Is Rob a Heretic? Book Review: LOVE WINS by Rob Bell

Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis, has given us a new treatise on a fundamental part of the Christian faith. Love Wins has already been the target of much criticism as its very description as “a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived” located it at the center of a great controversy. At the heart of the subject is the question ‘what sends some people to hell while others go to heaven?’ and it is precisely that question that Bell answers with bold argument and conviction within just 198 pages.

Love Wins is obviously inspired by pastoral experience with people who ask the hundreds of questions echoed throughout the book as Bell tries to answer them—oftentimes with more questions than answers. On the whole, his tone is true to his philosophy that we must ask questions, ask more questions, and then wrestle in the deepest parts of ourselves to arrive at an answer that is consistent with the character of God. The major theme of this piece is dealing with the topic of destiny as it raises questions about salvation, heaven, hell, choice, the cross and resurrection, our reaction to God’s actions, and the natures of both God and us. These also serve as the outline for the chapters in the book as each one is addressed.

Ultimately, Rob communicates excellently on every level what his views are and how he believes they should be applied to life. While I was not overwhelmingly impressed with his hermeneutical analysis, I had to realize that his goal was to make all that lofty dialog accessible to common people who find hermeneutical tomes a tad intimidating. In that respect, I commend his faithfulness to using logical transitions in abridging any biblical exegesis he did. And I do award full points for arriving at answers that don’t stretch the usage of biblical words and concepts painfully to suit his views—he remains true to a long tradition of interpretation even if he doesn’t make the readers suffer through all the details. He firmly secures himself to orthodox biblical scholarship that stretches from Origen to N.T. Wright and does not at all advocate that hell will be empty.

Some have issued early critiques that Rob Bell claims in this book that our actions don’t matter and everyone will get into heaven. After reading this book thoroughly and slowly over the last three days I will back Rob 100% in defending him from these critics. The overwhelming theme of his work here, to which he devotes most of his arguments and discussion, is that our actions and choices matter infinitely more than we have ever imagined. By every choice we either bring hell or heaven to earth, and Rob clearly believes that God won’t instantaneously wipe away a person’s nature. We will carry our personalities into the afterlife and our nature will either lead us into heaven or hell.

I encourage anyone interested in this discussion to purchase this book, give it a thorough read, and grapple personally with its issues. There’s nothing to lose in forming your own beliefs as you grow deeply in the life of faith, and I’m sure Rob Bell says much the same thing… even if you grapple with the issues and end up disagreeing with his view. And for the transparent, honest, and personally revealing nature of his exposition, as well as his courage in facing down the critics who want to suppress discussion of fate and hell, I give Love Wins full marks in its field of spiritual literature.

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What follows is my summary of the entire book. As I move through the main sections of the book in the course of my summary, I will provide page numbers for you in parenthesis so you can easily check out what I’m referring to. If you disagree with my assessment, feel free to drop a comment below and I’d be happy to address it in addendum.

Preface

If you’re like me, you’ll read the preface to find out what Rob’s motivation and expectations are for the book. It also serves to usher the reader into his context as he attempts to bridge the gap between himself and his readers. The preface was kind of like shaking hands with Rob before sitting down for three days to listen to his thoughts until I had noted and mapped each idea. What impressed me here was the firmness of his grip—he means business about the love of God being for every person and allowing people to dive deep into questions of faith (ix).

Chapter 1

The first chapter deals primarily with the topic of salvation as he opens up with rhetorical criticism about anyone who claims to know for a fact whether a certain person is or isn’t in hell (1-2). In this case, that person is Gandhi, and Bell’s assertion is that we can’t know with any empirical certainty the fate of anyone. Are certain people more likely to have salvation because of where they are born? If the answer is yes then it seems there must be something wrong because the gospel should speak hope to everyone rather than express no hope at all for those outside the privileged group (3).

Aside from probing the topics of what must happen for someone to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, the age of accountability (4), and the nature of the belief that we must have a personal relationship with Christ; Bell leads his readers through a long list of Bible verses about salvation (12-17). What he reveals about salvation is that it happens in dozens of different ways within the Bible, let alone the scope of the entire human race. He even calls into question the very meaning of the idea that salvation requires you to “just believe” (17-18) and its merits, suggesting that salvation is much broader and greater than the conventional verbage used in the Christian community today.

