My Brief Review of Love Wins

Article first published as Book Review: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And The Fate Of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell on Blogcritics.

There is a long-standing belief that Christians go to heaven and that God sends everybody else to burn in hell, in eternal conscious torment.

This way of phrasing the situation is common. It is also unhelpful. It misrepresents heaven and hell, God and Christians. And so Rob Bell decided it was time to present another way of of looking at this controversial belief, thus Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And The Fate Of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

In covering ground from Genesis through Revelation, pastor Rob Bell concludes heaven and hell are right next to each other, and that you get endless invitations from God to enter heaven and depart hell — both now and in the life to come. The implication is that there will be people in hell, that hell will be temporary, and that eventually every person who has ever lived will repent of their sins in response to God's love as demonstrated through Jesus.

For Christians who are repulsed by the long-standing belief of hell as eternal, conscious torment, Bell's idea are a welcome relief. But Bell has also fired up immense controversy amongst those Christians who adhere to eternal conscious torment — which is a majority of conservative evangelical Christians. Using the same Bible, both sides have conjured up opposing views of God and the afterlife. Whose interpretation is right?

In his book, Bell methodically addresses some key ideas that undermine the traditional view of hell as eternal, conscious torment while making the case for his understanding that love wins. He tackles what the Scripture teaches about heaven, hell, free-will, resurrection, atonement, gospel, and love. Each of these topics are highly-contested theological ideas. Scholars have written thousands of pages on each of those topics, denominations have been formed on varying interpretations of these ideas. And Bell wrote a short book trying to summarize the whole Bible — not an easy task, one open to much criticism and misinterpretation.

Love Wins insists that Jesus' death on the cross atoned for the sins of the whole world, of every person who ever lived. Love Wins understands hell as necessary and needed judgment for evil actions and thoughts, but it is restorative and corrective judgment. Love Wins frames the gospel as good news for the wicked, forgiveness of their sins and the grace-full offer of reconciliation by God. Love Wins believes that people can choose heaven or hell, now and then; and that every person will someday choose heaven. Love Wins demonstrates how resurrection explains the way the world works, and that Jesus' resurrection points to a day when God will make all things new. Love Wins sees heaven as that time and place where God will get what God wants — the rescue and restoration of all Creation.

Love Wins requires the reader to rethink what they've been taught to believe about heaven and hell, God and love, Jesus and the gospel. But it's a requirement that takes thinkers back to the Scriptures, the primary source for what Christians believe about heaven and hell. Rob Bell takes you back through the two Testaments, presenting a Biblical view of the world that is Jewish in its origins, and Jesus-centered in its proclamations. This will result in an understanding of heaven and hell that differ from what has become pop-culture visions of the afterlife.

Pastor Rob Bell's interpretations are certainly open to debate, his controversial conclusions need scrutinized. And while many may dismiss or reject the idea of Love Wins, it is certainly proper and Christian to hope for it.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Eight

The End is Here.

That's been a central idea of Love Wins. Instead of keeping our eyes on a future life way out there somewhere else, we ought to keep our eyes focused on life now with our neighbors, here. In the End, God comes down to us, to dwell with us Here. Here is where the End will occur - with a God who is Love. In the End, God wins. In the End, Love Wins. In the End, Love will be Here.

Whatever you've been told about the end - the end of your life, the end of time, the end of the world - Jesus passionately urges us to live like the end is here, now, today. Love is what God is, love is why Jesus came, and love is why he continues to come, year after year, to person after person. (197-8)

This is the core of Rob's summary. An emphasis on God as Love - an emphasis gleaned from an immersion of the Scriptures, from Genesis thru Revelation. God is holy, just, glorious, jealous, and righteous - but the Great Commandment is for us to Love God and Love our Neighbor (just as God in Christ loves us). It's not an emphasis on love to the exclusion of holiness or justice, but an emphasis that points to the heart of God.

...I believe that the indestructible love of God is an unfolding, dynamic reality and that every single one of us is endlessly being invited to trust, accept, believe, embrace, and experience it. Whatever words you find helpful for describing this act of trust, Jesus invites us to say yes to this love of God, again and again and again.  (194)

So here is a focal point of the controversy, of the rejection of Rob's argument: "endlessly being invited" instead of eternal conscious torment. From Rob's point of view, Scripture points to a God who loves covenantally, who loves through substitutional atonement, who loves through global redemption. A God who blesses his own people, but then curses them. The curse is part of the judgment, but it is also the beginning of the restoration. The judgment is a form of discipline that is to bring about repentance and righteousness. Judgment is designed to be ultimately restorative for those that God loves. God punishes rebels so that he might bring about their reconciliation.

Jesus invites us to trust that the love we fear is too good to be true is actually good enough to be true. Jesus invites us to become, to be drawn into this love as it shapes us and forms us and takes over every square inch of our lives. Jesus calls us to repent, to have our minds and hearts transformed so that we see everything differently. (195-6)

What's the motivation to repent if hell is not forever? If the conscious torment is not eternal, what's the motivation to cease rebelling and embrace reconciliation? As Rob seems to insist, God's love compels love as a response.  Obedience to God through fear of fire, or appeal to restoration? Is it possible that people will still repent of their sins though they don't believe in the traditional teachings of hell? Yes. But then what to do with the images and words of Jesus himself that seem to point to eternal conscious torment?

These are strong, shocking images of judgment and separation in which people miss out on rewards and celebrations and opportunities. Jesus tells us these stories to wake us up to the timeless truth that history moves forward, not backwards or sideways. Time does not repeat itself. Neither does life.

While we continually find grace waiting to pick us up off the ground after we have fallen, there are realities to our choices. While we may get other opportunities, we won't get the one right in front of us again. That specific moment will pass and we will not see it again. It comes, it's here, it goes, and then it's gone.

Jesus reminds us in a number of ways that it is vitally important to take our choices here and now as seriously as we possibly can because they matter more than we can begin to imagine. (197)

When Jesus spoke words of judgment to his fellow Israelites, it was within a particular historical and cultural context, within an economic and political reality. Those words he spoke were for them, not us. The phrases and ideas recorded by the Gospel-writers were done so in light of those contexts and realities. And so we "listen" in on their wrestling to believe and understand. As Hebrew Christians, immersed in the First Testament, expectant for a deliverer, they grappled with what actually happened through Jesus. The Messiah they had waited for did not accomplish what they had anticipated - he did something bigger and better and more beautiful. And so it is for us.

Can our choices "matter more than we can begin to imagine" if there is no eternal conscious torment? Is there another compelling way to think about the connection between our decisions today and our experience in eternity aside from the fear of burning for billions of centuries? What will God do with all the rebels and idolaters, the doubters and deceivers, the ignorant and innocent little babies? Will the mass of humanity writhe in agony as fulfillment of God's justice? Does this bring glory to God?

The End is Here. We take today seriously, tomorrow has enough worries of its own. The consequences of the decisions we make now have ramifications now that we ought to pay more diligent attention to. The threat of hell is by itself insufficient to prompt rebels to repent. The work of God is the only hope we deceived humans have for receiving a second chance. If we ignore or reject or misunderstand God's overtures for salvation now in this life, that has consequences for now, in this life. But will God continue those invitations in the life to come? Or is this life it?

Rob seems to believe the invitation is endless. Only God can turn a heart towards him - and God will not cease until every man and woman repents. Rob believes that the fires of affliction, the torment of hell that we experience now will continue - on both sides of death - until we surrender and relent in our rebellion. Love never fails. 

That seems to be what Rob believes. When God comes down to Earth, everyone who has ever lived will dwell before him - their experience in God's presence will be heaven or hell - it's their choice. Their response to God's presence, their response to God's gift of faith and grace through Jesus will determine their experience in God's midst. Those outside the gate can walk through any time they want. It's their choice. And Rob believes that God will wait out their rebellion, that his patience and kindness will prevail. In the End, God will win. Through Christ, love will win Here.

