love wins part I

The recent controversy over Rob Bell's new book Love Wins was brought to my attention last weekend during a conversation with a respected female leader at my church. I have greatly enjoy Rob Bell's teaching in the past and so the controversy over his new book intrigued me. It especially sparked my interest due to Mark Driscoll's (another teacher I regularly learn from) response to the book. You can check out Mark Driscoll's blog post responses here and here.

I haven't read the book yet (but plan to start it this week), and so I can't really give a critique or support its ideas, however I can say that the backlash by many noted Christian theologians and teachers worries me. One thing I do know is that Christian universalism is a slippery and dangerous slope, and we must be careful when preaching the universalist approach. It is my belief that God is a loving and forgiving God, but that He is also a just God. These days Christians seem to have forgotten the God of the Old Testament who was jealous and burned with anger at the sin of His people (anyone read Jeremiah and Ezekiel lately... anyone?)

I'll talk more about my views on Heaven/Hell and universalism/relativism after I've read the book. Hell and the afterlife are important aspects of Christian theology, so in the mean time, I encourage you to check out the views presented by both Rob Bell and Mark Driscoll, but more importantly to read the Scriptures and learn for yourself what God says about Hell.

You can check out Rob Bell's website here, and the Mars Hill Bible Church Website here.