who are closest to me, are honest with me. It gives me a sense of peace knowing they care and allows me to be open and transparent with them.
(A recent interview I had with my dad about the new ministry – THE NEW MAN PROJECT - God created inside of him. Be encouraged. Remember, Jesus said, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”)
A Second Chance.
Did you ever give one?
Did you ever receive one, even when you didn’t deserve it?
It’s called Grace. And Grace inspires, believes, and hopes. True grace is the key that opens our hearts to love and serve others.
We believe everyone needs a Second Chance, including prisoners and their families. We believe this because God has given each of us a Second Chance through His Son Jesus Christ.
Please watch the videobelow (Les Miserables). We pray that it creates inspiration, belief, and hope within you. We pray that God will reveal His heart to you, and you will consider joining Him in leading prisoners into prosperity. (Psalm 68:6)
“Nineteen years in prison and now the real punishment begins.”
“In the morning I will be a NEW MAN.”
“Donʼt forget, donʼt ever forget, you promised to become a NEW MAN.”
“Jean Val Jean my brother, you no longer belong to evil, with this silver I bought your soul, I ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God.”
I sat down with my wife and 3 kids the other day to watch Disney’s new Tangled.
Here’s the plot in one sentence according to IMDB.
The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.
Tangled is all about embracing who you were created to be.
Both stories weave together an epic journey with some villains along the way.
Here are 3 similarities between Tangled and Your Secret Name:
We’ve forgotten who we were created to be
Tangled:Rapunzel, a long-lost princess, lives isolated in a tower with Gothel, whom she believes is her mother. Gothel had kidnapped Rapunzel when she was a baby because of her magical golden hair that kept her young. She knew Rapunzel’s magical hair, if cut, would turn brown and lose its magic. Every year on Rapunzel’s birthday, her kingdom sends thousands of lanterns into the sky wishing their lost princess would return. On her eighteenth birthday, Rapunzel asks Gothel to let her see the floating lights, but Gothel says no because the world is full of dangers.
Your Secret Name: Essentially, we’re all homesick for a place we’ve never been. And so we live as nomads, groping toward a destination we can’t quite define. As creatures we fumble along, hoping to find our way back to the One who made us — believing that as we discover who we truly are, we also discover a portion of who he truly is.
Most of us are living as Imposters, hiding behind our Given Names
Tangled: Thieves led by Flynn Rider steal the tiara of the missing princess from the castle and are chased by the kingdom guards. Flynn outwits his accomplices by taking the tiara; he abandons them and stumbles upon Rapunzel’s tower. Once inside the tower, Flynn is knocked unconscious by Rapunzel with a frying pan. She hides Flynn and his satchel. Rapunzel makes a deal with Flynn: a journey to the “lights” in exchange for the tiara. Flynn and Rapunzel are trapped in a flooding cave. Believing he’s about to die, Flynn admits his true name: Eugene Fitzherbert.
Your Secret Name: Intentionally or unintentionally, we all wear a certain set of masks. Partial disclosure isn’t bad all the time; it protects us from shame and embarrassment. But many of us wear our masks far too frequently–so much that we’ve lost touch with our potential for who God created us to be. Wearing my masks put tremendous space between me and my Secret Name. Completely convincing, my masks served their exact purpose; they masked the pain that would’ve pushed me to the Father if I only let him into my pain.
We have an Enemy (and her name isn’t Mother Gothel)
Tangled: On her eighteenth birthday, Rapunzel asks Gothel to let her see the floating lights, but Gothel refuses because the world is full of dangers. Gothel controls Rapunzel by deceiving her about herself and the world. She repeatedly calls her names and sells her lies. Notice the video.
Your Secret Name: “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy”—and the thief in this passage is none other than Satan. When he was created, Satan already had a name, and a good one at that: Lucifer, meaning morning star. But Satan wanted a new name, and so he attempted to forge one on his own. No longer fit for heaven, Lucifer was hurled to earth. “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Revelation 12:9) Unsuccessful securing his own Secret Name, Satan has been scheming ever since. Using people as his puppets and pawns, Satan has infiltrated earth, wooing us away from finding our Secret Name the only legitimate place–within a relationship with the Heavenly Father.
