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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
definitely some interesting ideas brought forth here that i like. the writing style is a little too concise for me though.
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
This book filled me with hope. Take it with a grain of salt, though; it's not scripture.
My biggest problem with Love Wins is the same problem I have with all Christian books. There are a few very very good points and great arguments. But there are also large sections where it feels repetitive, confusing, or uninteresting. But many things may speak to others that did not to me. That is the nature of religion and philosophy.
So, I did it. I finally read Rob Bell's controversial book. And here's where I get to put in my two cents, right? And all of you will read it.
God is alive.
He used this book to remind me that He is not dead. He used this book to remind me that it doesn't matter to Him that I have ignored him for the past two months while I've been reading books. (Let's be honest, I've ignored Him for longer than that, with no real excuse. Not that an excuse to ignore God would really be valid.) God used this book to whisper up close next to me, "I'm here. Remember me? I love you."
Man, I SO needed that!
So, real review:
Rob Bell said it well in his introduction. There truly was a lot in this book that I had already heard from some other Christian reading, some other spiritual book, some other sermon, some other place. And yet, I feel like this book still needed to be written. Rob Bell comes at these weird, deep and hard questions in a way that is accessible. It's like he's saying, "I have those questions too. And I have no real idea how to answer them. Here's what I've circled around, though." It's like Madeleine L'Engle was saying in the book I read right before picking Love Wins up: most of the questions go unanswered and that's an ok thing.
I can't say that I now have a much more clear understanding of what happens after you believe in Jesus. I can't say that now I know for sure what heaven is or means or where it will be. I have my assumptions and theories based on scriptures from the Bible and discussions and sermons. But I'm a human. And I think the great thing about this book to take away, if you take away nothing else, is that Rob is trying to remind us (gently) that we are humans. How can we possibly be so arrogant as to think we know what God is up to?
I will be recommending this book, because I want to discuss it with people. I'm not in love with the book. I'm not agreeing with everything Rob said in it, or has ever said, or ever will say. I want my mom and dad to read this book. I want to know what they think of it. I want my sister and brother-in-law to read this book. I want to know what they think of it. I want Nayt to read this book. I want to hear how God talks to him as he thinks about it. And I trust He will.
This was good. Thank you for lending it to me, Lauren Brookes. :)
God is alive.
He used this book to remind me that He is not dead. He used this book to remind me that it doesn't matter to Him that I have ignored him for the past two months while I've been reading books. (Let's be honest, I've ignored Him for longer than that, with no real excuse. Not that an excuse to ignore God would really be valid.) God used this book to whisper up close next to me, "I'm here. Remember me? I love you."
Man, I SO needed that!
So, real review:
Rob Bell said it well in his introduction. There truly was a lot in this book that I had already heard from some other Christian reading, some other spiritual book, some other sermon, some other place. And yet, I feel like this book still needed to be written. Rob Bell comes at these weird, deep and hard questions in a way that is accessible. It's like he's saying, "I have those questions too. And I have no real idea how to answer them. Here's what I've circled around, though." It's like Madeleine L'Engle was saying in the book I read right before picking Love Wins up: most of the questions go unanswered and that's an ok thing.
I can't say that I now have a much more clear understanding of what happens after you believe in Jesus. I can't say that now I know for sure what heaven is or means or where it will be. I have my assumptions and theories based on scriptures from the Bible and discussions and sermons. But I'm a human. And I think the great thing about this book to take away, if you take away nothing else, is that Rob is trying to remind us (gently) that we are humans. How can we possibly be so arrogant as to think we know what God is up to?
I will be recommending this book, because I want to discuss it with people. I'm not in love with the book. I'm not agreeing with everything Rob said in it, or has ever said, or ever will say. I want my mom and dad to read this book. I want to know what they think of it. I want my sister and brother-in-law to read this book. I want to know what they think of it. I want Nayt to read this book. I want to hear how God talks to him as he thinks about it. And I trust He will.
This was good. Thank you for lending it to me, Lauren Brookes. :)
Thought provoking read, although the writing style is a bit awkward. I believe that we should occasionally go back and reexamine our "sacred" beliefs. Whether we come to the same conclusions as Mr Bell or not, it is healthy to challenge ourselves.
