"Love Wins" by Rob Bell

Does a loving God really send people to hell for all eternity?


Rob Bell tackles this loaded and very controversial question in his book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

Bell begins his book by diving into the concepts of heaven and hell. To summarize, Bell suggests that heaven is a place that is essentially earth, but without all the loss, pain, evil, etc. It is a literal location that is someplace else; but is also coming into existence here. Hell, on the other hand, may not be a "literal place." He goes into how people experience personal hell here and now on this earth every single day. Rape. Torture. Imprisonment. Greed. To get around definitively stating that hell apart from the here and now is not a real place, Bell finds a loophole by discussing the fact that when Jesus mentioned "hell," He was actually referring to a particular garbage heap called Gehenna, a physical location here on earth, and using said place metaphorically. Therefore, yes, Bell believes that hell is a "real place." It is, however, emphasized as a current reality.

Bell poses many, many questions in his book, but never comes right out and gives resolutions. I admire this; as there is clearly no way that Rob Bell, a human being, has all the right answers. However, there was a sense of passive-aggressively alluding to answers and at times manipulating scripture to back up his unstated viewpoints. It also seemed that Bell was so desperate to be rid of the idea of eternal punishment that much of what he said felt like a stretch, not to mention contradicted itself. For instance, Bell talks about the Hebrew word for "eternal" and how the root word means "a time of pruning." Bell uses this to his advantage to suggest that "hell" after one's death may just be a time of redemptive sculpting. However, the concept of "eternal life" is never addressed in this context. Does Rob Bell believe that "eternal life" is also temporary?

Ultimately, Bell alludes to the idea that since we have the power of choice here on earth, there is no reason to believe that we would lose that freedom once we die. My issue with this, which also goes unmentioned in the book, is that it completely negates the purpose of leading others to Christ in this life, which contradicts a multitude of scripture.

Honestly, all content aside, my main issue with this book was Bell's personal writing style. In reading his book, I often found myself wondering if he had completely skipped the editing process all together, and if not, what kind of editor would condone such obnoxious diction?

"Is it what you say,

or who you are,
or what you do,
or what you say you're going to do,
or who your friends are,
or who you're married to,
Or is it what questions you're asked?
Or is it what questions you ask in return?
Or is it whether you do what you're told and go into the city?"

Seriously, Rob Bell. We get it. Calm down. If he threw out questions like this every couple of chapters, fine, but the entire book was riddled with this pandemonium. 

I do have to commend Bell for taking on such a weighty and often glossed-over subject. I know that this book was attacked by many Evangelical groups and that Rob Bell got a bad rap for the questions he posed. But all religious prejudice aside, the main thing that Bell seems to be trying to convey is that Jesus = Love and that following Jesus is not about living in fear of eternal punishment. This is the theme that shows up over and over again during the book and it's certainly not one that I can argue.

My rating: 3/5 stars