Several Oklahoma religious leaders discuss their thoughts about Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.”
BY CARLA HINTON
Published: May 28, 2011
Several Oklahoma Christian clergy said they agree with a popular Michigan preacher’s idea to spread the word that God is a loving God, while at least one believes his controversial concepts may not be as far-fetched as some claim.
Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived” promotes the idea that a loving God would not punish people by sending them to the eternal hell described in Scripture.
Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, which has about 10,000 members, in Grand Rapids, Mich., has been criticized by theologians and Christian leaders across the nation because of this idea expressed in the book released March 15. At the heart of the matter is Bell’s assertion that God’s love is so big that the invitation to His grace may extend into the next life so that all can be saved. In other words, the popular evangelical pastor is saying people who reject Christ in life may have an opportunity to receive salvation after death, escaping the punishment of eternal hell that is described in the Bible.
“A staggering number of people have been taught that a 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. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. 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,” Bell wrote.
Mixed reaction
Bell’s message has stirred controversy as news of the ideas in the book spread throughout the country in recent months. For example, some LifeWay Christian Bookstores, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, decided not to carry “Love Wins.”
Still, Bell’s book found support.
Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., said the book by Bell, a Fuller graduate, was well within the bounds of orthodox or established Christianity and passionate about Jesus.
Mouw told USA Today that the real fight is between “generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy.
“There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people.”
In Oklahoma, the Rev. Bill Pruett, pastor of St. James Catholic Church, did not say he supports Bell’s message, but he said it does seem to fit within Catholicism’s concept of purgatory. He said purgatory is a process of being purged and cleansed to be prepared for heaven.
“It’s not a place in the physical sense. It’s an experience, an experience of death, basically,” Pruett said.
Pruett said he believes that people go to purgatory when they die to be purged and cleansed “for the God of love.”
Hell, Pruett said, is a place for people who reject all grace — “the question is has it ever happened before? Only God knows.”
Pruett said some people may not see Christ’s grace for what it is until they have experienced purgatory.
“Until you are at that point of death, you don’t see it clearly,” he said. “We all walk by faith and not by sight.”
He said people should not live a moral life to avoid hell. If they do so, they have missed the point of the Lord’s message.
“Jesus came to reveal the Good News, not the ‘terrifying news.’”
People ‘waking up’
Another supporter of the concepts featured in Bell’s book may be familiar to many Oklahomans.
Carlton Pearson was once a popular Tulsa evangelist and pastor of the Tulsa megachurch Higher Dimensions. He also was a protege of the late televangelist and native Oklahoman Oral Roberts.
Pearson shared his agreement with Bell in a recent CNN interview about “Love Wins.”
“People are waking up,” Pearson said. “You’d have thought the guy read some of my books based on some of the comments he’s making.”
Indeed, Pearson also has preached the message that most people will receive salvation because of Christ’s death on the cross and regardless of their faith in Him. His proclamation of that message, which he called the “Gospel of Inclusion” beginning about 2002, drew condemnation from numerous evangelical quarters, including Roberts, who publicly severed ties with the younger preacher.
Also, Higher Dimensions, once 5,000-members strong, began to lose members, and the church building went into foreclosure. Pearson decided to share space with another Tulsa church to hold services for his remaining congregation. Pearson eventually left Tulsa to serve as interim pastor of a New Thought church in Chicago, but he has since left that church and now has a Web-based teaching ministry in Chicago.
Is it ‘universalism’?
Mark Hitchcock, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, said he has begun preaching a Wednesday night sermon series on the topic of hell because many people have been discussing Bell’s book.
He said he is among the clergy who believe that Bell’s idea about hell is universalism, because it promotes the central idea that all people will receive salvation regardless of their faith in Christ. Hitchcock said universalism is counter to Christianity’s core message that people are saved only through faith in Jesus Christ. Bell’s assertion that people who rejected Christ in life will escape the punishment of hell is counter to biblical teaching, Hitchcock said.
“The Bible does teach that there is a literal place called hell and there will be people there,” Hitchcock said. “Jesus taught more than anyone that there is a hell.”
