I happened upon an article in TIME Magazine about 42-year-old Pastor Rob Bell and the idea that Hell may not exist, while watching the Lakers v. Hornets NBA Playoff Game. (The kind of thing I do after a big Easter Sunday meal with my Mom and Godparents – have a mix of the entertaining and thought-provolking.)
Pastor Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, is one I’ve not read, yet. But the presentation of the basic idea of the book as explained by TIME, is that Pastor Bell holds that regardless of our belief in Jesus and the Lord, all of us will be admitted to Heaven. Period.
The concept is called “universalism,” and while I don’t have a massive problem with it, I also choose not to believe it. Although Pastor Bell’s take does make any reasonable person think about their belief system.
So far, mine has been reinforced on this Easter.
To this blogger, if one believes in Heaven, which is good, then one must believe in Hell, which represents that which is bad. Moreover, there are a set of behavioral systems that lead one to a “Heavenly” good soul. I prefer to maintain that path, and to battle evil.
My take on Pastor Bell’s idea is that it lets evil off the hook, and makes it OK for Hitler to run amok: for evil to basically do evil.
MSNBC’s Martin Bashir recently interviewed Bell, and tried, I guess, to trip him up by starting off with a question about how God regards the events in Japan. That was the wrong take. What Bashir should have asked Bell is, does he believe Hilter is in Heaven?
That would have been a more interesting conversation.
What do you think?
Stay tuned.