"Love Wins" - A Heresy or the Heart of the Gospel?

In the wake of the Colorado shootings, "Truth in Action" spokesman Jerry Newcombe made the statement that the reason for the shootings was because "America had lost its fear of hell," and went on to state that everyone who died that day who had not had a "personal relationship with Jesus" was going to a "terrible place."

Now there's a bit of pastoral care they forgot to teach me in seminary. When you have an entire nation grieving over a horrific tragedy, let's throw the threat of hell in there just for fun. After all, don't you remember Christ's command to "put the fear of hell into them so that they will know you are my disciples"?

Oh... wait...

Admittedly, the topic of hell is not one I tend to like to discuss much. While I've always accepted its reality, (because I figure why give a warning if there is no danger?) it hasn't been a point of doctrine I've chosen to discuss or even debate much in my ministry. Mainly because it makes me uncomfortable. Not that I tend to shy away from that which makes me uncomfortable, but the whole "hell" thing has just never quite set right with me. Yet, neither has "universalism." Jesus and the scriptures do give us warnings for a reason - I've just struggled with the harshness of our understanding of hell, its seeming contradiction to what a gracious and loving God would do with people who make a few wrong choices, grew up in the wrong place/culture or have suffered abuse at the hands of the church in one form or another.

Admittedly, I have a lot of non-Christian friends that I love dearly. I figure if I can love them, and God's capacity for love far exceeds my own (at least, that's what scripture has taught me), then I have to trust that God is going to do the right thing with those friends of mine who have no faith, or have a faith that differs from mine. Arguably, most are not Christians because of how they've been treated by Christians. They can't stand the hypocrisy, intolerance, judgmental attitudes, small-mindedness, hateful remarks and our insistence that they believe everything a particular way or face eternal torment.

In many cases their rejection is based more upon how Christ and God have been presented than a rejection of what Christ and God truly stand for according to the scriptures. When they voice their opposition and can't believe in the kind of God they have been presented with or the kind of God they had shoved down their throats as a kid, I usually agree with them - I don't believe in that God either.

Therefore, I have always been leery of saying who's "in" and who's "out," stating, "God will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy." I've felt it's never been my place to say who goes to hell and who doesn't. That's God's place to decide. My job has always and will always be - to share the hope I have in and through Jesus Christ and to love and serve my fellow human being to the best of my ability. What happens from there is up to God. Faith is, as Hebrews 11:1 states, "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Faith brings assurance of what God has done for the world through Jesus Christ. Those without faith - lack that assurance in their life. Either by choice, or by misunderstanding the message.

I continue to stand by that view, but following Jerry Newcombe's statements, I decided maybe it was time to address the issue I had avoided for so long more directly. I had such a strong, negative reaction to what he said that I figured that was coming from somewhere. Deep in my soul, there was something that said "something's not right with this." His words seemed irresponsible at best; harmful at worst. While I have accepted there are many things that don't always sit right, something finally said, "now is the time for you to deal with this. To sort this out." So that's what I began doing. Perhaps I'll be accused of sentimentalism and I no doubt will have people say what is espoused below is heresy and that I don't take the threat of hell seriously. Actually, I do. Because I was at one time one of those people who had a problem with Christianity because its fearful message of "believe or roast in eternal hell" never quite worked with the loving Jesus I was also learning about in Sunday school. Cruel and judgmental became the more prevalent viewpoint and I backed away from that Jesus and that God. I rarely attended church, and believe me, becoming a pastor was not even remotely on my radar. That God drove me away from him. That message sent me searching elsewhere, thinking there had to be a better story - a better gospel - than that. Eventually, the love, grace and redemption part eventually made it's way through, and I've lived in an uneasy tension ever since. So it has been a life-long struggle of how do I reconcile hell and a forgiving, loving God? Can I stay true to the scriptures without threatening the fires of hell on those who balk at the actions of many Christians and thus balk at the idea of our God and Christ?