Chapter 2

It follows logically that heaven would follow salvation in any dialogue, and so Bell launches into what appears to be a much larger discussion that has been abbreviated for the sake of his intended audience. There’s a lot more here than golden streets (24). In fact, one of the most essential discussions on the usage of a Greek word (31) is almost completely eliminated (trust me, most of you wouldn’t want to read it anyway) so his introduction to these words give a Polaroid type understanding that when the word eternal appears it isn’t necessarily the best representation of the idea behind the Greek word, which he will expand on in the next chapter.

Ultimately, the chapter about heaven sounds a lot like things you’ve already been hearing about being environmentally conscious, peaceful, and active in projects of social compassion (36). Actually, there is very little in this chapter that’s original to him, but we’re not interested in original ideas as much as how he takes ideas and forms them into a system of beliefs that we can actually use in our own lives. I like his use of Matthew 25 (The Final Judgment) to further break down the idea that we know who is going to heaven and who’s not (51-52). And the lesson Rob seems to try to drive in is that heaven is something we bring to earth through our choices right now, not something far off (51, 62).

Chapter 3

Hell is what got Rob on the hot seat with Martin Bashir and other interviewers who wanted to pin him to the wall as a universalist. In fact, you’re probably reading this review because you want to know if I think he is or not. We’ll get there.

Rob starts this chapter in a heated sprint with lots to cover and only so many pages to do it in. How is hell talked about in the Bible? While it’s readily apparent that he doesn’t hit every last verse, I felt satisfied with the breadth of what he covered as he tried to wrestle with hell along with the readers. The biggest takeaway for people new to theological dialogue or biblical study will be the distinction that the Old Testament idea of hell (65) is different from the New Testament idea (67) because of the cultural and chronological gap between the respective texts. What Rob really runs with is the idea of hell as a way of life: similar to the way we can choose to do things that bring heaven to earth in little ways, we can also cause hell on earth by other choices (71). Bell’s challenge is that we recognize the great responsibility we have in deciding which choices to make, because we can create individual hells as well as society-wide hells in the here and now (79).

In addition to observing that the story may not be over for Sodom (84) and that Satan may be no more powerful than a tool in God’s shed (89), he discusses the phrase “eternal punishment” (91-92) in light of its other possible interpretation as “time or season of correction, pruning, trimming.” He’ll build on this in the next chapter, but before moving on Rob closes his chapter about hell by defining his usage of the word hell (93) as being “a loaded, volatile, adequately violent, dramatic, serious word to describe the very real consequences we experience when we reject the good and true and beautiful life that God has for us… a word that refers to the big, wide, terrible evil that comes from the secrets hidden deep within our hearts all the way to the massive, society-wide collapse and chaos that comes when we fail to live in God’s world God’s way.” In no way does Rob deny the existence of hell either as an idea, a consequence, or as a literal place.

Chapter 4

Starting with the primary philosophical problem of free will versus fate between the questions ‘does God get what God wants?’ (97) and ‘do we get what we want?’ (116) it seems that Rob was really serious when he said he wasn’t afraid to dive into the deep questions (ix). Some highlights you can expect to find here will include building the premise that God does indeed want all people to be reconciled to him (97), God’s unchanging purpose (98) and his relentlessness (101). You can also expect to find plenty of attention to the quandary involving an infinite amount of hellish torment for a few years of finite sin (102) and what kind of God would shrug his shoulders and give up on bringing all people to him (103).

You’ll also find plenty of discussion about free will and how love is freedom (104-105), so God ultimately respects our choice. But that only serves to raise Rob’s favorite topic: how do we choose hell? Is it something instantaneous (105) or is it made by a lifetime of choices to bring hell, rather than heaven, to earth? This is also the part where Rob blatantly mocks universalist concepts of a heavenly “hug-fest” (105) while affirming that some of us indeed choose hell—how tragic that hell won’t be empty. But Rob also shies away from Protestant views and returns to a more traditional Christian viewpoint as he cites Origen, Augustine, Jerome, and other early church fathers (107) who believed there was more involved in going to heaven or hell than is contained in earthly life. Martin Luther (106), in light of doubts about a second chance after life to turn to Jesus in all his glory, exclaims “Who would doubt God’s ability to do that?” After all, the gates of heaven won’t be shut, as Rob observes from the book of Revelation.

