Rob Bell and Love Wins: A Final Response

I came across Rob Bell a few years ago through his Nooma series of DVD's. I can remember being instantly captured by the way Bell spoke and articulated his words. He has this stagger in his sentences, it's a beautifully artistic way of speaking. I guess that through my love of words I was drawn into his.

This initial attraction to style and presentation made me want to wade deeper into his teaching materials, his ideas and philosophies. After watching a host of Nooma DVD's I turned my attention towards his book Jesus Wants to Save Christians which turned out to be theology that was easily understood as it was presented in the aforementioned Rob Bell style. I found

Jesus Wants to Save Christians particularly intriguing especially in regards to the political statements made concerning America as an empire, bound to fall. But hey, we are not about to go there as that is another can of worms itself.

Other notable resources of Bell's that I have entertained are Sex God, a book that when read side by side with Ralph Erwin McManus' Soul Cravings radically changed my view of love, and his DVD Everything is Spiritual, a resource I would recommend to anyone wondering how Christianity and science can find co-existance.

It was not until sometime after these materials were read that I heard about Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. I understood that there was a fair bit of controversy surrounding the book but chose to hold off reading reviews before I could get my hands on it and make up my own mind about his teachings.

First off, Love Wins provokes the need for open dialogue and sincere conversation. If you have questions about this book I and many other would be more than willing to walk through them with you. In the same regard, if you are going to converse about the teachings in Love Wins please do so with honesty, modesty and ultimately tact.

So here it is... I do not have a problem with Rob Bell's book Love Wins.

Before you get all jacked up I need to let you know that I am not going to enter the universalist debate nor am I going to entertain the conversation on what hell really is. In fact, I am going to steer away from the ‘hot topics’ that are written about in this book and rather address the book as a general whole.

I believe that Love Wins is a book filled with ideas and topics conjured up to spark conversation. Rob Bell proposes (or rather 're'proposes) a twenty-first century way of looking at age old Christian teachings. Do I agree with everything that Bell offers up? By no means. I believe that some scripture has been taken out of context and believe that doing so is a dangerous thing. But ultimately, in reading Love Wins I was given a hope.

By no means does Rob Bell answer all the questions that I have ever had about Christianity, Jesus or God. In fact, he offers my mind a whole host of new questions that I have never had to think about before. Now, for someone who does not understand the Christian faith in its fundamental values this can possibly be a dangerous thing. But in my personal experience with this book, Rob Bell asked the questions and I drew more personal conclusions in regards to my own belief than I could have done without his prodding.

The hope that I was given through reading this book was simply: Love Wins.

The idea that love conquers everything. I wholeheartedly believe that God is love. The scriptures tell me that and it is evident throughout history. Now, we must be careful not to paint God as a teddy bear or cosmic heart because he is more than that. I am convinced that God is love, through and through His being, but I am also convinced that God is a God of justice and jealousy wishing for none to suffer but giving everyone the option to follow Him or to blaze their own trial. Milton once said in his book Paradise Lost that God had created humans sufficient to stand yet free to fall. I fully believe that statement, and since creation did fall God is more than willing to redeem the fallen if we choose to seek Him.

The main thing for me is that I need to hope and trust in Love. Love is a force of attraction and I believe that God is also that same force. A beautiful force that I pray everyone can experience in the ways I have.

Now, if you came to this page looking for a hot topic debate on some of the “issues” found in Love Wins I am glad that I disappointed you. I have seen enough back and forth debates on the internet between stubborn parties from all sides. Allow me to reiterate my previous statement: Love Wins provokes the need for open dialogue and sincere conversation. If you have questions about this book I and many other would be more than willing to walk through them with you. In the same regard, if you are going to converse about the teachings in Love Wins please do so with honesty, modesty and ultimately tact.

But regardless of what you believe about Love Wins I hope that you can see past the debatable aspects of the book and focus on the central theme. The fact that God is love. That God loves people, and that we are to love and serve God with our lives, whatever shape that may take.

"May you experience this vast,

expansive, infinite, indestructible love

that has been yours all along.

May you discover that this love is as wide

as the sky and as small as the cracks in

your heart no one else knows about.

And may you know,

deep in your bones,

that love wins." - Rob Bell