Recently the pastor of the church where I do youth ministry preached a sermon series entitled “Losing My Religion.” Our religion- it’s something we hold tight to. We like church, as long as it’s done the way we want it to be done. We like our music, our pews, and our beliefs just the way they are.
We like them because they fit into our box.
They are easy.
They are comfortable.
We have turned living a life in dynamic relationship with Jesus into just another religious act. This is what Pastor Dave was talking about. We need more Jesus and less me.
More of God’s Word and less traditional, religious beliefs and practices.
We don’t like this though. We don’t like to have our religion challenged. We certainly don’t like it when people ask questions.
We have to be right.
We must be right.
Because it fits in our box. So what happens when somebody challenges our religion? What happens when someone offers up a belief that doesn’t fit in our box?
All of a sudden everything becomes uncomfortable. Instead of taking two seconds to think about what this person is saying we automatically go into our defensive mode and begin to use the “H” word.
This has been true since the very beginning. With Jesus. With Paul. With Calvin. With Wesley. With Edwards. With Luther. The same is true today with Bell.
Recently, Rob Bell’s fourth book entitled “Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of every Person Who Ever Lived” was published. Maybe you have heard and maybe you haven’t, but this book is causing quite the stir in many “Christian” circles. Why? Because he challenges what we believe. He asks intriguing questions. Because people haven’t read the book.
I spent the last week reading this book. I have underlined, looked up quoted Scriptures and asked questions in the margins. This book has asked questions of me that I am uncomfortable with. He thinks outside of our box.
Here are just a few snippets:
“Does God punish people for thousands of years with infinite, eternal torment for things they did in their few, finite years of life?” (pg 2)
“So is it true that the kind of person you are doesn’t ultimately matter, as long as you’ve said or prayed or believed the right things?” (pg 6)
“the phrase ‘personal relationship’ is found nowhere in the Bible.” (pg 10)
“What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now.” (pg 46)
“Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned with the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem the least concerned about hell after death… There is hell now, and there is hell later, and Jesus teaches us to take both seriously.” (pg 79)
“Restoration brings God glory; eternal torment doesn’t. Reconciliation brings God glory; endless anguish doesn’t. Renewal and return cause God’s greatness to shine through the universe; never-ending punishment doesn’t.” (pg 108)
“To shun, censor, or ostracize someone for holding this belief is to fail to extend grace to each other in a discussion that has had plenty of room for varied perspectives for hundreds of years now.” (pg 111)
“Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?... We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires” (pg 115)
“It is our responsibility to be extremely careful about making negative, decisive, lasting judgments about people’s eternal destinies.” (pg 160)
“A discussion about how to ‘just get into heave’ has no place in the life of a disciple of Jesus, because it’s missing the point of it all.” (pg 179)
“I believe that the indestructible love of God is an unfolding, dynamic reality and that every single one of us is endlessly being invited to trust, accept, believe embrace, and experience it.” (pg 194)
“While we continually find grace waiting to pick us up off the ground after we have fallen, there are realities to our choices.” (pg 197)
Based on his reading of Scripture, Rob is asking “do we ever get to the point where we can no longer respond to God’s grace”. That is what this book is about. Rob is arguing that we never run out of opportunities. That includes those who are dead and in hell.
To call Rob a Universalist is not really a good term. Rob believes that there needs to be a decision to accept God’s grace. Rob believes a Holy lifestyle is important for Christians as we live out our lives. Where he differs from most “Protestant Evangelical” thought is that he believes there will always be opportunity to respond to the grace of God, in this life or the next.
The problem I have with this thought is that the Scriptures Rob uses to support his argument are not that compelling. Often times the Scriptures he uses contain a word such as “every” or “all” which is where he draws this idea that all will eventually be saved.
But what about God’s justice? Yes, God is love. But God is also just. As much as God is love, He is to the same degree just. If God wasn’t just, and only loving, Jesus’ sacrifice would not have been necessary. God’s justice requires blood to wash away sin. It was the blood of Jesus that washes away our sin. If God was not just, and only loving, there would have been no need for blood to be spilled. God’s overwhelming love would be enough for forgiveness, if he wasn’t just.
Does love win? I don’t think so.
Certainly I do not agree with the premise of Love Wins. I do not believe that all will be saved. What I will say is that Rob raises some very interesting questions throughout this book that need to be examined. Not every question he raises pertains to heaven and hell.
Some questions relate to the Church.
Some questions relate to our evangelistic methods.
Some questions relate to the goofy beliefs the Church has no Scriptural basis for.
All of which challenge us. It is only through these questions and challenges that we can take a step back and examine why we believe what we believe. Who knows, maybe an examination of our beliefs is exactly what we need to do if we are truly going to “lose our religion”.
It’s not about chairs or pews.
It’s not about hymns or choruses.
It’s about Jesus and what He has done for us.
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