Rob Bell & Bin Laden: Hell

Funny stuff.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Seven

The Good News Is Better Than That.

Better than what?

The word "gospel" literally means "good news." But in these days, the word "gospel" has become the shorthand way of framing our message about Jesus and Christianity. There has been a great emphasis on correctly stating and preaching the "gospel." For the normal person on the street, or in the pew, if you were to ask them what is the good news of Jesus, what kind of answer would you get? Despite all the books written about the gospel, the answer will lack nuance, depth, and scope.

I think Rob is writing to those people on the street, immersed in real life, giving them a working definition of the gospel that they can remember - more than that, that they can grasp with their heart and either truly embrace or clearly reject. Rather than the gospel becoming a complex set of doctrinal beliefs, Rob seeks to reveal the thumping heart and blood of the gospel in Jesus.

To do this, Rob retells a story/parable that Jesus made up about God and his love for sinners and the righteous. You can read it for yourself in Luke 15, it's about a father with two sons. One of the interesting angles Rob takes on this story is by pointing out the different stories at work in this one parable. Rob points out that both the younger son and older brother have a version of their life-story. The challenge is this: will they believe the story that their Father is telling them?

The younger son believes he is "no longer worthy to be called the father's son." (165) The older brother believes that he has been slaving for his father all these years without so much as a word of thanks, not even a small goat for a party. The older brother also believes that the father has been unfair.

The father, when the younger son comes home, tells a different story - here is a robe for your shoulders, a ring for your finger, and soon lets fill your belly up with roast beef and fine wine! And the father, when angrily confronted by the older brother, tells him a different story - "My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours." (167) This is followed up with an invitation to join the party.

Rob points out that the challenge for each of the sons is about trust and belief - will either one of them trust the story the father is telling them? Will they believe their father? The differences between the two stories - the one we tell ourselves and the one the father tells us - Rob says it's "the difference between heaven...and hell." (169)

Heaven and hell seem to be right next to each other in this story - the younger son enjoying the party being thrown for him, the older brother fuming just outside the tent doors, refusing to enter, "to join in the celebration." (169) Rob is going to use this parable as a launching point for ideas about the good news, about heaven and hell. This is a unique approach, sure to attract lots of objections.

Rob has made the argument in earlier chapters about the temporary nature of hell. This comes into play in this chapter about heaven and hell as thought about from the perspective of the parable in Luke 15.
"Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story." (170)

What? This is not what most people think of when it comes to hell - where's the fire and brimstone?
But in reflecting through the story, Rob observes that belief and trust are essential to our experience with God - or without him. And this story that Jesus tells points to a moment of decision for each son - will they believe their Father, will they trust his words to them about their situation?

"We believe all sorts of things about ourselves. What the gospel does is confront our version of the story with God's version of our story." (171) Some people are full of flaws, they're marked by failure, they carry around heavy weights of shame and guilt. They believe they are not good enough. Certainly not for church. Or heaven. There are others, though, who believe they are good enough. Their pride keeps them out of church, keeps them independent, keeps them convinced that is God for the weak. And God brings to each of them, to each of us, another story which will challenge the story we've been telling ourselves.

"It is a brutally honest, exuberantly liberating story, and it is good news. It begins with the sure and certain truth that we are loved. That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what's been done to us or what we've done, God has made peace with us." (172)

Rob implies that when Jesus died on the cross, the sins of the world, of every individual who had ever lived, who ever will live, were forgiven. The blood of Jesus atoned for the sins of every person, forever. It's not fair, but it is generous. It is shocking, when you think about it. But, as Rob shares, "we create hell whenever we fail to trust God's retelling of our story." (173) When we see Jesus, we see God - and so what Jesus tells us about God, well, it's something we have to decide whether to trust it. When we don't believe the story that Jesus tells us about God and about ourselves, we miss out on the party.

One of the observations that Rob makes, though, is that the older son - and even the younger one -  he had a distorted view of God. This is what made it hard for him to trust the new story the father told them. The younger son gained a new view of of his father, and thus trusted him. The older son struggled much longer with the conflicting views - a longstanding belief that his father was a slavedriver, stingy... now challenged by a father who seems to be generously unfair and outrageously forgiving. Even towards him.

It's this idea of a distorted view of God that Rob is going to focus on - that the good news often preached today presents a distorted view of God. The summary: For God so loved the world that he gave us his one and only son, that whoever believes in him won't die, but will live forever. But if you don't believe in this God, this same loving God will throw you into the lake of fire, eternal conscious torment. Billions of years of screaming, writhing, agony for seventy or eighty years of rebellion against God. "A loving heavenly father who will to to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormenter who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony." (173-4)

For those Christians that believe in eternal conscious torment, Rob's characterization of their belief and God will certainly irk and offend them. Apparently Rob has many friends, though, who are terrified and traumatized by the kind of God that would damn men and women to eternal conscious torment. Rob and others ask the question: "Just what kind of God is behind all this?" (175) The good news is better than the distorted view of God you've come to believe in...or disbelieve.

He goes on to write:

Because if something is wrong with your God, if your God is loving one second and cruel the next, if your God will punish people for all of eternity for sins committed in a few short years, no amount of clever marketing, or compelling music, or great coffee, will be able to disguise that one, glaring, untenable, unacceptable, awful reality.

Hell is refusing to trust, and refusing to trust is often rooted in a distorted view of God. Sometimes the reason people have a problem accepting "the gospel" is that they sense that the God lurking behind Jesus isn't safe, loving, or good. It doesn't make sense, it can't be reconciled, and so they say no. (175)

Hermeneutics is the science and art of interpretation of Scripture. Rob's hermeneutics are obviously at odds with that of many other Christians. His hermeneutics of Luke 15, of the gospel, of God as revealed through Scripture clash with other classic beliefs. But Rob's hermeneutics are rooted in the Scriptures, so I think his ideas are worth wrestling with - which will lead either to a strengthening of our traditional beliefs, or a doorway into a more faithful reading of Scripture. As Rob says, "our beliefs matter. They are incredibly important. Our beliefs shape us and guide us and determine our lives." (176)

Rob is challenging our traditional and culturally popular notions of God. The good news we preach is connected both to the God we believe in, and the God our audience believes in. Rob is inviting his readers to reconsider the God that is presented in the Scriptures, particularly in Luke 15, as presented by Jesus. As Rob sees it, we are free to choose what to believe - we can believe the story that God is retelling us about ourselves, "or we can cling to our own version of the story. And to trust God's telling, we have to trust God." (176) To reject God, his story, his love and grace "will lead to misery. It is a form of punishment, all on its own." (176) God's is love, what God does is love, and the essence of love is such that "it can be resisted and rejected and denied and avoided, and that will bring another reality. Now, and then." (177)

Not only is Rob challenging the notion of what we believe about God, and about heaven and hell, but also what we believe about what this relationship with God ought to look like. He describes it as the difference between entrance and enjoyment. "...when the gospel is diminished to a question of whether or not a person will 'get into heaven,' that reduces the good news to a ticket, a way to get past the bouncer and into the club. The good news is better than that." (178-9) The good news is better than fire insurance. 

He goes to say:

When the gospel is understood primarily in terms of entrance rather than joyous participation, it can actually serve to cut people off from the explosive, liberating experience of the God who is an endless, giving, circle of joy and creativity. Life has never been about just "getting in." It's about thriving in God's good world." (179)

Also:

Jesus calls disciples to keep entering into this shared life of peace and joy as it transforms our hearts, until it's the most natural way to live that we can imagine. Until it's second nature. Until we naturally embody and practice the kinds of attitudes and actions that will go on in the age to come. A discussion about how to "just get into heaven" has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus because it's missing the point of it all. (179)

Rob notices amongst many Christians that there is a certain lack of distinctiveness. Many surveys show that there is little lifestyle difference between Christians and non-Christians. When many Christians talk about their faith, the main point of it is so that they can go to heaven when they die. And there is something in us that recoils at that over-simplification. What is the connection between believing in Jesus and life transformation? I think that is what Rob is trying to get at in his articulation of the gospel - a belief, a trust, a relationship that bleeds into a way of life that looks and smells and feels like Jesus. And so he starts with what we believe, which is a very controversial place to go.

