For Whom the Bell Tolls - Time Marches On...and On...

Introduction

            I read it, every word. Cover to cover I labored, thought through, and annotated all that came to mind. Rob Bell raised some interesting questions in his recent book, Love Wins. None of the questions are new and perhaps the fact that we, as a Church, have continuously brushed them off, led to the inevitable tackling of these troubling questions, no matter how inadequate the answers may have turned out to be, because of our ignorance.

Love Wins was not written for theologians, academics, or those devoted to biblical studies. The book was written for the suffering laity we frequently ignore because the “why” questions and the demand for empathy is too uncomfortable. I am guilty; I recognize that. I am a perpetual student. I bury my nose in books and study Scripture with a passion that often burns to the detriment of real life around me.  But I do not offer up my shortcomings as an excuse for poor exegetical work. Just as I am called upon to develop more compassion for the world outside, so also are those motivated by compassion called upon to reach the world through sound theological solutions. As stuffy as that may sound, it is our responsibility as leaders. A proper balance between the thoughts of the heart and the sentiments of the soul is essential to our understanding of God’s will and purpose.

The format of the book makes it difficult to succinctly address all the issues raised and would take us on a multitude of rabbit trails were we to chase after each and every diversion. My attempts are not to counter what Rev. Bell writes, but to contribute to the discussion in light of what he has written. I will start where all good gospel stories start, with Jesus.

It has long been my opinion that the world is presented with a fragmented image of who Jesus is because the mirror in which the world glimpses Him is fractured. Division and chaos has long divided the Church. Sin plagues and distorts what the world is to see. Rev. Bell cites account after account displaying just this tragedy as sinful humans claiming to bear the image of Jesus, hurt and abuse others. But what we must not shy away from saying is this: there is only ONE Jesus. He is the light and in Him is no darkness. The transformation of the human soul is not instantaneous. The human soul grows and develops just like the life of a human embryo. There is a quickening of life, and then there is growth – years upon years, decades upon decades of growth until we reach a ripe and mature age. When we observe behaviors that are clearly sinful, we do not identify it as Jesus or label it as the wrong Jesus. It is NOT Jesus – plain and simple. If it does not look like Jesus, does not act like Jesus, and does not sound like Jesus, then it is not Jesus. The way we find out who Jesus is now, is by studying who He was then.[1]  

So who is Jesus? Jesus is the Word of God in flesh. Scripture tells us “for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) This passage is referring to man who is made in the image of God. What we learn from this image-bearing truth is that through the Word of God (Jesus), the Heart of God (the Father), is made known to us. The word cannot be separated or severed from the heart, they are one. The word always reveals the heart and Jesus pronounced this purpose many times as he revealed the Father to us.

Another dimension of the Trinitarian relationship that Bell brings up in his first chapter that I would like to address is one of “verbs”. Verbs are important. Doing is important. But a verb never comes first and cannot subsist alone. A verb is nothing without a noun to give her purpose. And so to best understand the nature of doing, we must first understand the nature of being. The verbs – accepting, confessing, believing – do not come before the recognition of our identity as sinners and the identity of Jesus as savior.[2] These are nouns – sinner and savior. Now that we have our nouns set in place we may do. We may accept our savior. We may confess our sins. We may believe in Him. Paul and James balance exquisitely the relationship between being in faith and doing in faith. They are not contradicting one another, they are complementing one another. Together with their conglomeration of nouns and verbs they make complete sentences. What saves us, in the end, is the complete sentence. We recognize who we are, a sinner and we confess that. We recognize who Jesus is, our savior and we accept Him. There is the being of nouns, the doing of verbs and fulfillment of a sentence in living. That sounds oddly like a verse I recognize… “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) And here is our Trinitarian picture: we live in Christ, we move in the Spirit and we have our being in the Father. Every transformation cited within the opening pages of Love Wins, in an attempt to discount any type of formatted sinner’s prayer, follows this recognition and action.  Each individual realizes who they are, and who Jesus is. There is no magic order of words, but the sinner’s prayer should not be discounted because of this. It is recognition of who we are, who Jesus is, what he did and what we will do. If we take away any portion of being or doing we will never arrive at God’s purpose for our lives, which is living.