I hope you consider taking the next step in discovering who God created you to be, in discovering Your Secret Name.
This is Part 2 in my Love Wins review. To read Part 1 – (8 Reasons why Rob Bell’s Love Wins could be a Winner) – go here.
Ingredients Inside = Trajectory Hermeneutics: In case you don’t know, trajectory hermeneutics is a way of reading and understanding the Bible. We all have a lens (a hermeneutical approach) when we read the Bible. Some are better than others. Here’s an example using other literature. You don’t pick up a prescription bottle that says take two pills per day (one in the evening and one in the morning) and say, “Hmmm…I wonder if the doctor didn’t mean what he literally said. Perhaps I should really take 2 pills each hour, each day. Or maybe, the doctor left out something. Maybe I should take two bottles per day.” The result would be toxic. Similarly, if we pick up the Bible and read it in a way that wasn’t intended, we will come up with toxic interpretations and applications. A Trajectory Hermeneutic (a method that Rob Bell is often ascribed with) sees the contemporary reader of Scripture as the interpreter of what the original authors meant to say and what they couldn’t say, but wanted to. Translation? The Apostle Paul didn’t mean what he said. Translation? We need to fill in the blanks with what he meant to say. Translation? The Canon of Scripture is not closed and we are adding to it. Translation? We are the Word of God. Although Love Wins contains many examples of this, one early example is on page (x) “The ancient sages said the words of the sacred text were black letters on a white page – there’s all that white space, waiting to be filled with our responses and discussions and debates and opinions and longings and desires and wisdom and insights. We read the words, and then enter into a discussion that has been going on for thousands of years across cultures and continents. My hope is that this frees you.” Run with this example for a moment. The Bible says in black ink, “Do not commit murder.” Yet since there is white space in the margin, if I get angry and DESIRE to kill someone, then I am allowed to? Ridiculous example? Sure. But, shouldn’t we try his example on? And if I don’t desire the idea of hell (which I don’t), then since I don’t desire it, the idea is simply changed and it doesn’t exist?
No one Dances with a loved one on their Deathbed: Whereas I find Rob’s ideas fascinating, the way he dances around a literal and eternal hell, the way he integrates Scripture and bobs and weaves and blends and extracts, I highly doubt that Rob would utilize his own message with a family member on her deathbed. If Rob only had 20 minutes, I can’t imagine that he would talk about love winning and given enough time, this woman’s heart would be melted for God in the afterlife somehow. Instead, I believe Rob would utilize a strategy that’s been used since the very beginning. I believe Rob would share the Gospel. I believe Rob would ask her if she was a sinner, if she knew that she couldn’t impress a perfect God with her imperfect works, if she would like to stop trying to save herself, if she believed that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for her sins, and did she, in faith, desire to ask Jesus to come into her life and fill her heart. I believe Rob would pray with her (just like his parents prayed with him in a similar way on pages 193-194). Why do I believe this? Because I believe that Rob knows the truth. Love Wins might be a great book to chat about over coffee in some cafe with twenty years left under our belts. But no one dances with a loved one on their deathbed…even Rob.
Rob’s Secret Target Audience (himself): He even admitted it in his interview with Martin Bashir. Martin asked, “How much is this book you working out your own childhood experience of being brought up in a fairly cramped evangelical family and really finding that difficult as you became an adult?” Rob said, “Oh, I would totally own up to that in a heartbeat.” Rob is not writing for others as much as he is writing for himself. A famous quote by a famous author (Anaïs Nin) reads, “I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live.” Rob is not writing for the unbeliever. He’s writing for himself first and then disillusioned believers second. We see this on page 152 when he describes the high-school student who is insulated and isolated from the world. Rob beautifully describes this student’s inability to see God because, “Her ‘nearness’ can actually produce distance.” Later on page 186 when describing the older brother in the Prodigal Son story Rob again beautifully writes, “The second truth, one that is much more subtle and much more toxic as well, is that the older brother is separated from his father as well, even though he’s stayed home.”Love Wins is not for the younger brother (in the story) as much as it is for the older brother. I know, because I am/was one of them. Unfortunately when seeking unbelievers and sincere believers read Love Wins, I think they will become confused and perhaps even disillusioned. Is this price worth it to perhaps coax a few disillusioned believers back?
