Love Wins - A Book Review

Well, Rob Bell isnt an annihilationist -ie sinners are destroyed by the fires of Hell in the end rather than tortured for eternity - like us Adventists were "hoping" he would be. He does, however, ask many of the same questions which led many of us Adventists to accept said belief: if God is love and just, how could He turn and torture humans for eternity in payment of the evil they did in their short lifespan? Destroy? yes. Eternal torture? No. He also doesnt come out and support a clear Universalist teaching as many outspoken Neo-Calvinists like John Piper said he would - he does, however, clearly open the door for the possibility of universal salvation. Their accusations did boost his books sales drastically from what I have seen. Did God predestine that?

One of the most beneficial things I think Bell does in his book is to challenge the oversimplification reductionist mentality with which many modern Christians approach the biblical teachings of Salvation and Jesus. There are so many different metaphors that are used in scripture and churches tend to choose one, to the exclusion of the others, dig trenches and start shooting at other churches who are doing the same with one of the other metaphors. He quotes a ton of texts which present different pictures of conversion and asks on page 16:

"Is it what you say,

or who you are,

or what you do,

or what you say you're going to do,

or who your friends are,

or who you're married to,

or whether you give birth to children?

Or is it what questions you're asked?

Or is it what questions you ask in return?

Or is it whether you do what you're told and go into the city?"

Each of these statements represents a biblical story where someone was confronted with Jesus and experienced salvation. Scripture, it turns out, isnt as "black/white" as we often attempt to make it appear with our proof-texting, or as it is called in academia, Systematic Theology. Bell attempts to engage the entire text of Scripture rather than "proving" his point by quoting a few random texts. He comes across as an honest seeker of understanding rather than a bombastic defender of his version of orthodoxy...it is refreshing.

In his chapter "Here is the New There" Bell presents his idea of heaven. It is basically the idea that heaven is not just some future destination for which we need to secure a ticket and then simply bide our time until boarding time on the glory train. Heaven starts now. We bring the reality of the future into the present when we allow God to bring healing and justice through our lives into our present broken reality. It is a very biblical and needed corrective for many Evangelical Christians who think that because they said the magic voodoo word "Jesus" they now have their ticket and can just wait around for boarding time. It is also a needed corrective for often-fatalistic Adventists who think that since the end is so imminent we can just check out of any kind of healing here on Earth since "its all gonna burn anyway." He says on page 46-47, "If you believe that you're going to leave and evacuate to somewhere else, then why do anything about this world? A proper view of heaven leads not to escape from this world, but to full engagement with it, all with the anticipation of a coming day when things are on earth as they currently are in heaven."

He responds to the aversion many people have to a God who judges on page 37-38:

"Its important to remember this next time we hear people say they can't believe in a 'God of judgment.' Yes they can. Often, we can think of little else. Every oil spill, every report of another woman sexually assaulted, every news report that another political has silenced the opposition through torture, imprisonment, and execution...we shake our fists and cry out, 'Will somebody please do something about this?'"

He then moves onto hell.

Bell's Hell - haha, makes me think of Hell's Bells...if you saw it you know what Im talkin' bout - it turns out sounds almost exactly like the "hell" of the early church father Origen. Bell makes a valid point illustrating that "hell" in the Bible is not as cut and dry as many modern Christians would have us believe. There are basically no verses in the OT that talk about any wrath of God or punishment that is not linked to redemption. This is true. Even in the NT it can be argued - rather weakly in my opinion however - that hell is "redemptive." Bell talks on page 91 about the parable of the sheep and goats and how the goats are sent to "aion kolazo" which is interpreted into English as "eternal punishment." It is true that this is a bad translation. "Aion" is shown - correctly from what I know - to be a Hebrew conception of time that actually has a ending in sight, not something that has no end as is assumed in the English word "forever." Jonah was in the belly of the whale forever - "aion" - according to Jonah, or three days according to us. "Kolazo" is a term from horticulture meaning to prune and trim in order to make a plant flourish. So these people are sent to a place for "a time of trimming" according to Bell. This infers that they will be "saved" once they have been "trimmed." Hell is not for punishment as most Evangelical Christians would have us believe; or for destruction of evil and sinners as Adventist Christians would have us believe; but hell is actually for redemption. Everyone can be saved...there's no time when the "gates of heaven are closed" according to Bell. He doesnt teach that God will bring evil into heaven but that when confronted with the love of God - before or after death - sinners will be unable to be unchanged.