Rob ponders the idea of God’s glory and whether he receives glory by suffering or restoration, by torment or reconciliation, by anguish or renewal (108). He makes a strong case that church history is full of respected orthodox believers who answered questions about God in many different ways, and it’s okay if we don’t all agree (110). We should recognize that it even seems more Christian to long for the better story or God’s great redemptive work in all people from all time (111) and to put hope in the gates of heaven which never shut (115).

Chapter 5

Looking at a comeback performance by Eminem where he bears a cross hung around his neck (121), Rob points out that the cross is a tremendously meaningful symbol because Jesus’ death on it meant the end of the sacrificial system (124), the reconciling of all things (126), and his victory in destroying death itself (127). Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is reflective of a rhythm implanted within all of creation as life emerges from death (131). Jesus’ resurrection not only defeats the grave but voices a song from the entire world. It bears hope for us personally (135) and marks the beginning of a new age, a new creation, and inhabits a cosmic scope with its power that doesn’t disappoint (133).

Chapter 6

Obviously when we look at the message of Christ’s atonement and resurrection, along with the possibility of choosing life with him forever in heaven or separation and torment in hell, it’s impossible to discount the importance of our reaction and Bell wonders whether it’s acceptable to just dismiss anything we can’t find an explanation for (142). It’s a necessary entry point to get us into wondering about whether there is anything we’ve overlooked as throughout the centuries no one ever knew Christ was present with the Israelites in the Sinai wilderness. That is, until the Apostle Paul pointed out that the rock where they received miraculous water was Christ—begging the question, “where else has Christ been present?” (144, 148)

The main assertion here is his dialog about being in either an open or closed universe (147) as Bell wonders whether the universe is limited to what we can conceive or comprehend. It was plain to me that this was a veiled critique about claiming to comprehend exactly what an infinite and incomprehensible God will or will not do, especially regarding his loving pursuit of people. And as he makes his argument that Jesus is supraculturally active (151) in drawing all people to himself, Rob leads into the most important part of the entire book. As he explains exclusivity and inclusivity (154), Rob defines his own position (155) regarding fate, describing it as “exclusivity on the other side of inclusivity.” Sound confusing? I think he chose the phrase to communicate how diverse and complicated he sees this view himself, which is supported by his long history of embracing paradoxical truths. “Jesus is the way, but… the all-embracing, saving love of this particular Jesus the Christ will of course include all sorts of unexpected people from across the cultural spectrum.” In other words, we should be slow to make “negative, decisive, and lasting judgments about people’s eternal destinies.” (160)

Chapter 7

For how short and conclusion-driven chapter 8 is, it really seems that 7 is the last real chapter of content in the book. This is where Rob really starts rounding up all these thoughts and bringing them to a close in his final exposition: a discussion about the nature of God and us. The story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 illustrates that both sons had a version of the story that conflicted with the father’s version, and salvation was dependent upon their choice to live in their own story or to live in their father’s story. Bell characterizes the world of the father as functioning in a mode of “profound unfairness” (168) as the father inverts both of his sons’ expectations.

After a great deal of talking about “here and somewhere else” throughout the book, Rob finally shows us why he’s so caught up in it as he observes that the older son is at the party in his torment—hell is at the party, together with heaven, and that is why it is so hellish (169-170). Rob even offers another definition of hell (170) to add to his first, “hell is our refusal to trust God’s retelling of our story.” As we look at this parable in Luke 15 the father listens to his sons each tell their story, and then he retells them their story. “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat.” “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” Do we criticize God for being cheap (180) or do we claim the wealth of being his children at the party?

Rob hits here at our nature to shape God, and a rebuke that when we shape God to be a slave driver then our religion becomes a system of sin-management (183). Getting caught up in acting bad can separate us from God, but so can getting caught up in trying to act good (187), and this is what Rob criticizes as being so diametrically opposed to the concept of forgiveness, which is dependent on mercy and not anything we’ve done (189).

Chapter 8

This chapter concludes the book as Rob challenges us to accept what is real and avoid the reflex to become cynical or skeptical (194). He also challenges us to take hell seriously and to live like the end is here (197)—it’s time to take choices seriously as we choose constantly to either bring a little of heaven or a little of hell into our world. And with those thoughts, he closes us in his signature benedictory fashion.

“May you experience this vast, expansive, infinite, indestructible love that has been yours all along. May you discover that this love is as wide as the sky and as small as the cracks in your heart no one else knows about. And may you know, deep in your bones, that love wins.” (198)