Rob Bell Review--Sweetened, Condensed Version

Welcome to the short version of my review of Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins. Yes, this is the short one, believe it or not. Here are some thoughts, without much comment, to give you an idea of what’s going on here.

Rob Bell makes much of the love of God. This is good.

Bell tries to identify with and reach out to people who have become disillusioned with church and religion in general. That’s good, because there have been some horrendous things done and said in the name of God and Christianity that have really maligned the name and cause of Christ. God has been blamed for things He had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with.

Another good thing (to a point) is Bell’s desire to reach out to the needs of people, in a physical way, (ie; poor, starving, homeless, thirsty) and in taking care of the earth and the like. These are good things, but you have to get things in the right order before they work the desired result. Bell fails to do that.

The WAY the book is written is off-putting to me. His style is quite different than others who tackle huge issues like this one. His book includes over 300 questions in 198 pages of text. Many of them are exploratory. Many others call into question things we take for granted in the Christian world that need to be called into question. Others are just really weird and made me scratch my head and wonder; “What in the world is this guy thinking????” He takes you to places of thought you’ve probably never ventured before. But, instead of starting from a place of Truth, taking you out to investigate these places, explaining as he goes, then bringing you back to that place of Truth to finish up; he goes waaaay out there, stops the proverbial car, then kicks you out, leaving you to find your way back to…well, somewhere. We’re not sure where one will end up and I don’t believe Bell really cares either. In his opinion, you can fend for yourself. This is intellectually irresponsible, to me.

Another thing that is bad is the scholarship of this book. Bell admits that he is not a theologian. That is no surprise. Nor is he a scholar, a good student of original biblical languages or history. Bell quotes scripture profusely, (he uses the TNIV--good grief!), but rarely gives notation of it’s origin and more often than not, takes things out of context. He also makes general historical claims, but again no footnotes or notations of origin. Let’s say, if his university English prof got a hold of this, and it were an assignment, he would fail. It would be marked up in lots of red ink.

Bell’s imbalance, raising God’s attribute of love above every other attribute that God has in his nature. This is bad. God ends up as some imbalanced, weirdo who isn’t really clear on who He is or what He wants to accomplish in the world.

Again, Bell makes much of God’s love, but to the exclusion of His holiness and justice. And for God to be holy enough to punish sin, Bell goes off on God; calling HIM imbalanced. Go figure.

The truth of the matter is, Rob Bell has a different gospel than the one in the Bible. His gospel, along with other Emergent church leaders, make the gospel more about doing rather than believing. His criticism is accurate of those who believe but their belief results in no one’s physical benefit (ala James 2:15-17). But he and the other EC leaders replace belief with getting busy and taking care of people’s needs. Here we have the cart before the horse. Notice Eph 2:8-9
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” Gotta get that squared away first. Then, in light of what has happened to us, Paul continues with v. 10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. NAS After our eternity is confirmed by believing the gospel and receiving eternal life, then, out of gratitude to God for granting us His grace and mercy, we then serve Him by serving others. NOT the other way around.

Rob Bell also has a chapter on “Does God Get What God wants?” And assumes that the answer is yes. He asks; “Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?” Talk about loaded questions. Will everybody be saved? No. Why does God waste time and ink to say “whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son?” If God gets what God wants, then He could leave out the condemnation part and whistle a happy tune while writing the happy parts. Paul wrote; “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” NAS Secondly, “will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?” NO. We all have a sin problem before we commit our first act of sin. Before we make our first choice in life, right or wrong, we’re condemned already. But he loads up the questions so the ingrained fairness in us answers the way he wants and leans you to his position and against the biblical position. He asks in a way that you pick one or the other, with neither being right or fair questions. This is his MO throughout the book.

About the Universalist question. When asked, he denies it and says “No, I’m not.” But it’s strange to see the bedfellows who have jumped on the bandwagon of Rob Bell. Many universalists out there are rejoicing that Rob is swinging to their side. Some are a bit cautious about proclaiming victory, but others are all over it, glad that there’s an “evangelical” saying the same thing they are. Do I think he’s a universalist? Yes. When the gospel is replaced with something else, when nobody is in trouble with God, when it is not necessary to respond, in this life, to God’s incredible offer of salvation to rescue us from ourselves and the sin nature we inherited, but God’s love will ultimately win no matter what, yeah, that about covers it.

My conclusions.

Rob Bell is not qualified to write a book on these kind of deep and essential subjects.

Rob Bell has no business being a pastor. He is not a minister of the gospel, since he has no gospel to preach.

He should be the leader of a civic or social organization, like one of the ones he lists in the back of his book on p 202. THAT is where his heart is, not leading people to Jesus and the cross.

It is dangerous stuff in the wrong hands. Lives not rooted and grounded in the Bible can easily be swayed by his confusing, but engaging style of writing. If you haven’t bought it, don’t waste your time or money. He and the publishers have made enough off of us reviewers already.

Thanks for reading! For the more detailed review, you can go one post newer than this when you’re ready to read for a while