After reading Preston Sprinkle's "Fight" I decided I was going to read more of his books. One of his books "Erasing Hell" is a response to this book. So, I figured I'd read this book first. There are a few verses that he cites that he raises good, genuine questions. However, lots of scripture is cited without ever being quoted, and much of it is taken out of context. Furthermore, he ignores a lot of inconvenient passages that refute his stance. He also ignores a lot of verses that refer to Hell figuratively or metaphorically. If you cherry picking enough you can support almost any position. One of his main flaws is that he pays attention to fallen human examples of Christian faith- then criticizes them as if they are real representations of Christ. Like many atheists, he has a problem with the holiness, sovereignty, and authority of God. And so he dictates to God what God must do, or what the right thing to do is from human perspective. To me this is one of the many reasons why I am not Armenian, and lean more on the doctrine of predestination, rather than free will. I will concede that there are a few passages that deserve further study because they are complicated, but as one of my pastor's was fond of saying "You can't just say thus says Scripture, unless you back it up with and it also says, and it also says, and it also says." In other words you can't base all your theology off of one verse you have to interpret that verse in context of the rest of the Bible. Admittedly, I do agree with the author that Christian faith should be something more than just "fire insurance", or is he calls it an "escape ticket", but I just agree him about the conclusion he then draws. He does not adequately address what happens to those who intentionally and repeatedly reject God. He doesn't really focus on the other side of eternity, that is Heaven and how to handle the passages that talk about it. And he only briefly mentioned the criticism of "what's the point of Christ, the cross, and faith if everyone is going to be saved and redeemed".
I do remember in college being asked to respond to an article where a pastor/theologian came to the conclusion that Hell was a literal second death, that is that the soul/spirit is destroyed at the judgment and so there is no continuation of the judgment, no consequence, nor a Hell. I wrote a critique of the paper as I was asked to do, but I concluded with the idea that I wasn't sure why it mattered so much here in this life. Plenty of Christians have focused wrongly on the idea that the Christian faith is about avoiding hell. Certainly on this side of eternity we can't be dogmatic about things that just have not come, that scripture does not fully illuminate. Despite losing points in that paper, I'm still not sure I agree with my professor that the exact consequence of hell matters as much as the mere idea that there is a consequence. I don't regret reading book, but I certainly don't agree with it beyond the minor exceptions I noted above. I am interested to move on to Preston Sprinkle's book and see how he handles the tricky passages that were noted.
Lastly, I have listened to literally hundreds of audiobooks, and this one was just poorly produced. Normally I don't love it when the author reads the book, unless the author is a professional public speaker- he is and so that part didn't bug me. There were way too many places where he tried to adapt the print book to be an audiobook and yet failed to do so in other parts. The description of a few images was very clunky, and the transition between chapters was horrendous. It was obvious to me that this was a very low budget production, probably because many wanted to avoid being associated with the book since it stances so radical.
I do remember in college being asked to respond to an article where a pastor/theologian came to the conclusion that Hell was a literal second death, that is that the soul/spirit is destroyed at the judgment and so there is no continuation of the judgment, no consequence, nor a Hell. I wrote a critique of the paper as I was asked to do, but I concluded with the idea that I wasn't sure why it mattered so much here in this life. Plenty of Christians have focused wrongly on the idea that the Christian faith is about avoiding hell. Certainly on this side of eternity we can't be dogmatic about things that just have not come, that scripture does not fully illuminate. Despite losing points in that paper, I'm still not sure I agree with my professor that the exact consequence of hell matters as much as the mere idea that there is a consequence. I don't regret reading book, but I certainly don't agree with it beyond the minor exceptions I noted above. I am interested to move on to Preston Sprinkle's book and see how he handles the tricky passages that were noted.
Lastly, I have listened to literally hundreds of audiobooks, and this one was just poorly produced. Normally I don't love it when the author reads the book, unless the author is a professional public speaker- he is and so that part didn't bug me. There were way too many places where he tried to adapt the print book to be an audiobook and yet failed to do so in other parts. The description of a few images was very clunky, and the transition between chapters was horrendous. It was obvious to me that this was a very low budget production, probably because many wanted to avoid being associated with the book since it stances so radical.
I think there is a lot of great stuff in this book. The picture Rob Bell paints of God's love resonated with me in a profound way. I don't really get where the controversy and negative reaction to this book came from.