Q: What is the controversy about Rob Bell and his new book? Can you give the heart of the matter? People are up in arms over it. I know his book hasn’t come out, and they are basing it all on the promos and the bookseller's description, but even that seems vague.
A. There is a hot debate going on in evangelical circles about Rev. Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Rob Bell is the popular, thoughtful pastor of the Mars Hill Community Church and has a strong voice in the evangelical community. The book is due out in a few days, but it has been heavily advertised, creating speculation that Rob Bell is a Universalist, which means he might believe that in the end everyone will be saved.
In his video promo Bell suggests such a possibility, creating the buzz and interest in his publication. He points out that if only Christians are saved, billions of other people will be in Hell forever, for billions of years. Can we imagine the God of love doing that or allowing it to happen?
For evangelicals, accepting Universalism goes against the teachings of scripture, as they understand it, and therefore against the source of our knowledge of Jesus. The logic goes: if the Bible is wrong about Hell, then how do we know it is right about Jesus? Historically, the existence of Hell has been a basic teaching in most Christian denominations, and the more conservative believers hold to this fundamental doctrine.
In scripture, Hell is expressed in picture terms, such as darkness, torment, the lake of fire, etc. The actual word used is Gehenna, a Greek word taken from the Hebrew, Valley of Hinnon. This valley actually existed outside the city of Jerusalem’s wall. People would throw their garbage over the wall into the valley. The trash continually burned, smoldering away with worms (maggots) crawling in the trash, as in any urban garbage dump. Jesus uses these very words to describe Hell: “The place where the fires continually burn and the worm dies not.” It would be Hell to live in the valley of Hinnon. Jesus uses the word Hell or Gehenna in Matthew 22:11-14 and Matthew 25:41-46.
How literal does Hell have to be, if the word itself is only an image of a miserable situation? At the same time, conservative evangelicals will not risk denying the words of Jesus because that has, historically, implied a denial of Jesus himself.
In past eras Christian Evangelicals, or at least the more conservative among them, have drawn lines in the sand, saying that to deny any particular scriptural truth is to deny the validity of the Bible and therefore lose the source of our faith. In the 1920s, the doctrine of the Virgin Birth was the test question for orthodoxy. This debate fueled the Fundamentalist /Modernist controversy in the American Church. Another debate still active today is over the Genesis creation account: Was the universe created in a literal seven days, or did it take millions of years of evolution under God’s guiding hand? In the late 19th century, Universalism was the test question, and now it has returned for another round of discussion. So this explains, at least in part, the intense interest around Rob Bell at this time—will this prominent evangelical leader pass or fail the orthodoxy test?
The ideas in Universalism may seem less scandalous when you consider that Universalism itself has been around more or less as long as mainstream Christianity. As far back as the second century A.D. there have been Christian scholars, such as Origen and Julian of Norwich, arguing for universal salvation or exploring Universalist themes. You can Google “Christian Universalists” to get a broader picture of their history in the church.
As to the existence of Hell, scripture shows us that God can change His laws without changing His character. Think of all the laws of the Old Testament that no longer apply to the Christian church (rituals, dietary laws, etc.). These changes were hotly debated in the early church (see Acts 15) and caused great anxiety especially for the Jewish Christians—but the change was part of God’s plan. So, what if the eternal fires of damnation and Hell are eventually extinguished or commuted? Who will charge God with being untrue to his word? Isn’t the love and grace of God our greatest hope? This teapot tempest among evangelicals about the existence of Hell is not a major concern for the church at large.
With regards to Rob Bell's book, it is bound to be a successful publication. Whether he planned to stir up this controversy or not, this tempest has guaranteed him good sales, and we can also hope that Love Wins is a word from God to this generation.
Other references:
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
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