Heaven

            An interesting question arises in Bell’s chapter on heaven. Is heaven here and now or somewhere sometime in the future? Theological developments have brought us far over the course of the last century in understanding the Kingdom of God as partially here in the now, and fully coming in the future. But in order to exist here partially it must also exist somewhere else fully or we have no comprehension of what it even means for something to partially exist. Our recognition of the Kingdom here is based on our recognition of the Kingdom somewhere else. Bell states that we must take the present seriously “because we have great confidence that God has not abandoned human history and is actively at work within it, taking it somewhere” and if we are still moving, as time is, then sometime as well. This is true. The question is where are we going? The answer of course is – heaven.

A misunderstanding of the concept of time presents a problem in the subsequent presentation of the Kingdom. History is a sequence of events through time. The only dimension of time that moves is the present. The past does not move; it does not retreat into the distance. The present travels along through history and distances us from past events. The future cannot be dragged into the present or approach us with any further haste than the pace traveled in the present. We progress through a sequence of events. Time is dependent on events. Our choices in this sequence of events, dictate what will happen as we travel through time. We are defined in being by our past, our origins, our parenthood. We are sustained, nurtured in the present through perpetual motion. We live for the future because we have a destination we desire to reach. I have been an avid runner for the past year and one truth I have realized is that the future, my finish line, only draws near as I move. It cannot come to me, I must travel to it. So, the point of all of this is the following: If heaven is our future then we will only reach it through perpetual motion forward through the present. We do not get the luxury of laissez faire and standing still in the present awaiting the approach of heaven. We learn from our Creator how best to live life and approach Him.

On the following point, Bell and I clearly agree. “If you believe that you’re going to leave and evacuate to somewhere else, then why do anything about this world?”[3] I believe this thought is grounded in some unhealthy fundamental eschatological developments, but it is incorrect. I do not believe we are leaving this earth to go somewhere else. Of course there is death and we do go somewhere else. We go to heaven to wait the time when heaven and earth meet and merge becoming a new creation. We progress through time based on events. If we do nothing, we progress nowhere, time progresses nowhere and we move no closer to heaven. Time is meaningless without events. Time and events are inseparable. If we desire to reach that time that only the Father knows then we must follow His events – His will here on earth. No events, no time. That is motivation enough to do the Father’s will each and every second we draw breath.

            Bell brings up the Lord’s Prayer and the invocation of heaven on earth: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is our hope. That one day we will see God’s will fully implemented on earth as it is in heaven, in essence bringing heaven and earth together into a new creation. One truth we claim as believers in Christ is that heaven and hell are incompatible. There is no cosmic battle between good and evil where evil is a necessary balance to good. Good does not require evil to exist. But where there is evil, good cannot fully reign. It is a process of transformation. We must assume then that the fact that heaven is not yet fully here is because hell is also partially here. And this brings us to hell.

Hell

            We will begin hell with Bell’s summary of hell. “We need a loaded, volatile, adequately violent, dramatic serious word to describe the very real consequences we experience when we reject the good and true and beautiful life that God has for us.”[4] We need something to describe evil in the world and that word is “hell”. The problem with Bell’s solution is that the criteria for evaluating our definition of heaven is not the same as that used to evaluate our definition of hell. If we say that the partial reality of heaven here on earth, is dependent on a real place existent somewhere by which we derive our definition of heaven, then we must also say that the presence of hell on earth is dependent on a real place existent somewhere by which we derive our definition of hell. The presence of hell on earth is evidence that hell exists somewhere else.

            So if heaven is in our future and is the place to which we are headed then where does that leave hell? The presence of hell is necessitated by the existence of sin. The consequence of sin is death. These three are inseparable – sin, death and hell. Before the propitiation of sin, hell was our future, as was death. Hell is where we were headed. A consequence is not for the purpose of correction.[5] A consequence is a result of an action whether it is good or bad. There are good consequences to good actions and we do not define these as corrective in nature.

