By now, pastor Rob Bell has probably been on every major news program out there and I wouldn't be surprised if Letterman or Colbert is calling to schedule an appearance.
All of the hoopla comes down to Bell's latest book - Love Wins, in which Bell tackles the thorny issue of Heaven and Hell. Ever since the publisher leaked a preview that indicated that Bell takes a more progressive stance than fundamentalist Christians have, those fundamentalist Christians have done what they do best - attack Rob Bell and excoriate him as a heretic. Even the news programs have gotten into the act, with Martin Bashir performing a sham of an interview that MSNBC should be ashamed of, asking slanted questions and interrupting Bell at nearly every turn.
While I have yet to read the book (I will), I have taken the time to watch the hour long interview/release event Bell did with Newsweek religion editor Lisa Miller in which Bell speaks about the major themes of the book. I summarize the core of Bell's message from those sources as follows (I will post about the book when I read it):
1. God is love.
2. God wants to have a relationship with every human being who has ever lived.
3. Every human being is truly free to choose whether or not to have a relationship with God.
4. Hell is the natural consequence of choosing to not have a relationship with God.
Up until this point, I fail to see how any Christian could disagree. Those four points are the core of what Jesus came to preach and teach and the heart of the life Jesus lived.
Of course, Bell doesn't stop there, he goes on to argue that, if God is truly love, then that love is eternal and could extend beyond the grave to never stop offering people the opportunity to enter into a relationship with God. Bell - and this is important - freely admits that he has entered the realm of speculation here, but at the same time reminds us that all talk of what happens after we die is speculative in nature.
It is on this point that people seem to think Bell has slid into heresy, or at least unorthodoxy. However, I confess that I am not so sure. As I am reading through the Old Testament, a trend keeps popping up. A few posts ago, I wrote about how God created a plan so that those who were unclean and those who were not even Israelites could participate in the celebration of Passover.
The prophets speak of a God who consistently "gives up" on Israel and allows the Israelites to be dragged off into captivity and punished and tortured...but also of a God who always takes them back, always provides for their return.
The message of Jesus' life is that those who were considered beyond the grace of God - Zacchaeus, Matthew, the woman caught in adultery - were now within God's kingdom.
Finally, there is Revelation 21, which describes Heaven as the City of God in beautiful language that is often quoted at funerals, and which says of that City, "On no day will its gates ever be shut..." (v. 25).
All of this seems to me to allow at least the possibility of God extending grace beyond the grave. Even the Christian creeds and tradition speak of Christ descending into hell and preaching to the souls there - what is the purpose of preaching to the damned if they are hopelessly damned?
I am not saying that Rob Bell is definitely right, though I think he's on the right track. What I am saying is that to say that Bell has no support for his thought is simply not true.
Further, I openly admit that I admire Bell for doing the hard work of real theological exploration. Too many pastors have no idea what they believe or why they believe it - they merely spit the party line of whatever denominational group to which they belong. As a result, many Christians have given up thinking about their faith in any transformative way and only look at Scripture for confirmation of what they already believe. Instead of reading Christian theology and the ancient writers of the church, these Christians settle for the cult of Christian Inspiration, gobbling up the next feel good bestseller that tells them whatever they want to hear. Instead of letting God transform them into God's image, they devote their energies to transforming God into their own image.
Rob Bell may be right and he may be wrong - we won't know until we see God, and then I doubt any one of us will truly care. But at least Rob Bell is willing to challenge himself to consider the implications of the great God he claims to serve.
For that, I applaud him.
jB
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