A few nights ago I read Rob Bell's new book, "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived." If you've not been paying attention to the Christian blogosphere you may not realize that this book has created an enormous amount of attention and has been roundly condemned by evangelical scholars like Al Mohler and John Piper.
The controversy surrounds Bell's contention in the book that he does not believe a loving God will send billions of people to a place called hell. He believes that given enough time in eternity that every single person who has ever lived will eventually have their heart melted by the love of God and will choose to spend eternity with Him. In the end, Bell argues, love wins.
Of course the controversy is that this belief, that everyone gets to heaven no matter what they believe in this life, is known in theology as "universalism", a heresy that has been condemned by Christian orthodoxy since the fourth century.
This kind of argument has wide appeal. In fact, I would say that there are many Christians in conservative churches who buy into some form of universal theology. The complaint that a loving God surely would not send good people to hell is not a new one with Rob Bell. So what's the problem? Why all the uproar from Christian scholars and conservative pastors?
The problem is that although the idea that in the end everybody wins has a lot of appeal, in order for a person to buy into this logic you would have to ignore or deny some very significant biblical teachings about the nature of man, God's grace and the blood atonement of Jesus. In order for us to embrace the idea that everyone eventually goes to heaven without their hearts turning toward Christ in this life, we would have to believe that man is basically good, Christ's death on the cross was unnecessary and that man's natural tendency toward sin and rebellion is not as bad as we might think or the Bible says.
But of course, the Bible teaches that we were all born in sin and rebellion against God (Romans 3:23) and that our situation is so dire we can't even know the depths of our wickedness and deceit (Jeremiah 17:9) and that the only remedy to our idolatrous heart is the substitutionary death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Bell gets past all of this by speculating that surely after death a loving God will give all of us a second chance at redemption. The problem of course is that the Bible teaches we all get one death and then the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). But remarkably the entire premise of the book rests on this one bit of speculation on his part. He puts it like this:
“And then there are others who ask, if you get another chance after you die, why limit that chance to one-off immediately after death? And so they expand the possibilities, trusting that there will be endless opportunities in an endless amount of time for people to say yes to God. As long as it takes, in other words.” (p.55)
Again, this logic, though appealing, runs contrary to the plain teaching of scripture. An example is found in the teaching of Jesus himself. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus taught a parable about a man named Lazarus and a rich man who were both existing in a kind of eternal state of awareness after death. Lazarus was in heaven and the rich man was in hell. Remarkably, the rich man begged Abraham to allow Lazarus to go back to earth and tell his brothers of their need for repentance. Abraham's answer was that if his brothers would not listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not listen to a man who came back from the dead (v. 31). In this fascinating parable, Jesus reveals to us that the human heart is in such rebellion against God that not even appeals in the afterlife would be able to budge it.
This is not a new controversy. In fact it seems like every generation has examples of this kind of thing. One of my Dad's favorite biblical scholars when I was growing up was William Barclay. Barclay was a prolific writer and theologian and his commentaries were a must in every conservative pastor's library. Late in his career, Barclay caused a similar controversy when he announced that he was a convinced universalist.
The reason this particular event has become such a big deal is that Bell, like Barclay in my father's generation, has been extremely influential. He is a very gifted communicator, whose Nooma videos have been played and replayed for years in worship services and youth ministry events in countless evangelical churches. There is a lot to like about Rob Bell. He is extremely creative and really a genius when it comes to communicating in popular media. One of the best sermons I ever heard in fact from the book of Leviticus was preached by Rob Bell. It was one of those sermons on the atonement I will never forget.
In fact there were parts of the book I enjoyed. I thought his treatment of heaven on earth in chapter two was masterful. But in chapter three his theology started going off a cliff and it never recovered. As a friend of mine remarked, the parts of the book that were good were really good but the parts of it that were bad were terrible.
To be fair the book was obviously not written as a book of theology. He is not making arguments for biblical scholars and theologians to pour over so they can develop counter arguments. He is pithy and sarcastic and bombastic in his approach to conventional Christian belief. Reading the book is like watching one of his Nooma videos. For the most part, Rob Bell paints pictures, he doesn't develop scholarly arguments.
My sense is that he probably doesn't care what conservative scholars think anyway or else he wouldn't have written such a provocative book. Instead he is appealing to a large audience of unbelievers and others who are offended by the traditional teaching of the church. Believe me that is a BIG audience. There will be many who no doubt will be attracted to this spin on the gospel.
Sadly, it's not the gospel of scripture and so it's not the gospel that transforms lives and changes hearts.
It's another gospel.
Which is to say, it's no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-8)
In his promotion video, Bell raises lots of questions about conservative biblical teaching regarding the atonement. Denny Burke does a good job in answering those questions:
In the video Bell begins with an anecdote about a person who once suggested that Ghandi is in hell. Bell is astonished that someone would make such a pronouncement, and it leads him to pose a litany of questions--questions that he apparently intends to answer more fully in the book. I thought it would be worthwhile to take a crack at answering each of his questions here from a biblical point of view. So here are my answers to Bell's queries.
