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A review by megryanreally
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
4.0
Read for it's particularly controversial impact, the frustrating fact that many opine its failure without having even read it, my skepticism around eschatology, and my profound love of Rob Bell, here's what I can say:
1. There's probably more here you can agree than disagree with... who desires to hold a view that upon one's death, the all loving master of the universe becomes an estranged, raging demagogue? Such characterization defies the very character of God and the one who promises to reconcile all things to him. Is he incapable?
2. Moses' people drank water from a rock. Later, Paul would say that rock was Jesus. Jesus is the only way, but does that preclude people who don't name him that way but are indeed following his precepts and experiencing his love in their own right?
3. In the story of the prodigal son, both sons misinterpreted their father. The returning son thought his father would deem him worthless and turn him away. The other son was resentful that he had "slaved" for his father but got nothing in return. He believes his goodness will save him. Both our badness AND goodness can separate us from the Lord, and yet both were at the party. The father's love cannot be earned, it just IS. The question is whether the sons will believe and trust their story of things or their father's and join the party.
4. When the young rich man asks Jesus what he can do to get eternal life, Jesus makes the question about what he's doing now. Heaven and hell are urgent; they are here right now. Heaven was another way for people in Jesus' time to say God without blaspheming his name, it is a realm where one will is done, that of God's. It's about aligning your will with his will now. Caring about suffering now. If you believe this life is all for life somewhere else, what are you going to do about this world now? When Jesus spoke about bringing heaven to earth, he was urging us to fully engage with our world now, not escape from it.
I rate it 4 rather than 5 stars for Bell's oftentimes round about way of coming to a conclusion that could leave me confused in the process.
1. There's probably more here you can agree than disagree with... who desires to hold a view that upon one's death, the all loving master of the universe becomes an estranged, raging demagogue? Such characterization defies the very character of God and the one who promises to reconcile all things to him. Is he incapable?
2. Moses' people drank water from a rock. Later, Paul would say that rock was Jesus. Jesus is the only way, but does that preclude people who don't name him that way but are indeed following his precepts and experiencing his love in their own right?
3. In the story of the prodigal son, both sons misinterpreted their father. The returning son thought his father would deem him worthless and turn him away. The other son was resentful that he had "slaved" for his father but got nothing in return. He believes his goodness will save him. Both our badness AND goodness can separate us from the Lord, and yet both were at the party. The father's love cannot be earned, it just IS. The question is whether the sons will believe and trust their story of things or their father's and join the party.
4. When the young rich man asks Jesus what he can do to get eternal life, Jesus makes the question about what he's doing now. Heaven and hell are urgent; they are here right now. Heaven was another way for people in Jesus' time to say God without blaspheming his name, it is a realm where one will is done, that of God's. It's about aligning your will with his will now. Caring about suffering now. If you believe this life is all for life somewhere else, what are you going to do about this world now? When Jesus spoke about bringing heaven to earth, he was urging us to fully engage with our world now, not escape from it.
I rate it 4 rather than 5 stars for Bell's oftentimes round about way of coming to a conclusion that could leave me confused in the process.