Love Wins!

Rob Bell is the youngish pastor of a whopping big congregation in Michigan called Mars Hill. He is one of the new evangelicals, a bit edgy, very engaging. He has been something of a darling in evangelical circles, although you can see from the magazine cover above that he does rub "keepers of the true faith" the wrong way. Recently he published his latest book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived. The book is controversial in his theological sphere because it challenges the notion that all but a select group of Christians is in hell, because they haven't accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour.

The event that prompted the book was an art show at his church which was on the theme of peacemaking. A woman included some words from Mohandes Gandhi with her work and someone attached a piece of paper which said "Reality check: He's in hell." Bell wonders how the anonymous writer knows this for sure, and asks whether we really want to be part of a religion which proclaims the love of God in Christ but adds that there is little or no hope for most of the billions of people who have populated the planet, presumably all created by God. What kind of God is this?

Bell takes a fairly cautious approach to this subject but he has been slammed anyway. It doesn't surprise me. I have met plenty of Christians who only seem happy when they imagine most of the world's people in eternal torment. I just don't see that God would be guilty of such shoddy workmanship (workpersonship?) with 99% wastage.

To be fair, even though the United Church abandoned this notion long ago, our "whatever" approach to heaven, hell, and eternity is hardly theologically rigorous. I have spoken on both heaven and hell, which generated a fair amount of discussion.

I just got my copy of the book, so I may report back. What are your thoughts, or do you give much consideration to eternity?