Book Review - Love Wins by Rob Bell

You may or may not be aware of the blogosphere buzz surrounding Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who has Ever Lived. With words like heretic and Universalist being used to describe popular author and preacher Rob Bell I had to find out the truth for myself. Rob Bell is the pastor of Mars Hill in Grand Rapids Michigan (not to be confused with Mars Hill, Seattle!) and author of Velvet Elvis, Sex God and Jesus Wants to Save Christians. He has also put out a series of short films called Nooma. I have read all of Bell’s books and have heard him speak on two occasions when he was in Dallas. I would describe Bell as provocative, intelligent and culturally savvy. He epitomizes hipster Christianity and is often associated with the Emergent movement, though he would deny any labels. Though Bell has been on the evangelical edge for some time, there are many, especially in the Reformed camps, who believe that with his latest book Bell has finally gone over the edge. As one who appreciates much of Bell’s work as well as the Reformed position I want to give you both the positives and the negatives about Love Wins.

First, the positives:

1) Love Wins will challenge you to think clearly about what you believe concerning the afterlife for both yourself and everyone else who has ever lived. He quickly challenges the reader to consider outside the box thinking and uses a lot of scripture to do it.

2) Love Wins has echoes of the imaginative work of C.S. Lewis along side of the theological work of N.T. Wright. Bell sees the Bible through its cultural, historical and linguistical settings in reaching his conclusions (Though he goes way beyond Lewis and Wright!)

3) Bell will appeal to those who are outside of traditional forms of the Christian faith and see hell as inconsistent with the concept of a loving God.

4) I appreciate Bell’s views about heaven and hell as starting here and now and not just after we die. Bell’s views of heaven as the redemption of all creation is biblical and much more appealing than playing a harp on cloud for all eternity.

5) Bell loves grace and wants to make it as amazing as possible. (Though I don’t think Newton had Bell’s theology in mind when he wrote the famous hymn!)

And now, the negative:

1) When I read Love Wins and then I pick up my Bible they just don’t seem to be teaching the same things. Though Bell uses a lot of Scripture and addresses nearly every angle and objection to his views, he often takes passages out of their context or simply ignores passages that support the views of election, and the eternal nature of heaven and hell. For example Bell writes, “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?...Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God? Compare that to Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:13, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

2) Bell’s view of God emphasizes His attribute of love over and above other attributes such as his holiness and justice. Bell asks the question,”Does God get what God wants?” The assumption here is that God wants everyone to be saved and none to perish so if anyone perishes God is somehow lacking in power.

3) Bell believes that the opportunity to choose Christ extends after death. Because of this everyone is likely to finally choose Christ in the end at some point. Who wouldn’t choose Christ over eternally burning in hell? But doesn’t this sound like a war death camp where POW’s are tortured until they finally give in and confess their information. The gospels point to salvation as treasuring Christ not just preferring him over suffering torment.

4) Bell suggests that heaven and hell are the same place but it is heaven for those who choose to follow Christ and hell to those who refuse. He basis his argument on the parable of the Prodigal Son because he states that both the younger son and the older son are at the same party and the younger son is filled with joy but to the older son, the party is hell. First off, to build an entire theology about heaven and hell based on the details of a parable seems to be a stretch at best. Especially since the point of the parable is about the acceptance of the Gentiles (represented by the younger son) by God (represented by the father) much to the anger of the Jews (represented by the older son). Second, Bell’s use of the parable is misguided because a careful reading demonstrates that in fact the older son refused to go in to the party (Luke 15:28 "But he became angry, and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began entreating him.”).

5) Bell refers often to the fact that his views are not new but have been held by many including some of the church fathers whom he quotes (including Augustine!) but he fails to footnote his sources making it quite difficult to check the original context. Also, Bell is right in saying that his views have been shared by others in the past but that doesn’t give his select group the orthodox stamp of approval.

6) I believe that Bell has every intention of making God bigger than any theology basically saying that God can do what he pleases when he pleases and no one can know for sure what God will finally do. Problem one, couldn’t that work both ways? Couldn’t God also decide that he was going to send people to hell even after spending time in heaven? Bell would say no because “love wins” but you can’t deny it as a possibility according to his point of view anymore than you could know that people in hell will eventually receive a get out of hell free card. Problem two. It seems to me that Bell’s views actually make God smaller in that God is limited by the freedom of humanity to choose him or walk away. Bell’s view is not God centered but puts man in charge.

7) Bell’s views drain the energy out of mission work and make the whole mission focus of the New Testament a rather odd endeavor if his views are correct. This is especially true since so much of the New Testament encourages us to suffer for the cause of Christ and the expansion of His gospel.

I want to end with a few thoughts for you to consider. Is Rob Bell a Universalist? He himself would deny it as he did on Good Morning America. Bell is not a Universalist in the sense of saying all religions are valid paths of salvation. Bell maintains that Jesus is the only way to heaven. But he also maintains that every human being has the gospel inside them and the job of the enlightened is to shine light on the reality that is already innate in the human heart. Bell may not have dived deep into the Universalist’s pool but he sure seems to be sitting in the edge with his feet in the water. Second, I have read many of the blogs opposing Bells, views, some written before the book was even published! I find it much more edifying and appealing, especially to those who watch us from outside the church, to dialog about our differences without all the harsh rhetoric. I am all in for a good, well thought debate but to call someone a heretic without reading the book is not exactly a Christian thing to do. Third, for those of you who are critical thinkers and like to wrestle with theological ideas and can do so biblically, then Love Winsmay be a book you would enjoy wrestling with. I think that is Bell’s intention anyway, to make the reader think and wrestle with imaginative possibilities. In this Bell is quite successful. But after you finish the book ask yourself two questions. 1) What if Bell is right? Does it change anything for the Christian reader? If Bell is right everyone eventually gets saved in the end. 2) What if Bell is wrong? What if there are those who read this book and conclude that Jesus can wait. Why not party it up now? Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die and then we can chose Christ only to find out that we were wrong and hell is eternal.

For a more detailed review from a Reformed perspective see http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/03/14/rob-bell-love-wins-review/