“Love Wins” by Rob Bell: An Analysis
By RossS, 8th Jun 2012 | Follow this author
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A conservative analysis of Rob Bell's book, "Love Wins" and what it says to modern evangelicals.
Living on a prayer?
In the recently popular book, Love Wins, the heretical preaching of the nonexistence of hell is preached in a very appealing way, and it is gaining wide acceptance in America. Many conservative Christians are furious with the author, Rob Bell, for such blatantly antiscriptural teaching. Church leaders are fuming, professors are rebuking, and Christians are complaining.
But who is responsible for this book? Who should we cast the blame upon? Who will ultimately be held accountable? Although Rob Bell authored this work, all the blame cannot be cast upon him. In fact, he brings many worthy questions to the table in regards to the credibility of contemporary Christianity. Yes, Bell will be held responsible for this promotion of error, but one must recognize that he is merely responding to what he has observed within Christianity. Can anything less be expected?
He places multiple attacks against what he sees traditional Christianity to be. Many of the attacks are very fair and somewhat accurate. The reality is that much of his argument exposes the faults within contemporary Christianity as it has been portrayed in our culture. What he attacks is not a true Christianity that is Christ centered and God glorifying, but rather the man centered Christianity that perverts the message of the Bible.
One of Bell’s arguments (Pg 5) is centered upon the “sinners prayer.” He points to the common belief that one must say a prayer to be saved. Then he points to the inconsistencies, such as those who meant nothing when they said it, or those who said it in an emotional moment, or did not know completely what they were doing, or those who never said such a prayer but live more Christian-like than those who have. Is this the Gospel? According to an unfortunate amount of “Christians” today, it is. So many within fundamental and evangelical circles teach that salvation is all about the prayer. It is taught that all you have to do is “believe” and that saying certain words qualifies you as redeemed. So many teach that once you have prayed, nothing else matters; that if you are saved, you can continue living however you want. Assurance of salvation is given to so many people who claim faith but show nothing in their lives to have changed.
The question again is, “Who is responsible for the publication of this heresy?” Rob Bell will have his day to answer to God, but so will those who promote the watered down Christianity that ignores the preaching of “repentance and remission of sins”(Luke 3:3, Luke 24:47) and “repentance unto life” (Acts 18:11); who turn a blind eye to passages such as 2 Peter 3:9, Hebrews 6:1, 2 Corinthians 7:10, Acts 26:20, Acts 20:21, Luke 5:23, Mark 2:17, and Mark 1:4 that show that Jesus’ and the apostles’ teaching was founded upon repentance, not just acknowledgment. Jesus made it clear that salvation is more than just believing when He said “repent ye, and believe the gospel.”Jesus’ disciples went out and “preached that men should repent” (Mark 6:12). The book of 1 John makes it clear that one knows that he has eternal life when his life evidences the work of Christ. The book of James, especially in chapter two, clearly shows that unless a life is evidenced by good works and service to God, that person’s faith is not genuine, it is all a masquerade. This is the Gospel that Jesus preached, and it is the Gospel that is largely ignored by both fundamentalists and evangelicals. And because we are not promoting the true and glorious Gospel of Christ, the world is not being drawn to it by the power that the true Gospel holds.
P.S. Francis Chan wrote an excellent response to Love Wins in his book Erasing Hell, it is worth a read
Comments
21st Jun 2012 (#)
Ross,
Rob Bell does not teach a watered down, soft sell Gospel designed to appeal to the masses with a cheap promise of a no-effort salvation. Actually, quite the opposite is true. To understand and accept that God has justified you completely through the work of the cross, without being able to do one thing to earn it, does not result in thinking you have a free pass to live life however you please. Anyone who takes that path has not really turned to God as their Savior, but, as revealed by their actions, is still their own god, worshiping their own idols. Instead, knowing we have been given the ultimate gift of salvation by the ultimate act of unselfish love serves to make us humble and repentant. It also helps to strip us from any thoughts of being superior to others. We are all equally unworthy by God’s standard and are all totally and completely dependent on Jesus as our one and only Savior. It is through that awareness that we begin to grasp what God means when he tells us to love Him completely and love others the same way. That kind of game changing realization is actually very frightening, because it can lead to a willingness to follow God wherever He might take us. As long as someone thinks they have even the slightest control over their own salvation through faith plus works, they will continue to place themselves in a position of power over their own lives, as well as be tempted to wield a perceived power over others by dispensing grace only where they see fit.
For all the examples you give supporting the notion that justification is acquired through faith plus works, if you understand that the sin referred to in these scriptures is simply the act of turning away from God (which would be revealed by how a person acts), and repentance from that sin is the act of accepting God as the one and only means to righteousness and salvation, which then, through the work of the Holy Spirit, will reveal itself in time as a changed life, then Rom 3:28-30, Rom 4:5, Rom 10:4, Rom 11:6, Gal 2:16, Gal 3:5-6, Eph2:8-9, Phil 3:9, Mat 9:9-13, Luk 18:10-14 and many other verses will make more sense and not appear to be in contradiction to the verses you have listed. In scripture, Jesus never asks anyone to make a life change before He heals them or forgives their sins. He only inquires of some if they believe, or if they have faith. And while Jesus instructed the man in Bethesda and the woman caught in adultery to “sin no more”, that was not a condition He placed on healing or forgiving them, nor is it ever indicated in the Bible that Jesus rescinded a healing or forgiveness based on what a person did or did not do after being blessed by Him. A changed life and good works are the evidence of someone’s acceptance of God, not the means of getting them there. That viewpoint brings scripture into harmony while the faith plus works doctrine leaves a lot of things difficult to account for.
Jesus seemed then (and continues now) to be reaching out to everyone in hopes of having a relationship with Him first, and foremost. It is only after we have that relationship and are willing to let God heal us through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we can begin to make the real transition and growth that will show up as good works. Any attempt to take control of that transition or in giving ourselves any kind of credit for earning our own salvation results in a turning away from God and his desire for us to depend on Him utterly and completely. Let your good works be the evidence of how God is moving in your life and give others the freedom to let God move in their lives without putting on a “one size fits all” blueprint of how salvation has to work.
There is room enough for everyone under God’s banner. The least we can do is stop judging and attacking each other for having different viewpoints. Ross, I will hope that whatever answers you find will bring you closer to God and to a greater peace with all of your family in Christ.
All the best,
Dean W
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