{"id":277,"date":"2011-03-02T12:25:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T16:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/?p=277"},"modified":"2011-03-02T12:25:16","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T16:25:16","slug":"love-wins-a-god-of-grace-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/?p=277","title":{"rendered":"Love Wins: A God of grace for all"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was psyched when Jarrod McKenna, one of the contributors to the forthcoming BANNED QUESTIONS<\/a> book series, told me her had an interview of Rob Bell appearing on ABC Australia’s news sit<\/a>e about Rob’s new book, LOVE WINS: Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived.<\/a> My initial excitement had to do with Jarrod’s citation of a passage from BANNED QUESTIONS<\/a> toward the end of the piece, but the central message of the interview, and apparently of the book, is far more significant than I expected.<\/p>\n

Rather than paraphrase what Jarrod and Rob have already said so well, I’ll just quote Rob from his book:<\/p>\n

“Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith – the afterlife – arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic – eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Did you hear that? It’s the sound of thousands of conservative evangelicals closing their mental doors on Rob Bell in unison.<\/p>\n

For some within mainline Christian circles, the prospect of “universal salvation,” or the idea that God ultimately reconciles all of us into God’s presence, regardless of our worthiness of such grace, may not be a real shock. But even the suggestion of what I consider “Christian Universalism” within evangelical circles is sure to send seismic ripples throughout the church.<\/p>\n

And his claim has done just that.<\/p>\n

Neo-Calvinist<\/a> John Piper led the charge, bidding farewell en masse<\/em> to Bell and his message of non-exclusive salvation. What, after all, do many Christians have to offer the world if not the key to unlock the gates of hell from the inside?<\/p>\n

While Jonathan Edwards showed us, with his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God<\/a>” sermon, that fear can galvanize a congregation, Bell’s message is that love – and more specifically God’s love – is bigger than the sum total of our fears, sins, and other shortcomings is a call in a growing chorus. This, in the truest sense of the word, is Gospel: Good News!<\/p>\n

Chalice Press<\/a> is offering a special promotion through ABC Australia of 40% off pre-orders of BANNED QUESTIONS<\/a> books<\/em>. Order in March through the Chalice Press site\u00a0 <\/a>and enter the code “BANNEDQ1” at checkout.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was psyched when Jarrod McKenna, one of the contributors to the forthcoming BANNED QUESTIONS book series, told me her had an interview of Rob Bell appearing on ABC Australia’s news site about Rob’s new book, LOVE WINS: Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived. My initial excitement had to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,42,48,11,19,13,34,17,10,37,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christianpiatt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}