Bell’s Hell versus God’s hell
And that settles it? In reference to John 14:6 where Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” Bell explains this exclusive statement as follows:
This is as wide and expansive a claim that a person can make. What He doesn’t say, is how or when or in what manner the mechanism functions that gets people to God through Him. He doesn’t even state that those coming to the Father though Him will know they are coming exclusively through Him. He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and restore the world is happening through Him.
OK, so it does’nt matter what kind of idols or false gods you worship you WILL enter through Jesus whether you like it or not. What kind of awesome freedom of choice and free-will is that? Most people don’t even know they are entering through the only Door to God the Father. They merely stumble upon it and unknowingly enter through it. Jesus must have been delirious when He said that “you shall KNOW the truth (Jesus Himself) and the truth (Jesus Himself) will make you free” (John 8:32) and ” . . . this is life eternal, that they might KNOW thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) as opposed to one of his most ardent follower’s statements that those who come to the Father through Him don’t even have to KNOW the truth that He is indeed the way, the truth and the life. It sounds so much like the abominable doctrine of predestination and election where the elect don’t know they are the elect until they are drawn irresistibly through the Door and when they have entered they look back to see written over the top of the Door “BELOVED ELECT.” What has happened to Jesus Christ’s statement in Matthew 7:14?: ” . . . strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.” You first need to find the Door before you can enter through it and to find it you must first seek it and to seek it you must first have an intense desire to seek it (Jeremiah 29:13). Those who have no desire to seek the only Door that leads to God the Father will never find it. In fact Jesus said that very few have the desire to find it and as a a consequence only few find it. Nonsense! says Rob Bell, everyone enters through the only Door to God the Father. Rob’s evangelizing outreaches to Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Satanists, Hare Krishnas etc. goes something like this:
Bell: Hi there, I’m Bell and I’m here to tell you Jesus loves you.
Unbeliever: Really! Jesus loves me? Who’s Jesus? Never heard of him.
Bell: Never mind, your ignorance is actually your redemption cause He, being the Door that leads to his Father, automatically draws you to Him so that you may enter through Him. You see, his redemptive power actually works like a vacuum cleaner. You are sucked in whether you like it or not.
Unbeliever: Wow, that’s really cool but I don’t want to enter through Jesus. I have my own door that leads to Nirvana. Surely I have the right of choice to enter through whatever door I want.
Bell: Yes of course you have the awesome choice to do as you please, but Jesus’ choice to draw you through Him to His Father overrules your choices completely.
Unbeliever: Really? You mean to tell me that He forces me through him to his father . . . and . . . and . . . you call that love? You must be kidding.
Bell: Whatever! (with due respect to Stephan Joubert who just loves the expression “whatever”) I will see you in heaven whether you like it or not.
Unbeliever: Yea, yea, whatever! (once again with due respect to Stephan Joubert who just adores the expression “whatever”).
Whoopee! This sounds so much like Paul who received the Gospel directly from Jesus Christ:-
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Rob Bell says it is absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true that the cross of Christ is to Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, New Agers, Satanists, etc. etc. an instrument of foolishness and therefore they will never perish. In fact, no one needs to understand or realize that the cross is God’s only power to save lost sinners. The cross, according to Bell, saves everyone automatically without them having to embrace it as God’s only means to salvation. Even those who regard the preaching of his cross to be sheer foolishness will be with Him in heaven one day. He is saving everybody regardless of their hatred of Him, their rejection of Him and his cross and regardless of their choice to die in their sins? Jesus said:
“I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come” and “ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:21, 24)
Jesus said you CANNOT come whither He goes IF you die in your sins. It is impossible. Nonsense, saith Rob Bell the man who has put out the fires of hell, He is saving everybody regardless of the fact that they are dying in their sins.