"We shape our God, and then our God shapes us." (183) With that phrase, Rob cautions us to rethink what we believe about God. More than that, to re-examine the effects of our life, and then work backwards to see what we really believe. What we believe about God deeply affects how we live. Do you believe God is a slavedriver? Or do you believe that "God is the rescuer?" (182) The good news is better than being ruled by a slavedriver God.

More on this - it's central to Rob's big point in this chapter:

There is another dimension to the violent, demanding God, the one people need Jesus to rescue them from. We see it in the words of the older brother, when he says he "never even disobeyed." You can sense the anxiety in his defense, the paranoid awareness that he believed his father was looking over his shoulder the whole time, waiting and watching to catch him in disobedience. 

The violent God creates profound worry in people. Tension. Stress. This God is supposed to bring peace, that's how the pitch goes, but in the end this God can easily produce followers who are paralyzed and catatonic with fear. Whatever you do, don't step out of line or give this God any reason to be displeased, because who knows what will be unleashed.

Jesus frees us from that, because his kind of love simply does away with fear. (184)

What kind of love does Jesus describe for us in the story?

"Our badness can separate us from God's love, that is clear. But our goodness can separate us from God's love as well. Neither son understands that the father's love was never about any of that. The father's love cannot be earned, and it cannot be taken away. It just is." (187)

And so:

Your deepest, darkest sins and your shameful secrets are simply irrelevant when it comes to the counterintuitive, ecstatic announcement of the gospel. So are your goodness, your rightness, your church attendance, and all of the wise, moral, mature decisions you have made and actions you have taken. It simply doesn't matter when it comes to the surprising, unexpected declaration that God's love is simply yours. There is nothing left for both sons to do but to trust.

Our trusting, our change of heart, our believing God's version of the story doesn't bring it into existence, make it happen, or create it. It simply is. On the cross, Jesus says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (188)

His summary:

Jesus meets us and redeems us in all the ways we have it together and in all the ways we don't, in all the times we proudly display for the world our goodness, greatness and rightness, and in all of the ways we fall flat on our faces. It's only when you lose your life that you can find it, Jesus says. The only thing left to do is trust. Everybody is already at the party. Heaven and hell, here, now, around us, upon us, within us. (190)

This is the Good News as Rob understands it. This is the God of the Scriptures that Rob believes. This is the Gospel of Jesus that Rob trusts.

I agree that the heart of the Gospel is God's love for us, as demonstrated through Jesus. I agree that trust/believing/faith is central to our relationship with God. I'm not sure the parable of the two sons can carry as much theological weight as Rob wants it to. And I think there is an oversimplification of the Gospel going on here in this chapter. Yet I think it is crucial for Rob to publicize the vicious views of God that are being created by the sloppy preaching of Evangelicals.

And I agree that too many people have turned away from God - not the God of the Scriptures, but the God of the different Christians who present a confusing and hard-to-love God. Rob sees in God a very non-violent being - but I think that there is much to discuss - and disagree with here. I see his point though about the way Christians can embrace a particular view of God and violence that leads them away from the way of Jesus.

Indeed, the good news is better than it is often presented. Is it better than what Rob presents?

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Six

There Are Rocks Everywhere. 

There is an odd story about the Israelite people dying of thirst as they shuffle towards Mt. Sinai. God instructs Moses to strike a big rock with this walking stick - upon which water starts to flow. Ahhh, what a refreshing story!

Rob Bell observes that Paul summarizes that story by saying Jesus is the rock. What???

And what does this story have to do with the overall book about heaven and hell and the fate of every person who ever lived? In short:
Heaven is full of surprises, and people come to Jesus in all sorts of ways.

There you go. What do you think of that idea? Do you agree? 

Rob reflects on how Paul writes about Jesus:
Jesus, for these Christians, was the ultimate exposing of what God has been up to all along. This is, of course, a mystery, which is exactly the word they used for it. (148)

It's a mystery how Paul can see Jesus in the Moses-rock story. But then as Rob sees it: Paul finds Jesus there, in that rock, because Paul finds Jesus everywhere. (144)

Just as baffling as it is to see Jesus in the rock, so it is to imagine God in the flesh. Rob writes:

Here's where the claims of the first Christians come in. They believed that at a specific moment in the history of the world, that life-giving "Word of God" took on flesh and blood. In Jesus, they affirmed, was the word, that divine life-giving energy that brought the universe into existence. The word that gave life to everything and continues to give life to everything, they insisted, has been revealed in fullness. (146)

It's surprising to see God in Jesus. It's surprising to see Jesus in the rock. It's surprising to see what Jesus did when he walked the hills of Israel. If the religion scholars back then were surprised at the teachings and activities of Jesus, why shouldn't we be surprised that there are more surprises awaiting us?

What's the implication of this? Where is Rob going with this?

As obvious as it is, then, Jesus is bigger than any one religion. He didn't come to start a new religion, and he continually disrupted what ever conventions or systems or establishments that existed in his day. He will always transcend whatever cages and labels are created and name him. Especially the one called "Christianity." (150)

Whoa. Does this comment from Rob surprise you? Do you believe that God has more good surprises up his sleeve? Can Jesus still surprise us today? Are Christians the only ones that know anything about Jesus? Are we the only ones who know the truth about the universe and the way the world works? Does Jesus show up in the world outside the bounds of Christianity? Could Jesus surprise you - much like he surprised the observant Jews all those years ago?

Rob puts it like this: Jesus is supracultural. He is present within all cultures, and yet outside of all cultures. (151) Think about it - this is our Father's world. Jesus has been given the authority and responsibility to overcome evil with good, to make everything all right. When the work of Jesus in his world is finished, he will hand everything back over to God. If this is God's world, if it is Jesus' Creation, then of course Jesus is present yet transcendent.

Again - where is Rob going with this? He goes to the well-known and oft-quoted Evangelical verse in John's Gospel: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." What [John] doesn't say is how, or when, or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through [Jesus]. (154)

This is where a lot of Christians will resist the development of Rob's proposition. Rob agrees that Jesus is the only way. There is only one way to God, and it is through Jesus. He writes: What Jesus does is declare that he, and he alone, is saving everybody. (155) I can agree with that. But then Rob points out: People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways. (158) Does this statement unsettle you?

Rob opens his chapter with an unusual story of how a pot-smoking friend was saved by Jesus. Rob states that he has heard many unusual stories that after awhile point to his observation: people come to Jesus in all sorts of ways. What to do with that observed reality? The surprise of how Jesus worked out salvation in those people ought to bring us joy but also remind us of the mystery involved.

Jesus is Lord - so he can bring about salvation however he wants, even if it goes against our understanding of how we thought he was going to do it. Right? Can we definitively know who will be joining us in heaven? How can we for sure know who is in and who isn't? Is there value in going public with who is going to hell and who isn't? Is it enough that only Jesus knows?

Are you okay with there being a diverse way of people coming to Jesus? Do Muslims have to convert to Christianity? Do atheists have to embrace religion? Do the mentally-handicapped have to articulate orthodox doctrines? Does Jesus have the right to work in His world however he chooses? Even if it surprises us?

What we see Jesus doing again and again - in the midst of constant reminders about the seriousness of following him, living like him, and trusting him - is widening the scope and expanse of his saving work. (159) Does that make you uncomfortable? Why?

