I shared in my last Part One Post about Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins the importance of looking at endnotes and footnotes in a theological book as well as who has endorsed the book. These are not the most important areas to look for, but what I look for first when reading books on theology.
Before I dive into my thoughts and second post about Love Wins…
First, I have read every word of the book. Really.
Second, Rob Bell’s book is certainly a book on theology (the study of God) and several subsets to this large area of study as stated in the subtitle and beyond: heaven, hell, universalism, bibliology and interpretation principles, ecclesiology (church), eschatology (last things or end times).
Third, several who have read Love Wins have commented on the book. I find the following links very helpful in putting this book into a greater theological perspective and framework. I recommend reading these posts, watching and listening to their comments in their full as you study the important issues raised in Bell’s book.
Here are the links:
DeYoung is part of the Gospel Coalition and Pastors in Lansing Michigan, just an hour down the road from Mars Hill, Bell’s Church.
Mohler serves as the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship Seminary for the Southern Baptist Convention.
Bashir is a proficiant Journalist, best known for his interview with Michael Jackson a few years ago and Evangelical Christian along with his Wife.
This was on The Paul Edward’s Program.
Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Duncan is a Presbyterian Pastor and Theologian.
Now my thoughts on Rob Bell and Love Wins.
First, I believe Rob Bell has a heart and love for people. He cares for those who are hurting and who have a misguided view of God and Jesus based on “lesser versions” of the story. He wants everyone to understand Jesus Christ and the Bible. He wants everyone to be saved from “hell” (as he defines it). I believe he believes he has everyone’s best interest in mind by declaring that “God gets His way in the end” and thus all are saved. Bell believes God is big and His overarching attribute of God is Love. He is certainly a masterful artistic and poetic communicator in writing (I have read most of his books) and in person (I have seen him a few times including at his church in Michigan). He is purposeful in Love Wins and has an agenda in mind. He wants you to belief something and wants to change your mind about things that some folks of the past have “highjacked” (see introduction of book).
But, I, along with many others believe Rob Bell falls into Liberal Theology. It is defined broadly as the following,
“a method of biblical hermeneutics, an undogmatic method of understanding God through the use of scripture by applying the same modern hermeneutics used to understand any ancient writings. Liberal Christianity does not claim to be a belief structure, and as such is not dependent upon any Church dogma or creedal statements. Unlike conservative varieties of Christianity, it has no unified set of propositional beliefs. The word liberal in liberal Christianity denotes a characteristic willingness to interpret scripture without any preconceived notion of inerrancy of scripture or the correctness of Church dogma.”
Bell holds to Liberal Theology and Universalism (even though he doesn’t admit it in the book or in live interviews). With any sort of dicernment, one can see Universalism in Love Wins. If one believes that everyone is rescued from a forever eternal punishment (hell) and ends up at the “party” of heaven (chp. 7 of Love Wins) in the end because God’s love wins, this person is a Universalist. Bell is a persuader using questions (350 by one count) as his means to guide the reader somewhere, but he makes many statements also. He opens the theological door to suggesting, declaring and probing that those who resist, reject and never hear the story of Jesus Christ may be saved even after they die (including those of other beliefs, 155). He picks the verses of Scripture that he thinks make his point and avoids other verses, including Romans 10:14 telling us that someone needs to preach the Gospel and that faith comes by hearing the Gospel (10:17).
Bell’s Bookends:
Bell feels the need to fall within “the stream of historic, orthodox Christian faith” (x). He is declaring that he is “in bounds” for orthodox evangelicals of the Faith. But, is it possible that he is actually out-of-bounds with the Gospel, his use of Christ’s blood, his view of God, and interpretation of God’s Word?
He ends the book with an “urgent” salvation prayer much like you would find at the end of a firmly evangelical book (Chp. 8), but still cracks the door open for “Whatever you’ve been told about the end…” (197) like we can’t know for sure about this heaven and hell thing. I believe we can and do.
The Gospel:
I believe Rob Bell’s book heads off the road when he describes the Gospel like this…
“It begins in the sure and certain truth that we are loved. That in spite of whatever has gone horribly wrong deep in our hearts and has spread to every corner of the world, in spite of our sins, failures, rebellion, and hard hearts, in spite of what has been done to us or what we’ve done, God has made peace with us.”