Now, I already know all the arguments regarding "don't have faith - you're going to hell." Most of you know them too, therefore I'm not going to bother with repeating all of them here. I know what they say, and I know how we typically tend to interpret them. While such statements always disturbed me, I allowed myself to live in the tension of believing in a loving, forgiving God and the reality of "hell," figuring it simply was not my place to judge the state of one's heart or standing with God. I know there are statements made in the Bible that are meant to disturb us - because God at times wants to disturb us to move us into action. But this went beyond just being a little disturbed to a nagging "settle this in your heart."

Knowing the other argument, I decided to read the controversial book by Rob Bell entitled "Love Wins." I'd heard the criticisms, I know many called his book heretical (before they'd even read it), and that he was espousing the idea that hell was not real, that it simply didn't exist. But I decided, OK, let's see what this guy REALLY has to say. What I found, at least in my view, was not the heretical "hell isn't real, just ignore all that" I was expecting. Hell was quite present. But so was the gospel. Perhaps I'm grappling still with a few nuances of the book, trying to figure out how some of my Lutheran theology squares with a few different things, but overall it was a deeply compassionate and scripturally motivated work. While I can't touch on every single argument and topic Bell raises, as that would require its own book, I'll attempt to convey the major points.

Does Hell Exist?
Contrary to the accusations that have been tossed out at Mr. Bell, he has not "erased" hell. In fact, Bell affirms there is indeed a hell. Hell is what happens when people abandon all that is good and right and kind and humane. Bell argues that God gives us what we want (and really, hasn't that always been how God's gone about judgment, saying "have it your way"?) and if we want to continue in lives, both now and later, that promote injustice, division, hatred, and violence, aka hell... well... then we can have it. Love, grace and humanity can be rejected. Hell, Bell argues (ok, that was just fun to say), is a "volatile mixture of images, pictures and metaphors that describe the very real experiences and consequences of rejecting our God-given goodness and humanity." While many, especially my fellow Lutherans, would take exception to those last few words - "God-given goodness and humanity" - and argue humanity is not "good," it is sinful, and "only God is good," (Mark 10:18) I think his point is not so much about humanity being "good" as in not sinful, but is in the context of describing some of the horrendous and horrible things we do to each other. The difference between loving one's neighbor and committing atrocities against them. The difference between feeding the poor and taking advantage of them.

One of Bell's primary arguments, however, is understanding exactly what Jesus meant by "hell" when he talked about it. When he names it specifically, he's referencing an actual place just outside the city. He's referencing the "Valley of Hinnom," or "Gehenna," which was a burning trash dump located just southwest of Jerusalem's city gates. The fires never went out and wild animals fought for scraps of food along the edges of the heap, making a gnashing sound as they battled. Is it a literal place? Absolutely. Is he using its imagery to describe the fact that God burns up the sinful garbage from our lives that we have to throw away in the age to come? Absolutely.

Jesus loves using evocative imagery like this to grab people's attention. He uses images like burning trash dumps to describe the dumping ground for our sin. He uses parables, like the rich man and Lazarus, to show what happens when we choose to cling to that sinful garbage. He points to the "attitude" of the rich man. Even in death, even as he sits in torment, he wants Lazarus to get him water. He wants Lazarus to serve him. The chasm that can't be crossed is the rich man's heart as he still clings to the old hierarchy. He rejects the new social order, even in death. He rejected Lazarus as his neighbor and brother in life and continues to reject him in death. Therefore in rejecting the Lazaruses of the world, he has rejected God. He's dead, but he hasn't died the kind of death that actually brings life. He clings to all the things that God has thrown on the burning trash heap to be destroyed.

Bell states, "What we see in Jesus' story about the rich man and Lazarus is an affirmation that there are all kinds of hells, because there are all kinds of ways to resist and reject all that is good and true and beautiful and human now, in this life, and so we can only assume we can do the same in the next... There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously."