In the end, Rob is working to establish the idea that just as Paul saw Jesus in the rock, so we can see Jesus everywhere - in every culture, in every religion, in every nation. We can see Jesus, but we don't control Jesus, we don't have a hold on Jesus, we don't have any special claim on Jesus. Jesus is the one with the claim on us. Jesus is our Lord - he is the one with the ability to save, and surprise.

If he surprised us once with the incarnation, and again with crucifixion, and again with resurrection, and again with ascension, and again with the Spirit, and again with the calling of Paul, and again with the salvation of Gentiles... well, does Jesus have any more surprises for us?

What is the fate of every one who has ever lived? We know what we read in Scripture. We know that there is a variety of interpretations. We know it is in God's hands. We know of our calling to love and serve and go. And we know that God is full of surprises. Jesus is the only way, and people come to Him in all sorts of ways. Don't they? What does that mean for your faith if Jesus still pulls off surprises?

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Five

Dying to Live. 
Or, What Happened When Jesus Died On the Cross?
These are the themes of the chapter, the first is the title, the second is the key question.

The book is about heaven and hell and the fate of every who ever lived. What happened to Jesus on the cross, and what we believe about Jesus and what happened on the cross often become the key components of whether we end up in heaven or hell. So it's kind of important for us to examine what did happen on the cross, according to the Scriptures - and consider what we ought to believe about it. And how we ought to live in light of it.

In this chapter, Rob first explores how the New Testament described what happened to Jesus on the cross. Or, what Jesus did for us, or what God did for us, through the cross. Then Rob talks about resurrection, and then connects it to crucifixion. This leads to a summary of what it means for us today.

Rob opens with a story of seeing a cross hanging around Eminem's neck at a concert. What did this mean? It was a comeback concert of sorts. Was the cross a symbol - representing the death of the old Eminem and the arrival of the new? Rob is pointing out that the cross has come to mean many things - thus we gotta go back to the Scriptures to see what the original writers insisted happened on the cross.

The first idea he explores is that of animal sacrifice. The Hebrews, along with almost all of the other religions in the world, included animal sacrifice as part of their worship. God gave specific instructions to the Hebrews for their animal sacrifices which set them a part from the other nations. But the Jewish Christians saw in Jesus the end of animal sacrifice. In the Hebrews, a letter in the Bible to Jewish Christians, the writer says: Jesus "has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." (123)

If your religion, if your way of relating to God, if your way of pleasing God and atoning for (or covering over) your sins had been tied up in animal sacrifices, it was a very radical notion to believe that what happened on the cross through Jesus means no more slaughtered lambs. This would open up a new way to relate to God. Instead of through butchered bulls, it was through a human, Jesus, that we could find favor with God. His death on the cross, his blood poured out as an atoning sacrifice for the world. This was less about the hassle of slitting goat necks and more about how to relate to God.

I think Rob highlights this example of what happened on the cross because it is central to our understanding of atonement. It's how many religions viewed atonement - through animal sacrifice. It's how the Hebrew people understood it. And most of the early Christians were Hebrews. But this isn't the only way that people talked about atonement, of how Jesus covered over our sins. They use other language - language that is connected to this sacrificial event, but it also points in new directions.

Rob points out what Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians: "that through the cross God was reconciling 'to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.'" (125). So now we have two metaphors to describe what happened on the cross - Jesus is the end of the sacrificial system, and he is the one who reconciles us to God.

Rob then takes us to another one of Paul's letters where we hear language about justification. We learn that what happened on the cross resulted in being "justified by grace through faith in Jesus." (126) It's courtroom language to describe the effects of Jesus's sacrificial death on the cross and his reconciling us to God.

In another of Paul's letters to his friend Timothy, he writes that Jesus has "destroyed death" (126). He notes that John writes that "this is the victory that has overcome the world." (126). These are war and battle metaphors to describe what happened on the cross. And then there is Paul writing to the Ephesians that "We have redemption through his blood." (127) This is an economic term, added to the usage of the military term, and the legal term, and the relational term, and the religious sacrificial term.

"So, back to the question: What happened on the cross?"

Obviously Rob is pointing out that different metaphors and terms were used to describe one event. All the ideas mentioned in Scripture inter-relate. Rob is wanting us to become familiar with all the terms. Why? Because in some Christian circles there is what he thinks is over-emphasis on penal substitutionary atonement. This emphasizes that on the cross Jesus was a substitutionary sacrifce for us, paying our penalty of death so that we might live with God for eternity. Of course this is true, and it is an important theory of atonement, but it's not the only way to describe what happened on the cross.

So why are there different explanations of what happened on the cross? Rob is going to insist that those first Christians, as they preached about Jesus, about his death and resurrection, that they used different metaphors to try and help people understand what happened. They used metaphors from the sacrificial system, for the economic system, from the legal system, from the military system, etc.

Rob says that different ages and cultures of Christianity have emphasized different metaphors. The early church, being mostly Hebrews, used the sacrificial metaphors heavily for obvious reasons. The author of Hebrews is able to go all the way back to Torah to connect how Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrificial system God set up long ago. But then, according to Rob, the church shifted to the "victory in battle" (128) metaphor, emphasizing that Jesus had conquered death.

So now, in our age, when we don't do animal sacrifices anymore, and through medicine have conquered death in ways, is there another metaphor from Scriptures that we can highlight that will resonate with our culture today? Well all of them can still relate in some way, and that is the point. Actually, Rob goes on to say that Jesus is the point.

Rob transitions from his summary of what happened on the cross to teach us about what happened because of resurrection. He will argue that resurrection is "a symbol of elemental reality." (131) This is not a commonly held perspective. In fact, Rob declares that for those first Christians, it wasn't the miracle of resurrection that amazed them, but what resurrection represented. Rob insists that resurrection is "not a new idea." (130). That'll make some Christians gasp!

He points to nature, the turning of leaves, the changing of the seasons. "Death gives way to life. A seed has to be buried in the ground before it can rise up from out of the earth as new life" (130). As Rob explains it, the resurrection of Jesus wasn't a stumbling block to most people. Most people, so it seems, had no problem believing in resurrection because that is "how the world works." (131). So, then, what is the value in resurrection, for Rob?

Rob uses the storytelling of the author of John's Gospel to help explain the meaning behind resurrection. We know that in John's Gospel different events are marked as a sign. Rob takes us through the different signs that make up the storyline of John's Gospel. The seventh sign is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The way John tells the story, it is very compelling. Each of the stories associated with the signs is fascinating. But then there is one more sign, an eighth sign - Jesus being raised from the dead. What does this mean?

Rob connects the seven signs of John's Gospel to the seven days of creation. If there is an eighth sign, what day is that then? It's "the first day of the new week, the first day of the new creation." (133) Resurrection itself wasn't the point - it was to point to something bigger - something God was doing in the world through Jesus. The stumbling block wasn't about whether you believed in resurrection or not - the stumbling block was whether you believed that "God has inaugurated a movement in Jesus's resurrection to renew, restore, and reconcile everything 'on earth or in heaven' just as God originally intended it." (134)

Part of the point Rob wants to make is that cross and resurrection is not just about people, it's not just about us having a relationship with God. It is that, but it is more than that - it's a God centered movement for all creation. We are saved from sin and death, but the story is bigger and grander than that. The cross and resurrection are about what God is doing in the world - and people who respond in love are part of that work - but it is not only about people.

When Rob referred to the resurrection as a symbol of elemental reality, this is part of what he's trying to get at:

...the cross and resurrection are personal. This cosmic event has everything to do with how every single one of us lives every single day. It is a pattern, a rhythm, a practice, a reality rooted in the elemental realities of creation, extending to the very vitality of our soul. (135)
When we say yes to God, when we open ourselves to Jesus' living, giving act on the cross, we enter into a way of life. He is the source, the strength, the example, and the assurance that this pattern of death and rebirth is the way into the only kind of life that actually sustains and inspires. (136)

Cross and resurrection as a pattern for life. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow him. To repent of our sins, to "leave behind the old ways." (136). We die to our self so that Jesus can pour new life into us. Our letting go of pride, the need to be right, rebellion, stubbornness makes room for what Jesus has to give.