What about a clear reference to Christ Jesus, understanding of sin utter corruptness, the holiness of God and his wrath against sin, God’s desire to take away sin, the shed blood of Christ Jesus as the substitutionary atonement sacrifice and his conquering death for us by resurrection? And where is the reference in the book to sinners putting their faith in Christ Jesus in this lifetime taking away the wrath of God against our depravity (see the book of Romans)?
That is the Good News.
That is the Gospel and why Jesus came to die so that we might choose to believe in this lifetime. The Gospel writer John declared the purpose of his Gospel when he said, “But these were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God (declaring him Divine), and that by believing you may have life in his name (eternal everlasting life in heaven after you die)” (John 20:31). He was writing to a real audience pleading with them to give their lives to Jesus today! All of the Gospel must be interpreted in light of this purpose. John 14:6 is for the purpose of belief, faith, trusting in Jesus Christ today not after we die (more on this later). Without this Gospel, it is a false gospel stripped of it’s powerful message and falls into Theological Liberalism. I am afraid Rob Bell is ashamed of the Biblical Gospel (Romans 1:16).
(See John Piper’s book The Passion of Jesus Christ for more help in seeing what Jesus did on the cross).
That is the Good News.
That is the Gospel and why Jesus came to die so that we might choose to believe in this lifetime. The Gospel writer John declared the purpose of his Gospel when he said, “But these were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God (declaring him Divine), and that by believing you may have life in his name (eternal everlasting life in heaven after you die)” (John 20:31). He was writing to a real audience pleading with them to give their lives to Jesus today! All of the Gospel must be interpreted in light of this purpose. John 14:6 is for the purpose of belief, faith, trusting in Jesus Christ today not after we die (more on this later). Without this Gospel, it is a false gospel stripped of it’s powerful message and falls into Theological Liberalism. I am afraid Rob Bell is ashamed of the Biblical Gospel (Romans 1:16).
(See John Piper’s book The Passion of Jesus Christ for more help in seeing what Jesus did on the cross).
Blood Banished:
In Chapter 5 of Love Wins, Bell explains what he calls the metaphors for explaining what happened when Jesus died on the cross. In his list of metaphors is “blood” (128). The word metaphor means, “a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.” The blood of Christ on the cross was no metaphor. It literally happened. It is not a resemblance of something or a figure of speech. The sacrifice of Jesus caused Jesus to bleed real blood on a real cross for real sins against a real holy and just God. He had to give his life in order to save ours. He was the Sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins for those who believe today. When Bell calls the “blood of Christ” a metaphor, he takes away the power of the cross. In Love Wins, Bell advocates for new fresh metaphors because people today don’t sacrifice things. This completely changes the Gospel if we remove “blood” from our vocabulary.
This would be tragic!
This would be tragic!
Rob Bell thinks that “blood” used for Christ’s cross was just a figure of speech or a piece of language to explain to the listeners of the day. He misses the profound point that God chose to break into humanity as a baby in order to save the world from their sins using his life (i.e. blood). We can’t take that away today. The Gospel must include the blood of Christ.
Romans 3:25 declares the atonement, through faith in his blood. Ephesians 1:7 tells believers in Jesus that they are redeemed by the blood. Colossians 1:20 says Jesus gave us access to peace with God the Father by his blood if we choose to accept it. 1 Peter 1:19 calls Christ’s blood precious. Revelation 1:5 says believers in Jesus are freed from our sins because of the blood of Christ. Revelation 5:9 tells us that Jesus purchased man back from sin because of the blood. And on and on it goes as a theme of the New Testament…
Take away the blood and we have lost the Gospel.
A Distilled God:
Love Wins, shrinks God down to one word, Love. Think about it. Love is not the greatest! God is. I am afraid this means Bell is creating God in his own image. God is a multifaceted diamond with a billion sides reflecting His glory (this is a figure of speech to make a point). This can’t be shrunk into “Love”. His attributes are countless. We can’t pick a few convenient verses to describe God in His fullness and build a whole theology of heaven, hell and eternal destinies on just love.
Bell does it.
