It is impossible to write a critique on a book that hasn’t been published yet. Seeing the video clip by Rob Bell on this book you see a warm heart. Admirably he attacks the harshness, the judgmentalism, the elitism the church has fallen into. We all want to say what he says, however I can’t. It isn’t that I'm a coward. It is because it isn’t true, that is if he is saying all are going to be with God (my definition of heaven) and everyone avoids the darkness of hell (not being with God). Where one is not with the source of love and light he is in darkness whether he is still alive on this earth or not. Hell is the darkness of not being with God.
But Gandhi in hell? I am not the one to call that. If I was, he would get my vote for heaven, but I don’t think he needs my vote. He only needs God’s vote. My personal opinion, which is of no worth, is that he is closer to God than many “religious” people in Christianity.
“Love wins”. How very true that is. My question is, “What is love?” It may have a different definition to the child sold into the sex slave trade than the one going to Sunday school. There is injustice. There is evil in the world. There is extreme selfishness. How does love “win” in those areas? It does! However it will look different than the simplistic “everyone gets a pass” world of universalism. The sex slave trader - get a pass? God is the righter of wrongs. Love wins in the end, but so does justice. Mercy wins in the end, but so does truth. I am really glad I’m not God. What I know is that God, who is love, wants all of us to know Him and experience His love because love wins and then so do we!
This is a real hard one for me, as far as the subject of an eternal Hell. I know God is love and I know God's love, so I just can't see that love letting such continual torture happen without ever being any more hope. I know that His ways are higher than our ways but I also know that there are many interpretations of what the Bible says. I could never say there is not a Hell, I just hope that there is still some way for there to be hope, somehow, for those who don't know Jesus when they dye. And I am so very glad that I do know Him here and now, and through His love in me, I hope I am responsible for many others to learn of Him before I see Him face to face.
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