Chapter 6: There are Rocks Everywhere

Rob’s main theme or idea in chapter 6 is that God / Jesus / the Holy Spirit is at work in all the world, in all sorts of ways and through all sorts of means, drawing people to himself. That God always has been and always will be wooing and that people are bound to bump into Jesus in all sorts of ways and places.

Rob makes it clear that Jesus is the only way; that Jesus alone is saving everyone. But that there are all sorts of possibilities in regards to how Jesus is doing things in the world, reaching people, meeting people interrupting the time frames and schedules of humanity. 


In Exodus 17 the Israelites are in need of water and God tells Moses to strike a rock with his staff, he does and water comes from the rock. In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul refers to this ‘rock’ encounter and paints a picture of the always existing Jesus playing a role in the sustaining of God’s people in the wilderness.  Rob paints a picture of Jesus at work all over the place through ‘rocks that are everywhere.’

I really liked this chapter, it describes God as active and present in all of creation, discoverable to all. It also makes space for God to work in all sorts of unique and wonderful ways and that there is a mystery to that.

Some are critical saying that in this chapter Rob deems all religions as the same with Jesus in and at work in all of them, and thus it doesn’t matter what religion you are. I don’t think he is suggesting this at all. Ben Witherington 3 is concerned that Rob is pushing things too far when he says that some coming to the Father may not even know they are coming exclusively through him and it is well worth reading Ben’s critique.

I’m not so sure.

I’ve grown up all my life imagining people in heaven, because of Jesus, though they may not have known Jesus in the sense that I do, but are judged accurately by Jesus. People in the back blocks of the Amazon who  never meet a Christian, read a bible, hear of Jesus etc, alive today, and obviously throughout history. That’s the answer we’re often given as kids or in Sunday school. It still resonates with me, though I know it’s up for debate.

There is no chapter and verse (that I know of) for the idea of an age of accountability. The idea that children who die will find grace, forgiveness and eternal life. Yet it is commonly accepted across the spectrum of Christianity. I endorse it whole heartedly! The argument goes that children do not have the ability to reason, process, think, and make an informed decision. Obviously children have not matured to be able to do this and hence the idea of an age of accountability.

Is there not a second issue though; access to the accurate data that needs to be reasoned through, process and thought through out of which faith and repentance is entered into? Accountability surely requires the ability to be accountable and an understanding of what you are accountable for? Though it is not lack of data that condemns and makes one guilty before God but rather sin, the Good News of the Gospel is a helpful piece of information in sorting the sin issue out. Hence perhaps again, the degree of mystery in which we can simply trust God and join with the multitude of heaven who cry, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments?"

Chapter 5: Dying to Live

Chapter 5 is to do with the cross with Rob highlighting the reality that the work of the cross is described and explained with all sorts of different metaphors. Some people hold certain metaphors to be more important than other metaphors. Rob perspective however...

The point, then, isn’t to narrow it to one particular metaphor, image, explanation, or mechanism. To elevate one over others, to insist that there’s a ‘correct’ or ‘right’ one, is to miss the brilliant, creative work these first Christians were doing when they used these images and metaphors. They were reading their world, looking for ways to communicate this epic event in ways their listens could grasp.

The point then, as it is now, is Jesus. The divine in flesh
and blood. He is where the life is.

Jesus is the way to God.

Rob then discusses the resurrection as the beginning of the new, the old has gone and the new has come and also highlights the need for us to understand the Gospel as far wider and more cosmic in scope than simply a message about how to avoid hell or not sin.

I really enjoyed this chapter, probably the best in the book so far. The exact way, formula, transaction, in which the cross made a way forward for humanity was never set in any of the church creeds. Rather the church is left to explore all the different metaphors as a celebration that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is transforming and life change news with cosmic implications. I think this helps us to keep a broad perspective on the cross and what it means. This will rankle some people, especially those that pretty much only talk about the cross in terms of penal substitution atonement theory, but I find it refreshing. Overall a reasonably solid chapter.

Favourite paragraph...