"Does God Get What God Wants?" asks his chapter on the will of God. God "wills that all be saved" Bell reminds us the Bible proclaims. Does God get what God wants? Bell says "yes" in the closest he comes to an outright proclamation of universal salvation.

This is basically the exact same thing that Origen taught back in the 2nd/3rd century CE. According to him, everyone will be purged and renovated to be what they were intended to be in the beginning, even the devil, aka "death." The following quotes are from Origen. If you are not interested in this side-trip just skip down past the following quotes:

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De Principiis Book I Chapter X.7

"By which certainly it is understood that the fury of God's vengeance

is profitable for the purgation of souls. That the punishment, also,

which is said to be applied by fire, is understood to be applied with

the object of healing, is taught by Isaiah...'Thou hast the coals of

fire; sit upon them: they will be to thee a help.' And in other

passages he says, 'The Lord will sanctify in a burning fire."

De Principiis Book III Chapter VI.3

"I am of opinion that the expression, by which God is said to be 'all

in all,' means that He is 'all' in each individual person. Now He

will be 'all' in each individual in this way: when all which any

rational understanding, cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice,

and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away, can either

feel, or understand, or think, will be wholly God...So then, when the

end has been restored to the beginning, and the termination of things

compared with their commencement, that condition of things will be

re-established in which rational nature was placed...so that when all

feeling of wickedness has been removed, and the individual has been

purified and cleansed, He who alone is the one good God becomes to him

"all" and that not in the case of a few individuals, or of a

considerable number, be He Himself is 'all in all."

De Principiis Book III Chapter VI.5

"The last enemy, moreover, who is called death, is said on this

account to be destroyed, that there may not be anything left of a

mournful kind when death does not exist, nor anything that is adverse

when there is no enemy...Its destruction, therefore, will not be its

non-existence, but its ceasing to be an enemy, and (do be) death. For

nothing is impossible to the Omnipotent, nor is anything incapable of

restoration to its Creator: for he made all things that they might

exist, and those things which were made for existence cannot cease to

be."

De Principiis Book III Chapter VI.6

"And thus, through the numerous and uncounted orders of progressive

beings who are being reconciled to God from a state of enmity, the

last enemy is finally reached, who is called death, so that he also

may be destroyed, and no longer be an enemy. When, therefore, all

rational souls shall have been restored to a condition of this kind,

then the nature of this body of ours will undergo a change into the

glory of a spiritual body."

Against Celsus Book V Chapter XV

"But that we say that God brings fire upon the world, not like a cook,

but like a God, who is the benefactor of them who stand in need of the

discipline of fire, will be testified by the prophet Isaiah, is whose

writings it is related that a sinful nation was thus addressed:

'Because thou hast coals of fire, sit upon them: they shall be to thee

a help.'"

Against Celsus Book V Chapter XVI

"Those of a different nature - those, viz., who, according to their

deserts, require the administration of punishment by fire - will be

involved in these sufferings with a view to an end which it is

suitable for God to bring upon those who have been created in His

image, but who have lived in opposition to the will of that nature

which is according to His image."

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Bell doesnt come out and say that all humans will in fact be saved at any point - so I dont think its fair to accuse him of actual universalism. He does certainly leave the option open for redemption to occur even after death at some point and for salvaged sinners to enter through the "ever-open gates" of heaven. On page 106 he quotes Martin Luther's words in reference to the possibility of people turning to God after death, "Who would doubt God's ability to do that?" It is strikingly similar to CS Lewis' idea in The Great Divorce where buses transport people from "hell" to heaven to give them an after-death second chance at redemption. I am not imagining these connections. Bell gives a shout out to both church father Origen and Lewis' book The Great Divorce.

He further deals with the ideas of the Cross and the "availability" of Christ but I have already created a monster note as it stands so Ill leave the rest alone and let you check the book out if you're interested. Heaven and Hell are all you really wanted to know about anyway...admit it;)

I was disappointed in the way Bell just rushed over the texts that reference "hell" and didnt engage in much real exegesis. His book is written for mass market however so I cant be too picky I guess.

Love Wins asks a lot of great questions that Christianity at large doesnt seem interested in asking or even allowing to be asked - as illustrated by the outcry of the Neo-Calvinist community before the book was even released, or read by any of the criers - I appreciate that. I dont agree with a lot of his conclusions but I do agree with most of his questions. My final "verdict" on the book would be: great but incomplete.

But - as good ol' Reading Rainbow would remind us - dont take my word for it...