Rob Bell's Book, 'Love Wins,' Continues To Ignite Debate On Heaven-Hell Question

ABC News:

Literal hell is a gruesome place, a worm-infested trash heap where children are sacrificed to the flames, according to the Bible, and for those who don't accept salvation or who sin against God, it's forever

Read the whole story: ABC News

Comments

[paleoimage]

01:54 AM on 05/19/2011

Hell is an imaginary place, invented by bronze age goat herders and perpetuated into this century by people who continue to profit from recycling ancient myths. Today's most religious leaders understand that without constant threats of damnation and eternal suffering, rational people would abandon such delusional, nihilistic theologies and save a few bucks at the collection plate. Guess what? Rational people, worldwide, are doing that by the millions every year.

[scottyknows]

07:23 PM on 05/11/2011

Jesus spoke of hell about 20 times, so he believed it existed. He also said only those who believed he was the son of God would be exempt from hell, as God can have no relationship with sin, which he came to free us from.

So Jesus said hell exists and his coming was to save us from that fate.
Bell says even if it does everyone goes to heaven and Jesus needn't have come at all.

Hmm. Jesus or Bell, Jesus or Bell.

That's some tough choice.

[New Yorker]

08:57 AM on 05/16/2011

Jehovah's Witnesses all think that Jesus Christ is NOT the son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, they teach an apostasy instead.

[Bystander]

02:28 PM on 05/16/2011

The same can be said for Mormons, who believe Jesus is a created being and the "spirit brother" of Satan.

[Bystander]

02:26 PM on 05/16/2011

Bell doesn't believe what Jesus has said about hell and the consequences of not having accepted Christ as Savior before death. He's a "Gospel-lite" apostate preacher that cherry-picks the Bible and misleads non-believers about love, judgment and mercy.

[gal416]

06:49 PM on 05/10/2011

"Beware of people who want to tell stuff that you never heard before, never found before, and nobody ever really knew before. They are not about to give you the essentials that were once delivered to the saints. They are only going to tell you something that they dreamt-up from who knows where. Beware also of people who take obscure passages of scripture and remove them from their context."

- Alistair Begg

[surreydowns]

01:24 PM on 05/10/2011

Its strange because its a very clear point made in the BIble that hell IS a literal place, that is a place of torment and that we go to either heaven or hell for ALL eternity, Jesus himself spoke on it,. If Bell cannot wrap his mind around it, he needs to seek God's help to understand God better on the topic. The Bible says our minds are supposed to be transformed and renewed, and we are supposed to have the mind of Christ once we are born again. Bell instead insists that God must think the same way he (Bell) does. He has not really submitted himself to God or allowed the transformative process to go on in this area, he has instead just decided Gods word is wrong or rather we are just not seeing it correctly, which is bunk. And if you teach heresy and cause people to be led away from sound doctrines, especially one that can affect their eternal destiny, then you deserve to be called a heretic and tool of Satan.

[RealityChezck]

05:47 PM on 05/03/2011

According to the theory of Efficacious Grace, being saved is an act that only requires accepting God , and Christ as your personal Saviour, only once. My grace is sufficient for thee is the passage that covers it all. Man is incapable of abstaining from sin, which is why Christ became the ultimate sacrifice. If not for that, all would be required to pay the price of sin which is death.

In the end, hell is only for those who openly reject Christ, who actually had the opportunity to accept him. Grace is a ever present shield that covers the believer.

[scottyknows]

07:20 PM on 05/05/2011

Nicely said.

[William D Simpson]

09:09 AM on 04/29/2011

The only true testament of GOD answers this question. I suggest reading it...

http://wsimpson.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/why-the-confusion-about-god/

[mjeffn]

01:17 AM on 04/27/2011

Religion exists just in case irrationality becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[scottyknows]

07:20 PM on 05/05/2011

Still you search.

[dididangerlove]

04:01 PM on 04/26/2011

If you accept the Bible as the word of God then you are going to have a number of problems because the Bible contradicts itself. If you don't accept the Bible as the word of God, but accept the humanistic teachings of Christ, you will begin to discover the beauty of the world and each other. I have decided the latter and therefore have no problem with Rob Bell's interpretation.