When people say that Jesus came to die on the cross so that we can have a relationship with God, yes, that is true. But that explanation as the first explanation puts us at the centre. For the first Christians, the story was, first and foremost, bigger, grander. More massive. When Jesus is presented only as the answer that saves individuals from their sin and death, we run the risk of shrinking the Gospel down to something just for humans, when God has inaugurated a movement in Jesus’ resurrection to renew, restore, and reconcile everything ‘ on earth or in heaven’ (Col 1), just as God originally intended it. The powers of death and destruction have been defeated on the most epic scale imaginable. Individuals are then invited to see their story in the context of a far larger story, one that includes all of creation.

Chapter 4: Does God Get What God Wants?

In this chapter Rob looks at the big question of whether God gets what God wants. God wants everyone to find salvation, wholeness, restoration, eternal life; does God get what he wants? He points out the claims of many church websites that ‘unsaved’ won’t be with God, that they will be punished somewhere and that the punishment will be forever. He also points out that on the same website they declare that God is mighty, powerful, loving and unchanging. And thus again the question; does God get what God wants? Bell then points out the many scriptures that talk about everything belonging to God, every knee bowing to God’s Lordship, the renewal of all things and, the Lord’s arm not being too short to save etc.

Rob touches (briefly) on three answers...

1.       That God doesn’t always get what God wants because of humankind’s freedom of choice. Some will say no to God’s saving love and will be lost forever. We have this lifetime only in which to embrace God’s grace.

2.       That God doesn’t always get what God wants. That humanity’s freedom and ability to make decisions that cultivate and nurture the reality of the divine image we are created in, or to stifle and damage it, are such that in time those that say no to God will eventually lose their humanity. That will move into a new state of ‘formerly human’ or ‘post human.’

3.       That God will get what he wants and that in the end everyone will be ‘saved’ as it may be possible for people to turn to or say yes to God after death. And that this may not be only a one off offer immediately after death but an ongoing offer, as long as it takes to say yes to God in other words. The heart of this perspective being that, given enough time, everyone would turn to God and find joy and peace in his presence.

Rob then suggest that many have held to this third sort of position over the years. He also suggests that it would at least be fitting and proper for a Christian to hope for answer three. He asks hopefully if it is possible that God could banish those who have rejected God from the New Creation while at the same time keeping the door open to them, that should they turn and embrace God they might be reconciled to God?

In regards to all these questions Rob offers the following statement...

Those are questions, or more accurately, those are
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 the, creating space for the freedom
that love requires.

Rob concludes by reversing the question of whether God gets what God wants to; do we get what we want? He concludes that yes we do. If we want life, and peace, and justice and all that is good we chose Jesus and find eternal live. If that is not what we want then we reject Jesus and find hell.

We can have what we want,
because love wins.

So, where to start?

In reality this chapter of Love Wins should really be about 500 pages long. There are so many issues at play which each have ongoing and massive discussions attached to them. Instead the chapter is 25 pages and the whole of Love Wins 198 pages. And this is really the major difficulty with a book like Love Wins. It touches on so many issues and subjects that are worthy of discussion but also worthy of being discussed in full.

For example the idea of people losing their ‘image of God’ status to the point of becoming non-human is likely bizarre and foreign to some. Where did Rob Bell get that? In reality it has been suggested by some of the most reputable bible scholars in the world, as well as rejected by some of the most reputable. In others words, there is something to the idea and yet it is complex and full of mystery. But not totally off the wall. It’s and idea worth exploring and engaging in beyond the engagement offered in Love Wins.

I liked Bell’s encouragement that there are tensions in regards to how far God’s love can reach, how far his grace can extend etc that we should feel free to leave intact.

I liked Bell’s over all encouragement to lean into God as more overflowing with love and grace and mercy than we sometimes make God out to have.

On the other hand...

I don’t think as many people have held to position three as what Bell makes out, a kind of eventual salvation of all.   

