Rob Bell, Love Wins and why I hope he’s right

So Rob Bell has a new book out. It’s caused a firestorm of controversy and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and read it for myself.

And now I have.

But before I give you my overview of Rob Bell’s latest book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived (available in hardcover, Kindle, audio version), perhaps it would be fair to give you a little perspective as to where I’m coming from.

I grew up in a fairly traditional and conservative evangelical home. We attended a non-denominational church the majority of my life. After high school graduation, I spent some time in an Independent Baptist Church and then later a few Southern Baptist churches, before finding my tribe at encounter (a church plant of a Southern Baptist church, which is now a totally independent church).

After we moved to Forney in May of last year, we haven’t been actively participating in a “traditional community of faith.” With the move, Laurie’s forced bed rest and the birth of the boys we haven’t found a community yet that feels like home for us.

So right now, much of my “faith community” happens through my weekly meetings with a few guys, a small group we take part in on Sunday nights, online conversations with friends around the world and the spontaneous conversations my good friend Frank and I have over HeyTell or phone.

Along the way I’ve found myself caring very little about eschatology (end times) and have often considered myself a “pantheologist” — “It’ll all pan out in the end.”

I’ve also found myself as a 5-point Calvinist, then 4-point, later an Arminiast and now probably somewhere in between. I’ve also, over the last several years, found myself more and more attracted to the “house church” or “everywhere church” model of doing things as opposed to the “traditional” weekly congregational model. And I would consider myself a friend of “emerging Christianity” (if not an active participant, although I’ve never attended a co-hort or an actual “emergent event.”)

This background has helped shaped my (current) views and led me to share a summation of my beliefs last year…

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He lived a life of humility, suffered undeservingly, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He conquered death on the third day and ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father and Creator.
He has invited us to join him in the redemption of all creation, leading us to the day when he will return to create a new heaven and a new earth.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and an abundant everlasting life.
I believe in the priesthood of all believers, who are ordained to be bearers of this message to their sphere of influence, through their public confession and the physical act of baptism.
I believe we are called to reconcile all relationships and build greater spaces of grace through the regular invitation and celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Love Wins

As I read Bell’s book, it seemed to fit as a continuation of the other books I’ve read of his (Velvet Elvis and Sex God).

I’ve always thought both books were very hope-filled. Not only for Followers of Jesus — but for non-followers as well.

One of my most often quoted ideas from Bell comes from his book Velvet Elvis…

…the church we’re embracing is that the gospel is good news, especially for those who don’t believe it…

The good news of Jesus is good news for Person X. It’s good news for Person X’s neighbors. It’s good news for the whole street. It’s good news for people who don’t believe in Jesus. We have to be really clear about this. The good news for Person X is good news for the whole street. And if it is good news for the whole street, then it’s good news for the hole world.

If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody.

Bell writes that because the Good News has changed the believer, they should be living such a life that the Good News impacts everyone around them.

In Velvet Elvis, Bell also writes…

Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for…

Now if there is a life of heaven, and we choose it, then there’s also another way. A way of living out of sync with how God created us to live. The word for this is hell: a way, a place, a realm absent of how God desires things to be. We can bring heaven to earth; we can bring hell to earth….

Jesus’ desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth.

With Love Wins, Bell simply delves even deeper into this idea. And for me — it sounds like the exact thing all people who call themselves Followers of The Way should at least hope for — whether they believe it or not.

As Followers of Jesus, we should not wish/will/hope/desire that anyone spend eternity in hell and I also don’t believe we should take a position where we doubt or judge another person’s eternal destiny simply because of differences in theology.

We should be changed in such a way that our love for everyone (our family, our neighbors, our city, the world) is evident and we want them to have every chance possible to spend eternity experiencing the abundant life with Jesus, rather than eternal torment in hell.

It’s out of my hands

And as a Calv-Minist, I know that there’s nothing I can do, in and of myself, to bring another person to Jesus. It’s not my job to convict and change hearts — it’s all up to the work of the Holy Spirit — and she does a fine job of that herself.

A person’s salvation is never up to me.

I’m simply called to live a live worthy of Jesus and to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those around me.

So if salvation is out of my hands — my hope and desire is that my boys, my family members, my friends, my neighbors and every person that has ever lived, has every opportunity to accept The Way of Jesus — whether it be in this life or the next.

I also want to be able to read Scripture literally when it says…

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. Psalm 22:27-28

The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:10

For God so loved the world… John 3:16

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17

Love (God) is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3-4

Instead he (God) is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

(and elsewhere…)

Getting over our certainty

In the end, I think Bell presents a great introduction to an idea that’s already been expressed by others before him.

In a letter to Hans von Rechenberg (1522), (Bell writes that), Martin Luther wrote “Who would doubt God’s ability to do that?” in regards to the possibility that people could turn to God after death.

My friend Frank tells me that CS Lewis also shared many of the same ideas as Bell in his book The Great Divorce. And it’s also been widely reported that Origen of Alexandria and NT Wright (among others) shared similar sentiments as well.

In reality, I’m not certain our theologies on heaven and hell will be something we can fully grasp and understand for certain until we reach the next life.

But in the meantime, I do plan to get over my certainty and hope that Rob Bell and others like him are right.

I hope he’s right for my lost family members, for my friends and my neighbors.

I hope he’s right for the parents who lost a child in infancy, for the 15 year old who was abused by his father and died far too soon.

I hope he’s right for the tribe in Africa that perished before a missionary was able to reach them, for the woman who was born into an Islamic family and was never shown another way of living.

I hope he’s right for Anne Frank and millions of others… I hope.

I hope love really does win… either in this life or the next…

To be continued… Rob Bell, Love Wins and what Bell isn’t saying

I hope to delve a little deeper into Bells book and cover what he’s not saying, what I think he’s saying and what it means.