[surreydowns]

05:13 PM on 05/04/2011

Please list some contradictions. I get tired of reading this comment from people who never back it up or who heavent come accross these for themselves--I think most people just go to some anti-website if they do decided to cough up some supposed contradiction.

The problem is Bell is a Pastor and as one he's not suppose to view the scriptures in a humanistic way, which it is apparent he is or he wouldnt be able to come to the conclusions he does.

[Bethel1]

11:02 AM on 04/26/2011

Hell is not a literal place. The Bible doesn't support Christendoms teachings.

Here is a good article on Hell. Make sure you have you bibles ready
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200909/article_01.htm

[surrydown]

02:10 PM on 04/26/2011

Youare referring people to your Jehovah's witness Bible--it may say there is no literal hell but the Bible Christians use certainly confirms that there is. The Jehovah Witness Bible the "New World Translation" was created to affirm your doctrines which run counter to the BIble. In fact it goes so far astray of the BIbles that Christians use that Christian bookstores do not carry it for sale, nor would they give it away for free. The Jehovah Witness Bible, for example, declares that Jesus is NOT the etenal co-equal Son of God, therefore it is not a Chirstian Bible at all and cannot be trusted as being the innerant word of GOD.

[Bethel1]

02:58 PM on 04/28/2011

Well, can you find anywhere in the bible that Jesus said he is Equal to God?

Here is some food for thought:
The Encyclopedia of Religion says: "Theologians agree that the New Testament also does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity."

Jesuit Fortman states: "The New Testament writers . . . give us no formal or formulated doctrine of the Trinity, no explicit teaching that in one God there are three co-equal divine persons. . . . Nowhere do we find any trinitarian doctrine of three distinct subjects of divine life and activity in the same Godhead."

Historian Arthur Weigall notes: "Jesus Christ never mentioned such a phenomenon, and nowhere in the New Testament does the word 'Trinity' appear. The idea was only adopted by the Church three hundred years after the death of our Lord."—The Paganism in Our Christianity.

Dominican priest Marie-Émile Boismard wrote in his book À l’aube du christianisme—La naissance des dogmes (At the Dawn of Christianity—The Birth of Dogmas): “The statement that there are three persons in the one God . . . cannot be read anywhere in the New Testament.”

So can you explain how the Trinity is an accurate teaching, when it isn't even expressed? Also, @ Matt 24:35, why doesn't Jesus nor the Holy Spirit know the day of Armageddon? If they were co-equal, wouldn't they know as well?

[hairydodger]

06:00 PM on 04/25/2011

What of the few million people who died before Jesus' arrival? Do they get a hall pass? Wow, speculation over a bronze age tribal cult.

[scottyknows]

07:23 PM on 05/05/2011

Since we are born knowing right and wrong and God's very creation bespeaks His existence, no one is without excuse.

Scripture does say that the three days Jesus was in the tomb he went and preached to the unsaved who had died before. You can read the rest for yourself.

[surrydown]

04:04 PM on 04/25/2011

Jesus is recorded as having said this in the book of Mark.

Mark 9:42 " If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

I think Rob Bell is a LOUSY student of the Bible.

[scottyknows]

07:25 PM on 05/05/2011

He missed that passage, and the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and a few others.

Hey, he's busy on a book tour.

[cameron d]

10:36 AM on 04/25/2011

The good news for everyone is that no one goes to Hell. Enjoy your life everybody.

[UncleSquinky]

06:42 AM on 04/25/2011

Christians had better hope to hell that there ain't one, because if there is a just god, a whole lot of them are going there.

[scottyknows]

07:25 PM on 05/05/2011

We all would had Jesus not come and made a way for us to escape such fate.

[Greatest Darthfruit]

03:40 AM on 04/25/2011

is he serious?

[William D Simpson]

09:22 PM on 04/24/2011

Rob Bell cannot answer this...

http://wsimpson.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/why-the-confusion-with-god/

[hairydodger]

06:01 PM on 04/25/2011

Spammer.