I Love Rob Bell

Catchy/controversial title for a reformed evangelical blogger don't you think? I'm hoping it gets me more traffic :) Anyway, I'm a little late to the game on this, but I wanted to chime in one this conversation that's been happening regarding Rob Bell and his recent book, Love Wins. You know what happened, you've seen the trailer if you're still reading, so you know the uproar that has happened in the last 2+ weeks. Accusations of heresy and universalism abound, tweets flying left and right like bird shot against this guy that’s always espoused some edgy teaching and never claimed to be mainstream. It’s been pretty wacky to say the least, trending on twitter, getting evangelicals and pastors on CNN and the like, and causing every Christian (myself included now) to weigh in on the subject.*

So why all the hoop-la? Well the subject matter is eternity, heaven and hell, who goes where and why, so that’s of course going to attract some attention. But Bell’s other questions (he doesn’t actually make any claims that I can tell) in the video get to deeper issues on the nature of God and if He is Good and subsequently if the news we preach is Good. [He notedly doesn’t ask about the nature of man & whether we are good, and what we deserve -- at least in the 3 minute trailor]. Good questions. And many would quickly answer them. But in the last few weeks as I’ve read and thought on this, I’ve realized the issue of hell has been an evolving theology and some “heroes” of our faith fall on all sides of the issue. [Providentially I just came across some studies on heaven and hell and what the Bible says, so I’m looking forward to digging into those.]

Now I should say, I do have issues with Bell’s implications in his questions, that God’s design for eternity is somehow unfair to men and that love equals blind acceptance, but I’ll save those criticisms til after I’ve actually read the book, (if I do—I’ve got a long list). This flogging of Bell was what my friend, Chris, took issue with. And I can see what he means, especially since at the point when most were tweeting and blogging, they had not read the book. It is sad that our Christian culture reacts this way, not being of sober mind and thinking critically before we judge as it seems most were doing. But on the other hand, because this is a subject that matters so deeply and Bell has such a wide influence, people do want to guard against false teaching and make sure the Gospel is represented correctly. But there is something to be said for doing that with gentleness and love, and Paul’s words at the end of the 2nd chapter of 2 Timothy could serve as good guidance in this regard. We shouldn’t be scared of this conversation and we shouldn’t shy away of thinking deeply about it and communicating our views clearly. We do fail in this regard a good bit as a Church I believe.

Anyway, I do think this book is going to be a good thing for our community, precisely because it will and already has brought this conversation about eternity to the forefront. There are some wacky things Bell could be saying in his book, but at this point, based on the trailer, there could be some legit stuff as well. He could be saying that the biblical view of eternal life is actually knowing God. I think a lot of people miss the boat on this, thinking that heaven is a good place where we’ll fish all day and hang out with loved ones. But the Bible says those who enter in are those who know Him and live according to His teaching, and thus will spend forever worshipping His glory. In that view of heaven, people who don’t know God will not want to be there.

Bell could also bring out the point that our preoccupation shouldn’t be with getting saved and making sure we won’t burn forever, but rather interacting with God day-to-day and our knowing Him affecting our hearts and changing how we live, bringing heaven to earth. They will know us by our fruit and how we live our lives each day.

I know it’s not very reformed of me to say I like Rob Bell, but I am thankful for the questions this book is provoking and the discovery that will come with it. I hope he’s not just stirring up controversy for it’s sake by writing this book. Or just trying to sell books by releasing the trailor (but of course he is…I doubt they expected all of the attention though, but I did note that they moved up the release date 2 weeks after all the buzz…excellent marketing if you ask me).

I’m hopeful about the possibilities at this point, and know if we don’t shrink back from this conversation, it could be the means to communicate hope for the here and now to a lot of hurting people. Here’s hoping civility wins.


BTW: I also found Justin's blog helpful in thinking this through.
* As a side note, I happened across a quote today that said most believers feel they have to defend the Bible, but it’s a like a lion. You need only release it…who ever heard of defending a lion? It can defend itself….good thought.