Hell is a Welcomed Guest in Heaven: When discussing his own views, several times Rob brings up examples of other people who have shared similar views. “At the center of the Christian tradition since the first church have been a number who insist that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins and all will be reconciled to God.” (109) If that is an odd view of hell, things get stranger. “Hell is being at the party. That’s what makes it so hellish. It’s not an image of separation, but one of integration. Hell is our refusal to trust God’s retelling of our story.” Bottom line? Rob, has a very different view of hell as stated in his church’s FAQ sheet regarding Love Wins: ”There are many who accept the invitation of the life of heaven and many who reject the invitation. Those who reject the invitation experience a purifying “fire” of judgment in hell, yet there is hope. We live in the hope that the redemptive work of Christ is beyond what we can ask or imagine. Love Wins helps us have a biblical imagination that leaves room for the hope of the redemption of all while recognizing humanities free will to continue to reject God.”
God is bigger than his Britches: I sense a contradiction. Rob accurately writes on pg. 103-104 about God, “God has to play by the same rules we do. God has to respect our freedom to choose to the very end, even at the risk of the relationship itself. If at any point God overrides, co-opts, or hijacks the human heart, robbing us of freedom to choose, then God has violated the fundamental essence of what love even is.” I couldn’t agree more. Translation? God can’t do whatever he wants. His character limits himself. God can’t lie. God can’t change. God can’t sin. God can’t ignore one of his attributes for the sake of another. He is fully just, fully holy, fully love, fully grace. Yet Rob devotes an entire chapter (Does God get what God wants?) to convince us that because God is willing that none should perish, that none actually do (2 Peter 3:9). {As a parent I am willing that my kids don’t do self-destructive things, but at times I intervene and at times I let them suffer the natural consequences). Rob fails to employ the BOTH/AND he so often talks about and instead settles for the EITHER/OR. Love Wins fails to understand that God can’t always get what God wants because God has self-imposed limitations.
The Shack + Love Wins = Fiction: The Shack admits it. Love Wins denies it. When an author writes a book using speculation it’s called fiction. On the inside flap of Love Wins Professor Eugene Peterson (the author of The Message – a Bible many of us read) says: “In the current religious climate in America, it isn’t easy to develop a thoroughly biblical imagination that takes in the comprehensive and eternal work of Christ in all people and all circumstances in love for salvation. Rob Bell goes a long way in helping us acquire such an imagination. Love wins accomplishes this without a trace of soft sentimentality and without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction…”His endorsement classifies Rob’s literature as biblical imagination. A more technical term?…fiction. And as a book of fiction I think Love Wins in intriguing. Who wouldn’t want it to be true? One example of this is in chapter 6, There are rocks everywhere. Rob uses the example of the Israelites drinking from the rock in the desert (Exodus 17). This rock is simply a rock with no reference to a person. Rob continues, “But the rock-we don’t hear any more about the rock. Until more than a thousand years later. In a letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul refers to this story about this rock saying that those who traveled out of Egypt ‘drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.’ According to Paul, Jesus was there. Without anybody using his name. Without anybody saying that it was him. Without anybody acknowledging just what – or, more precisely, who-it was. Paul’s interpretation that Christ was present in the Exodus raises the question: Where else has Christ been present? When else? With who else? How else? Paul finds Jesus there, in that rock, because Paul finds Jesus everywhere.”(144) Do you see the danger? Now we are left up to our own interpretation as to who is Christ throughout history (trajectory hermeneutics again). Paul can say that Jesus was the rock because he is writing Scripture under the influence of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21; 1 Timothy 3:16). Rob uses an example from the Bible – Paul referring to Jesus as the rock. But we aren’t “allowed” to do this in our day and age. We aren’t allowed to make our own claims about who Jesus is and where He is? Let me ask a few of my own questions? According to Rob’s example since Jesus was a rock in Exodus 18 can we assume that he was also a rock in Joshua 7, the rock used to stone Achan to death? Was Jesus the rock that killed Goliath or the rock used to stone Stephen in the book of Acts? Maybe we should move on from rocks. Maybe we can assume that Jesus appeared in history through other men and women. Was Jesus embodied in Gandhi or Mohammad, or Joseph Smith or Mary Baker Eddy? Maybe all 4! The moment we are left to decide who or what Jesus is, the moment we have erred from the Word of God.
