Love Wins, the controversial book by author Rob Bell had received many criticisms by people from different theological standings. To start, I do not believe in everything said in the book, however, I did find some aspects which are very powerful. The book has gained its popularity or notoriety because Bell had argued the fact that our God who is loving would not want to leave anyone out and that perhaps He would even save those who otherwise never confessed their sins, repented and proclaimed that Jesus as the savior while they are alive on this earth.
Therefore, the Hell as the place of punishment after death that we commonly think of may or may not exist. There are statements in Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (HarperOne) [two stars], frankly if someone was to ask me, my reaction would be like I can’t believe that’s what he meant. As a reformed Protestant, I find myself air often on the side of grace than judgement, more on the side of love than justice and more on the side of inclusivity than exclusivity.
However, I would be the first to say that I am a mere human, I don’t know all the things that God knows, I do not have the ability to tell the absolutes beside the fact that our Triune God is the only absolute that I know and I am grateful that’s all I need to be called His child. Bell was targeting on a very specific group and he made it clear that this is a book for people who have been hurt by Christians and for those who have chosen to believe that Jesus did not care , rather than to believe that Jesus loves all people unconditionally and would not want anyone to be separated from Him.
Scripture has mentioned in John 12:46-48, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. (John 12: 46-47 NIV). Bell (2011) also said ” when I meet atheists and we talk about the god they don’t believe in we quickly discover that I don’t believe in that god either” (p. 9). This resonated with me especially with planting new churches.
I constantly ask myself that isn’t it our primary focus which is to share the Good News with people who are disengaged, disconnected and disillusioned from those of us think of ourselves as the insiders? If we are not starting at the same level ground, how are we ever going to make contact let alone make disciples of Christ? The mainline denominations have been facing years of declines in membership. There are a lot of theories as why this is happening. My experiences in working with my own presbytery and the churches are that we tend to go round and round while wasting valuable time and resources on trying to find the cause.
The truth is that if we know, someone would have turned it around already. I have seen incidences where presbyteries spent a lot of their resources both in man power as well as financial investment on wanting to study on how we need to turn this ship around, how we need to start building back up on membership, only to have all the efforts wasted on just trying to find a reason. In the end, people got more confused and more frustrated than ever. I think the more pressing thing to do is to take down any frameworks and start from ground zero.
I have never seen anyone as good as Jesus at hanging out with regular ordinary people. He ate and drank with everyone he comes in contact with, he partied with people, the way he connected with people was never invasive, it was never intrusive. It was just perfect in His way. How do we expect people to come and embrace everything that Jesus has to offer when we are doing such a terrible job at representing Him when we ourself are often critiquing everything that Jesus has offered to us? The truth is that we have already been given everything we need to do His will and to fulfill His purpose.
I also really resonated with Bell’s view on Heaven or Eternal Life. According to Bell(2011), “Heaven is that realm where things are as God intends them to be”(p. 42). Regardless of where one stands on theology, one can’t deny the fact that God would want us to start living on this earth as it is in Heaven. It is really pathetic if the best thing we Christian can offer is something after this life. This would be seen as a total absurdity especially for a whole generation who grew up having the privilege of instant gratification.
And we asked ourself whey they don’t want to come to church! To live a life fulfilling His purpose is as good as it can be in Heaven. God wants to heal broken hearted here on earth, He wants to restore toxic relationships here on earth and more than anything else, He wants to have us live on this earth as we will be living in Heaven as His will be done on earth as it is in Heave. Bell stressed this point vividly,” 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 live lived now in connection to God”(p. 9).
Furthermore, Bell (2011) stated that “ Eternal life doesn’t start when we die: it starts now. It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive even death”(p. 59). When it comes to the topic of Hell where Bell received the most criticisms for his book, it is not difficult to understand the reasons behind all the controversies. However, if one can accept what Bell said about Heaven, it is not too difficult to understand what he meant about Hell! He was talking about the same realm.
If “Heaven is the realm where things are as God intends them to be” (Bell, 2011, p. 59). Then Hell is the realm where things are not as God intends them to be. Hell can start on earth as it can be after death. The questions on will everybody be saved or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? His answer was that “those are questions, or more accurately, those are the tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect hem, creating space for the freedom that love requires”(Bell, 2011, p. 115).
The questions and the debates then are really not on the topic of whether Hell existed as some argued that Bell does not believe that there is Hell. Whether you believe that Bell is an universalist or not, the important thing is then on how we live according to God’s purpose for us in this life and how do we stay way from the hellish things on this earth. The reason I chose this book to do my essay is that I believe that the gathering of God’s people will become much more organic moving forward.
While the institutionalized churches will still be around. But it will become increasingly more difficult to replicate meaning to build a building and to have a huge influx of people coming. In this post Christendom era that we are living now, Rob Bell talked about the condition of the environment that we have currently for expanding God’s kingdom on earth. There is great hope as we live one day closer everyday to Jesus’ return. We are called to be diligent and mindful for doing His will. God himself loves us so unconditionally to give us His one and only son, Jesus.
Jesus loves us so deeply to give us His own life. And the Holy Spirit who loves us so widely that He is just a murmur away. We don’t have any excuse nor reason to reject what we were asked. Love will always win because God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the perfect representation of love, the kind that will transcend truly all understanding, time, and space. An expensive love that was given so freely that once one experienced it will be in constant awe of the brilliance of that gift that’s worthy of not only one’s life during this lifetime but the life after as well.