"When we cling with white knuckles to our sins and our hostility, we're like a tree that won't let its leaves go. There can't be a spring if we're still stuck in the fall." (136)

Rob seeks to connect the spiritual realities of the cross and resurrection together, and then to connect them to the elemental realities of life: "Lose your life and find it, he says. That's how the world works. That's how the soul works. That's how life works when you're dying to live." (136)


The theologian in me wants to summarize Rob's chapter using clearly defined theological categories. What is Rob's theology of atonement? Salvation? Sin? It should be obvious at this point that Rob is not writing to scholarly theologians.

He is writing to cynical individuals who have deep questions about reality, about how God and Jesus fit into our post-modern world of technology, science, medicine, and violence. Rob is seeking to connect these skeptics and searchers with compelling elements of the Gospel, bypassing the oft contentious arguments about science vs. religion, are miracles real, and is the Bible a piece of propaganda?

Is this chapter highly controversial? Yes. Does it leave many theological questions unanswered? Yes. Does it cause conservative Christians to squirm at Rob's explanation of the elemental realities of the cross and resurrection? Yes. Does it cause liberal Christians to squirm at his insistence of the reality of the cross and resurrection? Yes. Does Rob create a compelling bridge for cynics with profound questions? Yes.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Four

Does God get what God wants?

That's the first big question of the chapter.
And the last big question of the chapter is:  
Do we get what we want?

Yes. To both. But not a simple yes, rather a tension, drama-full yes.

Rob is going to make a case from Scripture that God "wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." [1Timothy 2]

And so the big question of the chapter: Does God get what God wants? Or in the end, "will God shrug God-sized shoulders and say, 'You can't always get what you want.'" (103)

It is pointed out in Luke 15 that "the God Jesus teaches us about doesn't give up until everything that was lost is found. This God simply doesn't give up. Ever." (101) Rob insists that God accomplishes what he purposes to do, and that the Scriptures point to a God who "will be united and reconciled with all people." (100)

Some will say, though, that we only have this lifetime on planet Earth to make a decision that will effect our eternal life in heaven or hell. They emphasize the nature of love - that it requires freedom. (103) God allows people to choose, God allows people to get what they want. If people want God in this life, they will get him in the next; if they don't want God in this life, why would they want him in the next? And thus there will be eternal reward for those that love God in this life and eternal torture for those that didn't love God in this lifetime.

Though this has been the majority view, Rob goes on to point out other perspectives Christians have held to over the years. Some, like C.S. Lewis, proposed the idea that a person's humanity just ebbs away after refusing to love God in this life and the next. A few have suggested that we maybe God gives us a second chance after death. Or endless chances, believing that "the love of God will melt every hard heart." (107)

What Rob will do then in the rest of the chapter is increase the tension between believing that both God and people get what they want, that "love, then, wins and all will be reconciled to God." (109) Rob upholds the free-will nature of love, that God allows people to reject him, but also that God never stops inviting people to repent - in this life or the next.

At the heart of this proposal is a focus on three main texts - here's how Rob writes it:

And so beginning in the early church, there is a long tradition of Christians who believe that God will ultimately restore everything and everybody because Jesus says in Matthew 19 that there will be a "renewal of all things", Peter says in Acts 3 that Jesus will "restore everything", and Paul says in Colossians 1 that through Christ God was pleased "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven." (107)

Because there are Eastern Church Fathers who upheld a belief in the reconciliation of all things and people, and these three texts as well as the one initially referenced in 1Timothy 2 are in the Scriptures, Rob wants Christians to be gracious to one another when it comes to the eternal destiny of mankind. He points out that within the Christian texts and tradition there has always been "that vast a range of perspectives" (110), and that "one has to admit that it is fitting, proper, and Christian to long for it." (111)

It's Rob's way of saying that he could be wrong, or that you could be wrong. Either way, we're still Christians, we're still Christ-centered, and we can still accept one another. The problem can arise when one group of Christians are convinced they are right and that the other group is wrong - even heretical. Interestingly, the early Eastern Church was more reluctant than the Western church to condemn and declare an idea heretical. And it is in the Eastern Church fathers that we find more openness to the idea that through Christ God will save everyone.

In chapter three Rob argued that the purpose of hell was correction, that it was form of judgment intended to bring about repentance. In this chapter Rob is arguing that the correction and judgment will be effective - not because of the torture but because of God's love for them and how he works in their heart. Rob is insisting that those who go to hell when they die will not stay there because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Since love requires free will, God will not force his love on people, nor will he ratchet up the torture to coerce confession. Rather the emphasis seems to be on letting people live out the consequences of their actions - both in this life and the next, while at the same time being continually loved by a God who doesn't ever give up. As the Apostle Paul says, "Love never fails."

The chapter ends with an overview of Revelation - a book of the Bible that is highly influential on people's understanding of heaven and hell, who is in and who is out. It's a book "written by a real pastor in a real place to a real congregation going through very real suffering." "At the heart of the letter he paints a picture for them of God acting decisively to restrain evil and conquer all who trample on the innocent and the good." "But the letter doesn't end with blood and violence." (112)

Here is Rob's three summarys about the final two chapters of the book - and the Bible: 
 "God must say about a number of acts and to those who would continue them: not here you won't." (113)
He also observes that the gates of the New Jerusalem will be open. He wonders if this implies that for those that continue to choose hell in the next life, God keeps the gates open, that repentance will always be an option. "Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God for ever because of their choices? Those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. (115)
Finally, "God announces, 'I am making everything new.' That is what God love does. It speaks new words into the world and into us." (115-116) This leaves open the possibility for God to do a new thing - even for people in hell.

In Revelation, death and Hades (hell) get thrown into the "lake of fire." Rob doesn't really ever explore what is this lake. It's a metaphor for something. The end of hell? The end of the judgment and correction? The end of wickedness? The beginning of something new? The emphasis has been on the torturous nature of the "lake of fire." But what if is supposed to emphasize a cleansing, much like a raging forest fire is necessary for an old forest to become renewed? It's this kind of direction that Rob seems to be pointing.

His final paragraph:

That's how love works. It can't be forced, manipulated, or coerced. It always leaves room for the other to decide. God says yes, we can have what we want, because love wins.

Rob seems to believe that people get a second chance, that hell is corrective, that people choose their own hell now and then, he thus also believes that God seeks to save people from their sins both now and then. God's love compels him to rescue people from their hell now, and their hell in the life to come. 

God will give people as much time as it takes for them to repent. He'll let them live with the consequences of their sins as long as they want. When they're ready to turn around and love God and neighbor, he'll be there to help them start over again. So love wins - love waits, but love also actively works. Love is both the end and the means.


Where Rob is most vulnerable in this chapter is his interpretation of Scriptures. To keep the book accessible to a wide audience, he can't do thorough exegesis of each Scripture he points to that supports his ideas. And he can't address every Scripture that would seem to undermine or challenge his suggestions. For those who don't know their Bible well, his use of Scriptures may or may not be helpful. For those that do know their Scriptures - well, it's up to them to do their own comparing and contrasting.

Rob is a savvy writer and pastor - part of his argument hinges on people considering the consequences of their own life now. As they consider whether or not they believe in hell or a loving God, he's attempting to get them to look at their life now. It's not really about whether a loving God sends billions of people to a torture cell for a billion years. The real issue is that you have to live with the consequences of your actions. 

For Rob, speculating about heaven and hell distracts you from actually becoming the kind of person who loves God and neighbor. God is holy, God is just, God is righteous, God is lots of things - including love. And the Great Commandment is not "Be holy as I am holy." It's not, Be without sin as I am without sin. It is: Love God and love your neighbor. And love always perseveres. And thus it is permissible for Rob to point people to a God who doesn't quit in this life or the next.

