So says Rob Bell, the evangelical pastor of the 7,000-member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich, in the preface to his new book. Bell challenges well established interpretations of the basic tenets of Christian faith which he feels have been falsely and harmfully touted by a large number of Christian groups. These interpretations run counter to the Christian teachings of love of God and neighbor, compassion and inclusiveness of all creation in God’s purpose.
Bell tackles many of the big theological issues of the Christian faith. His purpose is to capture for our time their original intent in depicting the heart and nature of God, the role of Jesus Christ and how this informs and guides faithful Christians.
In two early chapters Bell cites the limited and exclusively narrow notion of heaven and hell as places reserved after death only for those who have accepted or rejected Jesus as Lord and savior. In aptly framed questions and answers dealing with 21st century situations, he discusses Scripture passages in their original context that help to build his case for a God of grace rather than wrath who has created a good world and of a compassionate Jesus who prays that God’s will be done on earth now, as the present dawning of a world of shalom.
Bell flirts with what some of his critics call universalism by lifting up a God of “unrelenting, infinite, expansive love” who cannot bear to condemn any part of his creation to everlasting punishment, torture and anguish. And as for the ubiquitous roadside billboards proclaiming “Jesus died for your sins,” Bell urges his readers to focus instead on God’s atoning work in Jesus’ resurrection. Quoting Colossians 1, he understands this amazing event as the inauguration of a movement “to renew, restore, and reconcile everything on earth or in heaven” to God’s intended shalom.
Those who embrace the Reformed tradition will not find any mention of the work of the Holy Spirit in Bell’s book. Neither is there a theological framework that recognizes the efficacy of other great world religions apart from the presence of Jesus, who is “as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe.” While Rob Bell remains within the parameters of an evangelical approach to faith, he also offers a broader agenda for a new generation of leadership to include such topics as global poverty, sexual abuse and environmental concerns. He refuses to accept a theology that diminishes the gospel to “a ticket to get past the bouncer and into the club.” He insists that the God Jesus spoke of is always seeking partners who will participate “in the ongoing creation of the world.”
The good news, according to Bell, is that God is love, the creator and lover of all creation, and that the promise to us all is that “Love Wins.”
LOUISE G. WINFIELD is an elder at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville, Md., and a biblical studies teacher and consultant for congregations of National Capital Presbytery.