The pivotal point in history that changed the course of the earth and mankind forever was the Cross. A loving and compassionate God makes a way for restoration where one is not deserved or merited. A gracious and merciful God orchestrates events in history to intersect and interject Himself into the present. A sacrificial and serving Savior pays for the sins of the world so that we need not suffer the consequences of death and hell, the natural cause and effect relationship that results from sin.      

Death

            It is easy to see how a fundamental misunderstanding of hell is possible in light of a misunderstanding of the concept of death. Death was never a part of the creation design. In the world that God created there was no death. Trees did not die. Leaves did not wither. Fruit did not fall.[6] The cycle of life and death simply did not exist. The reason that “leaves drop from the trees and the plants die”[7] is because death entered the world with sin. The purpose for creation taking on the restorative nature of dying to live is because it announced what would forever be the consequence of sin and what God Himself would need to undergo in order to redeem the world from sin. “A seed has to be buried in the ground before it can rise up from out of the earth as new life”[8] because this is what the seed of God would have to suffer in order to bring us new life.[9] The seed of God is the Word of God and the Word of God is Jesus Christ. The Cross is not just a metaphorical symbol, it is a physical reality.

Death continues to be a consequence of sin. There is no need to die to self if sin does not exist within oneself. We die because we sin. The world dies because sin continues to exist in the world. But as the Cross proved, we are incapable of eradicating sin from the world. This is a feat only God can accomplish. We are simply instruments, living vessels in His hands. We bring genuine restoration to the world because God lives in us. To suggest that God would create a world where death is essential to new life is to suggest a cruel and sadistic Creator. Death is essential to new life where sin exists. The death of sin is what begets new life. Nature simply attests to that fact because she must coexist with sin. We talk so much about saving the earth perhaps we ought to return to the reason why she is dying in the first place.  

It is impossible to contemplate the Cross without dwelling on the magnitude and meaning of the blood. The blood cannot be minimized. Blood has always been paramount in our understanding of pain and suffering. Blood permeates the Scriptures, from the very first sacrifice to cover the sin of Adam and Eve, to the murderous cries of Abel’s blood as it seeped into the earth, to the grieving and suffering of every woman who ever lived to bring forth life, to the blood on the Cross, to the very pages of Revelation as the blood of the saints demands vengeance. Blood is part of who we are and has always cried out and attested to the suffering of mankind. It is not only relevant under an Old Testament sacrificial system; blood continues to speak out every day as testimony to the suffering of mankind. Every time blood spills, God hears its cry. What makes the blood of Christ so pivotal to the Christian faith is not only what it represents, but what that blood attested to. It attested to a sinless God that would humble Himself, becoming a man, and spilling out the very essence of His life for us. That blood cried louder in suffering than any other blood in the history of world. The anguish of God in that moment was so great, that the very foundations of the earth trembled at their core. That blood continues to cry out every time it confronts and covers sin, and God feels every ounce of pain and suffering. You ask how a loving and compassionate God can condemn mankind to eternal damnation, but I ask you, how could an innocent, sinless God go through that kind of suffering for me?  Suffering does not please God. Life pleases God. The only way to bring life to mankind was through suffering.  

What happened on the cross? God poured out His very life and blood for us. The Cross was about the end of the sacrificial system because no other blood would ever match the magnitude of that sacrifice again. The Cross was about the reconciliation of broken relationships under the blood of Jesus. The Cross was about a guilty defendant set free by the blood of Jesus. The Cross was about a battle won after the blood of Jesus proclaimed His innocence. The Cross is about the redemption of a lost world through the blood of Jesus. It is all about the blood. If you take away the blood, you take away any hope we have of avoiding eternal separation from God. The blood is not about the language of the day in 33 AD. If we suffer a loss in sensitivity towards the blood then perhaps that does not speak to the relevance of the blood, but instead to the callousness of our hearts.[10]   

