God Wins!

Pastor Rob Bell (Mars Hill Church, MI) has sparked new controversey with his book Love Wins.  Although I have not read the book, I have watched interviews that Rob has done that deal with the contents of the book.  One such interview can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-qgmJ7nzA . In a nutshell, Rob has come to believe that there is no literal hell and that eventually everyone makes it to heaven because . . . well . . . God's love wins.  Really? 

Bell's theological belief seems to be a mixture of inclusivism and universalism.  It is nothing new and comes in various shades and colors but the premise is the same.  Everyone makes it.  That's right, God -haters, fornicators, atheists, murderers, slanderers, liars,and adulterers and even cruel and harsh dictators.  The reasons for this false belief gaining popularity are numerous.  Ultimately though, they all relate to how we deal with truth. 

With the rise of postmodern and post-christian thought and culture, truth has fallen from its perch as an absolute standard by which everything is governed and measured to a relative one (every individual and group or "tribe" as Rob calls them, has the freedom to define truth and experience for themselves).  There is also the theological "problem" of evil, pain, and suffering and it begins with a question like, "How can God send people to hell who have suffered so much in this life?", or "How can God send someone to hell who has never heard the Gospel?".  While these are important questions to ask, we do not have the freedom to define our own answers and call it truth.  This however, is exactly what Rob and others have and are doing.  They twist the Scripture and cheapen the gospel to accomodate what "feels good" and is what would be acceptable to the general public.  After all, the alternative according to Bell is billions going to hell and a select few making it to heaven and well . . . that's just not right and God is not that mean, He's loving. 

This whole "no worries" ideology is not based in scripture.  It is true that the Scriptures declare that " . . .God is love" (1 John 4:8) and that "God loves the world . . ." (John 3:16).  The Scriptures also declare that God is Holy (Isaiah 6, 1 Peter 1) and will pour out His wrath on the wicked (Rev. 16), and will cast those whose names are not found in the Book of Life into the lake of fire (Rev. 20).  John 3 declares that except a person be born again by the Spirit of God he/she will not see the kingdom of God and that humanity is under condemnation apart from Christ.  Paul in 1 Corinthians states that the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing.  God has many attributes as revealed in the Scripture: He is Holy, Just, Righteous, Pure, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Patient, Loving, Kind, Merciful, Angry, Wrathful, and Veangeful to name a few.  Just because we struggle with what appears to us to be conflict in these attributes does not mean that there is nor does it give us the right to re-write scripture and re-define God in the way we choose for this is a violation of God's law (Exodus 20:1-6).

It is not love that wins but God who wins for the victory over sin has already been won by Jesus through His atoning work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.  The Salvation of humanity from sin is not a mandate but an invitation and while the atonement satisfies the sin debt of all of humanity it must be appropriated by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9).  Even though Jesus has paid it all doesn't mean that all will be saved and according to Romans 1 there are no excuses.  We need to get back in our Bibles and not give in to false teaching in books like The Shack and God Wins that attempt to re-define God for us but offer a hodgepodge of contradiction, chaos, and no viable purpose for morality!