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Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 6

January 19, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Rob’s Saviour
Chapter 6
There Are Rocks Everywhere

This chapter of Love Wins is classic Rob.

He takes an event that Christians accept and refer to occasionally – but are afraid to really think about – and expands on it, bringing it into greater focus. Not fearing what the Bible implies – in spite of being conditioned to jump no higher than the rim of the jar – Rob ventures into the no-go zone, following the obvious to its logical end.

In this case he is talking about a rock. One that figured briefly but significantly in the life of Israel during the Exodus.

Wandering through the desert, Israel became thirty and had no water to drink. Under God’s instruction Moses took his staff and, with all the people looking on, hit a rock. And out came water. Enough water to quench the thirst of an entire nation.

It was a miracle in more ways than one and it involved a rock.

We know about Moses’ staff. It became a snake, ate other snakes – that were previously staffs – and caused all kinds of pestilence when pointed in the right direction. It was the emblem of Moses authority and was prominent in the Exodus story…

But the Rock?

The Rock, about which little was said in the Old Testament, stands out because Paul makes reference to it in the New and gives it a very special place in theology. He never mentions the staff but the no-name, nondescript rock, he says, was Christ! And Rob, taking his cue from Paul’s remark, goes on to suggest these rocks are everywhere. [Read more…] about Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 6

Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 5

January 18, 2012 by EnnisP 1 Comment

Rob’s Salvation
Chapter 5
“Dying To Live”

If Love Wins was a play this chapter would follow the intermission.

In the first half Rob offers a new way to think about heaven and hell, other than the popular…

Once you die it’s over, there’s no turning back.

And his ideas go much further than just questioning the finality of death. He says the offer of salvation may never end. The first four chapters are important for developing his thought:

Chapter 1 – the quandary. Rob, through a series of questions, shows that conventional ideas about salvation are not always consistent or logical. Wouldn’t terminating a life before the age of accountability be wise if it would surely save a soul from endless torment? That would be the logical thing to do if destiny is sealed at the point of death.
Chapter 2 – heaven. Rob demonstrates that heaven is with us now and religious ritual is neither needed to prepare for it nor necessary to engage it now.
Chapter 3 – hell. Rob’s hell is painful and he never minimizes the sins that put us there but for him it isn’t final and it’s purpose isn’t torment. It is corrective not punitive. The grace of hell is in the option to repent. Rob’s hell has an exit plan.
Chapter 4 – God. Because God is loving, it isn’t illogical to suggest He can and will offer salvation to everyone for as long as it takes for them to repent and return to God.

That is his proposal.

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In the final chapters, with these ideas fully out in the open, Rob takes a different tack. He focuses on four accepted concepts and uses them to reinforce his proposal. The concepts are: [Read more…] about Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 5

Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 4

January 17, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Rob’s God
Chapter 4
“Does God Get What God Wants?”

In chapter 3 Rob argued that hell is not final, meaning those in hell will still have the chance to repent. It’s still hell and it may last forever but it’s not final.

In chapter 4, building on that idea, Rob suggests that the option to repent never ends and that all things and every person will eventually be restored. He appeals to common sense, human decency and what we know about God to make his point. God, he says, is too loving to withdraw the offer of salvation and he adds several other arguments along the way, both biblical and philosophical:

The Contradiction

Rob begins this chapter by taking quotes directly from church web sites. The quotes represent the beliefs of the people in each church and Rob points out the contradictions in these statements.

For example, on the one hand God is represented as:

Mighty, powerful, loving, unchanging, full of grace and mercy and all-knowing. This God is the one who created the world and everything in it. This is the God for whom all things are possible, pp.96-97.

But, in spite of these remarkable attributes the same sites suggest:

The unsaved dead will be committed to an eternal conscious punishment (p. 96)…billions of people will spend forever apart from this God, who is their creator, even though it’s written in the Bible that ‘God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (p. 97).

And Rob punctuates the apparent contradiction by asking several searching questions: [Read more…] about Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 4

Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 3

January 11, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Rob’s Hell
Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 of Love Wins Rob attacks conventional ideas about hell and that gets him a lot of flack. Hell is one area of theology which is clearly stamped “no discussion allowed” at the top of the page.

