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A review by baba_yaga_77
Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell
3.0
I had never heard of Rob Bell before I read this book (I was raised fundamentalist, if that helps) and was disappointed that this book read more like a sermon than an academic piece. Bell would have benefitted from footnotes, or at the very least some kind of bibliography, as he made historical claims with no evidence to back it up (Ex. contemporaries to Jesus using the word 'heaven' to refer to God).
Bell's point gets muddled quite often. I finished the book feeling like he didn't really say what he meant to say. I still don't quite understand his perspective on heaven and hell.
I was recommended this book as I am a deconstructing fudamentalist who genuinely thought she were going to hell if she so much as wore pants. A large portion of my prayers were spent begging God to forgive me for cursing while stuck in heavy traffic. I was obsessed with the black and white nature of my existence. I did not learn that God was a loving God in fundamentalist Christianity. I learned that God loved you despite your sin, in spite of all the bad things you did. It was conditional love. Love that said, you're a terrible person because you cursed once, and you're going to hell even though I love you. God was an angry, violent, wrathful, jealous God too. I struggled to reconcile these things- wrath, jealousy, anger, violence- which were described in the bible as unholy and which I sought forgiveness for from God, with the loving, generous, giving nature of God. How could God be angry, wrathful, and jealous while being loving and kind? How could God be that which I was counseled by the bible to not be, lest my soul suffer eternal damnation? How can God be perfect but jealous, perfect but wrathful, perfect but a destroyer? The bible is inconsistent. It is contradictory.
I decided ultimately for myself that God's love trumps all else. It trumps his wrath, his jealousy, his anger. Love conquers all, it never fails, it is the most supreme quality of God. If God was defined by his anger and not his love, why would Jesus have died for our sins? I choose to let God be defined by his anger. I chose to let God be love.
I understand that there are Christians who don't want to do that. Who can't. I understand and respect that. I have read the Bible in KJV once, in MSG once, and in NIV around 7 times. I have read the New Testament in its entirety in the NIV more times than I can count. God is a self-proclaimed mystery. We cannot presume to know God's entirety.
I have struggled many times with thoughts like, do children who aren't saved go to hell? What about indigenous people who have never even seen a missionary? What if it wasn't the "right" missionary? What about the millions of indigenous people who died in the 16th century from disease, famine, and slavery? What about the people in Muslim nations where Christianity is forbidden? What about those in countries where it is unsafe to read the Bible or practice the faith? And what if it's not the "right" faith? What about people of other religions and Christian faiths who are living pure, Godly lives? Those who have followed every commandment, sold all their possessions, etc? What about them? I don't know that this book answered these questions. But I do think it opened up a dialogue to begin answering them, or at least begin approaching them. I don't know if we will ever be able to answer these questions. For who can really know God?
All I know is that I look at all my beautiful, kind, loving, amazing friends and peers whom I love dearly, who are not "saved," and I think, 'none of you deserve Hell. All of you deserve God's love. Were I God, all of you would spent eternity in my love.' Are people in Hell now not in God's love? Does God still love them? I don't know, but I should believe so.
I am still confused. I am still unsure. I still do not have the answers to my questions. I still question God. I still question the bible, for all its inconsistencies and contradictions and confusing statements. But I do know one thing. The greatest of these is Love, and Love never fails.
Bell's point gets muddled quite often. I finished the book feeling like he didn't really say what he meant to say. I still don't quite understand his perspective on heaven and hell.
I was recommended this book as I am a deconstructing fudamentalist who genuinely thought she were going to hell if she so much as wore pants. A large portion of my prayers were spent begging God to forgive me for cursing while stuck in heavy traffic. I was obsessed with the black and white nature of my existence. I did not learn that God was a loving God in fundamentalist Christianity. I learned that God loved you despite your sin, in spite of all the bad things you did. It was conditional love. Love that said, you're a terrible person because you cursed once, and you're going to hell even though I love you. God was an angry, violent, wrathful, jealous God too. I struggled to reconcile these things- wrath, jealousy, anger, violence- which were described in the bible as unholy and which I sought forgiveness for from God, with the loving, generous, giving nature of God. How could God be angry, wrathful, and jealous while being loving and kind? How could God be that which I was counseled by the bible to not be, lest my soul suffer eternal damnation? How can God be perfect but jealous, perfect but wrathful, perfect but a destroyer? The bible is inconsistent. It is contradictory.
I decided ultimately for myself that God's love trumps all else. It trumps his wrath, his jealousy, his anger. Love conquers all, it never fails, it is the most supreme quality of God. If God was defined by his anger and not his love, why would Jesus have died for our sins? I choose to let God be defined by his anger. I chose to let God be love.
I understand that there are Christians who don't want to do that. Who can't. I understand and respect that. I have read the Bible in KJV once, in MSG once, and in NIV around 7 times. I have read the New Testament in its entirety in the NIV more times than I can count. God is a self-proclaimed mystery. We cannot presume to know God's entirety.
I have struggled many times with thoughts like, do children who aren't saved go to hell? What about indigenous people who have never even seen a missionary? What if it wasn't the "right" missionary? What about the millions of indigenous people who died in the 16th century from disease, famine, and slavery? What about the people in Muslim nations where Christianity is forbidden? What about those in countries where it is unsafe to read the Bible or practice the faith? And what if it's not the "right" faith? What about people of other religions and Christian faiths who are living pure, Godly lives? Those who have followed every commandment, sold all their possessions, etc? What about them? I don't know that this book answered these questions. But I do think it opened up a dialogue to begin answering them, or at least begin approaching them. I don't know if we will ever be able to answer these questions. For who can really know God?
All I know is that I look at all my beautiful, kind, loving, amazing friends and peers whom I love dearly, who are not "saved," and I think, 'none of you deserve Hell. All of you deserve God's love. Were I God, all of you would spent eternity in my love.' Are people in Hell now not in God's love? Does God still love them? I don't know, but I should believe so.
I am still confused. I am still unsure. I still do not have the answers to my questions. I still question God. I still question the bible, for all its inconsistencies and contradictions and confusing statements. But I do know one thing. The greatest of these is Love, and Love never fails.