These are the statements of a man who claims not to be a universalist? His convictions don’t seem to hold true to everything he wrote in his book. So what does Rob Bell mean when he says he believes in a literal hell? In the audio version of his book Love Wins, chapter 3, he goes to great pains to explain away the traditional Christian view of hell. His book is literally littered with many questions, because that is allegedly one of the ways to follow Jesus who consistently asked many rhetorical questions, and some of Bell’s most pertinent questions relate to the existence of a literal hell.
Rob Bell had a bad experience with the traditional Christian view of hell when he spoke at a meeting in San Francisco and was confronted by a group of protestors. One of the guys had a jacket on with the words “Turn or Burn” stitched to the back. Although I personally wouldn’t use this hellish maxim as an introduction to my presentations of the Gospel we dare not overlook the warnings in Scripture. Apart from the fact that “the “turn or burn” evangelical tool reeks of coercion, enforcement and strong-arming, it is by far not an adequate description of hell. Was Jesus engulfed by physical flames when He suffered the pangs of hell on the cross? Perish the thought! The most dreaded thing for Him, which as we know caused Him to perspire drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, was the knowledge that his Father was going to forsake Him on the cross the moment He was given the bitter cup to drink which was filled to the brim with the sins of mankind. This is the very essence of hell which is worse than the traditional view of the flames, fire and brimstone of hell. It is to be cut off from the source of everything that is good and wholesome — from God the Father’s love, his compassion, his light, his goodness, his loving-kindness, his mercy, his grace, his very life which is eternal, everlasting and indeed from Him who is the Living Water. When Jesus cried out “I thirst” is was first and foremost a spiritual thirst because He was separated from God’s Living Water when He hung on the cross. It was the same thirst the rich man experienced in hell when he begged father Abraham to send Lazarus and to put a small drop of water on his tongue. He was actually praying for a drop of God’s Living Water which he had refused to take and to drink when he was still alive on earth (Revelation 22:17). His remorse for not having taken God’s Living Water when he had the opportunity to do so during his lifetime on earth was worse than an unending burning flame, fire and brimstone.
So how should we think or not think about hell? The obvious answer is that we shouldn’t think about hell the way Rob Bell thinks about it but rather think about it the way Jesus taught us to think about it. If questions were Jesus Christ’s modus operandi to convey his truth and to provoke his audiences to seek the truth, then it is incumbent upon us to do the same. A question we need to ask is whether the flames of hell are physical flames as we know them to be here on earth or should we rather regard them as human consciences burning with flames of excruciating remorse that can and never will be dowsed for all eternity. To find an answer we need to ask another question: How is a sinner’s spiritual thirst satisfied and quenched in this life here on earth? And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17). Obviously the water spoken of here is not physical. No amount of physical water can quench a person’s deep spiritual need which is to be reconciled to God, the very source of eternal life. The Samaritan woman whom Jesus encountered at Jacob’s well on his way to Jerusalem can attest to that. Several places in Scripture refer to God as the “Fountain of Life.”
I remember how as a kid I loved to visit my uncle’s farm in the Free State, South Africa, and walk through the forest to a quiet spot where there was a fountain. It never stopped gushing forth some of the purest, clearest water I had ever seen and tasted. There was no other water that quenched my thirst so satisfactorily and suitably as the fountain water. Why? Because it was water that never stopped gushing up from deep down under the earth to the surface. In that sense it was living water; it was a never-ending brilliant flow of crystal clear and pure water. In the same way God’s Living Water that has never stopped gushing forth into everlasting life (John 4:13, 14), is still available to everyone who thirsts after righteousness and salvation, this side of the grave. Eternal life amounts to the taking and the drinking of God’s Living Water in this life. In hell people will be longing to drink the Living Water which they had forfeited of their own accord for all eternity. This will be worse than a flame because it is an unquenchable fire in their innermost being that is going to cause their never-ending torment in hell. Sadly most people do not want God’s Living Water and are content to drink from the muddy pools of this world and its many religions.
