Love Wins

Rob Bell’s most recent book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, has stirred up a hornet’s nest among several of the more conservative leaning tribes within Christendom. I, for one, am glad the Bell has played the theological equivalent of the boy who declared that the emperor has no clothes.

Bell begins by describing an event that took place during an art show at his congregation. Someone had attached a note to a quote from Mahatma Ghandi which read: “Reality check: He’s in hell.” Bell responds: “Really? Ghandi’s in hell? He is? We have confirmation of this? Without a doubt?”

In much of Love Wins, Bell confronts many of the perceptions of God that have portrayed God as a kind of divine Gatekeeper who requires right belief in order to gain access to heaven. These are the perceptions that have evolved into a “turn or burn” theology that has simply turned people away. Bell rightly insists that this perception of God is inconsistent with the God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. God is not concerned with right belief. God is concerned with right living. And what is right living? Love.

In these weeks of the Easter season, we’re addressing many of the misconceptions that people have about God in our sermon series: Your God Scares Me! Bell’s book would serve as a fine resource for those who would like to come to a greater awareness and appreciation of the God whom we worship.

I’m pleased that Bell has initiated a conversation that is long overdue. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to make God’s love real in the lives of others. It is through us that God wants the world to encounter His love and embrace. Unfortunately, those of us in the church have not always offered the world a clear and accurate image of who God is. We’ve busied ourselves with determining who is in and who is out, thus portraying a God who plays favorites and is more than ready to leave some out in the cold (or fire). We’ve turned Christianity into a big morality play that we ourselves continue to fail. The world sees this and the message of the Gospel is lost.

Bell is calling us back to the heart of the Gospel and inviting us to take it seriously. Our job is not to get people into heaven, our job is to make heaven real on earth.