Ernest Smith

As my guest blogger for this week, I have asked Shawn Wood, senior pastor of Freedom Church (www.freedomchurch.sc) to write a review on a book that he has read recently.  His review on Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” is below.

I received a copy of and read Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” in early March. The discussion that arose around the book when it released was an important one. Bell raises several issues that many would see as unorthodox and the bottom line is that “Love Wins” is the handbook for Pluralistic Universalism.

Here is a quote to illustrate:

“What he (Jesus) 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 through him will even know that they are coming exclusively through him.  He simply claims that whatever God is doing in the world to know and redeem and love and restore the world is happening through him…(page 156)…As soon as the door is opened to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptist from Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus does not matter anymore, the cross is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what you believe, and so forth. Not true.  Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true.  What Jesus does is declare that he, and he alone, is saving everybody.  And then he leaves the door way, way open.  Creating all sorts of possibilities.  He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe.  He is as exclusive as himself and as inclusive as containing every single particle of creation” (page 157)

What Bell says here sounds open-minded and tolerant and even loving.

It is not. His words seem vague but the underlying teaching is clear: faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is simply not necessary to be reconciled to God.  The furor that erupted over the promotional video for Love Wins focused exclusively on whether Bell is a Universalist. As the above excerpt makes clear, Universalism is only one of several very troubling teachings found within the pages of Bell’s book.

This is a very big deal. The issues Bell addresses are not minor theological points that have no impact on the everyday lives of people. The subtitle of Love Wins conveys perfectly the magnitude of Bell’s teaching, for it deals with “the fate of every person who ever lived.” And Bell’s conclusion is this: there is no eternal judgment and faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not essential for salvation.

I pray that this blows over and that many are not deceived. I fear, however, that Bell’s words are what many people have been waiting to hear.

I pray that we continue to spread the gospel and rescue the perishing.

Of course, if no one is really perishing, then who needs rescuing?