Love Wins - And his book is making lots of money, besides....

Let’s keep Bell’s book in perspective

I finished Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. I hadn’t read any reviews of his book prior to reading it myself, yet now I am amazed to see the prolific responses. Online respondents either seem to overly sympathize with him—“finally, someone has taken on this monumental issue that is consuming the faith of young and old, alike. Most, however, have responded the other way – exaggerating Bell’s devilish and heretical qualities; one blogger noted that Bell’s book has created a TSUNAMI in his community. I think overly romanticizing Bell’s contribution is a bit much, but more so comparing Bell’s book to a recent natural disaster that has threatened nuclear meltdown and innumerable deaths is out-of-bounds, also. I wonder if we, Christians, will find a way to debate texts, ideas, and questions without having to follow media’s personalist attacks. The one person who seems to always accomplish gracious speech is Scot McKnight. He is one worth hearing, often.

I think Bell’s book, five years in the making, is only semi-important. For the younger evangelicals, Bell finally names the great divide between younger and older generations on matters of Jesus – namely is God more invested in judgment or hospitality. Potentially, Bell’s book will gather younger and older Christians together for a theological discussion; hopefully the conversation will invite understanding and not battle!

The Book as a Book-to-read 

As it is, this is not a good book for readership. The logic is unclear, his use of Scripture is just as user-centered as those who criticize him (so I laugh when his critics condemn his use of Scripture, for he is simply borrowing their methods). Finally, the sentence structure is too flippant. I wondered if each chapter is a better sermon than a chapter in a book. On the writing level, English composition teachers should be as furious as John Piper. We can look to HarperOne for allowing this book to look and feel the way it does. Even so, on a theological level, Bell invites reflection – even when I disagree with him (which is on and off throughout the book).

The Theology At-Work

I worried about the book in the first three chapters. In his attempt to heighten heaven as a this-worldly participation with the love of God, he actually heightens our concerns for hell. By framing “God’s love” in heaven and hell terms, he never quite gets beyond the old paradigm – the question is still heaven or hell, but this time heaven gets priority.

If the reader can get beyond the inflammatory speech of the first three chapters and the confusing biblical work (not that it is inherently wrong or overly heretical interpretation) he has a good idea for a book.

On the positive side, Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are an invitation to Bell’s desires. Here, he writes with a tone of humility and love. He truly desires for the world to know that God in Jesus Christ desires to love them and not harshly judge them. Each page invites us to join with a personal God who is gracious and merciful toward the world (a world that God so deeply loves – John 3:16). 

Reading as a Covenanter

After finishing the book (and having grace toward Bell for my dislike of the first chapters), I thought that Bell’s book is anything but radical for the Evangelical Covenant Church. We have strongly held a view of the atonement where “God’s love for the world is magnified” and less so the more classic substitutionary model of atonement where “the wrath of God is satisfied.” I think Bell becomes a Covenanter in his middle-chapters. He even sounds like P.P. Waldenstrom in a few places (who was also wrongly criticized for being a universalist). As I re-read sections of the book, I wondered if we, the Covenant Church, had been invited to edit the work, especially the tone and phrasing, could this book be more palpable? (haha).

Theological Point: We Should Stop Possessing Jesus

Bell is most brilliant in his request to stop possessing Jesus. His opening chapters are a fight (to my dismay) to tell closed-theists to stop possessing Jesus. This, in my opinion, is the point of the book. He deeply wants the world to know that Jesus is not held captive by the church. And regardless of how badly we, the church, have disfigured the whole Jesus thing, there is hope – for everyone. Bell simply wants the skeptics and atheists to know that no one – not one – possesses Jesus. Bell poetically states how God is radically committed to redeeming the entire world and how unavailable God is for our possession;

“[Jesus Christ] is for all people, and yet he refuses to be co-opted or owned by any one culture.

That includes Christian culture. Any denomination. Any church. Any theological system. We can point to him, name him, follow him, discuss him, honor him, and believe in him—but we cannot claim him to be ours any more than he’s anyone else’s” (page 131).

There is a word here for us. It is a word of freedom – no longer do we need to uphold false certainties, no longer are we unable to discover Jesus-anew. Jesus is to be discovered as a loving God for all people everywhere. Instead of fearing hell, we can stand assured of Christ’s resurrection powers that will now and in-the-future redeem the world – no exceptions. As stated at a recent funeral for a man who committed suicide, “There is nothing beyond the power of God’s redemption.” (We can say this without worry that people will take this as carte-balnche to sin all-the-more).

What most don’t like, most of us weren’t supposed to understand …..

Finally, I think there is something going on in this book that many of us cannot understand. I continually felt like I had entered another family’s argument. Bell is overly polemical throughout the book.  Several friends have commented that every page where Bell says something clear and helpful, he then uses the next page to make a point that resembles a sword and not a ploughshare. I could not agree more. He seems to write as if embattled from the outset.

Bell seems to be responding to his theological past in profound ways – a past that many North American young people continue to revolt against. Bell is a Reformed guy with a love for C.S. Lewis. If you grew up Baptist, Bible Church, Reformed Church, or even Conservative Presbyterian, this book might deeply resonate. And most American’s have a Reformed view of God in their back pocket, even when they are not aware of it (see Sydney Ahlstrom’s A Religious History of the American People). Lutherans would be one of the few groups to be more disengaged from the topic, altogether…. Bell’s Reformed theological tradition most often stresses certainty of salvation and election, including predestination questions. Reformed folks, like John Piper, read the Bible through the lens of election, asking,  “Who has God chosen?” God chose Israel, God chose Jesus; did God choose me? This question strikes fear in our hearts – we want to be chosen - as a matter of fact this fear invites us to seek salvation because the other options scare the hell out of us…..

Love Wins… Indeed.

In the end, for me, the book isn’t about heaven and hell; it’s not really even about salvation. The book is about election. If you live in Grand Rapids or Minneapolis, MN, this is the great theological question. The question has to do with “who is in/out?” If you resonate with John Piper, your audience is primarily, “who is in” and “how do we assure ourselves of this?” If you resonate with Bell, the audience is “who is out” and “how do we welcome them in?” If you resonate with neither and wonder why this book is such a firestorm, I hope it is because you believe in a God who blesses the world, inside and out - he did this with Abraham, Israel, Jesus, and now continues with the Holy Spirit through the Church. I also hope it is because regardless of debates about heaven and hell, open or closed, Jesus Christ is the story of how LOVE WINS.