It is noteworthy that the rich man did not beg for a reprieve but for a little drop of water to be placed on his tongue. Did he beg for physical H2O? Hardly, because, once again, physical water cannot possibly satisfy or quench spiritual thirst. He probably could ask for a reprieve but somehow knew that his sentence could never be overturned and that he would remain in hell for all eternity. In stead, the one thing he wanted in hell was the one thing he could have had when he was still alive on earth — God’s Living Water that springs up into eternal life — but refused to take and drink it on earth.
The overriding desire of people in hell is to have their intense spiritual thirst, caused by their eternal separation from the Fountain of Living Water. The complete absence of God’s Living Water in hell can be compared to one thing only — an excruciating pain akin to flames of utter hopelessness, despair and unending remorse. It will be like a raging, tormenting fire in their spirits enver to be quenched or satisfied for all eternity. Imagine billions of people crying out day and night: “I could have taken the Living Water God freely offered me to drink. It was offered to me on countless occasions but I refused to take and drink it. Help me! help me! please give me a tiny drop of His Living Water to quench the insatiable burning desire in me for His Living Water. Please . . . have mercy on me!” Hell is to yearn for God’s Living Water from everlasting to everlasting and to heap upon yourself coals and flames of utter remorse and hopelessness for not having taken it freely when it was offered to you on earth.
Another noteworthy observation is that the rich man never once blamed God for having to be in hell for all eternity. He never once shook his fist at God and cried out: You are a cruel, heartless and unloving God. You are supposed to be a God of love, compassion, mercy and loving-kindness. It is your fault that I am suffering in hell. How could you have done such a horrendously cruel thing to me? No! there ws none of this on the lips and tongue of the rich man. He knew that he deserved God’s righteous punishment for his rejection of the most supremely divine gift ever to be presented to mankind – God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Now, listen to Rob Bell’s tirade against God’s righteous judgments and he is not even in hell.
Jesus’ doctrine on the existence of a literal hell “is misguided, toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear?” Indeed, the Jesus story is first and foremost about the love of God for every single one of us. But there is more to this story. There is the relational aspect of this love that needs to be looked at in an equally loving way. The emergent fraternity has the knack to remind us again and again that Christianity is a relational spirituality. And yet when the very bedrock of this relational spirituality vies for their loving attention, they seem to shun it with contempt. It is fruitless to talk about God’s love for the entire world while His demand for the reciprocate love of his creatures is overlooked so easily — “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27).
How can you say you love God when you do not love your neighbor and how can you say you love your neighbor when you do not love God? And how can you say you love your neighbor when you do not tell him/her of God’s demand for his/her reciprocal love in the acts of repentance, faith, sanctification and obedience? You cannot talk about a relationship when love is reduced to a one-way transaction. Allow me to explain: It is common knowledge that a marital relationship between a bridegroom and his bride is often used to describe the intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and all the believers. Having said this, I want us to look at a scenario that most likely never happened.
Imagine Rob Bell saying to his sweetheart “Honey, I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?” And she looks at him and replies to his face “No! don’t be silly. I don’t love you and I will not marry you.” Can there be a lasting and loving relationship between Rob Bell and his sweetheart when his love is not returned in kind? When Abraham sent his servant to find his son Isaac a wife, he did not force her to leave with him. When her family members asked Rebekah “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” (Genesis 24:58). Marriage vows are consummated when both parties say “I will.” It affirms Rob Bell’s statement: ““Everybody is forced to believe or think or subscribe to a particular thing, but there are those who are able to choose — how awesome is that?” Yep! awesome it is, but ironically Rob Bell is not practicing what he’s preaching. In fact, he forces every single person who ever lived to return God’s love in kind, forces them into a relationship with Him and forces them to live with Him for all eternity when most of them have no desire to do so (Jeremiah 6:16). Bell’s love for his sweetheart would never allow him to force her to love him but he expects God to do what He wouldn’t and couldn’t do? What kind of love is that?