Rob appeals to some of the church fathers in support of what I would describe as a hopeful universalism but to steal from Witherington... he is citing theological speculation of this or that church father,  not the settled convictions of the church as revealed in their creeds, councils,  confessions.  There is a difference. Which I don't think invalidates everything Bell writes by any stretch of the imagination. The discussion just has to be entered more fully.

So basically overall I think this chapter doesn’t do justice to the issues at stake, which is probably true of Love Wins as well.

Some I know have read it and just accept everything written, because it’s Rob Bell, as fact. This isn't wise. It’s not as simple as that, mainly because Love Wins deals with some big issues, that simply – aren’t simple.

Others I know have read Love Wins and written it all off as heresy, because well, Rob Bell wrote it. That’s a wrong and unwise response as well.

I think a better response would be to recognise that indeed Rob Bell wrote it and therefore it is likely worth engaging with, discussing, researching and exploring.

So in the end chapter 4, like the rest of Love Wins raises some good questions and discussion points, but doesn’t discuss them as well as what they need to be discussed.

Chapter 3: Hell

Having addressed heaven (Chapter 2: Here is the New There) the next chapter in Rob Bell’s Love Wins moves to a discussion of hell. Rob’s main idea is that hell is a reality that can be experienced, here and now on earth, as a result of our own or others poor choices, mistakes, and ultimately sinful and selfish nature. It is a concrete reality and result of choices made here and now which are experienced here and now. Rob does make clear that there is hell now and also hell later, and that Jesus encourages us to take both seriously.

There are individual hells,
and communal, society-wide hells,
and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.

There is hell now,
and there is hell later,
and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.

Rob highlights that fact that some people mainly concerned with hell on earth and dealing with that, while others are more concerned with hell after we die and dealing with that. It’s and/both. This is a great challenge and recognises the expansive nature of the Good News of the Gospel which addresses both. A challenge that deserves considerable and ongoing Christian reflection and which I believe cannot help but result in: a Christian compulsion to genuinely involve one’s life in God’s mission of reconciliation and restoration in the world in a variety of creative and meaningful ways.

Rob also correctly highlights the scarcity of scriptures and references to hell that we find in the bible and the reality that correctly understanding these passages is challenging. I think he rightly points to the reality that our understanding of hell is likely based more on folk theology rather than sound exegesis, a reality also evident in chapter 2 in regards to our understanding of heaven.

The major weakness in this chapter would be that Rob, in pointing out the scarcity of passages about hell in the bible and the challenge of understanding the passages that do exist, doesn’t really do a very good job in walking us through these passages either.

He explains Gehenna to be a town garbage heap, a popular idea held by many scholars for a long time. It seems more accurate however to be a place where children were sacrificed to false God’s. In saying that, this alteration doesn’t really change the way Rob understands the text.

The exegesis of the rich man and Lazarus is creative and more idiosyncratic than anything else. You would be hard pressed to find any commentaries that would explain the text in the way Rob explains it. It is more and artistic rereading which can offer insights but is limited in its ability to unpack the text.  Rob’s conclusions in regards to Sodom and Gomorrah and lessons for us here require some big leaps which I don’t think are tenable.

So overall, considering the main questions people have in regards to hell are to do with hell after death and the concept of eternal conscious torment, Rob doesn’t really do a very good job in answering them.

While I would affirm that Rob Bell does believe in hell after death for some people, he is vague and unclear in regards to what he actually sees this looking like.

Why?

Maybe because he is unclear in what he thinks?

Maybe because this chapter isn’t penned as well as he thought it was?

Maybe because he wants to highlight that the issue isn’t as straightforward and clear as some people might think?

Maybe because he wants Love Wins to be a book that starts conversations rather than finishes the conversation?

Maybe because he wants people to wrestle with the questions for themselves?

I don’t know.

Personally I’m not sure the issue of hell is as clear cut as some people. I do however appreciate Stanley Grenz’s Theology for the Community of God and his biblical insight in regard to the issue of hell and absolutely affirm it as a reality beyond the grave. For me there is some mystery though.  

