Rob Bell’s new book comes out today and because of a nice lady at Barnes & Noble I was able to pick a copy up last night. Finished the book already and wanted to share with you some of my thoughts, especially after already touching on the controversy.
Realizing that you may have different expectations of a review I will start with a short overview followed by a more lengthy look at what the book proposes and maybe more importantly how it is proposed.
Before that let me say I am glad this conversation is happening. As a leader and a communicator in the local church I am guilty of oversimplifying eternity and not working through the questions that we all have. However I am saddened as to the tone of this discussion is taking in some circles. I realize these are matters of grave importance but people are watching how we treat one another and so far we are only reinforcing negative stereotypes.
Brief Review
Rob Bell is not advocating universalism. People are not dragged to heaven kicking and screaming. In fact a good portion of the book is spent reinforcing hell and the reality of hell that we see all around us. Readers of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce or Mere Christianity will be familiar with the concept of choosing to live in a hellish state. Bell is affirming hell, free will, and God’s judgment.
He is not doing this in neat and clean categories. This will drive his detractors crazy, which I think is his aim. Bell is trying to create conversation and bring up the questions that many have either repressed or whose unresolved nature became a wedge for them and the local church. Bell is changing the conversation from “what happens after I die?” to “how do I live now?” It reminded me of N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope in that God is in the restorative business not the evacuation business. God is bringing heaven to earth and we get to, as Bell puts it: “drag the future into the present”.
I liked this book and would recommend it. However let me be clear I have resonated with Bell’s work before and many of the critics leading up to the book’s release aren’t people I readily identify with. Perhaps Bell has done an excellent job of taking dangerous theology and putting it in an appealing package and I am just one more fool taking the bait. But as I read it last night I never saw anything that screamed of being heretical. Of course God is willing to do anything to reconnect with us. Of course God’s love and grace is bigger than anything we can imagine. Of course there is an obvious hell in this world, but thankfully there is also an obvious heaven as well.
Long Review
Postmodern Jujitsu.
That is what Bell is practicing with this book. He is taking the words and categories imposed by others and using them against them. That may be too strong of a description but the bulk of the book is looking at the Scriptural references used to support an exclusive heaven and an eternal conscious torment hell and deconstructs them. Any student of the Scriptures view on eternity knows that there isn’t a lot of detail and throughout church history there has been plenty of diversity on the matter.
What Bell is doing specifically is deconstructing the idea of heaven being extremely exclusive.
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 of anything better.
What this idea creates and what Bell spends a lot of the early parts of the book analyzing is the insider vs outsider paradigm this creates. There are people who are in and those who are out, and we can clearly define who those people are. Within this paradigm people rightly point out that eternity is determined by how we respond to Jesus, but Bell asks “how does one properly respond to Jesus?” What follows is a litany of Biblical texts in which people are told by Jesus they have found salvation through various different actions, evidence of faith, and statements. There lacks a singular example of someone coming to faith.
As I mentioned above Bell is trying to redefine our notion of eternity. As opposed to fulfilling one action or step that ensures our eternal bliss, Bell points out that Jesus is challenging people to live in eternity in the here and now and also makes it clear the present hellish nature of others.
Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned with the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem less concerned about hell after death.
Heaven requires a change that can be anything but easy. Take for instance the Rich Young Ruler who asks Jesus about eternity. In the conversation that follows eternity is offered, but the consequences are too painful for the man to embrace.
Jesus brings the man hope, but that hope bears within it judgment.
So if heaven, with all of its implications, is something we can begin to experience here and now what about hell? The Biblical case for hell is sparse. In the Old Testament you have a few mentions of a dark place you go when you die called Sheol, but the Hebrew Scriptures are infinitely more concerned with the present context than the afterlife. Jesus talks a lot about what is translated as hell Gehenna but that was the trash dump outside of town, a nasty place with fire that you wouldn’t want to be but our common understandings of hell don’t match the literal meaning of the word. Throw in a couple of references to Hades and you have the totality of the teaching on hell in the Bible. However we know that hell exists. We see hellish things in this world all the time, and if this world is only a glimpse of the next then it is right to assume that we can go on living in that hellish state.
God gives us what we want, and if that’s hell, we can have it. We have that kind of freedom, that kind of choice. We are that free.
. . . there are all kinds of hells, because there are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next.
The chapter that may get the most reaction from people is the fourth, titled: “Does God Get What God Wants?” It deals with the intersection of our free will to choose and God’s urgency to bring us closer to him. Bell readily acknowledges that free will is not something God can override, but he also states that we may limit God’s ability to extend to us opportunities to turn back to Him particularly after we die.
