Wednesday, April 27, 2011

bell continues to fail

In Love Wins, Rob Bell writes:
“No one can resist God’s pursuit forever because God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts”
It is clear that Bell posits this as one of several views through history. On the other hand, he not only does not speak of it as an erroneous view, he words his questions in a way that lead the reader into error. To deny this is disingenuous and I'm saddened by many who do not see that.
Is God our friend, our provider, our protector, our father – or is God the kind of judge who may in the end declare that we deserve to spend forever separated from our Father?
Is God like the characters in a story Jesus would tell, old ladies who keep searching for the lost coin until they find it,
shepherds who don’t rest until that one sheep is back in the fold,
fathers who rush out to greet and embrace their returning son,
or, in the end, will God give up?
Will “all the ends of the earth” come, as God has decided, or only some?
Will all feast as it’s promised in Psalm 22, or only a few?
Will everybody be given a new heart,
or only a limited number of people?
Will God, in the end, settle, saying:
“Well, I tried, I gave it my best shot,
and sometimes you just have to be okay with failure”?
Will God shrug God-size shoulders and say,
“You can’t always get what you want”?

Could God say to someone truly humbled, broken, and desperate for reconciliation, “Sorry, too late?”

Which is stronger and more powerful, the hardness of the human heart or God’s unrelenting, infinite, expansive love?
Longing that no one will spend eternity in hell is not that same as what Bell is doing here. He confuses and misleads in a way that does damage to God's Word.

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