LOVE WINS. from Rob Bell on Vimeo.
This is a promo for the new Rob Bell book, Love Wins. I haven't read the book so I can't comment on it but I can comment on the content of the video. It appears that Rob Bell, a very popular Christian writer and teacher (especially among hip and trendy young people), is moving away from foundational Biblical truth and from Christianity. A few observations:
The fundamental question is "Does God send people to hell". Bell it seems does not believe that He does. Although he does not explicitly say as much, he asks lots of questions and behind those questions are implications.
I have two major issues with this video:
1. Bell is parting company with the plain teachings of Jesus.
Bell is flat out denying the Bible. If he decided to not believe in hell then that's fine but stop claiming to teach the Bible and stop calling yourself a Christian.
Jesus taught more about hell than anyone else in the Bible.
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
(Mat 23:33)
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
(Mat 25:41)
These verses, two among many others, may be offensive to some but they are what Jesus says in the Bible. Bell cannot disregard Christ and call himself a Christian. He cannot disregard the Bible and claim to teach from the it.
Also, it is interesting that he mentions Gandhi but doesn't mention Jesus.
2. He says that it wouldn't be fair of God to send people to hell.
My response to that is, would it be fair if everyone went to heaven? Hitler. Stalin. Rapists etc etc.
Is he saying that God will just turn a blind eye to all the wrong that has been done throughout history and let everybody off scot free?
Would a judge be a good judge if he let people who were clearly guilty go free with no punishment? We would say that he was a terrible judge. Bell is saying that that is what God should do.
God has to be just, He cannot just ignore sin. It must be dealt with. The Bible says that's why Jesus came to earth and that's why He died on the cross. To pay for our sin. So that if we believe in Him then we can be forgiven. Our sin is paid for through what Jesus did.
To use Bell's technique against him, I would ask 2 questions:
a) If there is no hell, what is the alternative? No punishment for any wrong?
b) If there is no hell then why did Jesus die and rise again? If He wasn't redeeming us from sin what was He doing?
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
(Col 2:13-14)
Hell is an awful reality. I wish it was not true. But if I believe the Bible, as Bell claims to as well, I cannot deny it. It is a choice between believing God and His Word or believing what I would like to be true. Bell, it seems, has chosen to believe what he would like. His book is one that should be read with great care and attention to scriptural truth, if it should be read at all.
Here are a few links to better written and more detailed thoughts on the matter:
http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/fire_fire.htm (hat tip to Andy McK)
So, Having not read the book either I can only look at what is said in the video. Bell is putting forward rhetorical questions as asked by Non-Christians around the world every day.
ReplyDeleteFor those us brought up within the Church we have the answers we have been given, but let's face it, those answers come a book written thousands of years ago which, although important to believers, is seen by the average man on the street to have no significance to his life.
Nowhere in this video does Bell even begin to say that Hell does not exist.
On your second point - We can do all the good we want to, and that will not get us into Heaven, but one sin, and we end up in Hell? - not even necessarily a sin we committed?
I have no problem with that, I believe it is what the Bible teaches, but to those without a faith that will seem absolutely absurd.
What Bell is doing here is asking the questions that Non-Christians ask every day. He is encouraging us to look at it from their point of view and try to step out of the cliche ridden and jargon filled religion that we find ourselves in.
He is pushing us to question our faith, and move away from the stock answers we have grown up with and if we are not able do that, it's worth asking how strong our faith actually is.