It is important to take into consideration as well that when Jesus talks about hell, judgment and punishment, who he was speaking to. Jesus spends most of his time talking to devoted Jews, people who saw themselves as God's people and on the "inside track," secure in their knowledge that they were God's chosen, saved, covenant people. When Jesus speaks of hell, he's rarely speaking about what people believe but rather the state of the listener's hearts, how they interact with their neighbors and the kind of effect they have on the world. 

"Jesus did not use hell to try and compel heathens and pagans to believe in God so they wouldn't burn when they die. He talked about hell to very religious people to warn them about the consequences of straying from their God-given calling and identity to show the world God's love. This is not to say that hell is not a pointed, urgent warning or that it isn't intimately connected with what we actually do believe, but simply to point out that Jesus talked about hell to the people who considered themselves "in," warning them that their hard hearts were putting their "in-ness" at risk, reminding them whatever "chosen-ness" or "election" meant, whatever special standing they believed they had with God was always, only, ever about their being the kind of transformed, generous, loving people through whom God could show the world what God's love looks like in flesh and blood."

Is Hell "Eternal"?
Bell makes the point that the word "forever" and "eternal" are not the same word. He notes that the Hebrew word for "forever" (olam) is used by Jonah to describe how long he spent in the belly of the whale. He spent "forever" - which, in Jonah's case, was 3 days. Bell continues to make his argument with the Greek words for "forever" and "eternal" (which are different) mean in the "the age to come."

"Forever" (aeon) in the Greek Lexicon is defined as "an age; from the beginning; world order; eternal" (So, yes it can mean "eternal"... but there's another word for actual "eternal," such as when Jesus refers to "eternal life.") The word for "eternal" is "aeonios" which is defined as: "eternal (of quality rather than of time); unending, everlasting, for all time."

So then I did a search to see where "aeon" was used and where "aeonios" was used. Aeonios (eternal) is used in reference to the "eternal fire" only ONCE - and it's utilized when Jesus talks about cutting off a limb when it causes you to sin and throwing it into the "eternal fire." Otherwise, every single other reference to "hell" or "fire," "destruction," etc, uses the word "aeon" or "forever," not eternal. Eternal (aeonios) however is utilized over and over again to describe "eternal life." So the hell references use the more limited "aeon" while the eternal life references use the more expansive "aeonios."

So the question is, if "eternal hell" and "eternal life" are to be seen as equivalent fates, why is the more limited word in Greek, "forever," (aeon) used every time it refers to hell and destruction, and "eternal" used to describe life? Why not use "eternal" for both if that's the intention?

Such a view seems to fit with scripture like Lamentations 3:31-33, "For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone."

For my fellow Lutherans, the idea that a person can still be redeemed beyond the grave, even if they rejected and refused Christ in this life, should not be a new concept. Luther himself in a letter to Hans von Rechenber suggests the possibility that one could turn to God even after death, asking, "Who would doubt God's ability to do that?" Indeed, one of my seminary professors who taught Lutheran confessions stated on more than one occasion, "What can Christ do with a dead you?" suggesting redemption is never impossible, even once you're dead.

Jesus himself states that nothing is unforgivable except "blaspheming the holy spirit;" that is to reject God's work, to reject God's liberating and loving freedom. When standing face to face with God who offers liberation from sin, death, sorrow and pain - and to still say no. In such instances, God does have a history of saying, "Ok, have it your way." You prefer your pain and sorrow and suffering - your hell - then that's what you can have.

But is it forever? How have God's punishments against unjust societies acted in the past? Just to be cruel for the sake of cruelty, or for correction? Over and over again, when God says, "Fine, have it your way," it's so that we can finally discover on our own, that our way is not the best way. It's designed to draw people back to him.

So can someone who chooses their hell, chooses to continue to do the things God will not allow in His Kingdom eventually change their mind? Can they ever be drawn back to God? Does the scripture ever talk about bringing those he has punished back to himself? That he won't abandon them forever? Isn't that what scripture repeats over and over and over again?

