Love Wins
Excerpts from the book by Rob Bell (2011)
Honest Discussions within the Church
Some communities don’t permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most.
I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends … (p. ix)
[I would go one step further and say that most religious communities … churches, seminaries, organizations … will not permit open, honest inquiries on Biblical interpretations that vary from their own. Go too far … ask too many questions … and you will be asked to leave; allowing the “closed system” to continue propagating its own version of the “truth.” - BE]
How Does One Escape Eternal Torment?
One woman included in her work a quote from Mahatma Gandhi. [But another responded], “Reality check: He’s in hell.” (p. 1)
Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few finite years of life?
If there are only a select few who go to heaven … How does a person end up being one of the few? Chance? Luck? Random selection? Being born in the right place, family or country? (p. 2-3)
Which leads to a far more disturbing 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? (p. 6)
Differing with Atheists
Often times 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. So when we hear that a certain person has “rejected Christ,” we should first ask, “Which Christ?” (p. 9)
Is Salvation Up to Us?
If our salvation, our future, our destiny is dependent on others bringing the message to us, teaching us, showing us – what happens if they don’t do their part? What if the missionary gets a flat tire? Is someone else’s eternity resting in your hands? (p. 9)
A “Personal Relationship” with Christ
The phrase “personal relationship” is found nowhere in the Bible. (p. 10)
[Here is one of many examples of things we believe come from the Bible, but which we have simply been indoctrinated with by the teachings and traditions of the organized church. We must learn to case off those biases and approach the Scriptures from a fresh, unbiased perspective, as much as is possible. – BE]
Is Grace a Gift?
Accepting, confessing, believing – those are things we do. Does that mean, then, that going to heaven is dependent on something I do? How is any of that grace? How is that a gift? (p. 11)
What About Loved Ones Who Died without Christ?
As [one woman] imagines being reunited with her sister who was killed in a car accident 17 years ago … [another woman realizes] she will be separated from her mother and father, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends forever, with no chance of any reunion, ever. (p. 25)
Aion = age (not eternity)
Aion refers to a period of time with a beginning and an end. (p. 57)
[I would say there are three major Biblical misunderstandings that stand in the way of our ability to see God’s plan to ultimately save all mankind. This is #1. The Greek “aion” appears in many different forms … singular, plural, before the aions, at the end of the aions, etc. It is CLEAR that this Greek word is not intended to carry the meaning endless or forever. There are some passages where this notion seems to fit in accord with orthodox understandings, so English translators use “eternal” in these instances. But there are other instances where “eternal” is clearly not intended per the context, so these same Biblical translators use another word, like “age.” But would God use a single word to mean opposite things … endless, and with an end? Would He leave it to scholars to tell us when it means endless and when it does not? Dumbed-down Bible translations and a failure to see that there are significant differences in the various forms of the word (singular, plural, etc) cause God’s wonderful plan to ultimately save all mankind to be hidden. – BE]
Hell
There isn’t an exact word or concept in the Hebrew scriptures for hell other than a few words that refer to death and the grave. (p. 64)
Gehenna, in Jesus’s day, was the city dump. Gehenna was an actual place that Jesus’s listeners would have been familiar with. (p. 68)
Hades is essentially the Greek version of the Hebrew word “Sheol.” (p. 69)
For many in the modern world, the idea of hell is a holdover from primitive, mythic religion that uses fear and punishment to control people for all sorts of devious reasons. (p. 69-70)
[This is major misunderstanding #2 in Bible teaching today. The concept of eternal torment comes from mythology and not the Scriptures. The Greek “hades” is inconsistently translated … “hell” when it appears to be speaking of the wicked, and “grave” when it appears to be speaking of the righteous. But, again, we leave it to the scholars to give us an inconsistent translations of the Scriptures … when, in fact, “hades” in EVERY instance simply means “the unseen place” … the place our souls go when we die; whether we are saved or unsaved. – BE]
Destruction, with a Purpose
[Ezekiel said] that God will “restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters.
Ezekiel says that where there was destruction there will be restoration.
According to the prophets, God crushes, refines, test, corrects, chastens, and rebukes – but always with a purpose. (p. 83-86)
[On the sheep and goats judgment in Matthew 25] … An aion of kolazo [can mean] “a period of pruning” or “a time of trimming,” or an intense experience of correction. In a good number of English translations of the Bible, the phrase “aion of kolazo” gets translated as “eternal punishment.”
But “forever” is not really a category the biblical writers used. (p. 91-92)
How Great is God?
[God is routinely credited with being] mighty, powerful, loving, unchanging, sovereign, full of grace and mercy, and all-knowing. This God is the one who created the world and everything in it. This is the God for whom all things are possible.
“God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2)
So does God get what God wants? How great is God? Great enough to achieve what God sets out to do. (p. 96-97)
Have billions of people been created only to spend eternity in conscious punishment and torment, suffering infinitely for the finite sins they committed in the few years they spent on earth? (p. 102)
Church History
Beginning with the early church, there is a long tradition of Christians who believe that God will ultimately restore everything and everybody. (p. 107)
In the third century the church fathers Clement of Alexandria and Origen affirmed God’s reconciliation with all people. (p. 107)
1 Corinthians 15
“In Christ all will be made alive.” (p. 134)
[Major misunderstanding #3 in our Biblical understanding is our failure to see that the many verses referring to the salvation of all really mean what they say … ALL. Because the traditional church has taught us there is an eternal torment for the unbeliever, we see the word “all” and find it necessary to limit its meaning to make our “system of theology” work. But when we clear up misunderstandings #1 and #2 … “aion” means age, and “hades” means the unseen place … we see that when God speaks of saving all, He means ALL.
God is the Saviour of all (1 Timothy 4:10). God wills that all mankind be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). God is operating all in accord with the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11). Christ Jesus died as a correspondent ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:6). In Adam all are dying and in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21-23). All are created in Him, and all will be reconciled through Him (Colossians 1:16-20) … to mention only a few. – BE]
A Terrifying God
Millions have been taught that if they don’t believe, if they don’t accept in the right way, that is, the way the person telling them the gospel does, and they were hit by a car and died later that same day, God would have no choice but to punish them forever in conscious torment in hell.
A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormentor who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony. If there was an earthly father who was like that, we would call the authorities.
The God they’ve been presented with and taught about can’t be loved. That God is terrifying and traumatizing and unbearable. (p. 173-175)
Summary
[The author has presented in a very readable form many Biblical passages that should be thought-through anew, and he has asked many powerful questions to be considered as we look at our current understanding of the Scriptures. And most importantly of all, Rob Bell is a highly visible pastor who has taken the bold step of offering non-orthodox understandings of the Bible that has generated much criticism. I applaud him for having the courage to step out of the orthodox comfort zone to share a message that has been hidden for far too long from church-goers of our present age. – BE]
Excerpts selected by Bob Evely, 2012