We may argue that none of us would send someone to a place like hell who do not return our love in kind. That would be a very unloving thing to do, right? Can I remind you what Jesus said? “Later on he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot come where I am going.” (John 8:21). No-one ends up in hell because God wants them there. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). Sinners go there because they die in their sins of their own accord and according to their own doing. I used to be a fire attendant at the firm I worked for years ago. It was my duty to fire drill my colleagues on our floor once a month. They new exactly where the fire exits were and they knew exactly what to do when a fire broke out. No one could point a finger at me and blame me that they never knew.
Jesus said “I am the Door” (John 10:7) and anyone who does not enter through Him cannot expect to escape hell. They will perish. God has given his most precious gift to mankind, his only begotten Son, and it pleased Him to bruise Him (Isaiah 53:10) so that every single person who believes in Him should not perish. There is no need for anyone to die in his/her sins because God has provided a Way out and that is to die in his Son (the Living Ark), not in your sins. Hell, therefore, is the place where sinners go who die in their sins and not in Jesus Christ, the only Person in the entire universe who is authorized by Almighty God to forgive and remove sins (Luke 5:24).
Bell’s earthalization of hell
The word “earthalization” is my own concoction and its intended meaning is to bring the ethereal, other-worldly places like heaven and hell down to earth. Bell’s hell is “the big, wide, terrible evil that comes from the secrets within our hearts all the way to the massive, society-wide collapse and chaos that comes when we fail to live in God’s world God’s way” (Love Wins, p. 93). And yes, you may have guessed it, the only way to counteract hell on earth is to bring in the Kingdom of God here and now through an incarnational spirituality. The world is what we make of it. It can either be a world of peace and joy and happiness or a world of chaos that comes when we fail to live in God’s world God’s way. Our failures and successes depend on what we want and what we want is what we get because Love wins in the end, as the Bell goes.
Consider the portion in Revelation 14 that says: “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:11). Oh! pardon me, that only applies to those who worship the beast or the antichrist. Ok! but what about those who are permeated with the spirit of Antichrist who has always been around and teaches his followers there are no realities such a literal virgin birth, a literal resurrection, a literal ascension, a literal Parousia, a literal Trinity, and last but not least a literal hell. In an effort to tone down the reality of a literal place of eternal torment, Bell claims that he has studied every single verse in the Bible, in the old and new Testaments, where the word “hell” appears and then proceeds to prove that when Jesus spoke about hell he merely referred to a place on the outskirts of Jerusalem where the inhabitants dumped and burned their rubbish. This place is known as Gehenna. The bottom-line for Rob Bell is: “So the next time someone asks you you if you believe in an actual hell, you can always say, ‘Yes I do believe that my garbage goes somewhere . . .’” That’s it! The next important thing to know is how to avoid an actual hell. Well, that’s very easy — send someone else to dump your garbage, what the hell. And remember, when his Father deserted Him on the cross as an acute reminder of the fearful and dreaded garbage dump in the valley of Hinnom (Jerusalem), Jesus, the One who spoke more about the garbage dump than anyone else, called out in agony, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Here’s what Rob Bell has to say about Gehenna.
That’s it? Really? The Hebrews were turned off by the afterlife because the Egyptians built pyramids and ornate coffins and buried themselves in rooms filled with gold and therefore were far more interested in the ethics of and ways of living this life? Really? And this prompted them to be far less articulate and definitive in their commentary on what happens after a person dies? Really? What about those portions in the Old Testament where the word “hell” is not explicitly used but a phrase such as “everlasting contempt” clearly refers to hell? “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Dan 12:2). It is glaringly evident why Rob Bell never once mentions verses like Daniel 12:2 in his book. Could someone please tell me why?
