At a meeting of the New York Society for Ethical Culture Monday night, author and pastor Rob Bell denied being a universalist despite the upheaval caused by rumors surrounding his now-released new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. In a story in The Christian Post, Bell admitted he was no theologian and never intended to cause a controversy, saying, “I don’t think that God honors it when people set out to be shocking or dangerous or provocative…my interest is in what’s true and where is the life and where is the heart and what inspires. And if that happens to stir up a few things, that’s something I accept.” Bell shared openly about his difficulty with the ideas surrounding heaven and hell, but he did say that Jesus was “unbelievably exclusive” and “fantastically inclusive” at the same time, adding that people must “come face to face with the power of our choices. We can choose the way of compassion, of forgiveness, of generosity or we can choose other paths, and those have real consequences in the world.” Even so, Bell was asked several times if he believes there’s a hell, to which he only answered with descriptions of hell on earth—”greed, injustice, rape, abuse”—and he gave no indication that he believes in a place of eternal punishment. He spoke at length about Jesus’ first-century Jewish worldview, saying the Bible talks about “restoring and renewing this world…it’s always heaven and earth becoming one…as opposed to ‘how do we get there,’ his interest is ‘how do we bring there here?'” At the end of the meeting, Bell admitted his attempt to answer questions was somewhat indirect and wandering, but he said, “I believe there are moments when we have to return to our roots…to the simplicity of God is love and God sent Jesus to show us this love that we might know this love, that we might extend this love to others…I’m not very smart, but I do know that there is good news.” Bell’s book tour will continue through next month to several more cities in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois.