Some things are crystal clear however, the Mystery has been revealed ... reconciliation to God, grace, forgiveness, the gift of eternal life (now and later) is possible through Jesus Christ and his life, death upon the cross, and resurrection. Jesus made a way where there didn’t seem to be a way. Grace is offered to those who would respond in faith and repentance!

For those that would be interested the following conversation at Scot McKnight’s blog Jesus Creed is well worth reading and reflecting on.

Background...

1. Rob Bell released a provocative video trailer for his soon to be released book Love Wins.

2. Certain voices in certain spheres of Christendom (voices famous in some spheres and infamous in others) rebuked and denounced everything Rob said in his trailer and was probably going to say in his ‘as yet unreleased book’.

3. Love Wins; a Book about Heaven and Hell and the Fate of Every Person who has Ever Lived was released.

4. Some loved it. Some hated it. It sold lots of copies. People blogged and twittered.

5. Frances Chan releases provocative video trailer for his soon to be released book Erasing Hell; What God Said about Eternity, and the Things we Made Up, a response to Rob Bells book.

And now what is worth looking at... and it is a good and provocative discussion, including the post comments and ongoing discussions in comments sections as well...

6. Jeff Cook responds to Francis Chan’s clip, 25thMay 2011

7. Mark Galli responds to Jeff Cook, 26thMay 2011

8. Jeff Cook responds to Mark Galli, 1stJune 2011

9. Mark Galli responds to Jeff Cook, 3rdJune 2011

Lots of food for thought, prayerful consideration and engaging discussion.    

Love Wins: Chapter Two

Chapter 2: Here is the New There

Rob’s main point in this chapter is to do with heaven. Basically eternity won’t be spent in a giant city with mansions and golden streets that exists somewhere out there somewhere in a galaxy far far away.  Rather eternity will be spent on a restored earth, the new creation, in the New Jerusalem where heaven and earth are one. This is where we will enjoy eternal life. Rob points out that eternal life is also a type of life, a type of living, and that this sort of life can be experienced and tasted here on earth. He correctly points out that this will only ever be tasted in part until Jesus returns and indeed restores all things. He concludes by saying...

There’s heaven now, somewhere else.
There’s heaven here, sometime else.
And then there’s Jesus’ invitation to heaven
here
and
now,
in this moment,
in this place.

Essentially I think he’s on the money here though a little clarity could be offered.

There’s heaven now, somewhere else = Non material part of the universe where God’s will reigns.

There’s heaven here, sometime else = When Jesus returns and makes all things new, the new heaven and earth (read renewed heaven and earth). Eternity will be spent here, heaven and earth will be one, and the dwelling place of God will be with humanity.

There is heaven here and now = Better stated this is eternal life (technically not heaven). Eternal life or  ‘eternity type of life and living’ that can be tasted in part now but will one day be experienced in full.

I know for some who have grown up understanding heaven to be a large golden city of mansions, paradise somewhere out there somewhere that exits now, this chapter might cause you to pause. Personally I think if you do a bit of exploring you’ll discover that Rob is pretty much on the money.

Some further reading that has helped me understand these issues...

The Gospel of the Kingdom – George E Ladd
Surprised by Hope – Tom Wright
Theology for the Community of God – Stanley Grenz

On page 46, Rob makes the comments...

Our eschatology shapes our ethics.
Eschatology is about last things.
Ethics are about how you live.

What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now.

This is a great challenge that needs serious consideration...

Love Wins: Chapter One

So... Love Wins chapter by chapter.

They are reasonably short chapters which makes things easier. Two things, firstly, rather than re-write each chapter I’m kind of assuming you’ve read the book and can track along either by memory or with a copy of it in hand or on your kindle. Secondly, as legitimate as it might be to break each chapter down and examine with a microscope every sentence and statement I’m more going to deal with each chapter as a unit and the main idea(s) of the chapter rather than every sentence.

Chapter 1: What about the Flat Tire?