God is much more than love. He is three persons-in-one, the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all God in three persons at the same time (Yes, there is mystery there). He is eternal, holy, unchanging, impassable, infinite, all-powerful, omnipresent, all-wise, omnipotent, simple, self-existent, good, gracious, just, sovereign, merciful, jealous, immaterial, loving and so, so, so much more. You can’t contain Him with just a word like “Love.”
We are not like God. Made in His image, yes. We have parts of his attributes and to some we don’t have access. He is God and we are not God. He can have what seems like contradictory attributes to our mind’s eye. We can hold this in tension and keep our faith in Him intact, because he is infinitely higher than our understanding. I like that!
Rob Bell seems to have difficulty thinking of God in more than “loving” terms. He argues that an all loving God gets his way in the end and thus everyone will be saved (throughout book). God can desire for everyone to be saved as Peter tells us, but not everyone will be saved. God can have a heart’s desire that does not come to pass (examples abound). This does not make Him any less of a good God. God can speak through Paul that everyone will one day declare that Jesus is Lord and not be saved because it is indeed too late (Philippians 2). Acknowledgment that Jesus is King is different than believing him for Salvation.
Our all powerful and sovereign God is holy, just and cannot stand the sin that has been passed on from the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden. His wrath must come against this depravity. Our depravity! (I don’t think Rob Bell uses the word “wrath” one time in Love Wins). He provides the way in his Son Jesus Christ, that whoever would believe in him during this lifetime would be saved (See John 3:1-21 with reference to Numbers 21. That is the context of the passage! Rescue from sin today!). Without someone taking our place, we are lost and separated from God today and after death. I love this God because He is not like me. I love this God because He is a huge loving and compassionate God who came to earth Himself to save me. This is the kind of God I want to declare to the whole world.
Half-Hazard Hermeneutics:
My final thoughts on Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins revolve around the word Hermeneutics. This important word means, “the art or science of the interpretation of literature.” When you approach any piece of literature, there are proper ways to interpret what the author wrote. There are principles to reading the work. This is true of any piece of literature, but even more true when interpreting God’s Word. We need proper hermeneutics. Many have written about the art of interpretation, but I would like to share a few principles in light of Rob Bell’s disregard for simple and proper interpretation.
Some introductory thoughts:
First, as evangelical orthodox followers of the Biblical God, we work from the assumption that the Bible is God’s only inspired, inerrant and authoritative revelation to mankind.
Second, we understand that saving faith and the illumination of the indwelling Holy Spirit for those that have accepted Jesus as Savior are required in order to properly interpret God’s Word (I don’t remember Rob Bell mentioning the Holy Spirit in Love Wins).
Third, we interpret personal experience in light of Scripture, rather than interpreting Scripture in light of personal experience. Rob Bell has lots of stories and pastoral anecdotes that lead to conclusions without backing them with Scripture in context.
Forth, Church or Believers do not determine what the Bible teachers. The Bible must determine what the Church should teach in it’s fullness. It is easy to fall into proof-texting (using verses to support your points) rather than letting the Bible speak for itself. I am afraid Bell falls in this category.
Fifth, every follower of Jesus has the right and responsibility to study and interpret God’s Word for himself or herself.
Now some of the meat of Interpretation and application to Love Wins:
1. We must study the Bible in context. We must determine the authors intended meaning. We cannot divorce one word, sentence, paragraph, or book from the meaning. We can’t pull one verse out of a book of the Bible to prove a point. We must look at the surrounding principles to come to a proper interpretation. “Context is King” everytime.
When studying the Bible there is both an immediate context and a broader context. Immediate is the paragraph we find the verse in. Broad is the book or the whole of Scripture. We know that no part of Scripture contradicts another part of Scripture. J.I. Packer once said, “If we understand the parts, our wisest course is to get to know the whole.”
2. We must consider historical context when interpreting the Bible. The Christian faith is based on historical facts. It rests on a historical Jesus who came to earth.
3. We must make the correct Genre Judgement. Not all of the Bible was written in the same way. There are a variety of literary genres in the Bible and this requires a different approach to interpretation. There is historical (i.e. Joshua or Acts), dramatic (i.e. Job), poetry (i.e. Psalms), Wisdom (i.e. Proverbs), Prophetic (i.e. Isaiah) and Apocalyptic (i.e. Revelation). The parables of Jesus are not history in genre. Nor should poetry or apocalyptic literature be treated as straightforward narrative. A wise interpreter allows genre to control his interpretation of the text of Scripture. This helps determine what the author’s intended purpose was in writing the verses.