The emergent fraternity’s claim that God’s Kingdom is already here and now compels them to bring something as horrible as hell, which allegedly is out there somewhere else, into the realm of our present existence. You cannot have a hell somewhere else when you have a heaven (Kingdom of God) here and now, can you? Therefore we need to localize it in order for it to be more palatable and believable. The traditional churchy view of fire and brimstone, eternal punishment, torment, eternal separation from God, excruciating pain and gnashing of teeth are all elements of a bad and uncontrollable story which needs to be toned down to something not so ethereal but very earthy so that we may turn the bad story into something not so bad and controllable.
“So how should we think, or not think, about hell?” Bell asks after coming to the conclusion that for many in the modern world — ravaged by escalating wars, violence, child abuse, murders, drug abuse, divorce, abortions etc. etc., etc. — the idea of an eternal hell is merely a holdover from primitive, mythic religions that use fear and punishment to control people for all sorts of devious reasons. And so the logical conclusion is that we’ve evolved beyond all of that outdated belief, . . . even to the extent that in our quantum evolvement we can reach godhood through contemplative spiritualties by breathing God in through yoga practices (Listen to MP3 here).
So how should we think about hell?, asks Bell on page 70. The most compelling way to think about hell, as I have already mentioned, is to fit it into the realm of our present existence — to localize it, to earthalize it (my own word). By doing that we can bring it closer to our own experiences on earth and find ways to control it. And the most compelling way to do that is to find someone who will be able to put an end to wars, injustices, poverty, disunity, etc.,etc., etc., someone who will restore our humanness and teach us how to change our weapons of mass destruction into plowshares and our atom bombs into pruning hooks. Then we will have at last eradicated all vestiges of hell on earth and there will be peace on earth at last — a new earth and a new heaven. Jesus Christ warned: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another (Antichrist) comes in his own name, you will receive him. (John 5:43). Yep! the great peacemaker who “. . . through his policy . . . shall cause craft to prosper in his hand;. . . and by peace shall destroy many . . .” (Dan 8:25), is just waiting for his cue to appear on the world scene, and, guess what? — Rob Bell and his buddies in the Emergent Church are paving the way for him to take over. Does this sound a little farfetched?
Whereas Rick Warren used the genocide in Rwanda as a backdrop to introduce his PEACE PLAN to the world, Rob Bell uses it to paint a picture of hell on earth. During his visit to Kigale, Rwanda in December 2002 he saw many children who had been mutilated by machete wielding soldiers. To affirm with conviction that he believes in a literal hell he says:
Of Course.
Those aren’t metaphorical missing arms and legs.
And yet when he eventually comes to the rich man and Lazarus where Jesus articulates with perfect clarity the horrible realities of hell, he uses Abraham’s and the rich man’s conversation as a metaphor to explain what Jesus really meant by losing your life for the sake of Him and his Gospel. The very first word Rob Bell uses as a metaphor is “water.” Instead of using it for what it was originally intended for — to quench your thirst, Rob Bell uses it as a double metaphor. “When you give someone water,” he says “you’re serving him.” I suppose this is the reason why they did not give Jesus water to drink when he said “I thirst” and pressed a sponge filled with sour vinegar to his lips because they refused to serve Him.
So, how do we accomplish something so overwhelmingly pragmatic? The best way to turn a bad story into something not so bad is to overemphasize the love of God without mentioning the flipside of his love. Listen again to Rob Bell when he introduces his winning love in “Love Wins.”
