Love Wins.

So I just finished reading the book Love Wins by Rob Bell, and it was alright.  Not too sure if I really enjoy the way Bell writes - question after question without any answers and alot of short prose.  So I felt it was a little difficult to read and I even found myself skipping some bits - terrible I know!  But I just wanted to see what all the hype was about, so I, of course, finished it!

So much controversy surrounds this book and quite frankly I don't really understand why.  Just google Rob Bell and Love Wins and you will get a whole slew of opinions about both.

Some say his thoughts and his book focus on this idea of universalism - meaning that ALL people will be saved and go to Heaven regardless of whether they accepted Jesus.  But I don't think he is actually saying that within the pages of this book, and if you google Rob Bell and Universalism you will found article after article and interview after interview where he adamantly denies this claim to Universalism.  

Of course we all hope that people will turn to the Lord and all will be saved in the end, but ultimately it is our choice.  We can choose Heaven or we can choose Hell.

And Bell says we have the freedom even now, while we are still alive, to choose Heaven or Hell.  We have the freedom to choose to live a life full of compassion, grace, forgiveness and love or we can choose to live a life full of greed, selfishness, hate, and bitterness.

Read it for yourself, but quite frankly, I don't think Bell is saying all will go to Heaven.  But I do think he is saying we have NO idea WHO will be there and WHO won't, and I have NO problem admitting that I have NO idea whatsoever who will be in Heaven and who won't.  And I don't think I am actually suppose to know.  It's not my call or responsibility to be the final judge for the lives of others.  But it is my responsibility to share Jesus with others - to share a life of compassion, grace, forgiveness and love.  

Some of my favorite bits...

"When it comes to people, then - the who of Heaven - what Jesus does again and again is warn us against rash judgement about who's in and who's out.  But the surprise isn't just regarding the WHO; it's also about the WHEN of Heaven...

Jesus is hanging on the cross between two insurgents when one of them says to him, "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom."

Notice that the man doesn't ask to go to Heaven.  He doesn't ask for his sins to be forgiven.  He doesn't invite Jesus into his heart.  He doesn't announce that he now believes.

He simply asks to be remembered by Jesus in the age to come" (p. 54-55).

And another bit...


"Is history tragic?  Have billions of people been created only to spend eternity in conscious punishment and torment, suffering infinitely for the finite sins they committed in the few years they spent on earth?  Is our future uncertain, or will God take care of us?  Are we safe?  Are we secure?  Or are we on our own?...

"Is God our friend, our provider, our protector, our father - or is God the kind of judge who may in the end declare that we deserve to spend forever separated from our Father?  Is God like the characters in a story Jesus would tell, old ladies who keep searching for the lost coin until they find it, shepherds who don't rest until that one sheep is back in the fold, fathers who rush out to greet and embrace their returning son, or, in the end will God give up?...

"Will everybody be given a new heart, or only a limited number of people?  Will God, in the end, settle for saying: "Well, I tried, I gave it my best shot, and sometimes you just have to be okay with failure"?  Will God shrug God-size shoulders and say, "You can't always get what you want"?...

"God in the end doesn't get what God wants, it's declared, because some will turn, repent, and believe and some won't.  To explain this perspective, it's rightly pointed out that love, by its very nature, is freedom.  For there to be love, there has to be the option, both now and then, to not love.  To turn the other way.  To reject the love extended.  To say no.  Although God is powerful and mighty, when it comes to the human heart God has to play by the same rules we do.  God has to respect our freedom to choose to the very end, even at the risk of the relationship itself.  If at any point God overrides, co-opts, or hijacks the human heart, robbing us of our freedom to choose, then God has violated the fundamental essence of what love even is" (p. 103-104).

READ IT FOR YOURSELF...FORM YOUR OWN OPINION...AND THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT!!