Hitchcock said Bell is attempting to adapt Scripture to fit what he wants it to say.
Views of God’s love
Hitchcock said Bell’s book is an example of the “ear-tickling” mentioned in 2 Timothy 4, which says that some people will not endure sound doctrine, turning their ears away from truth to myths.
The Rev. Wade Burleson, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, said he agrees with Bell’s central premise about the loving nature of God.
“I admire his intentions to present a good and gracious and loving God,” Burleson said.
But Burleson said he thinks Bell gives false hope to people because they will think they can go to heaven whether or nor they believe in Christ.
Ideas not new
Alan Bandy, the Rowena R. Strickland assistant professor of New Testament at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, said Bell’s ideas are not new. Bandy also said Bell’s premise is universalism.
He said his concern is that Bell talks about truth being “like a trampoline.”
“It’s not fixed and absolute. It’s flexible. But this is trying to adapt the Bible to our current time to make it more palatable. With a view that truth is stretchy, you can basically say, ‘Well, that’s not what it means.’”
Source: http://newsok.com/belief-that-a-loving-god-wont-send-people-to-hell-draws-support-disagreement/article/3571874#ixzz1NxD7hKYi
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1 comment:
Apparently Revelation 13, 16, 19, 20 are being ignored in this discussion. The Bible tells us that practically all the world will be deluded and deceived, thinking that enforcement of religious laws is the answer to the world’s ills. And Revelation 21:8 tell us, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” The Jews thought that using force to achieve the results they wanted would be acceptable to God. They demanded from the civil authorities a sentence of death for their Messiah. We MUST get a correct understanding of the character of God. The Jews had a very legalistic concept of a vengeful God. They kept the rules so well that after killing their Messiah, they went home to keep a VERY special Passover Sabbath. The leaders even broke their own Sabbath laws to go to Pilate on the Sabbath to request the tomb be sealed, lest someone steal the body (Matthew 27:62-66.) They obviously had forgotten this little detail since they were in such a rush to get home before the sun went down! God help us that we may never have a picture of God such as Saul before he was converted. After his conversion, he never used force, coercion, or manipulation to get others to worship God.
If you want to see how God punishes the sinner, go to the cross. Watch and listen to what God the son says; "Why have you forsaken me?" This is the same principle that Paul talks about in Romans 1:18 as the wrath of God, which is explained later in verses 24, 26 & 28 as "God giving them up" or "God giving them over." Romans 4:25 explains that "Because of our sins, He was given over to die, and He was raised to life in order to put us right with God." (Good News Translation) Christ experienced the wrath of God for ALL sinners by being given up. Our Savior was separated from the Eternal Life-giver and died the death that the sinner will experience in the Lake of Fire. This is the meaning of Christ being lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness. Jesus gave Himself up as if He was the one who started the rebellion in heaven. This shows how far God was willing to stoop in order to reconcile fallen humanity to Himself.
When the love of God can no longer hold or attract sinners to Himself, He will sadly have to give them up to the final results of their rejection of the source of all life. "My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him. 'How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?'" Hosea 11:7,8. Another demonstration of God’s wrath is also given in Psalms 78:20-31 and 56-64 where the people sinned by asking for food other than the manna, and God's wrath is described as giving them their heart's desire. This principle is seen throughout scripture and expressed as “you reap what you sow.” Sin is not just a breaking of the rules that needs to be forgiven and atoned for. Sin happens in people and changes them in their minds. This is why it is so important that Christians experience the text, “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:5.
God's presence is often described in the Bible as a consuming fire (the burning bush, Mt. Sinai, Nadab & Abihu, Solomon & Elijah's fire from heaven, etc...) God even told Moses that no man could see Him and live. As soon as Adam & Eve sinned, God had to veil His full glory so that they would not be destroyed. Jesus also had to come to earth as a human or He would have destroyed the very ones He came to save.
Actually, the righteous are the people that will "burn forever". Isaiah 33:14,15. Before Lucifer sinned, he is described as walking among the stones of fire. He was in God's direct presence. And the righteous will be living in the presence of God for 1,000 years before the lake of fire destroys death and hell.
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