Salvation by Osmosis: At first glance Rob seems to be against verbs…at least related to salvation. “If the message of Jesus is that God is offering the free gift of eternal life through him-a gift we cannot earn by our own efforts, works, or good deeds-and that all we have to do is accept and confess and believe, aren’t those verbs? And aren’t verbs actions? Does that mean, then, that going to Heaven is dependent on something I do? How is any of that grace?” I love that point I really do. But most evangelical students of the Bible would say that belief and confession are responses to what God has already done within our hearts. Even our belief is a gift from God, an act of grace, because left to our own devices and efforts, no one would respond to God (John 6:44). Rob agress with action verbs too. Maybe not on page 11 but on page 136, 159, and 190 (not to mention many more). “When we say YES to God, when we OPEN ourselves to Jesus’ living, giving act on the cross, we enter in to a way of life….He calls us to LET GO, TURN AWAY, RENOUNCE, CONFESS, REPENT, and LEAVE behind the old ways.” ”The only thing left to do is TRUST.” It turns out that following Jesus is just that, an action. An action that doesn’t save us, but an action that proves that we are saved.
Love AND Truth Wins - A Match Made in Heaven: At the end of the book it’s clear that in order for Love to truly win, it also must be married to something else…Truth. I believe that LOVE and TRUTH win and when they come to the party together, then they stay at the party forever. And this party, in the words of Rob Bell, is heaven. Reading Rob’s book has strengthened me. But more than that it’s compelled me to do a few things: living like I believe in a literal hell by living out the Kingdom in what I say and do, by viewing God as the dynamic person that He is and not just one attribute, and by preaching a summer series called Truth in Love. I believe that our generation needs to know the Truth and then how to embody that Truth in a Loving way. We’ve all seen Love without Truth and Truth without Love…it’s toxic. So this new series will focus on 11 topics that we all have questions about. And I believe if we come with our questions that God will provide the answers. I enter this series with humility realizing it’s a daunting task, but a necessary one. Love Wins proves this.
Truth in Love Series:
TRUTH (What is it? Is the Bible True? Is God Truth? Is their absolute Truth?)
EVIL (Why does a good God allow Evil? Did God create Evil?)
HUMANITY (Is there personal Truth? Can I know anything for sure?)
PLURALISM (Did Jesus come only to teach us the best way to live?Are there other paths?)
HELL (Is there a Hell? Forver? Is it literal? How does one go there?)
CONTRADICTION (Are Christians hypocrites? Does the Bible have errors?)
PREDESTINATION (Do we have choice? Are we locked in?)
HOMOSEXUALITY (Are we born gay? Can Christians be gay?)
CULTURE (Does the world contain Truth? What’s our role?)
HEATHEN (What about those who never heard the Gospel?)
WITNESS (What is my role in communicating the Truth?)
It’s easy to dismiss something without even engaging it.
As humans we love to classify and categorize:
Love or Hate
Good or Bad
In or Out
Truth or Error
Friend or Foe
At times, drawing lines like these are necessary and even Biblical. Other times, our categories prevent us from interacting with the reasons behind the writings.
When Rob Bell’s book Love Wins hit shelves, like any pastor I felt compelled to give a responseand I did…immediately. I still support my original statement:
I think Rob is a gifted writer, communicator, artist, and marketer. (He has God-given talents I envy {if I’m speaking the truth}).
But in the end, I think that Rob is one that I just can’t agree with. I think as pastors, our jobs are to clearly communicate Truth. I think the parts of Rob’s new book that I have read, do just the opposite.