A logical response to this chapter and idea: what if Rob is wrong? What if it is only in this life? What if people read this chapter and decide to procrastinate on making a decision for Christ because they think they can repent in the next? What if more people go to hell because of Rob's book? What if Rob is leading people astray by this teaching? Is the risk worth it if Rob is wrong?

This a very Evangelical Christianity kind of question. And so it's true - he could be wrong. But since it's mostly American evangelicals that will be reading this book, and since most American evangelicals aren't actually evangelizing, the concerns of American Evangelicals may not be so warranted. I don't like it when Rob uses a straw man to support his arguments, and I don't like it when others use a straw man to undermine Rob's points.

Rob is reaching out to people who already have rejected some form of Evangelical Christianity. And in doing so have left behind church, a vibrant faith, and some even their faith in God. They are already doomed to hell, according to American Evangelicals. Rob is trying to help them find a new way to connect to the God of the Scriptures - which is a very Evangelical thing to do. For Rob, everything centers on Christ - that's very orthodox. But for Rob, he doesn't hold to the Evangelical version of hell - and that's unacceptable for many.

So how great is the risk? Would you stop evangelizing if people didn't stay in hell forever? Would you cease to invite friends to church if you knew that in Christ all will someday go to heaven? Would you stop encouraging people to follow the way of Jesus if you knew that God has already forgiven all our sins? Would you quit reading your Bible and neglect growing in Christian maturity if you knew that God would let you into heaven anyway?

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Three

Hell is real.

That's my initial summary of the third chapter in Love Wins. For Rob Bell, as he works his way through the whole Scriptures, hell is real for Jesus.

Not only is hell real, it is a real experience that begins now, in this lifetime, for far too many people. It can be an individual experience, or it can be the torment of a whole society. For Jesus, hell is a future destination for those that refuse to repent from their sins - for those individuals who stubbornly live according to the evil in their hearts - for those societies that fuel chaos and corruption. It's a future destination as soon as tomorrow - and as far away as the day of your death.

Hell, for Rob, is a consequence for our sins. Jesus makes that really clear. But it also seems to be clear in Scripture that God intends consequences to be corrective. God brings judgment and punishment to us for the consequences of our sins so that their might be repentance and restoration. And Rob deduces that God purposes the same for the experience of hell - in this lifetime and in the one to come.

The chapter gets broken down into two main sections: an exploration of the Scriptures that explicitly refer to the place of hell. The second section refers to those Scriptures that are clearly about judgment and punishment, but don't mention hell. In his summary of this Scriptures, Rob is searching for what is the revealed purpose of hell, who goes there, and where is it.

In the first section he briefly examines the Hebrew word Sheol and then the Greek words Gehenna, Tartarus, and Hades. These are often translated as hell in the KJV and most modern translations. Rob comments that Sheol and Hades carry similar connotations - a murky underworld, a dark abode of spirits of some sort. The Hebrews are very imprecise about the nature of Sheol, mostly using words like grave and pit to describe it. The Greeks have a vivid and rich mythology surrounding Hades and Tartarus, but at the end of the day, it is netherworld of sorts for all people like Sheol.

Then there is Gehenna - the real place known as the Valley of Hinnom on the south and west side of Jerusalem. Rob focuses on the legend that Gehenna is the city dump. This is an unproven theory. What is known specifically is that it was the place of child-sacrifice by Jewish kings where they burned up in the fires a son or daughter to idols. Their practices were an abomination to God and the cause for threats of impending judgment and punishment. Rob would have been better off citing the Scriptures own reference to the Valley of Hinnom as a valley of graves, a place of slaughter, a place of curses with a legacy of abominations and wickedness.

Those are the references to hell - only one of them points to a real place, the others point to ideas that get loosely translated as the grave. A far cry from the vivid imagery we've come to believe about the terrible flames of hell that are the dancefloor for a prancing devil with his pointy tail and jabbing pitchfork.

Rob asks: How should we think, or not think, about hell? (70)

He is not about to waver from a belief in hell. He challenges those who say they don't believe in hell or that are uncomfortable with the idea of sin. "My first response is to ask, 'Have you ever sat and talked with a family who just found out their child has been molested? Repeatedly? Over a number of years? By a relative?' Some words are strong for a reason. We need those words to be that intense, loaded, complex, and offensive because they need to reflect the realities they describe." (72)

This is an important point for Rob: the repulsiveness of hell is intended to reflect the repulsiveness of our own personal and collective sins. We are repulsed by a notion of hell as punishment - but Jesus intends for us to see how repulsive is our individual sins and the chaos of cultures in decay. We need detestable visions of hell to help us see the detestable nature of our unconfessed and stubborn sins. They wound and hurt others - and hell helps us imagine the consequences for us, for how our sins ruin others.

Sure Jesus uses hyperbole. Cutting off limbs will not prevent more lusting. But it makes the point. And so do the Lord's hyperbolic descriptions of hell. Rob uses the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus as an example of this. The point of the parable isn't to describe the literal physical features of hell, but to point out the consequences of not loving one's neighbor. God will judge and punish those who don't love their neighbor. The rich, though they consider themselves blessed, will be punished for their refusal to love their poor neighbors. And Jesus reminds them of this old prophetic theme by using imagery of Hades.

There are individual hells, and communal, society-wide hells,
and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.
There is hell now, and there is hell later,
and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously. (79)

This is really the point of the chapter - pointing to ethical behavior that reflects the heart of Jesus' teachings to the disciples and Pharisees and anyone else who would listen.

The second part of the chapter focuses on those passages about judgment and punishment. Before he gets into specific Scriptures, he makes two observations that will help keep this whole conversation in context. He discusses the political context of Jesus' teachings, as well as the religious audience to whom most of his words about hell and judgment and punishment were directed.

Judgment and punishment for not loving one's neighbor, for Israel rejecting the Messiah, for individuals not embracing God's way of peace and insisting on resistance to Rome - this all came to pass in 70AD. Jesus' warnings had "now" implications. To reject him, to not repent of their sins, to continue in their rebellion to God's ways would lead them to a confrontation with Rome which result in their destruction. Slaughter in the Valley of Hinnom could have been avoided had the religious leaders and others followed the ways of Jesus.

Teachings of hell and judgement and punishment were most often made to the religious people - to those who thought they were "in" and part of the covenant people, the believers. God didn't refer to coming destruction as incentive for pagans to convert, but to religious people who failed to obey God's word to them in Jesus.

In this political and religious context, Rob points out Jesus' use of Sodom and Gomorrah as examples of judgment and punishment. He'll go on to refer to Scriptures from the Prophets. The point he will be making is that God's judgment and punishment is corrective and redemptive in purpose and effect. His example with Sodom and Gomorrah is a bit weak and unconvincing. Rob effectively makes the point that Israel will be judged more harshly than Sodom. I suppose one can then deduce that since the harsher punishments that Israel will receive are still corrective in nature, so it is for Sodom. Sodom's sins of inhospitality and injustice to the poor are similar to the evils of Israel - except that Israel had God incarnate come and instruct them, and still they hardened their hearts.

For people are not cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to any human being. [Lamentations 3v31-33, TNIV]

Return, Israel, to the LORD your God.
Your sins have been your downfall!
Take words with you
and return to the LORD.
Say to him:
“Forgive all our sins
and receive us graciously,
that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
Assyria cannot save us;
we will not mount warhorses.
We will never again say ‘Our gods’
to what our own hands have made,
for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
“I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them. [Hosea 14v1-5, TNIV]

The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.” [Zephaniah 3v15-17, TNIV]

Judgments have a purpose, punishment is for the sake of correction, for inducing repentance.

In the New Testament Rob points out the Apostle Paul handing Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan [1Timothy 1v20], a punishment intended to bring about correction. Another similar example is given in 1Corinthians 5v5.