God’s Purpose

            When we talk of Sin, we refer to those things which do not please God. If Sin does not please God then by logical conclusion we must assume that death does not please God. If death does not please God then hell does not please God. If none of these things please God then why do they exist? And furthermore, why would He come to take our sins upon himself, undergo death and travel to hell? The answer is life. Life is God’s purpose; life has always been God’s purpose. The mystery does not begin with God’s pleasure.[11] The mystery begins with God’s purpose. The fulfillment of God’s purpose is what produces God’s pleasure. The mystery of Christ is wrapped up in His role as the Son of God. He is the very life of God. Jesus is God. That is the mystery. One might think that does not sound all that mysterious, but it is quite the mystery when you realize that everything in the world is dying. How can eternal life possibly subsist in a place that is continually falling away and dying around it? There is your true mystery.

            It is difficult to understand a purpose driven philosophy. We are such a pleasure driven culture. We rationalize all different forms of pleasure and secernate them from their purpose. God’s purpose is to bring us eternal life through Him. His pleasure lies in His power to accomplish this feat. Our philosophy tends to shape God as opposed to allowing God to shape our philosophy. When we live our lives grounded in pleasure we cannot comprehend a God who does not meet our immediate pleasure and who will sacrifice all that He has, even to the point of suffering on a cross, in order to fulfill a purpose. Our problem is not whether or not there is a hell. Our problem is that we do not understand and appreciate the price paid for our eternal life enough to care that at one time it was lost. We do not recognize what it means to be a sinner. Without the recognition of our state as sinners it is impossible to appreciate the presence of a God who would be our savior.

Judgment

            “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11-15

            There are three separate concepts in this passage. There is Death, Hades, and a lake of fire (Hell). Somehow in my mind I have always clumped the three together into one place but I have realized this may not be the case. The second thing is that Hades is not eternal, but that it too will pass away. The one place that we do not hear of an end to is the lake of fire. The lake of fire comes after judgment. Hades comes before judgment and is separate from Death. And so now I have questions of my own about Hades and Hell and my traditional understanding of what these places entail. I still believe that Hades is a place apart from earth. It is a location where those who have not placed themselves under the covering of the blood go, but it is not eternal. Revelation states that Death and Hades cough up the dead to stand in judgment. And then only after judgment, if not found in the Book of Life, does anyone go into the lake of fire which is eternal. I have many new questions now, but the one thing I cannot yet accept is the idea that all will choose reconciliation with God. John the Evangelist clearly sees that “anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” Why would John say this if he did not in fact see someone thrown into the fires? I must assume from this that there will be some. As uncomfortable of a message as that may portray to the world, I cannot reconcile with the idea that none will suffer an eternity in the lake of fire (Hell), whatever that may entail.   

Gospel

            Rob Bell makes an important point in Love Wins. He expresses a genuine frustration over a gospel that propels itself on the wings of fear. I agree with this point and believe it should not be the message at the forefront of the gospel. Fire and Brimstone is not the Good News. We have something of genuine value to every living thing on earth. We present a message of life. We offer a hope in a future, free from pain and suffering. We bring to a dying world the promise of a place where sin and death no longer hold reign. What we are seeing played out in the controversy over the content of Love Wins is a battle of extremes. We have attempted to motivate the unsaved by tyrannical means of fear. This is abusive and coercive and does not propagate authentic change at the heart of the individual. It is a shame we resorted to such measures. But the answer is never to dampen the gospel or eliminate something as real as Hell. What has inadvertently occurred as a result of attempting to soften the blow of eternal punishment is also the devaluation of eternal life and the price paid so that we may have it.

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[1] Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011), 7-9.

[2] Ibid., 11.

[3] Ibid., 46.

[4] Ibid., 93.

[5] Ibid., 88.

[6] Eze 47:12.

[7] Bell, 130.

[8] Ibid., 130.

[9] Luke 8:11.

[10] Bell, 127.

[11] Bell, 148.