That being said, I’d like to weigh in with 8 positive take-aways after reading the book.
Here we go:
Questions Please: Many of us can relate to Rob’s quote: “Many have these questions…Some communities don’t permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most.” (ix) I appreciate the fact that Rob is bold enough to dialogue about a subject that many of us have struggled with, but have never dared to explore. Not only does Rob invite questions, but he tends to voice the exact ones we’ve been told are irreverent, off limits, or unacceptable. I believe God is big enough to handle all our questions (The book of Job alone contains over 300 questions). And God invites us into a relationship that invites questions.
XXXL view of Salvation: Throughout Love Wins Rob continues to expand our view of salvation. If you’ve been sold the lie that the Gospel is only escapism – a ticket out of this world and into the next – then be prepared to have your view enlarged. A few of Rob’s quotes on this topic: “If that’s the gospel, the good news-if what Jesus does is get people somewhere else-then the central message of the Christian faith has very little to do with this life other than getting you what you need for the next one.” (6) ”This God whom Jesus spoke of has always been looking for partners, people who are passionate about participating in the ongoing creation of the world.” (178) Many of us long for a Gospel Story big enough to include the whole world, big enough for this life AND the next one.
Free Admission for Everyone (even for those that don’t want it): For those of us who have lost a loved one that rejected Christ on earth, Rob’s message is one that we’d love to believe is true. Who wouldn’t? When there is free admission for everyone, nobody loses…(except for God – more on this in the next post). Relevant quotes by Rob, “As soon as the door is opened to Muslims. Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptists from Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus doesn’t matter anymore, the cross is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what you believe, and so forth. Not true. Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true. (155) ” People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways…Sometimes people use his name; other times they don’t…Some people have so much baggage with regard to the name “Jesus” that when they encounter the mystery present in all of creation—grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness—the last thing they are inclined to name it is “Jesus.” (159)
The Heart of Envy: This point hit me right between the eyes. Like most humans I covet. Not about possessions as much as position. No matter, whether it’s a T-Bird or a Title, coveting is a sign that something is wrong. “Coveting is what happens when you aren’t at peace” (41) I changed the phrase slightly. Jealousy is a sign of unrest with ourselves and our Creator. Thanks for this stream of thought Rob.
God is not a “Slave-Driver”: God revealed to me years ago that I tend to be like the “older brother” in the Prodigal Son story. Rob expounds on this story with some great insight. “Grace and generosity aren’t fair; that’s their very essence.” (168) “This can be especially true in missionary settings or in pastor’s families or in church communities where people have picked up along the way the toxic notion that God is a slave driver. (180) {About the older brother} ”You can sense the anxiety in his defense, the paranoid awareness that he believed his father was looking over his shoulder the whole time, waiting and watching to catch him in disobedience. (184) Prior to discovering my Secret Name, I was the essence of the older brother-unhappy, angry, and over-worked-trying to unsuccessfully please a slave-driver God. Thankfully, my image of God has been transformed into a view that is more Biblically accurate, one of a Heavenly Father pleased with me because of Jesus Christ in me.
More Bible than your Grandma knows: Rob uses more of the Bible than most of us have used our entire lives. We can (and should) question his use of the Bible, but let’s not just write off him as a ignorant idiot. I’d argue that Rob knows his Bible well, in fact better than 95% of believers in Bible-believing churches across the country. His knowledge allows him to bob and weave, twist and turn, fade in and fade out. He knows what part of a verse to include to make a point and how to layer apparent tensions within the text to create a compelling story. He’s one step ahead of most. He knows more Bible than your grandmother. I’ve been a student of the Bible since the day I was born. In addition to Catholic grade school, Christian high school, graduating from a Bible Institute, Christian college and 2 seminaries, when reading Rob’s book I had to continually rely on my training in order to discern the truths from the untruths within Rob’s writing. The novice will tend to write it all off or drink it all down. A dangerous extreme.
