Rob Bell and Universalism | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

[TBC: The following comments from an Anglican pastor regarding emerging church pastor Rob Bell’s new book are instructive.]

Love has already won [Excerpts]


As an Anglican pastor, I bear scars from the war with "universalism" inside the Episcopal Church. I also have endured the battering of Bishop John Spong and his effort to "rescue the gospel from fundamentalists." And when I saw Rob Bell's new book Love Wins, I found myself quoting former Yankee great Yogi Berra: "It's like déjà vu all over again."


A number of years ago, when some young people representing the sad and lost segment of the church told me how wonderful Rob Bell's videos were, I became curious. Even back then, I felt nauseous when I watched some of these videos. I saw just how troubled this young man Rob Bell is and how he, in his effort to create a name for himself, began to trouble weak believers -- causing so much harm to his soul and theirs.


Asking questions for the sake of asking questions, not in a desire to find true answers, is indeed troubling. Even then, I felt that Bell's questions were quite similar to those of the serpent in the Garden of Eden: "Did God really say that?" He was more anxious to share his own doubts than to arrive at the truth. I felt that Mr. Bell and his equally confusing mentor, Brian McLaren, are deeply entrenched in the school of Bishop Spong from the Episcopal Church -- but with one major exception: they call themselves evangelicals.

With Love Wins, what Rob Bell managed to do (once he came out of the closet of just-asking-questions-for-asking-questions' sake) is reveal to us that he is a universalist pure and simple. Just like the author of The Shack did before him, he (for the sake of misleading larger numbers) has dressed his brand of universalism in a new suit, bringing it up to date with fashionable clothes that could easily deceive emotionally bound, mindlessly challenged and unsuspecting young Christians.

His biggest argument wonders how can a "great God" send people to hell. As kids would say: "Duh." God does not send people to hell; people send themselves to hell. God is too respecting of human beings not to give them a choice.

I want to think about this twisted logic.

Heaven is all about Jesus. So, the people who hated Jesus -- rejected Jesus, reviled Jesus -- are going to be forced against their own will by that great God to spend eternity with Jesus? To them, that would be very hell itself..

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