Bell: Ghandi's in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?
Answer: The Bible teaches that there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). The Bible also teaches any person who does not believe in Jesus falls under the judgment of God (John 3:18). Anyone (including Ghandi) who refuses to trust Christ alone for salvation will die in their sin and will not be able to follow Jesus into eternal life (John 8:21).
Bell: Will only a few select people make it to heaven?
Answer: Yes, that is true. Jesus taught that a select number of people would make it to eternal life. Most people will choose the broad way that leads to destruction, but a few will choose the narrow way to life (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-28). Nevertheless, the Bible also teaches that there will be a great multitude which no one will be able to count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).
Bell: And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell?
Answer: I don't know if anyone knows what the exact number will be, but the Bible teaches that at the end of the age there will only be two groups of people: those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life and those whose are not. All those whose names are not written in the book will be thrown into the lake of fire. This will no doubt be a countless throng of people (Revelation 20:10-15).
Bell: And if that's the case, how do you become one of the few? Is it what you believe? Or what you say? Or what you do? Or who you know? Or something that happens in your heart? Or do you need to be initiated or baptized or take a class or be converted or be born again? How does one become one of these few?
Answer: There is nothing that any person can do to be counted among the saved. Salvation from the penalty of sin is all of grace. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God offers us His Son, and the only way to receive Him is by faith. Jesus said it this way, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29). If you want to become one of the few, then you have to trust in Jesus alone for your salvation.
Bell: And then there is the question behind the questions. The real question: What is God like? Because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the gospel of Jesus, is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus. So what gets subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that that we would need to be rescued from this God?
Answer: What is God like? This is the ultimate question and how one answers this question will determine how all the others get answered. God is holy. He loves righteousness, and He hates sin. He is the most valuable, precious being in the universe. He is worthy of all our worship, devotion, and obedience. All people fall short of their obligation to love and worship God, and this falling short is called sin (Romans 3:23). Through our sin, we all have earned God's just sentence of death (Romans 6:23). In fact, God says that He is angry with those who do not repent of their sin. The Bible says that God is storing up His anger for impenitent sinners (Romans 2:5) and that it will be a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of an angry God at the judgment (Hebrews 10:27, 31). The Bible teaches that God is both the treasure of heaven and the terror of hell. God will punish His enemies.
Bell: How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?
Answer: You are asking how can God be good if He sentences sinners to eternal damnation, but I think you have the question backwards. The real question is how can God be good if He doesn't send sinners to judgment. In other words, how can God be good while forgiving sinners? This is the question Paul wrestled with in Romans 3, and he concluded that God set forth His son Jesus as a propitiation for sin. That means that all of the wrath and anguish that would have taken us an eternity in hell to endure, God poured out on His Son in the moment of the cross. God is good because He settles our sin debt in the cross of Jesus Christ, our substitute. This is good news because God clears away guilt through the cross and offers eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus. Anyone who believes in Jesus in this way can have forgiveness and eternal life. This is more than good news; it's the best of news.
Bell: This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian faith. They see it has an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies, and they say, "Why would I ever want to be a part of that?"
Answer: Sin will always appears as a trifle to those whose view of God is small. If you were to discover a little boy pulling the legs off of a grasshopper, you would think it strange and perhaps a little bizarre. If the same little boy were pulling the legs off of a frog, that would be a bit more disturbing. If it were a bird, you would probably scold him and inform his parents. If it were a puppy, that would be too shocking to tolerate. You would intervene. If it were a little baby, it would be so reprehensible and tragic that you would risk you own life to protect the baby. What's the difference in each of these scenarios? The sin is the same (pulling the limbs off). The only difference is the one sinned against (from a grasshopper to a baby). The more noble and valuable the creature, the more heinous and reprehensible the sin. And so it is with God.
If God were a grasshopper, then to sin against Him wouldn't be such a big deal and eternal punishment wouldn't be necessary. But God isn't a grasshopper, He's the most precious, valuable, beautiful being in the universe. His glory and worth are infinite and eternal. Thus to sin against an infinitely glorious being is an infinitely heinous offense that is worthy of an infinitely heinous punishment.
We don't take sin seriously because we don't take God seriously. We have so imbibed of the banality of our God-belittling spirit of the age that our sins hardly trouble us at all. Our sin seems small because we regard God as small. And thus the penalty of hell--eternal conscious suffering under the wrath of God--always seems like an overreaction on God's part. If we knew God better, we wouldn't think like that.
Bell: [You] see, what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who God is and what God is like.
Answer: You couldn't be more right. But I question whether the god that you are describing is the same One I am describing.
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