Rob admits he prayed the Sinner’s Prayer: I found this story amazingly interesting. The same prayer that Rob exposes in a negative light in the first chapter (5-6) , is the same prayer that Rob presents in a positive light in the last chapter (193-194). “One night when I was in elementary school, I said a prayer kneeling beside my bed…With my parents on either side of me, I invited Jesus into my heart. I told God that I believed that I was a sinner and that Jesus came to save me and I wanted to be a Christian. I still remember that prayer. It did something to me. Something in me.” Rob somehow felt the need to tell us the importance of his experience, even though throughout his book he tells us that in the end Love Wins and everyone is “in.”
Creativity is King: Rob’s book is poetic and risky. It’s flirtatiously conservative and scandalously liberal. His tone, pace, and style are original. Based strictly on literary categories (and not theological integrity), Rob’s book is entirely creative.
(Later this week I will post 8 Reasons why Rob Bell’s Love Wins is a Loser).
I am honored and humbled when readers write in about how the books impact them. Equally cool is when someone does an artistic rendering. Here is Randa Couch’sinterpretation of The Fine Line:
The Olive tree & the vine around it represent God’s grafting of the Israelites & Gentiles & the flowing of Living Waters out to all the closer we get to God … The stick man on the left represents the Separatists (very contemplative), the one on the right represents the Conformists (all kicked back)… The ones climbing God’s mountain, are learning & being shaped in their relationship w/ Him struggling & striving to become the Transformist to transform this world through the message of salvation in Jesus!
I thought it was ironic, the interviewer’s statement (award-winning Newsweek editor Lisa Miller):
Rob, aren’t you just a mainline Protestant posing as an evangelical?
Rob denied that label.
Other tough questions were:
Rob, what about atheists, are they going to heaven too?
One question from the floor was particularly tough to wiggle out of:
If the path is narrow according to Matthew 7:13-14, then how is it also broad, as presented in your new book, Love Wins?
I thought it was interesting how Rob started out the conversation, by stating that controversy is not what he set out to do, but rather that grace rattles cages.
So what do I think of Rob Bell?
I think Rob is a gifted writer, communicator, artist, and marketer. (He has God-given talents I envy {if I’m speaking the truth}).
But in the end, I think that Rob is one that I just can’t agree with. I think as pastors, our jobs are to clearly communicate Truth. I think the parts of Rob’s new book that I have read, do just the opposite.
They produce confusion.
That coupled with a Biblically illiterate society that, for the most part, has a postmodern worldview, and the mix is dangerous.
Don’t take my thoughts, decide for yourself.
Here are a few tools that might help.
The Trailer
A detailed review (negative)
An amazon review (negative)
A detailed review (positive)
An amazon review (positive)
MSNBC Interview
The chat room
The Trailer
A detailed review (negative) (Thanks Tim Challies) (Read full review here)
Questions matter. They can help you to grow deeper in your knowledge of the truth and your love for God—especially when you’re dealing with the harder doctrines of the Christian faith. But questions can also be used to obscure the truth. They can be used to lead away just as easily as they can be used to lead toward. Ask Eve.
Enter Rob Bell, a man who has spent much of the last seven years asking questions in his sometimes thought-provoking and often frustrating fashion. And when he’s done asking, no matter what answers he puts forward, it seems we’re only left with more questions. This trend continues in his new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, where Bell poses what might be his most controversial question yet:
Does a loving God really send people to hell for all eternity?
The questions you probably want answers to as you read this review are these: Is it true that Rob Bell teaches that hell doesn’t exist? Is it true that Rob Bell believes no one goes to hell? You’ll just need to keep reading because, frankly, the answers aren’t that easy to come by.
How he asks the question is just as important as the question itself. “Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this ‘good news’?” They say that the person who frames the debate is going to win the debate. That is especially true when the debate is framed in this way, through these particular questions. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. No offense, and no pun intended.
The Toxic Subversion Of Jesus’ Message
Bell begins the book with surprising forthrightness: Jesus’ story has been hijacked by a number of different stories that Jesus has no interest in telling. “The plot has been lost, and it’s time to reclaim it.” (Preface, vi)
A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. (ibid)
You may want to read that again.
It really says that. And it really means what you think it means. Though it takes time for that to become clear.
