Love Wins

Its hard to summarize anything written by Rob Bell. So I will tread lightly on a book that has created so much buzz and confronts some of the hardest questions within a religion that has been talked about for over 2000 years.

First and for most, Rob Bell's style is unique and innovative. I enjoy the pace of his writing and find the read going very fast. I've been told that one of Bell's both best and worst features is that he is an artist possibly before he is a pastor. Where I disagree that he is an artist before he is a pastor, he certainly is both a pastor and an artist. The questions he is answering comes out of his pastoral heart. He wants people to know that love abides, love presides, and ultimately love wins. Yet, the artist in him is edgy, insightful, and both is and will be well received by his audiences throughout different age groups.

It is the edgy part of the book that, being a pastor, I have a love/hate relationship with. I love it because it is bold. Bell asks questions that need to be asks like "What Jesus are we talking about or following?" So many people either follow a malevolent God waiting to strike them at any time or a Jesus who has oppressed many ideologies throughout the years. Yes, good - I don't follow this Jesus either. But when he follows up the question with an extreme example of a woman being abused for years, I hate the artistic nature. I hate it because so many people will close the book. Sure, some people need that edge. Some people need to have their mind embraced in such a way. Yet, there are too many people who are Christian but have a poor image of God that do not realize it. They are the way they are and have never questioned their "rightness" in front of God" - and these questions will drive them away. These observations make the book almost impossible to use because of what the questions can suggest for both a comfortable Christian and an atheist wanting be an agnostic. Overall though, the boldness makes the book appealing and repelling all at the same time. It is the edge that is Rob Bell. So its part of the book, like it or not.

The theology of the book is strong and weak. It is strong because it shows the true God of the Bible in the sense that this God is always loving, holy, and God's just nature only comes out of these two attributes. Then at times it is weak because Rob Bell does not want to directly say that some people will go to hell. He suggests that our decisions can welcome heaven or hell, which I agree, but he refuses to deal with both the elect or the sinfulness of humanity. He is much more willing to confront individuals decisions suggesting that we all have some say in wether we chose heaven or chose hell. Which, I believe we very much do. But I also believe that without God working in us through the Holy Spirit to bring us to complete surrender at the cross of Jesus Christ we are paralyzed to do so for ourselves. Where Rob does attribute the initial action to God, I still think he places too much emphasis on human decision. We have to be enabled to even be aware that we are sinful. And it is only because of the Trinity that being enabled happens.

Where Bell gets it right, though, is that love wins. The entire Bible is a love story about God pursuing God's creation. It is about God sending a part of God's self to die upon a cross for our original and continual disobedience. This one time sacrifice is the blood that makes the sinner as white as snow. But it is also the blood that brings us into the light because we all have lived in darkness unable to see the light. The Holy Spirit illuminates. Love wins.

Bell also points out the idea of who is in and who is out. Not even John Calvin said who is in or out. He just suggested that those who are in need not question if they are saved or not. This came at a time where indulgences bought a person's salvation. Calvin simply suggested that if grace has set you free, then you are free indeed. You are most certainly a part of the elect and nothing can seperate you from the love of God. No principalities, no hell, and no person or priest can do so. You are part of God's family and part of the elect.
But the elect is language Bell does not want to confront. Bell has to have the elect in his theology, but he does not mention this at all. Who the elect are is completely up for grabs and I do not think using this terminology would make Bell go a different direction or be contrary to his overall theme. Because the elect are the people who benefit from love winning. Where God formed us in the womb, God also longs for his children to come home. Whether we have been living as sinners or as pharisees, God calls us to repent, believe, and live in the Spirit. Those who do are the elect. God further pursues. God has always pursued. And God's heart breaks over even the one who does not come home. But there will be people who have hard hearts. There will be people who refuse the gospel. And for those, there is a hell. As Bell points out, it could be now or it could be later. But there is a very real seperation from God, and to this even Bell says we can call hell. So there is a group who will know of the love and there is a group who either does not know or rejects the love. Either way, God pursues. Either way, love will win because God's plan for the world has always been redemption. To this, Bell says: "Love wins."