Here is a rather exhaustive, though excellent, review of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins.
It’s worth your time.
The Gospel is important. As Martin Luther said, “Without it, we have nothing.”
My heart breaks for Rob Bell and the people he has influenced and is influencing. What troubles me so much is that all of these same questions that Rob Bell asks, questions that led him into unbelief, are the very questions that have often dominated my heart. I have felt the tug of this attraction into universalism and often stood on the very brink of the same pit of unbelief into which Rob Bell, I believe, plunges in this book. In the end, however, I have decided to let God’s word stand in my conscience—even though it often shatters my categories, blows my mind, and offends my thinking. I hold onto God’s word like a lifeline in the midst of a storm of unbelief—the parts that make sense to me and the parts that don’t. God’s word is the only thing we can hold onto. His ways are not our ways. We must believe it, as it is written, or redefine it out of our foolish hearts. Paul said God’s word would often appear like foolishness and that it would “offend the wise.”
I have no doubts about Rob Bell’s sincerity. I pray God gives our generation the grace to hold onto the Gospel.
Here is a highlighted PDF of DeYoung’s review, if that is more helpful for you.