People would argue, "who would ever choose hell?" and yet I see people in the here in now choosing their own form of earthly hell, so bound up in their own misery, so unwilling to let go of their addictions, their pain, their resentments, their anger that they do choose their own living hell in the here and now. Like the rich man who walks away from Jesus because he can't walk away from his wealth. They choose their own paths to destruction and resent and refuse any intervention made on their behalf.

Yet that is still not God's desire for their lives or their futures, in this life or the next. "He bears patiently with you, His desire being that no one should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

What About Matthew 7:13-14?

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

I've seen this criticism over and over that Bell does not take into account Matthew 7 or address it in his book. If this is the best argument people can come up with against these viewpoints, it's a shaky objection.  Jesus' warning here is really no different than a multitude of other statements he makes about how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. When the rich man asks what he must do to attain eternal life, rather than taking the perfect opportunity to tell him "just have faith," Jesus instead states, "sell all your possessions and follow me." The rich man turns and walks away because he cannot let go of his earthly wealth. He cannot stop clinging to those things God deems rubbish in his Kingdom.

Or when Jesus states it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus' point with the wide and narrow gates and roads is in this same vein. Self-destructive paths are always easier to go down. Clinging to the worldly things that harm us ultimately rather than choosing the path that leads to "life" is a reality of human nature. While not addressing this particular scripture directly, he answers it in the Hebrew view of what is meant by "life" and "death."

"We're used to people speaking of life and death as fixed states or destinations, as in you're either alive or you're dead. What we find in the scriptures is a more nuanced understanding that sees life and death as two ways of being alive. When Moses in Deuteronomy 30 calls the Hebrews to choose life over death, he's not forcing them to decide whether they will be killed on the spot; he's confronting them with their choice of the kind of life they're going to keep on living. The one kind of life is in vital connection with the living God, in which they experience more and more peace and wholeness. The other kind of life is less and less connected with God and contains more and more despair and destruction."

Jesus over and over does the same thing. He calls people to live in God's Kingdom in the here and now. To live a rich and full life lived in God rather than pursuing the things in life that lead to self-destruction, pain, and sorrow. To forgive rather than cling to resentments. To follow him and leave behind the pursuits of the world and instead live a joyous life that exudes a love that breaks down all kinds of human barriers that transcends the "categories" the world places us in.

Does What We Believe Matter Then?
Absolutely. People believe all sorts of things about God and themselves. Like the two sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son, both have their view of events. Both believe something about their Father and their situation. One feels so unworthy because of what he's done that he just hopes he can be a servant in his father's household. The elder brother, by contrast, sees his father's response to throw a party as being unfair - that he's been a "slave" to his father all these years, not recognizing everything the father had was already his. He could have had a party with a fatted calf anytime he wanted it. He sits at the party in his own personal hell because he refuses to trust the father's version of his story.

"We all have our version of events. Who we are, who we aren't, what we've done, what that means for our future. our worth, value, significance. The things we believe about ourselves that we cling to despite the pain and agony they're causing us. Some people are haunted by the sins of the past. Abuse, betrayal, addiction, infidelity--secrets that have been buried for years...flaws, failures, shame like a stain that won't wash out. A deep-seated, profound belief that they are at some primal level of the soul, not good enough. For other, it isn't their acute sense of their lack or inadequacy or sins; it's their pride. Their ego. They're convinced of their own greatness and autonomy--they don't need anybody... we believe all sorts of things about ourselves."

God invites us into his story of who and what we are. A life without guilt or shame or blame or anxiety. The question is - can we trust that story of ourselves? Can we trust God's version of events and God's declaration of who we are to him? Or do we believe our own version of events? Do we trust God's "unfailing love" for us? Or do we trust a version of the story that says if you don't believe exactly the right things in exactly the right way, God will punish you forever?

