A lot of fuss has been made over Rob Bell’s latest book - Love Wins. It is definitely the most talked-about book in the ‘religious’ circles I move in.
So I oiled up the old mentals and dived in:
I found it easy to read and full of great stories and anecdotes. And I am left bemused as to why some people have been so upset about it. Have they even read it? Maybe I will ask them. The odd one or two anyway.
Bell starts the book by telling a story of how a person in their church produced a piece of artwork with a quote from Ghandi on it. Somebody had then attached a piece of paper to it saying:
‘Reality check: He’s in hell’
Bell responds:
Really?
Ghandi is in hell?
He is?
We have conformation of this?
Somebody knows this?
Without a doubt?
And that somebody decided to take on the responsibility of letting the rest of us know?
Talking about what hell is, where hell is and who is going to hell, is a fascinating conversation. It is a debate that has been ‘burning’ away for thousands of years and it is not likely to go away.
In ‘Love wins’ Rob Bell is the latest high profile Christian leader to enter the conversation publically. He doesn’t really introduce us to any new ideas or concepts; but he re-writes them in an easy-to-access writing style using great stories and examples. He doesn’t present us with ‘new theology’, rather he encourages people not to think that Christianity is about going to heaven or hell - it is so much more! (And I agree with him).
If anything Rob Bell seems to be saying that ‘Judgment is God’s call, not ours’ and ‘nobody has been to the after-life place that we have learnt to call hell and returned to tell us exactly what it is and who is there - so nobody really knows’ (difficult to disagree with this).
I particularly liked the chapters ‘Here is the new there’ and ‘There are Rocks everywhere’.
If I were being picky, which clearly I am about to be, my only gripe, and it’s a small one, is that I think it is a shame that he points out (page10) that the words ‘personal relationship’ aren’t in the bible. I can see why he has said this because I think he is reacting to the western idea of conversion to Christ and ‘knowing him as your personal lord and saviour’ because it excludes so many who don’t understand the culture. I felt the context of his comment could have been explained a bit better because I think that ‘personal relationship’, for want of a better phrase, is directly implied all over the bible; from the moment Adam and Eve walk with God in the garden everyday, through Moses who spoke with God as though a man spoke to his friend, to Jesus who says: “I no longer call you my servants, but I call you my friends”. I could go on… But that is really not the point of the book - clearly Rob Bell is not suggesting we don’t get to know God and Him us – quite the opposite I think.
Go on – it’s well worth a read.