Have you noticed how nimbly Rob Bell quotes the first part of John 3:16 “For God so loved the world . . .” and conveniently leaves out the rest of the verse “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God’s love is not merely a “say-love.” He never merely says “I love you” and then settles it with a full stop. His love is a demonstrative love, a giving away love, a caring and sacrificial love for those who are wandering carelessly on their way to perdition (Isaiah 53:6), a love that planted a cursed tree (cross) in every single person’s destructive path of sin and trespasses and had his only spotless and sinless Son crucified on it. He cries out: “Stop here! Do not continue on your destructive way to perdition. The penalty for your sins has been paid in full. There’s no need for you to continue on your journey to eternal punishment in hell. Receive by faith my Son and He will prepare you for a life of eternity in heaven with Me.” God never sends sinners to hell. Let me repeat that: GOD NEVER SENDS SINNERS TO HELL, simply because He did not create hell for human beings. He created hell for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). They are going there of their own accord because they have chosen to follow Satan and his lies in stead of Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
If they hated Him on earth why would they want to love him in heaven? OK! their hearts are going to be changed by gentle persuasion after their demise. Whoopee! let the pre-death creatures eat, drink and be happy, fornicate, rape, murder, make war, sodomize and abuse kids, oppress the poor and the marginalized, shake their fists in anger at God in his heaven and blame Him for all the hellish suffering on earth, reject Christ with all their mind, strength and will, and flare the flames of hell on earth FOR when they die and become post-death creatures God is going to change their hearts with a heaven shattering, monergistic love. (Does this sound a lot like Calvinism? Not the after death bit but the part that says “with monergistic love.”).
If God is eternal then his justice and righteousness must of a necessity be equally eternal and if these attributes are eternal then his just punishment and retribution of his adversaries/enemies (the devil/fallen angels/homo-sapiens Christ rejecters) must of a necessity also be eternal. If one single attribute I mentioned was not as eternal and everlasting as He, He could never have been God. He would merely have been a demigod (a revered man who is treated like a god). That would have been just grand because then we would have had no one to judge mankind righteously and justly. We would have had no Jesus to bear the brunt of God’s righteous judgments on the cross in our behalf. The absence of a real God equals the absence of a real Jesus and the absence of a real Jesus equals the absence of real judgment. How can you expect a God who is love to be one hundred percent love but fifty percent just and righteous. That’s impossible. Voila! no righteous judgment equals no hell. No! this is not what the martyred saints who had been slain by the Christ rejecters on earth say in heaven. Here are their words:
And I also heard the angel of the waters say, Righteous (just) are You in these Your decisions and judgments, You Who are and were, O Holy One! Because they have poured out the blood of Your people (the saints) and the prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. Such is their due [they deserve it]! And [from] the altar I heard [the] cry, Yes, Lord God the Omnipotent, Your judgments (sentences, decisions) are true and just and righteous! (Revelation 16:5-7, Amplified Bible).
Will everyone be saved . . . eventually?
If man has a free-will and his ability to choose is an awesome thing, as Rob Bell affirms in his book “Love Wins,” his presupposition that everyone will choose Christ after death is rather flimsy. How sure can you be that everyone who chooses to reject Christ and his cross in this life is going to change their minds (“metanoia,” repent) and choose to love and obey Him in the afterlife? Has the rich man in hell repented of his rejection of Christ since his conversation with father Abraham who reminded him that even if someone from the dead was sent to warn his five brothers, they still would not listen? If they refused to heed the warnings of Moses and the prophets (the Bible) nothing would convince them to repent. It is evident from this narrative in the New Testament that God’s Word (from Genesis to Revelation) is sufficient to convince people of their fallen state and their final destination in hell if they refuse to repent. Bell’s entire dissertation on hell in his book “Love Wins” is a flagrant rejection of God’s Word. He has all the things Moses and all the prophets had written in God’s Word at his disposal but refuses to listen. He is doing exactly what the rich man’s five brothers had done and that is to shun God’s Word. Not even someone sent from hell to warn him will convince him that he is completely wrong.
The prophet and apostle John who was banished to the island of Patmos wrote in Revelation 20:10 that the devil will be cast into the Lake of Fire where the beast (Antichrist) and the false prophet will already have been incarcerated for a thousand years. What hope does the Antichrist and the false prophet have of being released from the Lake of Fire? Are they going to repent of their sins and eventually gain admittance into the Kingdom of heaven? Please don’t count on it that there will be an opportunity to repent after death. That’s a lie from the pit of hell.