This punishment is to allow them to live with the full consequences of their choices, confident that the misery they find themselves in will have a way of getting their attention. (90)

Finally, Rob deals with Matthew 25 and the idea of eternal punishment. Interesting that those that get eternal punishment are those that do not give a cup of cold water to Jesus. One would think that it would be for not confessing Jesus as Lord, or believing in him, or praying to receive forgiveness of sins. Rob points out that the Greek word used for punishment carries with it the meaning of pruning or correcting. And as for the idea of eternal, he goes back to his insistence that it doesn't mean unending, but rather something like a period of time. Aside from the unconvincing ideas on eternal, the point remains that the punishment will go on as long as there is stubborn refusal to repent. Resisting correction requires the punishment to go on and on and on.

In summary:
For Rob, hell is real. 
It is both a present experience and a future one.
Hell is the consequences for our individual and society-wide sins.
Jesus gave us hyperbolic descriptions of hell to catch our attentions - to reveal the true nature of the effects of evil within us and around us.
Our repulsiveness to hell should result in a repulsiveness towards the effect of our sins upon our neighbor - and thus prompt repentance and restoration.
The consequences of hell are to be corrective. Judgment and punishment are from God, as an act of justice, to stop the horrific sinning, and to provoke repentance and restoration.

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter Two

Here Is The New There

That's the summary of the chapter, as well as the title. Rob is going to argue that eternal life/heaven/life in the age to come/God's kingdom/God's will begins now, in this life and continues into the next.

It's not really a radical position to take.

Rob makes the not-so-obvious point in the middle of the chapter, though: What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now. (46). And that's what this chapter is really about - digging through the Scriptures to present to the reader a very Jesusy vision of heaven. This will mean we get a very Jewish vision of heaven. And that's where some people may get very uncomfortable.

Rob starts the chapter by describing an ugly picture that used to hang on the wall in his Grandma's house. It represents popular notions about heaven, notions that Rob wants to push back against. To start his argument, Rob begins in Matthew 19, a story where a Rich Man asks Jesus how to enter into eternal life. From there Rob will unpack his chapter, tackling three big themes: our notions of "eternal life," "treasure," and "heaven." (29)

Rob tries to argue that the traditional exegetical interpretation for "eternal life," which is the Greek word "aionon," fails to incorporate the Hebrew concept of "olam habah." Aionon gets translated "eternal life" and we think time without end, minute by minute, day after day, century following century without end. But Rob points out in the Old Testament that "olam habah" carries with it the idea of "life in the age to come." He implies that we're missing the point of olam habah by focusing on a traditional interpretation of eternal life.

Different scholars have pushed-back against Rob and his attempt to add a new nuance to "aion." However, I think the point still stands: Jesus is a Jewish prophet who's words were recorded in Greek. Whatever the Greek word "aion" traditionally means, we have to take into consideration what the Jewish tradition meant by the idea Jesus was addressing. The New Testament is written in Greek, but Jesus is Jewish - so he might be recorded as using the word "aion", but it's likely he was referring to the Jewish idea of "olam habah." Rob is not convincing in his case to present a nuanced meaning to "aion." But I don't think it undermines his bigger points about eternal life.

Rob walks through the OT prophets to make points about what "life in the age to come" would be like. Isaiah 2 & 25, Ezekiel 36 and Amos 9 are used as examples of how God's prophets described eternal life, or life in the age to come. He summarizes thus: "It's here they were talking about, this world, the one we know - but rescued, transformed, and renewed." (34) This is what Jesus and the Rich Man had in mind.


This provides the transition to the discussion about "treasure in heaven." Rob phrases it like this:

How do you make sure you'll be part of the new thing God is going to do? How do you best become the kind of person whom God could entrust with significant responsibility in the age to come? The standard answer was: live the commandments. God has show you how to live. Live that way. The more you become a person of peace and justice and worship and generosity, the more actively you participate now in ordering and working to bring about God's kind of world, the more ready you will be to assume an even greater role in the age to come. (40)

When Jesus lists the commandments to obey, he lists five of the final six, omitting the one about coveting. The rich man insists he's kept the five Jesus listed, but he can't commit to keeping the sixth one.  As Rob puts it, Jesus is inviting the Rich Man to use "his wealth to move creation forward" and if he can do it, "he'll have 'treasure in heaven.'" And so ideas about reward and "treasure in heaven" imply direct connections between life now and life then. The reward of quitting coveting now begins now - and it carries over into the life to come. To the degree that we enjoy the reward of living the commandments now, we can appreciate the rewards of heaven now.


So what is heaven like then? "Heaven comforts, but it also confronts."(48)  Rob points to John the Revelator's reference to Isaiah, about a day coming when there will be no more tears or pain. Comfort. But then Rob points to Paul and his insistence that on the day of judgment some will enter heaven "even though only as one escaping through the flames."  "Flames in heaven." (49) Heaven confronts. To enter heaven is comforting, then, but there is some kind of purification that must occur in order to prepare each human for life in the age to come. Purification implies transformation, which implies change - which sounds a lot like repentance.

It's important, then, to keep in mind that heaven has the potential to be a kind of starting over. Learning how to be human all over again. Imagine living with no fear. Ever. That would take some kind of getting used to. Soul would a world where loving your neighbor was the only option. So would a world where every choice was good for the earth. That would be a strange world at first. That could take some getting used to. (50-51)

Rob reflects that peoples confusion about heaven comes from their assumption that the change will be immediate. And that's where a lot of resistance is going to emerge to what Rob is suggesting about entering life in the age to come, about getting eternal life. What if it is not immediate, but something that takes time?

One last thing about heaven: who will be there? Rob goes to the story in Matthew 25 where Jesus distinguishes between two types of people. One group will assume that heaven is their destination, and be surprised when it is not. Another group will not consider heaven as their destination, and will be surprised when it is. Rob summarizes: "Heaven, it turns out, is full of the unexpected."

I'll let Rob give the summary of his own chapter:

...when Jesus used the word "heaven," he was simply referring to God, using the word as a substitute for the name of God.
Second, sometimes when Jesus spoke of heaven, he was referring to the future coming together of heaven and earth in what he and his contemporaries called life in the age to come.
And then third - and this is where things get really, really interesting - when Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and the age to come. Heaven for Jesus wasn't just "someday"; it was a present reality. Jesus blurs the lines, inviting the rich man, and us, into the merging of heaven and earth, the future and present, here and now. (58-59)

Rob seems to be attempting to invite readers to swap visions: their fluffly cloud, obscure and super-spiritual vision of heaven for an earthy, love your neighbor, feasting kind of heaven. If anything, Rob is trying to help people incorporate Jesus' Jewish beliefs about life in the age to come into their modern visions of what heaven might be like.

But Rob is also trying to make you reconsider about who will also be in heaven with you. We might be surprised at who Jesus welcomes in the age to come. But rather then focus on who is in and who isn't, Rob is pleading with people to start living "eternal life" now, live in light of the age to come now, be part of the answer to Jesus' own prayer: "...your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It's this kind of activity that will make any kind of evangelism we do much more fruitful, much more Jesusy.

It's Resurrection Sunday!

Resurrection!

What do you believe?

Do you believe in resurrection?

I do.

resurrection announces that God has not given up on the world
because this world matters
this world that we call home
dirt and blood and sweat and skin and light and water
this world that God is redeeming and restoring and renewing

it’s easy to be cynical

everybody believes somebody
Jesus invites us to trust resurrection
that every glimmer of good
every hint of hope
every impulse that elevates the soul
is a sign, a taste, a glimpse
of how things actually are
and how things will ultimately be
resurrection affirms this life and the next
as a seamless reality
embraced
graced
and saved by God

resurrection says that what we do with our lives matters
in this body
the one that we inhabit right now
every act of compassion matters
every work of art that celebrates the good and the true matters
every fair and honest act of business and trade
every kind word
they all belong and they will all go on in God’s good world
nothing will be forgotten
nothing will be wasted
it all has it’s place
~ Rob Bell

My Review of Love Wins: Chapter One

Questions.

