That Book Rob Bell Wrote

It took going to hell and back to get him into the evangelical time out corner, but Rob Bell has finally unseated Brian McLaren  for the coveted position of “liberal wolf in evangelical sheep’s clothing.” From flippant dismissals from fellow Midwestern pastors to bewilderment to calls of heresy, Bell has found a sweet spot for dissension and anger.

I tried to stay out of this conversation altogether, writing a while ago that worship is our vocation, not deciding who goes to hell and who does not (“Who’s the Judge?“). Maybe providentially, I was offered a pre-publication copy of Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell: What God said about eternity, and the things we made up, which is a response to Bell’s Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. So, not wanting to put the cart before the horse, I read both books over the past two weeks.

First off, Rob Bell believes in hell. He really does. If you don’t think he does then you haven’t read the book. In fact, I think Bell’s book injects one of the single most vital theological arguments on hell to the evangelical conversation to come around in a long time. The main thesis of Bell’s book is not universalism lite, as most critics have argued (more on that later), but that hell does exist. Right here, right now, in our midst.

While Bell does not couch it this way (it would be too point blank for his style), what he sets up in the majority of the book is a counter-part to an already/not-yet view of the kingdom: an already/not-yet view of hell. In arguing that hell exists right here, right now, in the gross injustice, sickness, hopelessness, rage, war, rape, disease, poverty, pillaging, natural disasters, etc., Bell makes a strong case for taking hell very seriously. Love Wins makes a very strong case for a literal interpretation of the role of the kingdom in fighting against the gates of hell and taking death, destruction and darkness head on, like Christ did.

But then there is that pesky chapter 7. Here Bell makes a case for a quasi-universalism. Possibly. I don’t really know. Chapter 7 was really hard to follow and understand. The parable of the prodigal son seemed to be taken a bit out of context, and I couldn’t really follow the logic. I think Love Wins would have been a very different book if this chapter had been more focused, or maybe left out altogether.

For those of you who have heard the warning about Love Wins, that it will lead you down the path of heresy, I don’t buy it, and neither should you. Read it for yourself. Maybe you can figure out Chapter 7!

Love Wins
Rob Bell
HarperOne
$13.79 (Amazon)