Love Wins? How about the TRUTH IN LOVE wins. Thoughts on Rob Bell’s new book.

I tuned into the hour long live streaming event on March 14th with Rob Bell about his new book: Love Wins.

So did thousands of others.

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).

• amazon review (positive)

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.

• MSNBC

• The chat room

A convicting thought:

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.

• Another review. WARNING…this one is lengthy.