Kevin DeYoung offers a lengthy pastoral, scholarly, and exegetical response to Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
DeYoung’s summary on what the book is about:
Love Wins, by megachurch pastor Rob Bell, is, as the subtitle suggests, “a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived.” Here’s the gist: Hell is what we create for ourselves when we reject God’s love. Hell is both a present reality for those who resist God and a future reality for those who die unready for God’s love. Hell is what we make of heaven when we cannot accept the good news of God’s forgiveness and mercy. But hell is not forever. God will have his way. How can his good purposes fail? Every sinner will turn to God and realize he has already been reconciled to God, in this life or in the next. There will be no eternal conscious torment. God says no to injustice in the age to come, but he does not pour out wrath (we bring the temporary suffering upon ourselves), and he certainly does not punish for eternity. In the end, love wins.
DeYoung conveys his concern with the book under several headings:
- Not Your Grandmother’s Christianity
- Historical Problems
- Exegetical Problems
- Eschatological Problems
- Christological Problems
- Gospel Problems
- A Different God
HT: Justin Taylor