"A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have  relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormentor who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony...If God can switch gears like that, switch entire modes of being that quickly, that raises a thousand questions about whether a being like this could ever be trusted, let alone be good...Hell is refusing to trust, and refusing to trust is often rooted in a distorted view of God. Sometimes the reason people have a problem accepting "the gospel" is that they sense that the God lurking behind Jesus isn't safe, loving, or good... they want nothing to do with Jesus because they don't want anything to do with that God."

This point highlights what I highlighted as my suspicion at the beginning of my blog - that many reject Jesus because they are rejecting our presentation of God and Jesus. Have we spent too much time presenting God as an abusive parent who tosses people into the eternal fires of torment when they don't step exactly right or don't believe exactly the right things? When they misunderstand the message that we Christians have been entrusted with? Jesus tells his disciples that the world will know them by how they love one another as Christ loved them.

How exactly did Christ love his disciples?

The disciples were loved by Jesus despite their inability to grasp over and over again who exactly Jesus was.
The disciples were loved by Jesus when they just didn't get what he was trying to tell them.
The disciples were loved by Jesus when they displayed their lack of faith.
The disciples were loved by Jesus even after they denied him and abandoned him to suffer and die on the cross.

So why do we impose more limitations on Jesus' ability to love and forgive than Jesus himself imposed? Can we trust God's ability and will to forgive and love us?

Hell is refusing to trust, and refusing to trust is often rooted in a distorted view of God... to reject God's grace, to turn from God's love, to resist God's telling, will lead to misery. It is a form of punishment all on its own... saying yes will take us in one direction, saying no will take us in another. God is love and to refuse this love moves us away from it in the other direction, and that will by very definition be an increasingly unloving, hellish reality.

So Why Have Faith Now If The Possibility of Forgiveness Exists Later?
In many ways, this is one of the more ridiculous questions, but one that gets asked frequently. Why have faith? Why not just live your sinful life, reject God's ways and then when you get in front of God go, "Yeah, ok, I lived my life this way but now I'm ready for that whole eternal life in your kingdom kind of thing"? Doesn't quite work that way. Because what you practice now, what you cling to now, will be just as hard to give up in the next life as it is in this life. You grow to love your sinful ways, they'll be that much harder to dump on the burning trash heap. When the light shines on them, revealing them for all they're worth, do we ask for forgiveness, or shy away and run back to the shadows? Paul states in 1 Corinthians 3, "If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

But if you knew about something wondrous, if you could experience and know RIGHT NOW that God forgives you, that God has a life of peace, prosperity, happiness and joy that is filled with no war, pain, sorrow, greed, or injustice - wouldn't you like to know about it? Wouldn't you like to experience in the here and the now the blessings of God's world both now AND then? Faith isn't about a ticket into an event. Faith is about living and participating in the event itself. Faith indeed saves us - it saves us from despair. It saves us from thinking "this is all there is." It saves us from having no hope in a glorious future. That's the danger we run right now in our lives. The future looks bleak. Headlines show us day after day the horrors and atrocities of war and rebellion. Senseless acts of violence. Global warming, historic droughts, rising poverty levels, unemployment, shaky economies... we see it all around us and it's not too difficult to see our world headed for destruction. Hope has become a rare commodity. Faith is about trusting God has something else in mind for us and our world. Faith is about realizing that if we actually acted the way Jesus commands us to act, our world, in the here and now, actually CAN be a better place. Faith has real consequences right now in how we live our lives as much as it does in the age to come.

Living a life secure in the knowledge of redemption and love brings about "true life." It's that "life" lived in God that leads to "eternal life" that both Moses and Jesus talked about. It's both a present and future reality.

