Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Initial Reactions to Rob Bell & Love Wins

There have been several responses to Rob Bell and his new book Love Wins.

Some have called him a heretic, a false teacher, a liar.
Others agree with him and appreciate his putting into words what they've wondered about for a long time.

There have been simplistic caricatures of the book - dismissing it outright, misrepresenting it and then disparaging it; or simplistic acceptance of the book absent any critical review or examination of Scriptures.

And many, many, more responses...


What about you? What are your personal beliefs about Hell? Are you vocal about it? Confident in it? Confused or unsure of what to believe? Disturbed? Inquisitive? Indifferent?

A good thing to come out of the release of Love Wins is the revived attention the idea of Hell will receive. Musty or muddled ideas on Hell can get a new light shined on them - and vigorous thoughtfulness can be applied again to what Jesus said.

My plan is to lead a Bible study on what the Scriptures reveal about Sheol, Gehenna, Hades and Tartarus - what the KJV called "hell." It will be a good introduction into the very broad and deep realm of theology on salvation, God, Jesus, heaven, judgement, faith, love and truth. (See more at the Anchor website.)


Here's the video that Rob Bell released to introduce his book:

1 comment:

Brittany Thomas said...

That video makes no reference to mankind's choice to disobey good, a central tenet of the entire premise of Christian need for Jesus and faith in Him. We don't need Jesus to save us from God. We need Jesus to save us from ourselves. God gave us the gift of free will and we ruined it for ourselves. If there is no hell, there is no Heaven. Where did Jesus descend if there is no hell? We cannot say there are consequences for faith, but that we only want to believe in the good consequences and not the bad.

This video also seems like propaganda to me....I have learned from Rob Bell before, but he may be getting too involved in secular culture/beliefs and media for his (and other Christians') own good.