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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Love Wins

After all the prepublication stir about it, I was eager to read Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. I had never read anything by him before nor had I seen his popular NOOMA videos that have been all the rage for quite some time. So I went into Love Wins with little preconceptions about what it might be.

Overall, I liked the book very much. I’m glad it has ignited a fire in the church world because it brings a topic to front and center in the Evangelical world that deserves to be considered and discussed. That topic has to do with the implications of the shared view of all believers that God is Love.

The biggest controversy surrounding the book before its publication had to do with whether or not Bell ascribes to Universalism. He is not a Universalist. That is clear, unless people think him a liar. He has plainly denied being a Universalist in interviews he has done and reaffirms that position in the book. He writes, “So will those who have said no to God’s love in this life continue to say no in the next? Love demands freedom, and freedom provides that possibility.” Then again, a few pages later, “Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires.”

The problem many have with Love Wins are the unanswered questions Bell raises. The flesh hungers for definitive answers and the Western World thrives on it. But, alas, our God has been and always will remain Mystery in many regards. That can be maddening to some. Hope isn’t equivalent to dogma and Bell posits nothing more or less than what many through church history have seen as a well-founded hope for mankind’s ultimate future. While most of the Evangelical church world has largely gone into frenzy over his views, the Eastern Orthodox church would surely wonder what the big deal is about it. The theology of Love Wins finds its roots all the way back to the Cappadocian Fathers in church history.

I don’t believe the book is going to immediately change the minds of many who are predisposed to resist such a hope but it will encourage those who already have an underlying sense of hope about the subject. Love Wins will certainly continue to stir controversy, not because it lacks biblical support but because it flies in the face of the traditional views that many have held. At times, it becomes easy for any of us to confuse the difference between sacred doctrine and sacred cows. This book certainly will attack some of our sacred cows and they've never been known to die quietly.

The strength of the book is that Bell writes with simplicity in the way that the average reader can understand. While I’ve said that I don’t think the book will immediately change the minds of opponents, I do think it may plant the seed of hope in many. His consistent focus on the ontological nature of God as being love may well set open minded readers on a trajectory toward positive implications of that reality.

I think he also did a good job in showing how the kingdom of God is among us now as opposed to simply an eventual escape for those who believe. His now-and-not-yet approach to heaven hopefully will awaken the minds of many evangelicals whose tradition has left little room for the social implications of the gospel in the here-and-now. Many of us come from traditions that focus so heavily on the afterlife that the idea of living out kingdom life in ways that confront systemic evil now hasn’t even been on our radar.

Bell doesn’t deny hell’s existence in the slightest. In fact, he makes it clear that choosing to try to function independently and not live experientially in His love is the essence of hell both now and post-mortem. To Bell, rescuing people from hell isn’t something that only delivers them from an eternal fate but sets them free from its reality right now.

I do wish that the book had addressed the matter of the importance of the Trinity as a starting point for our theology. While Bell has done a good job describing the love of the Father, I think his message might have found greater strength had he discussed the perichoretic aspect of our Triune God. To understand the relational aspect of the Trinity and to see how that sharing that relationship with all humanity has been the divine plan from eternity past may have helped clarify why Bell has such hope for mankind’s ultimate future.

I understand that the book is about the ultimate fate of every living person but also would have like to have seen a greater focus on how living in the “Circle of Life” today makes a difference in the world. As already noted, Bell is not a Universalist but one of my critiques against Universalism in general is its focus on who goes to heaven and hell to the exclusion of much said about what it means to participate in the life of the Father, Son and Spirit now.

I end as I began my thoughts about the book. I appreciate Bell’s willingness to weather the storm that he surely must have known Love Wins would bring and am happy that he has brought this topic to the front of the ecclesiastical room so that it must be discussed. Perhaps many will see that there is another option than being a Universalist who dogmatically insists that everybody goes to heaven or a Calvinist who emphatically insists that only the minority elect go there. This book reminds the reader that there is tension in the Scripture on this subject but encourages us toward the reality that “love hopes all things.” The implication of that fact may lead us to differing viewpoints but must leave us all with the conclusion that love certainly wins because God is Agape and Agape cannot lose.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Masterpiece Revelations

In Philippians 1:8-10, the Apostle Paul said that as we grow in love we will mature to the place where we can tell the difference between that which is good and that which is excellent.


The New American Standard Version renders it, "so that you may be able to discern what is best." There are good teachings out there and then there are excellent teachings. Our Father's intent is that we would recognize the difference. One is what Hebrews calls "the milk of the word" and the other is the "meat of the word."
The two are not the same. You probably know good teaching from bad teaching but do you know a good truth from an excellent truth? Young's Literal Translation describes it as "proving the things that differ."

Look at the two images above. One is a good painting and the other is an excellent paining. Which would you want to have? I confess that because of my lack of artistic sophistication, I'm not wild about either of them. Take a look at them. Which of the two would you want to own?

The top painting in this blog is called "Iris and Butterfly" and was painted by Claire Bull. The piece is fine art and can be purchased for 450 dollars.

The bottom painting is called "Irises" and was painted by Vincent Van Gogh one year before his death. It became the most expensive painting when it was sold for $53.9 million to Alan Bond in 1987.

That's a big difference that illustrates good and excellent. Thus it is in the realm of biblical truth. There are good teachings that will encourage and help you, but there are also excellent truths that can revolutionize your life. Note that Young's Literal Translation speaks of approving those things that differ. Don't make the mistake of thinking that something different is necessarily wrong. Sometimes when we open our hearts and minds to new things that are different to us, we find ourselves growing in grace in ways we couldn't have imagined. Don't be gullible. Check the Bible for yourself to see if the different teaching you may be exposed to fits with what the Scripture teaches. If not, reject it. If it does then embrace it gladly - even if that means admitting that it's something different than you've believed before. That's the only way to grow in grace.

There are excellent realities to be discovered in Jesus Christ. Let us open ourselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the Scripture so that we may see the masterpieces of Divine revelation!