Just finished the Rob Bell book. You don't get many pages for £12! His usual punchy prose, short sentences, white space; he writes how he speaks.
Is Bell an universalist? Probably not in the final analysis. He clearly takes an inclusive approach, and loves to trot out comprehensive statements of salvation-and so he should. But although he speaks about how God's omnipotence ought not to be defeated he expressly says that people can reject the divine love. Bell uses Revelation 21 to make the point that if we won't be separated from Sin we face exclusion.
For a English/Anglican/evangelical there will be little new here. Tom Wright, Steve Chalke and others have been over this ground before. I would like a more co-ordinated apologia: e.g. Chalke is better on the Old Testament. Where is the Spirit? Or the Church? But I guess he was going for the big Last Things.
Unresolved for me-does he really hope for second or third chances (rather than a final judgement, tempered with grace and mercy?) What is the place of pre-venient grace and/or can we turn to God ourselves? Is this treatment of the Cross sufficient (an elegant variation of 'models')? And of course absence of 'in Christ'. Final puzzle is that while Love wins, God does not. Can that be right?
Is Bell an universalist? Probably not in the final analysis. He clearly takes an inclusive approach, and loves to trot out comprehensive statements of salvation-and so he should. But although he speaks about how God's omnipotence ought not to be defeated he expressly says that people can reject the divine love. Bell uses Revelation 21 to make the point that if we won't be separated from Sin we face exclusion.
For a English/Anglican/evangelical there will be little new here. Tom Wright, Steve Chalke and others have been over this ground before. I would like a more co-ordinated apologia: e.g. Chalke is better on the Old Testament. Where is the Spirit? Or the Church? But I guess he was going for the big Last Things.
Unresolved for me-does he really hope for second or third chances (rather than a final judgement, tempered with grace and mercy?) What is the place of pre-venient grace and/or can we turn to God ourselves? Is this treatment of the Cross sufficient (an elegant variation of 'models')? And of course absence of 'in Christ'. Final puzzle is that while Love wins, God does not. Can that be right?
