Rob Bell: Love Wins

 I liked this book. Bell has taken a concern he has about the views of some Christians and churches concerning heaven and hell, what they suggest about the nature of God, and ended up with a position quite close to C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce, which is the only book he mentions in his bibliography at the end.

He thinks the teaching of far too many churches suggests that a small number of people make it to heaven and the rest of humanity will be punished in hell. I can identify with that. When I lived in Broadview, Illinois, I worked with youth in the church. I was still playing tennis then. I was on my way to a match, walking past many homes in the six block walk. The thought occurred to me, as a 22 year old, that if what I heard in the Wesleyan Church, of which I was a member at the time, most of these people were going to hell. Personally, I did not see how that could be, if God was also the loving God that we also preached. I relate this incident only to say that I can identify with Rob Bell in his question concerning Christian teaching. I suspect that most people in pulpit and pew can identify.

His struggle with the teaching of some churches in this regard might have been alleviated had he gone to the best teaching of the church concerning matters related to heaven and hell. Among the easier debating approaches is to take the worst presentation of an opposing position and critique it. Yet, I have found helpful, especially if I am engaging in polemics or debate, to take the best presentation of an opposing position. Bell refers to some personal examples and to some web sites that emphasized both the love of God and the damnation of many people in hell. Although this may deal with popular culture, I would have liked to see him interact with the best as well, such as Augustine, Aquinas, Reformed and Lutheran Confessions, even John Wesley's sermons. At its best, the church has found ways of being quite generous when it comes to who is "in" and "out," as Bell puts it. The church has been quite generous, for example, to the people who never had a Christian witness, who were born before Jesus came, and who were in cultures that simply did not have a Christian witness. In our time, we have become quite aware, as Bell points out, that we have to reflect upon the Jesus that people reject. It may be such a distorted image of Jesus that it no longer bears resemblance to what the Bible or the church has taught. 

Bell is quite right to suggest that our eschatology needs to determine how we live today. Heaven is not so much somewhere else, but here, even as hell is not simply somewhere else, but what people make here. He is an interesting twist when he responds to the question of what we will do in heaven for eternity. What do you love doing here? It will continue in eternity. 

He has a chapter that may surprise some Christians, although I would assume it does not surprise clergy. He discusses that some Christians have taught the universal reconciliation of the world with God. He points to Origen, of course, but other authors as well. His point is that for some Christians, they cannot imagine an eternity in which God will not get what God intended in creation. 

He has a chapter that presents in a powerful way the reconciling work of the cross and another on the divinity of Jesus. In these two chapters, it becomes quite obvious that his audience is those who have rejected a distorted view of the teachings of the church. He is inviting such people to reconsider these two difficult teachings of the church. He also has a meaningful and powerful interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son. I have preached and taught it often, but have not heard this one. 

Yet, Bell ends with the notion that you will get what you want. For me, this has become critical in our reflections on the notion of hell. God respects human choices, now and forever. At one level, we might wonder how anyone could say no to the full manifestation of the love of God to which the Bible seems to point. Yet, we see it every day, as human beings pursue their own will and path, and reject the light and love they have received. In this, Bell is quite close to the vision that C. S. Lewis portrayed in The Great Divorce. Yes, it may well be that God loves each one enough that God will allow that person to get what he or she wants. If it is the loneliness and godforsaken quality of life, then, God will love you enough to let that happen. From one perspective, it is acknowledging failure, as Bell points out. From another perspective, even the person who rejects God forever is a testimony to the love and grace of God. 

I began by saying that I liked this book. Frankly, I appreciate anyone who is at least trying to take difficult teachings of the church and re-frame them, whether for Christians, for the person who may be on their out the doors of the church because of what it teaches, or for the person who might reconsider the church and their relationship to Christ.