5. We must interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. God’s Revelation is progressive from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus came to “fulfill the law” and Jesus purposely broke some of the law for the sake of showing the world that He was God (i.e. Jesus healed on the Sabbath). Jesus brings a fuller picture to the purposes of God namely to Redeem the world today.
6. We must depend on the Holy Spirit when interpreting the Word of God. He illuminates Scripture to believers because it is alive. This does not mean we ignore common sense, but realize this is a supernatural book.
7. We are warned to correctly handle the Word of Truth. Jesus said His words lead to eternal life (John 6:63). To change the author’s intended meaning and proof-texting to prove your point ignoring genre or context is creating another Gospel. Jesus and Paul go after false teachers for this (2 Corinthians 11:3-4; Galatians 1:6-9) and it yields only to eternal death (Revelation 20:11-15).
(See Robertson McQuilkin’s book Understanding and Applying the Bible for more help with Hermeneutics)
What does Rob Bell do in Love Wins:
What does Rob Bell do in Love Wins:
Rob Bell uses Psalm 22, Psalm 65, Ezekiel 36, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Philippians 2 to show that all peoples will eventually be saved or reconciled to God (this is Universalism). They are all taken out of context and ignore genres of Scripture for proper interpretation. Some of these are promises to God’s people, some are general promises of nations coming to God in the Old Testament and some are about the universal recognition that Jesus Christ is Lord at the end of time (not connected to Salvation). Not one of these passages in it’s proper context supports Bell’s thesis that all will be saved. That was not the Psalmist, Prophet or Paul’s intent.
Bell also fails to interpret the Prophets correctly. He lists several verses from the Prophets trying to point to a final restoration (86-87). Anyone who understands faithful interpretation of the Prophets understands that they often finish with a promise of blessing into the future and these promises are always for God’s chosen people (i.e. covenants), not for creation or all people of all times. The final fulfillment is pointing to Christ’s death and Resurrection and final return. This is the context of the whole picture of the Bible.
Bell totally ignores John 14:6 in context. He uses this passage to communicate that God is working in the world and Jesus is a sort of “way” and that is all we can know from this verse. Bell says it is not about personal salavation during this lifetime (154). Even a quick look at this verse surrounded by the whole context of the verses before and after would show that “through” is “faith” in verse 16. The chapter begins with “believe in God; believe also in me [Jesus].” Read the whole chapter and the one after. Without believing Jesus Christ is Savior of sins while a person is alive, they can not have a relationship with Father God. No one can come to the Father without this Saving knowledge of Christ.
Over and over, Rob Bell takes verses out of context, ignoring hermetical rules in properly interpreting a passage. He pulls a verse to make a point to build his case instead of a faithful view of the text (For more examples see Kevin DeYoung’s Review).
Interpreting the Word of God with proper hermeneutics is hard work, but the Holy Spirit helps those who have believed in Jesus as their Savior. God wants us to “get it” and apply the proper principles to our lives today. He is not trying to trick us, but the Word of God gives us all we need to live a life of godliness before Jesus returns. In the meantime, we lift up the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the glorious Triune Godhead. We delight in Him. Love Him. We live for Him and tell the world all about Him so they get a chance to hear the good news of the Gospel! This is certainly on the heart of God and has been all along.
I am praying for Rob Bell. He has such an influence on so many and my heart breaks because his theology has been influenced by other Liberal Theologians and non-Christian authors. May we all pray for a proper and full understanding of God and His Word to us so we can live Holy lives for Him today.
I am praying for Rob Bell. He has such an influence on so many and my heart breaks because his theology has been influenced by other Liberal Theologians and non-Christian authors. May we all pray for a proper and full understanding of God and His Word to us so we can live Holy lives for Him today.
Well, that is a good place to take the fingers off of the keyboard. There is so much more to write about the tragedy of Love Wins, but I will stop here. Thank you for reading.
What do you think?
What do you think?
