Another question that has been circulating regarding Love Wins is “Does Rob Bell believe there is a hell?” Frankly, that’s a question I should ask of myself. Hell was a topic that I always treated similar to a stinky diaper: hold it at arms length and try to get rid of it as soon as possible, preferably in a plastic bag tied so tight that its odor would never offend anyone. Why? Well, I distinctly remember being at a diner with some friends of mine. One of my friends was in Christian school with me and the other three did not appear to be believers. I had gone off to talk with some other friends, but, when I came back, one of my non-believing friends said, “K.J., am I going to hell? So-and-so says that, because I’m Catholic, I’m going to hell.” That was the instant where hell became a stinky diaper. After stumbling through a few questions to determine if she believed as I did and mumbling a few statements about everyone sinning, and how not believing in Jesus, praying a prayer and following after him meant you were going to hell, I said half-heartedly, “I’m sorry, but, yes, you would go to hell…”
At this point, many of you are probably thinking, “K.J. you blew an awesome opportunity to share how she didn’t have to go to hell!” And, I agree that I missed an awesome opportunity, but not to share about how she didn’t have to go to hell. She was so incensed by the whole, “You’re going to hell,” statement when she couldn’t perceive anything that she had done that was worthy of such extreme treatment that I don’t think she cared about heaven one whit, especially if the same God that would send her to hell is the one she would be in heaven with! What I realize now is that I missed an opportunity to share about the amazing love of Jesus Christ that transforms lives and gives hope both for today and for tomorrow. The love of God that cares so much for his creation that he allowed his greatest treasure, Jesus, to take on flesh and willingly walk to his death. Hell, (and, for that matter, heaven as well) is a topic so filled with spiritual, emotional and theological baggage that it has become a peripheral object in my faith journey and my evangelical exploits.
That experience with my friend makes me better appreciate why Rob Bell has written about hell the way that he has. I agree with people like Dr. Todd Mangum from Biblical Seminary who, in his review of Love Wins, says that “Bell has ducked the hard questions, and evaded the hard passages that would most significantly challenge his thesis” (although, as mentioned before, I’m not sure Bell has a ‘thesis’ as much as a series of questions to raise), but at the same time I think that the majority of unbelievers aren’t worried about the “hard questions” or “hard passages.” They are thinking about the picture of hell that has been painted for them by various other Christians, who may be propagating a caricature of hell that is beyond reality. These unbelievers, like my friend, hear of a lake of fire and eternal torment and yet that God loves them and they most likely disconnect completely. In my estimation, the people who really care about these “hard passages” are the ones who are already following Jesus! Which makes me wonder: Do we really do grievous damage to the Gospel of Jesus by allowing for an alternative understanding of hell, especially if the euangelion, the proclamation of the Good News, is to bring people into the Kingdom? I don’t think that we do.
This whole firestorm was ignited partially from people responding to two words, “toxic” and “misguided,” in the preface of Love Wins. Let me take the work of Tim Challies (http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/love-wins-a-review-of-rob-bells-new-book) as a representative response to those words:
The Toxic Subversion Of Jesus’ Message
Bell begins the book with surprising forthrightness: Jesus’ story has been hijacked by a number of different stories that Jesus has no interest in telling. “The plot has been lost, and it’s time to reclaim it.” (Preface, vi [in the pre-release version])
A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. (ibid)
You may want to read that again.
It really says that. And it really means what you think it means. Though it takes time for that to become clear.
Reading the quote that Challies chooses here, it is no surprise that people got bent out of shape, as it makes Bell appear to be saying that believing in hell is “misguided and toxic.” But the “…” is the context of the quote, and, as I’ve expressed before, I think many of people’s issues with Love Wins are due to taking things out of context. Here is what was omitted: “It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief [some go to heaven, most to hell] is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus.” (preface, viii in the published version) So Bell is not discarding the traditional understanding here, but is instead calling “misguided and toxic” the inextricable linkage of Christ and his Gospel to our traditional understanding of heaven and hell to the point that rejecting that understanding is to reject the Gospel.
I agree with Rob Bell that this has been communicated to many people (look at the evangelistic opening question, “If you were to die tonight, where would you go?” and similar questions), and I think his estimation of it is accurate as well. I certainly don’t think that rejecting the traditional understanding of heaven and hell is rejecting Jesus, and I really don’t think that heaven and hell are central tenants of the Christian faith. Jesus came to rescue us from death (Romans 7:24) and to give life, and give it to the fullest (John 10:10), but that life and death need not be unequivocally interpreted as life forever in heaven or hell after our physical death. I think that if heaven and hell were as central as many make it, then when we came to know Jesus, **Poof**, he would take us to heaven. But since he does not, and instead leaves us here to work in his vineyard, I think there is room within the body of Christ for non-traditional understandings of heaven and hell. (For the record, I do not reject the traditional understanding of hell, but I also can’t say that I embrace it as “gospel truth.” And I think heaven will not be somewhere else, but will be a restored version of the creation that God called “very good.”)
The argument Bell makes that hell is here and now resonates deeply with me. It seems logical that through our harmful attitudes and actions towards God’s creation, especially humanity (which was created in God’s own image), we can choose hell now. It also seems logical that a person who repeatedly chooses to separate themselves from God while here on earth would choose to do so even after death, thus meaning that many, even if given infinite choices, would still choose hell. Will I hang my hat on any of these statements and say, “Well, that’s that. Matter settled. The traditional understanding of hell is now debunked?” No, most certainly not, but these thoughts certainly open my eyes to the glorious complexity that is God and proved more fodder for me to pursue in my studies.
To summarize, does Rob Bell believe in hell? Well, the short answer is, “Yes.” But, the caveat is that he does not definitively affirm the traditional evangelical view of hell as a separate location complete with fire, brimstone and eternal torment, however he does not absolutely refute the possibility of hell being that way either. I believe that Bell is speaking out about how rigid we have become in our understanding of something none of us have witnessed and how essential many have made it to be the good news of Jesus. We should strive endlessly to prevent the Gospel from becoming exclusively (or even mostly) about where we go when we die.
Bell says on page 79, “Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned about the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem the least concerned about hell after death.” (p. 79) Jesus came to give us life on earth in the Kingdom that he has already initiated. I think our purpose as citizens of that Kingdom is to fight hell now. By fighting the hell we see everyday, we fight against the future hell that none of us have witnessed.
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