Vince Deagler

 hi everyone.  the big day has arrived and rob bell’s new book “love wins” has finally been released.  before its release it stirred up quite a bit of controversy.  having watched his interview on good morning america, i don’t see that controversy going away any time soon.  let me be clear.  i have not read the book, i will shortly.  personally i have always enjoyed rob bell’s writing and speaking.  we have even used his material on many occasions here at prescott.  and i am not about to throw around the term heretic lightly as many are doing these days.  but i can say i was deeply disappointed with the answers given by rob during the interview.

let me explain where i am coming from.  as a pastor i am called to “preach the word”.  what that means for me, and rob is we are to figure out what god has said and declare it.  not some, not just the culturally acceptable and politically correct parts, but all.  i have linked to the interview above, i encourage you to listen to it.  it troubles me.  here are some reasons why.  i believe in god, in his revealed word, in both heaven and hell.  sure we can create a hell on earth as he suggests.  but am i to substitute that idea for the reality of an eternal separation from god described in scripture?  check out revelation 20:11-15 where those not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire?  

i too believe in a loving god as rob suggests.  in a god who weeps because of our brokenness and suffering.  but is that really the issue?  i don’t know many christians that would question that.  but let’s define god’s love.  thankfully the scripture does this for us.  for instance john 3:16 could be translated “god in this way loved the world that he gave his uniquely begotten son…”.  over in romans 5:8 paul writes “god demonstrates his own love for us in this:  while we were still sinners christ died for us.”  god is a loving god, he demonstrated that love by giving us jesus to be our savior.  here is the question we ought to be asking:  are you willing to receive his love, what will you do with his love?  the question is not whether god loves, the question is what will i do with this love.  i can accept and benefit from his love, or i can reject and nullify the benefit available to me in his love.  that is why scripture describes the moment of salvation in terms of some definitive act of the will such as believe, receive, accept, call, confess, etc. 

and then there’s his comments on heaven.  i don’t want to be picky, but unless jesus himself defined the fundamental question, i am uncomfortable with someone like rob bell doing it for him.  and i am equally uncomfortable with taking a sliver of a model prayer (your will be done on earth as it is in heaven) and elevating that sliver above the rest of the model prayer as if it were the fundamental question.  now i do agree with rob that all too often we look at salvation through the lens of the future and we do buy into the evacuation idea.  i believe jesus teaches salvation starts here and now as he says in john 10:10 he came that we might experience life to the full.  i totally agree with the idea that i am as a christian to live out a heaven like existence on earth.  but again, am i to substitute the idea of a reality of heaven here and now for an eternal, futuristic heaven where we dwell with god forever in a place where he has made all things new? 

and finally, let’s talk about that god he describes, the god who cares, who empathizes with us, who is actively engaged in the process of redeeming this broken world.  do you know christians who don’t believe that god is like that?  i don’t.  scripture is pretty clear on that (see hebrews 4:15-16).  but does that concept negate very clear statements in scripture where jesus defines himself as “the way”, ”the truth”, “the life” and asserts that “no one can come to the father in any other way than him”? 

so as i said earlier.  i haven’t read the book, but i will shortly.  i have always enjoyed robs writing and speaking.  i refuse to throw around labels like heretic prematurely.  but i was very disappointed in the interview.  before a national audience he had the chance to clarify there is an eternal heaven and hell.  that there is a criteria by which our eternal destiny is determined, faith in christ.  and he could have encouraged those tuning in to in fact embrace christ, or at least check him out.  i was disappointed.  from that interview i do not know what he believes about heaven, hell, or salvation.  not so much because of what he said, i pretty much believe in what he said.  its what he didn’t say, what he didn’t clarify.  maybe that translates into more book sales, maybe that explains it.  i don’t know, but i found myself several times on the inside saying…just answer the question.  check it out, i’d love to hear your thoughts, and i am really hoping this controversy is just a big misunderstanding.  blessings.  vince