An amazon review (negative) (thanks Rev. Dr. Charles Erlandson and amazon Reviews) (full review here)
Well, the cat’s out of the bag now: Rob Bell is officially a universalist.
To date, I’ve kept out of the arguments over the Emergent Church and the theology and methodology of Rob Bell. As a pastor, professor, teacher, and writer -- and one who passionately loves Christ and cares about His gospel -- I now feel compelled to give my evaluation -- not of Rob Bell himself, but of what he’s written for all to see in “Love Wins.” I took vows as a priest to drive away all erroneous doctrines from the Church, and I guess that includes cyberspace!
Because I’ve written a negative view, I want to begin by affirming what’s good about “Love Wins” and Rob Bell’s writing. I want to thank him for having written about the issues of Hell, God’s story, God’s love, and universalism in such a way that Christians are actually awake and talking about important issues rather than the latest trends in entertainment or pop culture. A lot of what he rightly criticizes is, in fact, a modernistic notion of Christianity, the Church, the Bible, and how salvation works. He writes as a postmodernist and has some valuable insights into how Christians have gotten things wrong in recent centuries. Finally, by writing from a fresh perspective and with an engaging, questioning, and even provocative style, Bell has opened up endless discussions about things that truly matter. In so doing, he’s challenged me to see many issues in a new light, even if I often disagree with him. For all of this, I give him thanks and credit.
However (and you knew there’dbe a “however”!), “Love Wins” portrays partial truths from the Bible while misreading others. I truly to appreciate the way that Rob can make us see the story of the gospel with new eyes, and the lens he uses does correct many misperceptions, or wrong “stories.” But ultimately, Rob Bell is wrong about Hell and salvation.
A detailed review(positive) (full review here) (thanks Greg Boyd)
First, Rob is first and foremost a poet/artist/dramatist who has a fantastic gift for communicating in ways that inspire creativity and provoke thought. Rob is far more comfortable (and far better at) questioning established beliefs and creatively hinting at possible answers than he is at constructing a logically rigorous case defending a definitive conclusion. I enthusiastically recommend Love Wins because of the way it empowers readers to question old perspectives and consider new ones. Unless a person reads this book with a preset agenda to find whatever they can to further an anti-Rob Bell agenda (which, I guarantee you, is going to happen) readers will not put this book down unchanged. To me, this is one of the main criteria for qualifying a book as “great.”
Second, given Rob’s poetic/artistic/non-dogmatic style, Love Wins cannot be easily filed into pre-established theological categories (viz. “universalism” vs “eternal conscious suffering” vs. “annihilationism,” etc.). I am certain some readers — especially those who position themselves as the final arbiters and guardians of evangelical truth — will try to do this (obviously, they already have!). And, having read Rob’s book, I can almost guarantee you that they will find isolated quotes to justify their labels. As I interpret Rob’s work, however, it would be misguided and unfair to apply any of these labels to him (more on this below).
Rob Bell is not the Messiah. Nor the devil. He asks questions that many people in the world are asking. Whatever leanings you had deep inside before coming to this book, you will probably only find more backing for those. If you are pro-hell, it will probably only drive you further in thinking he is a heretic. If you always wished God was more loving and less stiff than you were taught, you will be happy to find this as a great resource to build your case on. It only leaves me with more questions. But they are good ones.
For all the other reviewers to come: Whatever you do, PLEASE make sure to remember that the world will be reading our responses here on Amazon. And the world will not want to become like you if all you can do is spew out venom because people dont believe like you. At very least, channel your anger into creative thoughts.
I believe that 100 years from now, this book will be viewed as the 95 theses of the 21st Century. Not because of any new earth-shattering insights, but because the right person said it in the right place at the right time. Thank you Rob.
Now, for those of us who really do believe that Hell is a place with eternal consequences, how about we put our beliefs into action and align our lives with that belief? Because to acknowledge the belief, but do nothing about it, well then, we might as well deny it.
In May I interviewed Tim Willard and Jason Locy authors of Veneer. (Read interview here.) These guys are not only friends, but they are articulate, insightful, and authentic students of Jesus and cultural trends.
