Rob Bell...Heretic or Brother in Christ?

Over the weekend, I read a copy of “Love Wins” by Rob Bell. Rob Bell is pastor of the Mars Hills Bible church, a Megachurch in the Midwest. Bell suggests that at the end of the age, God’s love will win out, with the specific result that everyone will be saved, drawn to the love of God. While he says there is a literal hell, his book indicates that his concept of hell is not a place, but rather a condition that sinful people are trapped in here on this earth as well as possibly post mortem until they can figure out that God loves them.

A number of conservative Christian writers have bashed Bell, calling him a “Universalist,” that is, someone who believes that everyone on earth will be saved. Bell firmly denies that accusation. And yet, the theology that he proposes cannot be sufficiently differentiated from universalism.

In a nutshell, these were the thoughts I came away with after reading his book.

• Bell is part of the emerging church movement which has shown itself to be historically critical and resistant to the traditional perception and form of the church. His rather distasteful view of the institutional church comes through a number of times in his book
• Bell’s scholarship is extremely weak. He draws pre-suppositions from “out of context” verses and attempts to re-create biblical teaching to support his views. Though he uses a number of greek terms, he doesn’t offer a balanced or rational reason for supporting his conclusions, neither does he adequately interpret the verses he uses.
• When stripped of the semantics, Bell’s teaching is universalism. He is a brilliant communicator and wordsmith, but boiling down what he is saying leads to the conclusion that he believes that every person will be saved. My impression is similar to that of a moth who fears flying into the fire, but constantly grazes it, finding it irresistibly attractive.
• He believes in a post mortem conversion possibility. Such teaching lacks any credible biblical support, is highly speculative, and is in conflict with a number of passages. If, as he suggests, God converts people with His love following their death here, the impetus for the Great Commission is lost, and there is no longer an urgency to convert those outside of the grace of Christ.
• Bell suggests that his belief has been at the core of Christian teaching by “untold” number of Christian leaders through the centuries. That is a disingenuous statement that lacks documentation or support of most Church historians. Universalism has been around since the second century, but has been viewed as a false teaching, and those who have subscribed to it have been branded as heretics.
• Bell attempts to paint a picture of God that divests Him of wrath. Punishment for the sinner is self inflicted, and that is the ‘hell’ which they can escape at any time if they only respond to God’s love. Bell doesn’t deal with Rom 5:9 or any other scriptures which suggest that God’s wrath at sin required the sacrifice of Jesus. This last Sunday we studied Matthew 7:14ff which plainly says that there is a narrow path that leads to life and a broad path that leads to death. Bell does not attempt to harmonize the many verses which contradict his belief.

Final Thoughts…I love the NOOMA videos that Bell has produced. He is quite creative, an excellent communicator, and a charismatic personality. He is not a theologian, however, and his book failed to reflect scholarship or a balanced treatment of the pro and con verses for his theories.

But he asks questions, and those questions should be asked by the church. He is a seeker, no doubt. As a mega church pastor, he wields enormous influence on people. My hope is that he will be lovingly confronted by a mentor or someone he trusts who can guide him in taking an objective look at all of the scriptures and not just a collection of verses to prove a point.

One of the nagging questions that his book has created in my mind is this…

“By what criteria do we decide if a person is an erring brother in Christ, or a false teacher?” That is important because the answer dictates how we treat that person, how we approach the topic upon which we disagree, and whether or not that disagreement should leave to a fracturing of fellowship. Is Bell an erring brother who is to be lovingly taught in the same way that Apollos was taught by Priscilla and Acquilla? Or is he to be viewed more like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom Paul “handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.”

Tell me what you think about this issue, and why you believe what you do:

Is Bell a loving brother in Christ or

Is Bell engaged in false teaching?