Rob Bell begins the chapter with a story, but then he unloads a long string of provocative questions.

I imagine he's asking these questions because they're the same ones that get posed to him as a pastor.

He's also learned along the way that asking questions is how you...learn. Far too many Christians have quit asking questions. Ought not we critically examine our beliefs, test them against reality and the Scriptures?

Here's the leading question of the chapter - and the book:

Of all the billions of people who have ever lived, will only a select number "make it to a better place" and every single other person suffer in torment and punishment forever? Is this acceptable to God? Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God? (2)

It's easy to see someone one posing this question to Rob from across the cafe table over a cup of coffee. A young man who grew up in the church, who asked too many questions, who got too many cliche answers. A woman with a sensitive spirit who probes the mystery of Scripture and who connects with a wide array of people with wretched stories.

The second part of the question - a controversial summary:

Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few finite years of life? (2)

You can almost hear the sneer in the voice of the one posing this to Pastor Rob. For some it's a sneer, or cynicism, or bewilderment. And what should a pastor do at this point? Try and give the "right" answer? Or, maybe, help this questioner ask better questions. Which is what Rob attempts to do in this chapter.

He notes that this particular line of questioning raises questions about the kind of God who would do such a thing. It also poses a question of how you get to be one of the "select number" get to avoid "eternity in anguish." And it's a good question: "How does a person become one of the few? (2) How would you answer it?

Rob points out that there is not agreement on what a person is to do. He asks if you are to take a class, be baptized, join a church or have something happen in your heart, or say a specific prayer. And he points out that there's not agreement on what exactly to say in the prayer, or even what to call the prayer. And what about people who said the prayer, but maybe didn't fully understand what they were doing. (5) He then asks a question that seems out of context:

What about the people who have never said the prayer and don't claim to be Christians, but live a more Christlike life than some Christians?

The next statement and question also seems out of context for the chapter:

Some Christians believe and often repeat that all that matters is whether or not a person is going to heaven. Is that the message? Is that what life is all about? Going somewhere else? If that's the gospel, the good news - if what Jesus does is get people somewhere else - then the central message of the Christian faith has very little to do with this life...." (6)

Followed up with another zinger of a question:

So is it true that the kind of person you are doesn't ultimately matter, as long as you've said or prayed or believed the right things?

These are provocative questions that seem forced into his line of questioning, yet they are important ones to consider. It reveals the audience Rob is seeking to rattle: those Christians who don't really think about their beliefs, or the consequences of those beliefs for other people, their community, or their world. Their beliefs lead them to activity that focuses primarily on getting other people to go to heaven - and as Rob observes, at the expense of caring for the poor, caring for Creation, caring about their neighbor.

There's a barrage of questions. Rob points out that some would say in response to all this complexity, that everything can be boiled down to "how you respond to Jesus" (7). Rob agrees. But then he has to go and ask another pesky question: "Which Jesus?" (7) He goes on to point out all the different kind of Jesus's that have been portrayed that ought to be rejected or disbelieved. A man molests a daughter while reciting the Lord's Prayer. Christians herd Muslims into a building and then gun them down. Jesus who comes across as antiscience. "Some Jesuses should be rejected." (9)

So if you reject the unauthentic Jesuses, how do you discover the real Jesus? Rob mentions how people bring up the Romans 10 passage: "How can they hear without someone preaching to them?" And Rob wonders: what if the missionary gets a flat tire? (9) "Is someone else's eternity resting in your hands?  

That's a scary question. And it deserves a good answer. But this chapter is about questions, not answers. Rob wants you to consider - what are the implications for what you believe? And what do you believe? How did you come to believe it? And do others have to believe the same way you do? Do they have to come to the same belief you do in the same way?

Ready for more questions?

If the message of Jesus is that God is offering the free gift of eternal life through him- a gift we cannot earn by our own efforts, works or good deeds - and all we have to do is accept and confess and believe, aren't all those verbs? And aren't those verbs actions? Accepting, confessing, believing - those are things we do. Does that mean, then, that going to heaven is dependent on something I do?
How is that grace?
How is that a gift?
How is that good news?

Isn't that what Christians have always claimed set their religion apart - that it wasn't, in the end, a religion at all - that you don't have to do anything, because God has already done it through Jesus? (11)

Whoa.

Now we're getting to some of the core questions of the book, of Rob's thoughts, his theology, the seeds for his answers to come later in the book. If you're like me, you're a bit overwhelmed with the onslaught of questions. But if you're not the type of person to ask a lot of questions, or you don't want more questions - you want more answers, you might be very annoyed with Rob.

His next set of probing questions might really annoy you. He's going to push back against the simplistic ideas we have about how one comes to be saved. He mentions stories in Luke 7, 18 & 23, John 3, Luke 20, Matthew 6, 7 & 10, Luke 19, Mark 2, 1 Corinthians 7, Acts 22 and Romans 11 that all reveal different ways that people were saved. (12-17) Jesus is central to all of them, but not in the same way.

Here's his summary of questions about how Jesus saves you according to the above referenced Scriptures:

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?
...is it the tribe, family, or ethnic group you're born into?

Almost done with the chapter.

"...some would say, 'Just believe.'" (17)
Rob points out in Luke 11, Mark 3, and Matthew 16 that there was some uncertainty about who Jesus was exactly. Pharisees, family, and disciples had "a difficult time grasping just how Jesus [was]." (17)




Rob seeks to cause uncertainty in your mind and heart about what you believe.

Sowing seeds of doubt, maybe? This assumes that doubt can be a good thing. And that certainty can sometimes be toxic. Maybe you disagree with this premise? If so, you'll be annoyed, offended, or confused by Rob's methods.

But could we agree that most people could use some clarity about what they believe and the implications for them? And the path to clarity sometimes requires you to start over again, in a sense, with what you believe. To allow everything to be re-examined in the light of Scripture and reality.

Here's how Rob ends the chapter - it's a directive for where he's going in the book and the grand scope of what he's seeking to accomplish:

We could go on,
verse after verse,
passage after passage,
question after question,
about heaven and hell and the afterlife
and salvation and believing and judgment
and who God is and what God is like
and how Jesus fits into any of it.

But this book isn't just a book of questions.
It's a book of responses to these questions.

(If at this point you're still reading this post, I'll admit I'm impressed. If I make it too short, I'll get accused of taking stuff out of context. If I make it too long I'll get accused of losing people because they don't have a long enough attention span to read stuff that's this long. I guess you're not one of those people!)


You can see why Rob makes people nervous. He's asking questions about the heart of Christianity, the identity of God, the role of Jesus. No wonder such strong opinions surface in reaction to Rob's ideas. We protest and fight about what we hold dear. So push-back is good. I'd like to hear your push-back with this chapter.

Is Rob asking unfair questions?
Is Rob asking misleading questions?
Is Rob asking too many questions?
Do you resist asking too many questions? Why?

Is Rob making the issues too gray in this chapter? Is there really that much confusion about how to become a Christian? Is Rob misusing Scripture to point out the different ways people become a Christian? Does Rob mischaracterize Christians who have a strong focus on going to heaven when they die?

For me, the weakest part of this chapter is the characterization of Christians. The power of the questions come from a particular kind of characterization. Even the initial question which is at the heart of the book is carefully phrased, and I think it comes across a bit misleading.

However, I do think that these questions didn't all originate with Rob. I think a lot of them came from Christians and ex-Christians and anti-Christians who really struggled to make sense of the faith. In their struggle, in their experiences, in their life they ended up asking these kinds of questions. Rob puts there questions in his mouth and asks them on their behalf for us to consider.


What don't you like about this chapter?

What resonated with you?