Pastor Rob Bell recently created a huge stir in the spiritual circles of our world with his controversial best-seller, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And The Fate Of Every Person Who Ever Lived. (I think he wins the prize for the longest title!) The book was controversial enough to be featured on the front page of the April 25, 2011 edition of Time Magazine. That's saying something.
In his book, Bell writes that “at the center of the Christian tradition since the first church have been a number who insist that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins and all will be reconciled to God.” What Bell is promoting here is universalism, the concept that at some future point in time, all people will wind up in Heaven. As Bell states, this is not something new. Universalism was first proposed by the early church writer, Origen, in the 3rd century AD. Since then it has had its following. However, this view is not historic Christian teaching nor the teaching of the Bible. What is unique in Bell's case is that it is a supposed-evangelical pastor who is embracing this theory not some liberal-minded theologian.
The Bible is pretty clear about the existence of Hell and what it is like. Contrary to popular opinion, Hell is not some kind of ‘bad boys club’ where everyone drinks, is rowdy and has a good time. The Bible says that Hell is a place of darkness, heat, torment, thirst, pain and suffering. There are no parties in Hell. There are no friendships. There is no light, no song, no happiness, no contentment. It is devoid of anything good, fun, loving, of value or worth. All it contains is darkness, despair, regret, anger, hate and misery. It is the worst possible environment imaginable - something far worse than any movie could possibly portray or any nightmare produce. If anyone knew the realities of Hell, it was Jesus. The fact is that Jesus spoke more about Hell that He did about Heaven - and when He did He never attempted to water it down or sugarcoat it. He spoke of it in stark, foreboding terms - darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth.
The main problem concerning our understanding of Hell is that it is inconceivable for us to ponder people suffering for their sins forever. Forever. Day after day for eternity. Isn’t this a bit much? At what point does God feel that the people in Hell have suffered enough? At what point does He pull the plug and annihilate them, putting them out of their misery by putting them out of existence? Better yet, since God is so loving and forgiving, might He not put an end to their punishment and, having figured they paid their dues, let them finally into Heaven? This is the view of Rob Bell.
I admit that the idea of people suffering for all eternity, being watched by a God of love, does seem to be a problem. How can this be? More on this subject in tomorrow’s post.
Lord, help me to trust Your Word that Hell is real, eternal and to be avoided at all costs. Thank you for the blood of Jesus which has cleansed me from my sin, taken Hell out of my future, and replaced it with Heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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