Does Love Win?
Many critics of Bell's viewpoint state that Bell doesn't "trust" God when the scriptures talk about the reality of hell, and yet, from my perspective, Bell "trusts" God more than most. He trusts God to do the right thing. He trusts God when He says he sent Christ into the world to redeem and save the world. He trusts the scriptures when they say Christ came to save all people. He doesn't deny hell, and doesn't deny it's reality in both this life and the next. He merely questions the way in which we tend to interpret how one winds up there. Does God "send" people there, or is it a reality we choose until we accept God's reality for our world and lives? Is it eternal, or does it only last as long as we resist?

Bell's view of Christ's death and resurrection is cosmic and sweeping. That Christ's work is bigger than JUST a personal relationship with Jesus. That Jesus, the living incarnate Word of God through whom all things were made, came to renew, restore and reconcile everything on earth and in heaven. (Colossians 1) Death and destruction have been defeated on a grand scale that involves the entire world and universe. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8) All of humanity died through the first humans so "in Christ all will be made alive." (1 Cor. 15). For "the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people," (Titus 2) and "just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all." (Romans 5)

Scripture tells us over and over how God is love and how His desire is to reconcile the ENTIRE world to himself, not just a select few. Even in Revelation, we discover God's motives and actions are ultimately not destructive, but constructive. That his will is not to destroy the earth, but to renew and redeem it. That destruction and violence aren't ultimately how he chooses to win people's hearts. That when people repent and turn to him, healing can begin. Tears can be wiped away. Hearts can be transformed.

God's eternal city that comes to earth draws all nations to its healing trees and river of life. The gates that surround the city stand wide open, never to be shut. Forever open, forever beckoning. Nothing impure enters it - because the blood of the lamb cleanses all who enter. Lying, idolatry, deceit, lust... all the garbage of our sinful lives are left outside the gates. We can't take those things with us into God's holy and eternal city.

Outside the city gates is the burning trash heap of everything that is impure, everything that doesn't belong in God's Kingdom. It is Gehenna, hell. It is clinging to the rubbish of the sinful world, refusing the changed reality of God's kingdom, refusing to trust the redemptive power of Christ in our lives both now and in the age to come.

Is this heresy or the heart of the Gospel message? Is the good news of what Christ did through his death and resurrection bigger and better than being reduced to who's "in" and who's "out"? Or is the gospel message about thriving in God's kingdom? Is it about being liberated from sinful garbage? Is it about daily dying to the sin and destruction of this world and rising to new life in the one through whom all things were created and hold together?

What God do we want to tell people about? One who loves you, but won't hesitate to throw you into the fiery pits of hell because of the culture you were born into or the damage that was done to you by so-called Christians? Is this the message we give to the woman who was raped by her father while he quoted scripture? To the child who was beaten repeatedly by a father who goes to church every Sunday and sings in the church choir? To the adult who as a child was teased and tormented by her Christian classmates for being raised in a different faith - or with no faith? Told over and over that she was going to hell because she was different than they were. To the Muslim child who sits in a wheelchair because the "Christians" cut off his legs with a machete to shame him. Tell him his current hell isn't real enough - he must experience the REAL hell-fires for eternity unless he believes in the God that was professed by those who came and chopped off his legs. Is that the message we are called to share and send out into the world? A God that promises more misery and destruction in the midst of some people's already hellish existence? That's the God Jerry Newcombe told the world about.

Or do we share the good news of the resurrected Jesus, that mystery hidden in the very fabric of creation that has been revealed with such joy that the entire universe will sing His praises? A God that calls people out of their misery and hell and offers a "different way" and a different "path"? A God that offers redemption, renewal, healing, compassion and comfort. A God that says I will bring to myself even those who are far off. A God that says, "I will not allow the atrocity of what happened in Aurora, Colorado to happen in my Kingdom." A God that says "I will restore your body, remove your hurts and your pain. I will not abandon anyone forever." A God who went to great lengths to restore and redeem the broken relationship between God and humanity, and continues to go to great lengths to let his love for ALL humanity be known in the world.

Which God do we want a hurting world to meet?