At the heart of this perspective is the belief that, given enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God’s presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart, and even the most “depraved sinners” will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God.
Bell is gracious to acknowledge the diversity of opinion down through church history on this matter. He doesn’t land at a nice neat answer that so many reading this book may be looking for. What he does in this regard is land at how the Bible ends. It ends with complete restoration and healing. This is the hope he is advocating and when those questions of who will be saved and what are the qualifications this is how he responds:
Those are the questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating more space for the freedom that love requires.
Critics will cite John 14 and Jesus’ declaration that He is “the way and the truth and the life”. The only way to be saved is through Jesus, and Bell agrees. In that statement of exclusivity he points out the inclusivity on the other side of it.
This kind insists that Jesus is the way, but holds tightly to the assumption that the all-embracing, saving love of this particular Jesus the Christ will of course include all sorts of unexpected people from across the cultural spectrum.
Of course God’s love is bigger than we assume. This open door will bother some people, but that is Bell’s point as reflects on the Gospel.
The book ends appropriately with Bell’s story of conversion. One that many can relate to. As a child he prayed a prayer of salvation with his parents. I am thankful that he affirms this as it is a common and comfortable method of coming to know Jesus Christ. It brings the conversation back to the context many of us are familiar with and takes abstract theological questions and makes them real. Which is the whole point of the incarnation. To many God is an abstract idea hard to relate to. Jesus is the Gospel with flesh. Jesus was and is constantly surprising and challenging us with the Gospel. It should be no surprise then when we come to realize that our notion of love and grace and salvation has been far too small compared to the real thing.
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Thanks for your take Josh! I guess i will listen to it when it comes out on audio, i hate reading
Thanks for taking the time to comment, always nice to know others are reading this.
Thanks for the review! I was planning on buying anyway, but this definitely itches the scratch of wanting to know what to expect. I skipped the long review so not to spoil the book to much.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Thanks and you are welcome, the long review does have more of a summary feel to it.
Josh, thanks for reviewing this book. I know that will be a helpful thing for many on the fence as to whether or not they should read this. Also, thanks for wrestling with these issues and being committed to being comfortable with questions which may not have answers.
Thanks Dan, it is easy for this conversation to stay in the abstract. Hopefully the conversation started in the book will lead to more practical and open questions about eternity
Does Rob at all take on Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus? To me, that would be the greatest counter-argument to the whole idea of there being a second chance for people after death. Thoughts?
He does, spends quite a bit of time with it actually. In isolation but a few pertinent quotes:
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2011/03/15/heaven-hell-the-theology-of-rob-bell/
Josh,
Thanks for bringing that link to this communities attention.
I would suggest reading reviews by those who have read it or picking the book up yourself. I do believe that Harper Collins has figured out how to drive attention to a book on the cheap.
In the linked review the author talks about how Bell and others are ignoring Gods judgment, when in fact the issue is affirmed and spoken of widely in the book.
I look forward to you sharing your thoughts.
Rob Bell’s interview on MSNBC. Interesting intersection happens here between the publicity of the book and the actual content.
An interesting intersection indeed. I have heard so many people reference this video and how Rob Bell appeared unintelligent and Bashir appear as the Biblical expert in the room. I have some thoughts on it, but I really appreciated Bell’s response when he said he is a pastor first and foremost. As for the interview, I think Bell handled it with class. Last week I actually attended Mars Hill Bible Church. Not a hint of controversy or heresy – just simply preaching through the bible and singing traditional songs, some of which were simply a reinforcement of their beliefs and the greater church’s well known creeds.
Yeah when I first saw the video without hearing all the commentary from others I thought Bashir came out the loser.
http://www.dennyburk.com/revising-hell-into-the-heterodox-mainstream/
Scot Mcknight at Jesus Creed has a great list and summary of the various Love Wins reviews. Thoughtful and even-handed worth a look:
http://www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/2011/03/19/rob-bell-reviews/
A simple overview of “Love Wins” by Rob Bell, no commentary: http://bit.ly/iiRLyn
Josh, I have a book I’d like to send you that I believe will appeal to you. Please write me at bruce@wbrucecameron.com if you’re interested. I’ll keep the conversation brief, I promise.
Personally, I couldn’t stand the book. Without making a direct accusation, the whole think stunk of “Did God really say…?” I seem to remember that phrase from somewhere else…
And to any interested – my review can be found on my blog
http://www.davidnormanblog.com/love-wins/
I would recommend reading his post folks. David and I come to different conclusions, but he is an incredibly thoughtful leader and more importantly a passionate follower of Christ.
Also take his advice and read Chan’s Erasing Hell.