Love Wins by Rob Bell Review Day 1

Love Wins by Rob Bell

"Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." -James 3:1-

James 3 is an interesting passage. It holds preachers and teachers of the word to a high accountability in order that we take serious the task of interpreting the Scriptures. This goes for all preachers and teachers. This goes for Me, the pastor down the street, this even goes for Rob Bell. Accountability. I want to start my review of Love Wins by this idea of accountability. An idea that I feel is lost in the book with the suggestions that Pastor Bell provides for us. I affirm his detail and urgency about sin in the Bible and how it is not to be dealt with lightly. But I am a little confused. Because if in the end, everyone is covered by Jesus' death (and everyone is going to Heaven eventually), why should I care so much about it? If everyone at some point will eventually choose Jesus, then what is the big deal about "living the best life now." If when I die and I go to Bell's version of Hell and I get a second choice to believe in Jesus, then why would I care so much about the things that I teach about sin and hell, if they are wrong?

See, if I am wrong and Bell is right, then if what I teach is wrong about Hell and eternity, it doesn't really matter. Because in the end, at some point, I will be able to join Christ. Where is the accountability in that? I might as well, try and get rich! But if Pastor Bell is wrong and I'm right, and there is a place of accountability that there are no second chances, then I am scared of what Pastor Bell would be faced with. Accountability. There is no room or very little room for accountability in Bell's stance of heaven. This issue of accountability is very serious and I will be praying for Pastor Bell. I know that He does not take this lightly by any means, and will be praying for him even though we disagree.

It is hard to wrap my head around where I should begin with this book because there are so many factors that need to be said in response to this book. The issues of inherited goodness as opposed to inherited wickedness, the issue of accountability among people, the issue of God's ability to be both fully Just and Loving at the same time, the issue of man being the center of the universe as opposed to God, the issue of God and his plan and purpose, all come into question. This is a book that will rattle the soul. It will tear at the very fiber of your beliefs in Christ. It will inevitably dissuade some people with its creative illusions and witty and eloquent remarks. It will use extreme and rare examples to prove a point. It uses loaded questions and loaded answers to prove points. It is well written with persuasion techniques frequently being used. As I write over the next week, I will address some of the issues mentioned above. For most, I will use a passage of Scripture that isn't mentioned in his book.

2 Peter 2 states:

¹ But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ³ In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,^[a] putting them in chains of darkness^[b] to be held for judgment; ⁵ if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ⁶ if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— ⁹ if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. ¹⁰ This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh^[c] and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; ¹¹ yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from^[d] the Lord. ¹² But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

¹³ They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.^{[e] 14} With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! ¹⁵ They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer,^[f] who loved the wages of wickedness. ¹⁶ But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷ These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. ¹⁸ For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” ²⁰ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^[g] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

I will use this scripture to guide us into answering some of these tough questions.

I respect Pastor Bell for starting a wonderful conversation about these important issues because He is right when he says that these discussions have laid dormant among the Christian circle. He is right when He says that people have been hurt by Christians and the way they deliver the message. The point I would like to prove over the next week is that you can hate, dislike the messenger and the way it is delivered, but that doesnt make the message null and void.

I am getting ahead of myself. So I will stop for now.