Chapter one of Love Wins asks all those supposedly pesky questions that don’t need asking. Questions like; Gandhi is in hell, we can be sure of this? Does God punish people with eternal torment for the things they did in their few finite years of life? What happens if the missionary get’s a flat tyre on his way to preach at the meeting where someone would have got ‘saved’ and thus doesn’t end up preaching and that person getting ‘saved’? Bell also asks; exactly how is it that someone get’s saved? He highlights a number of different encounters people had with Jesus  in which Jesus declares them, to be forgiven, or saved, or to have received salvation, through what seem to be totally different responses to Jesus.

In ‘What about the Flat Tyre?’ Rob gives voice to questions that I think millions of Christ followers have asked over the years and will continue to ask. I can remember asking my Dad nearly all of these questions when I was growing up. Some of them are questions I still ask now. Most Christian kids at some stage will have asked their parents about salvation and how it works for people in Muslim countries or remote tribes in the back blocks of the Amazon who may not even ever hear the gospel. A variety of answers are give. Some of the answers make sense. Others didn’t seem to add up.

Did you ever ask these kinds of questions as a kid? What answers were you given? 20, 30, 40 years on does whatever answer  it was that your parents, Sunday School teacher, youth leader or pastor gave you still resonate as you’ve grown in your understanding of God’s word?

They’re serious questions that genuinely need to be wrestled with. Even if they’re not being asked out loud you can guarantee they’re bubbling away beneath the surface.  They’re questions that aren’t going to go away as there is a great deal of mystery involved. They are important questions to be answered again and again. They force us to think about all sorts of issues and how to articulate truth in each generation.  I guarantee that if the preacher opened with these questions on Sunday and then announced that the next 40 minutes was going to be dedicated to answering each and every single one of them, you’d have one very attentive congregation!

One commentator found there to be a flaw to the questions in this chapter as they point towards people going to hell because of what they haven’t heard the gospel rather than because of sin. Fair point. However I think what Rob is getting at is the reality that, while all of humanity is lost in their sin; circumstances, chance and random selection seem to put some people in a far better position to discover the answer to their sin problem than others.

So essentially what we have in chapter one is a whole stack of questions, regularly asked by Christians all over the place, if not out loud at least in their head. Questions that need to be asked, considered and addressed in every generation.

Love Wins Hoopla

If you haven’t heard all about the hoopla surrounding Rob Bell’s latest contribution, Love Wins, then you’ve obviously just returned from a pilgrimage to the South Pole. Did it go well for you?

Personally I’ve lost count of how many times someone has asked me what I thought of the book, and funnily enough, how many times that question has been asked in a nervous whisper. What the heck!?! Since when could we not openly and honestly discuss a book, be challenged by some serious questions, be forced to look afresh at what we believe and why? I haven’t heard of a book being black listed since Tommy Tenny’s The God Chasers and that was at the turn of last century! Yet in regards to Love Wins; I’ve heard of interns being banned from reading it, that it asks questions that just don’t need to be asked, and even of someone being fired for supporting some of the ideas that Bell floats. Fun times!

Knowing that so many have read the book and knowing that the next book most interns are going to buy will be the one they’ve just been banned from reading, perhaps there is a better response to Love Wins than simply denouncing and banning it. In a Pastoral context perhaps a Love Wins Connect Group could be put together and an appropriate leader found to walk young people through the book chapter by chapter, critiquing and exploring rather than running from it. You could perhaps call it a ‘teaching opportunity.’ Just a thought...


Anyway, I thought we’d go through the book chapter by chapter. I’ve never met Rob Bell, never been to his church. I’ve only read two of his books, and only watched a couple of Nooma DVD’s. However for about the last three years I’ve been listening to the weekly pod casts from his church Mars Hill Bible Church. Through these I have continually been challenged and inspired to put my faith and trust in the resurrected Jesus and his saving work at the cross. I’ve continually been encouraged in my faith, inspired to love Jesus and to love others more. Continually I have been reminded of the need to turn away from my own selfish way of living and to embrace the way of Jesus which has radical implications to ever area of my life.

So with that in mind, what’s the deal with Love Wins?


We’ll tackle chapter one What About The Flat Tire? next time.