From recent reports, Rob Bell's Hell is bascially non-existent. Rob Bell, the author of the great book, Velvet Elvis, and the purveyor of the powerful video series, Nooma, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, has come out on the side of universalism, apparently. I say apparently because the book in which he makes his argument has not yet been released. It is: Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Rob Bell is kind of a rock star for many young clergy. It's kind of funny how many young pastors I have seen wearing "Rob Bell Glasses." I digress. In the video below he makes some arguments that seem to indicate the trajectory of his position on the possibility, or rather impossibilty of hell. Below the video, see my comments.
First thing you notice in the brief video is that Bell has set up a couple of straw men that are relatively easy to blow down. The first straw man is the case of Ghandi and some enthusiastic fundamentalist who posted that Ghandi is, indeed, in hell. I am not the judge of all people, and I cannot judge whether or not Ghandi is in heaven or hell. God can. Someone once asked the missionary E. Stanley Jones, who knew Ghandi well, after Ghandi's death if he was in heaven or not. Jones, carefully sidetracked the question by responding that, if he weren't, then heaven would be a lesser place.
The point I am making is that perhaps Ghandi, who had read the Gospels, might have placed faith in Christ before his death. Who knows. God knows. It's not any Christian's place to make that pronouncement, either positively or negatively. We can, with absolute confidence, however, state what the Bible says, that there is a hell. If Jesus taught about hell, then I am inclined to believe Jesus knew what he was talking about.
Bell's second straw man is the misconstrued character of God. He states if there is a hell, then Jesus' role was to rescue us from the wrath and anger of God, making God out to be a rather unlikeable character. Of course, this is antithetical to the Scripture. In the Bible I read, it is God the Father who sends the Son to rescue us from our sins. Sin is sin. It is ugly. It is destructive. God's wrath is definitely against sin. However, because of his love for people he sacrificed himself on our behalf, proving his love for us. I don't get why this is so hard for some people to understand. Sure there are fanatics like the Westboro Baptist Church crowd who seem to thrive on anger, but envisioning this angry God who thrills at punishing us for our sin misses the whole point of the Biblical narrative. Bell, who usually relishes in the Biblican narrative should know better. But, it is his straw man.
Rob Bell is excellent at reminding the Church not to focus so much on the sweet by and by, but on the here and now aspects of the Kingdom of God. For far too long the Church has neglected its mission of joining God's Kingdom enterprise in the present, pining away for the future consumation of the Kingdom. We must hold both in creative tension. There is an "already" and "not yet" aspect to the Kingdom. Because of the Resurrection, God's new age is breaking into the present and we are called to join him in making the Kingdom reality today. However, there is always the "not yet" side. When Jesus returns he will usher in the fullness of God's Kingdom purposes, and for that fullness we will have to wait. So, we need to be busy building for the Kingdom and be ready for the Kingdom.
I will hold off on my final thoughts until I read the book. Until then, there is a serious debate taking place within certain parts of the Church that I think is interesting and engaging. If you want to follow the debate on the Christian blogosphere, simply Google "Rob Bell Hell."
On the flip side, we have spent a long time paying too much attention to the here and now, reducing the Kingdom even further. It's not just that we have emphasized the here and now aspects of Kingdom living, we've actually done it to the point that Christianity no longer necessarily informs the Church's mission! We've secularized our own mission!
Great posts! I have not been here in a while, and I'm glad I came!
Posted by: Aaron Mansfield | March 21, 2011 at 08:11 AM