Even If All Perish in Hell, Love Still Wins.

There are many bloggers who are catching flak for making critical comments about Rob Bell's book Love Wins, when the book hasn't even been released.  They are basing their criticisms on the book's promotional video and a blurb by Brian McLaren.  So, I watched the video.

While hesitant to recommend such a video, I will quote a major portion of it here.  Bell says,

Will only a few select people make it to heaven?  And will billions and billions of people burn forever in hell?  And if that's the case, how do you become one of the few?  Is it what you believe or what you say or what you do or who you know or something that happens in your heart?  Or do you need to be initiated or take a class or converted or being born again?  How does one become one of these few?

Then there is the question behind the questions. The real question [is], “What is God like?”, because millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the gospel of Jesus, is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus. And so what gets subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that, that we would need to be rescued from this God? How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?

This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian faith. They see it as an endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies and they say, why would I ever want to be a part of that? See what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important because it exposes what we believe about who God is and what God is like. What you discover in the Bible is so surprising, unexpected, beautiful, that whatever we have been told and been taught, the good news is actually better than that, better than we could ever imagine.

The good news is that love wins.

The video alone is enough to at least alarm those who embrace Christ alone by faith.  I agree whole heartedly with Kevin DeYoung who says, "We don't have to guess if Bell will say something dreadfully, horribly, disgracefully wrong [in his book].  He already has."  I would suggest you read DeYoungs full post here.

Not only can every one of Bell's questions be answered clearly from the Scriptures; but the Scriptural answers themselves leave Bell in a place that is foreign to Orthodoxy.

For example,  Bell says (asks), "But what kind of God is that, that we would need to be rescued from this God?"  The Scriptures are clear.  Christ died to save us from the wrath of God (Romans 5:9).

It seems as if Bell's main proposition is that if hell is inhabited then Love has lost - God has lost.

But this denies the very foundation of the Christian faith - the Trinitarian love of God.  God is not love primarily because He loves people; but because He loves Himself.  All people could perish in their sins, in hell, and God would still be Love.  Why?  Because He was Love before the foundation of the world (John 17:24).  Humans cannot change this, though they are an expression of it.

Let me be clear.  Hell is a sobering reality.  I do not sit and enjoy the fact that "I, in my orthodoxy, am right about hell, while others are not!"  The doctrine of hell is something that I struggle with.  The Cross of Christ, however, soothes my struggles.  It puts hell in perspective.

I believe a quote from Timothy Brindle is in order: Forever will I tell... in three hours, Christ suffered more than any sinner ever will in hell.

God forbid that we should struggle more with Hell than the Cross.  In Hell, man suffers the just payment for his sins.  At the Cross, the Son of God suffered the just payment for our sins.  Hell is not scandalous.  The Cross is.  This Cross we must preach.  It is a stumbling block for many.  I pray it is not a stumbling block for Bell.

Simply put, Christ suffered my hell on the Cross.  And in doing so, Love has won.