Good on You, Rob Bell

Don't swallow it uncritically. Think about it. Wrestle with it. Just because I'm a Christian and I'm trying to articulate a Christian worldview doesn't mean I've got it nailed. I'm contributing to the discussion. God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right? - Rob Bell from the description of his book "Velvet Elvis"

I haven't really ever been the biggest Rob Bell fan.  Something about his whole presentation turned me off, so I haven't really ever sought him out.

Perhaps that was a mistake on my part.

He has built up a large following (including among many of my youth minister friends) with his short videos looking at various bible passages or theological hot topics.


His latest book, however, has riled up a lot of people against him.

The book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, apparently takes a universalist approach.

Oh, the horror!

Except, I believe in Universal Salvation.

Can a God of love really ever condemn someone, anyone, to eternal damnation?  I just can't see it.

Rob Bell makes the point in a promotional video for the book that under a traditional Christian understanding of Heaven and Hell and who goes where, Gandhi is in Hell.

Gandhi's in hell? He is?-Rob Bell

The announcement of this book and the promotional video caused Justin Taylor, a blogger for the evangelical website The Gospel Coalition, to respond calling Bell out for "false theology."

The problem is, there is no good proof that Bell's assertion of Universal salvation is actually false theology.

I think that a lot of the problem with this understanding from evangelicals and other Christians is due to the reading that they make of John 14:6.

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'

No where does this verse say that only by believing in Christ will you be saved.  You could argue that perhaps Paul and other New Testament writers make that claim, but Jesus himself never says it.  In fact, all that Jesus says is that salvation will come through him, in other words through his actions, not through our actions at all.

And that is what the common Christian view of this Scripture seems to say, that it is our actions that matter, whether or not we accept Jesus differentiates whether or not we will be worthy of God's grace.

It isn't up to us.

The Bible makes that pretty clear.

Telling Rob Bell that his theology is wrong or false just means that yours is equally wrong or false.  Rob Bell is making the argument that God's grace will ultimately be given to everyone.  Taylor is making the argument that only a certain few are worthy of God's grace, providing they perform the requisite steps first, namely accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Taylor likes to talk about Paul and his views on false teachers in his post (although he takes the one direct Bible quotation he uses completely out of context, and then his reference to 1 Timothy is referenced as also being by Paul, whereas no modern Biblical scholars actually believe that Paul wrote this letter), but the more common theme throughout Paul's writing is the idea that it is impossible to do any work to gain God's grace, that God's grace is a gift that we cannot earn.

The idea of accepting Jesus Christ has become an earmark towards earning salvation in today's Christian rhetoric, and that is not the point of faith as Paul understood it.  By no means, as he would say.

Salvation is not something that can be earned, and that is the understanding of salvation that Taylor seems to be advocating.

I am completely okay with Justin Taylor, and all of the 26,600+ people who liked his blog post on Facebook, believing that there is a Hell (even if I can't believe in such a place, or at least the fact that anyone would be put there), and I'm okay with them having different understandings of what Scripture says.

I am not okay, however, with Taylor intimating that Rob Bell is a false prophet or teacher, or insinuating that those who listen to him or happen to believe the same as him are destined for Hell.

Just because others don't reach the same conclusions that you do after studying the Scripture doesn't make them wrong, anymore than it would necessarily make you wrong.

When you argue that it does you are guilty of ignoring other Gospel teachings, such as those found in Matthew 7:3.

Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?

I for one am looking forward to reading Rob Bell's new book, and perhaps finally giving him the chance he probably deserved all along.

Good on you, Rob Bell.