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It seems everyone’s talking about hell, since the news of Rob Bell’s upcoming book, Love Wins, hit the Reformed crowd. And, it seems that’s like you-know-what hitting the you-know-what. I even wrote about it this morning. (Was there this much hoopla when The Great Divorce came out?)

Apparently hell hasn’t been a very popular subject throughout church history. My neighbor, Randy, is doing research for a book he’s writing about hell at the request of Randy Alcorn, who wrote Heaven. Apparently only 40-some books have ever been written on hell, and that list includes Dante, Lewis’ The Great Divorce, and NT Wright’s recent Surprised by Hope.

I have to admit, hell has never been one of my favorite topics, either—but then neither has Heaven. The problem is, while both are certainly discussed in the Bible, none of the verses are really clear and it’s easy to get confused. As NT Wright pointed out, we assume that Heaven is where we’ll go when we die, and where we’ll live for eternity. But then, what about the New Earth? And where’s Abraham’s bosom? And if Paul visited the 3rd heaven, what about the rest?

And, if the gates of hell can’t prevail against the church, doesn’t that imply that the church will be victorious over it? Why, then, will it be eternal?

Why no one knows…

The reason no one agrees on eschatology is because it’s really not that clear.

Then, when we’re talking about hell, we get confused because along with the little that the Bible actually tells us, we mix in Greek mythology and Dante’s imagery. Most of us really don’t know what the Bible really teaches on the subject.

And, most of us don’t realize that the oldest Christian belief about hell and heaven is that they are both in God’s presence; for those who refuse God’s grace, his grace and light are eternal torment. This is not that far from CS Lewis’ proposal that the gates of hell are locked from the inside—meaning that those in hell are only there because they choose to be.

NT Wright suggests that a lot of Jesus’ references to Gehenna were talking of the immediate future of Jerusalem, which he spoke of in a few places, although he does believe in a place of eternal torment.

And, then there are all those verses which do hint to some sort of universalism, speaking of God “reconciling all creation to himself in Christ,” Christ dying for the sins of the world, and so on.

It’s not clear at all.

You get what you need

I don’t know that any of us can be completely certain about what happens when we die, and I have to admit, it does make me nervous. I mean, I don’t like surprises. When I go somewhere, I like to know what it’ll be like when I get there—for one thing, it helps me pack.

All I know is that if there are two places to go, I won’t be going to the bad place. That much I’m sure of. However, I’d still like to know how I’m gonna get there, and who should I look for when I get there? This made me nervous as a young boy, and to this day, no one’s been able to answer this sufficiently. As the man sang, “you can’t always get what you want.”

Meanwhile, there are many opinions about how the afterlife works. It isn’t clear. I think that the only way someone can claim to have it all figured out is to have left out some of the verses or bring in extra-Biblical concepts. I do have some thoughts, though, and someday I’d like the time to really study the subject further. But, after seeing the many contradictory conclusions reached by those who have studied the subject, I’m not holding on to much hope of every really figuring it out.

But as the saying goes, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.”

Everybody probably knows that Rob Bell has a new book coming out. It will probably outsell all of his previous books (and probably sell better than it deserves), because it’s had the best marketing campaign imaginable—controversy. Bell put out a video trailer for the book in which he comments that he doesn’t believe Ghandhi will spend eternity in hell, suggesting that perhaps he’s a universalist (holding the belief that everyone will be saved, whether they are Christians or not).

Everybody seems to care a lot about what Mr. Bell thinks about hell. Justin Taylor (who??) does. (I’m wondering if Mr. Taylor would review my book…)  John Piper apparently does. Many people who should know better have also labelled Bell a universalist—and none of them have read the book. (The only article I’ve read from someone who’s actually read the book says that he’s not a universalist.)

And, everyone and their cat has jumped into the fray with their own opinions of Mr. Bell’s beliefs, all without reading the book.

My opinion of Rob Bell’s theology

I don’t care.

Seriously—I don’t care. I read a blog post this morning that explained why we should care, and how “countless lives” are at stake (seriously?), and I still don’t care.

On a certain level, of course, I do care whether or not he’s a heretic, for the sake of those people in his church and the dozens of youth groups who watch his videos without any supplemental teaching by their own pastors. But, whether or not he believes non-Christians will spend eternity in hell is perhaps not as important as his view of grace, which, by the way, I know nothing about. I’ve never read his books or listened to his videos. By the way, throughout the history of the Church there have been—and still are—many views of hell, and so far the gates of hell haven’t prevailed against the church.

Rob Bell is a trend, and possibly a short-term trend, just like Brian McLaren (who’s probably a heretic) and the whole “emergent ” thing. Yes, it’s dead—though they may not know it yet.  A few decades from now, I doubt many people will remember Bell or McLaren, but they’ll still read CS Lewis, and probably folks like NT Wright, JI Packer, and John Stott.

What does concern me

What does concern me are the people who jump to judgment about what people may or may not believe about things that don’t really change anything.

I do get concerned about people teaching other gospels, and I’ve always thought that hell was a terrible motivator for evangelism.

All I know

All I know about Rob Bell is that Bell rhymes with hell. And, that’s good enough for me.