But not to worry, Rob doesn’t deny hell or suggest it is less intense than people say and he speaks of it as a reality no further away than heaven.

There is hell now, there is hell later and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously, p.79

Where Rob differs with convention is he says a person’s time in hell may only last for a temporary period during which they are trimmed and pruned, making them more ready for heaven. In other words, hell may exist forever but it isn’t final. The option to get saved after death, even from hell is possible, according to Rob’s interpretation of Scripture.

Again, he doesn’t lighten hell’s intensity or the sin that puts anyone there. Hell, he says, is the outcome of your choices in this life and it starts in this life. If you want it, you get it now and later. Which means, the roots of the hell you get in the next life are laid down in this one.

To make his argument Rob begins by pointing out that our ideas about hell may not be as well founded as we think. He says… [Read more…] about Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 3

Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 2

January 9, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Rob’s Heaven
Chapter 2
“Here Is The New There”

Chapter 2 is the longest chapter in Love Wins and it starts out with Rob questioning popular visuals of heaven and hell. The ones that depict heaven as separate from this life – later and someplace else – with hell ominously situated between the two, also someplace else. Hence the title of the chapter: “Here Is The New There.”

Although references to hell are included, the focus in this chapter is heaven.

Rob disagrees with the “we’re here” and “heaven is there” perspective and brings up several points to make his complaint:

He implies that common teachings about heaven’s other-wordly bliss, hell’s torment and the ease with which one can miss heaven and be swallowed up by torment, forever, comes perilously close to traumatizing children causing them to stumble. Something Jesus gravely warned us not to do, p. 22. This, however, is not the point of the chapter.
He mockingly mentions the popular but questionable images associated with heaven (that no one really believes anyway): white robes, St. Peter at the gate, everyone having so much fun they forget about family and friends grinding it out forever in the other place, pp. 24-25, along with images of floating on clouds, perfect hair and singing in perfect pitch, p. 57.
A lot of what Rob says hinges on his interpretation of the interaction between Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler (RYR), Matt. 19 & Luke 18 (pp. 26-31). I’ll say more just now.
Rob speaks of “eternal life” – or heaven as we think of it – as two consecutive ages (aions) or periods of time. The temporary one we live in now leads to the eternal one that follows. Most refer to the second one as the millennial kingdom. Rob suggests the two are inseparably connected so heaven is both now and later and it only follows that what we do in this age is important for preparing for and determining what we will do in the next, pp. 30-31
Rob does say the second age will include all nations (p. 34), will exist on planet earth (pp. 34-35) and he points out that these ideas are well established in the Old Testament (pp. 32-33).
Judgment and Justice will prevail in the age to come (pp. 36-39) but will be balanced by grace and mercy (p. 39), implying that grace and mercy are equally active in the next life as they are now. There will be an increase of justice not the reduction of grace and mercy.
Later in the chapter he expands the definition of aion (age) to mean “an intensity of experience that transcends time,” p. 57. Rob’s words: “To say it again, eternal life is less about a kind of time that starts when we die, and more about a quality and vitality of life lived now in connection with God, p. 59.
He also makes no direct reference to the eternal state, which most expect will follow the millennial age, the second aion, but he doesn’t deny it either. His mention of the gates of the new Jerusalem (Rev. 21:25) in chapter 4 – Does God Get What God Wants? – implies it.

His purpose in this chapter is to change our perspective on “heaven” and to suggest a better way to interact with it now, in this life. And the evidence that one is ready now for heaven in the next life is character, which is demonstrated not through religious ritual but through personal morals and social justice.

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Rob is promoting the life we live outside of religious ritual but he is not suggesting it is contrary to it. A life that is mostly ceremonial offers little for the rest of the world to connect with. A well established life outside of, but in agreement with faith, is relatable and can have an evangelistic effect, the thing we are working for.

His primary arguments are based on one meaning of the Greek word “Aion,” age or period of time. He takes an accurate but very narrow approach to this particular word. [Read more…] about Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – Review Chapter 2