Review of Rob Bell's Love Wins: Chapter 3

Review of Rob Bell's Love Wins: Chapter 3 - HELL
By: Justin Ahlgrim

CHAPTER 3 - HELL


*Bell goes over the word "Hell" in the Old Testament (Sheol) and the New Testament (Gehenna) of the Bible. In the Bible, you have to realize that it is a long book written importantly over a long period of time, and over time, certain things were revealed that God's people didn't always know. We call this Progressive Revelation. Satan was not always equated with the snake in the garden of Eden. The Israelites didn't always think that God was the only god that ever existed. And the same goes for the Bible's understanding of Hell. The revelation on what the afterlife was like progressed over time. This is an important chapter for those unfamiliar with how the afterlife is described in the Bible.


*Bell's a tricksy man. He writes that if people ask if I (Rob Bell) believe in a literal hell, he replies, "Of course, those aren't metaphorical missing arms and legs [of the Rwandan genocide]." A big postmodern point that Bell is making in this chapter is that we as Christians are often very concerned about the afterlife, about the hell later, but as Bell says, "there is a hell now" that we need to be concerned with. A living hell now of injustice, poverty, and prostitution. I agree with Bell there, but the problem is, he takes this "truth" to the Nth degree saying that "when Jesus describes hell, they are metaphors that describe the real hell around us." I think he's oversimplifying and more importantly taking Scripture way out of context. When Jesus speaks of Hell its clear he's talking about judgment day either for the individual or upon everyone at Christ's 2nd coming, which goes in line with the Old Testament prophets and psalm writers as well. While life may be unfair now with the wicked prospering, there will be a day when God will judge the wicked for what they've done. When Jesus talks about Hell its not a metaphor for how life sucks. It's a reality of how the wicked will be punished for their deeds. 


*Bell gets a good kick out of talking about the theme of restoration throughout the Bible. But in many of those cases, I feel like he's missing out on the just-as-biblical requirement of repentance that goes along with restoration. As God told the prophets to say, "Return to me and I will return to you." There's a responsibility on our part as well. To ignore that is, as Deitrich Bonhoeffer put it, to preach "cheap grace."


*Throughout the chapter I was thinking to myself, "So does Bell believe in Hell or what?" Rest assured, he does (I think). Bell says, "There is a hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously." Finally something I can I agree with him on :)