A weekly collection of current news and issues in the church, country, and world.
Osteenification and What It Portents – Hank Hanegraaff (Patheos)
Believe Schmalieve – Mike Wittmer
Disbelief in Hell is a Luxury of an Affluent Society – Michael Kelley
Christ Alone by Michael Wittmer does exactly what the sub-title states: it is “An Evangelical Response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins.” In ten chapters, Wittmer address the major themes in Bell’s book. In doing so, Wittmer goes way beyond the question of hell, showing that Bell’s view of hell has important ramifications for the doctrines of God, sin, Christ, and salvation. In the end, the issue touches on the gospel itself. Along the way, Wittmer helpfully sets the various issues in their historical contexts, granting further thought and insight.
Overall, he gives a careful biblical critique in a gentle and charitable tone. No ranting and raving here. His critique is further very readable and accessible, with even a touch of humor. Though a response to Bell’s book, it can easily be read on its own. If you have read Bell’s book and want another perspective, or if you are just curious about what all the fuss is about, or if you just want to understand these issues better, this is a great book to pick up.
Yesterday I preached a sermon on Jesus’ parable about hell in Luke 16:19-31. I showed that hell is not only real, but that it is a place of torment. Hell is directly related to God’s justice (we really do deserve to go there). And once you are there, there is no escape. This is the traditional and Biblical way of understanding hell. But what should a Christian do with hell? Just defend these truths from those who reject them? This is necessary, but I suggest that there are many other responses we should make (and I am indebted to Michael Wittmer and Francis Chan for helping me think this through).
Humbly Submit to God
It is not up to me if there is a hell or not. It is up to God, and he tells us it exists. It doesn’t matter if I like it, if I consent to its existence, or if I understand it. It doesn’t matter how I feel about it. God says hell exists and I should humbly submit to what he says. Or as Rick Warren apparently put it: “I believe in hell because Jesus says it’s real and he knows more about it than anyone.”
Examine Your Heart
Are you certain you are going to heaven and not hell? Are you trusting in what Jesus did for you on the cross and through the resurrection? Have you really received Jesus as your Savior? Is there evidence of your salvation? Has there been a change in your life? Are you following Christ? We will never be perfect here, but if we are God’s children, there will be a difference. Our eternal destiny is on the line here. We must be sure we are saved.
Rejoice In Your Salvation
Because of our sin, we deserve hell. Every sin is rebellion against the King, a terrible offense against God. We deserve eternal punishment. But Jesus died to take our punishment upon himself so we could go free, so we could escape hell. The more we grasp hell, the more we will praise God for saving us from it. No wonder Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4). It doesn’t matter how bad your life is going right now – if God has saved you from hell, you have reason to rejoice.
Weep For The Lost
If hell is real, and people are going there, then we should weep. We should mourn. We should cry. Too often we live without enough passion. Not only don’t we rejoice enough in our salvation, we don’t weep enough for the lost. And as we weep, we should:
Cry Out To God For People To Get Saved
Plead with God for your family, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, your community. Let passionate cries for mercy ascend constantly to the throne of grace. And as you pray:
Go And Share The Gospel
Look for opportunities to share the gospel with the people you see. And if you don’t see opportunities, look for ways to create opportunities. We need to give thought to ways we can reach out to people with the good news of Jesus. The more we believe in hell, the more we will have a burden for the lost.
Send Missionaries Around The World
Finally, if hell is real, we need to send people out with the gospel to those who have never heard. We need to not only invest our time in sharing the gospel, but also our money to help others share the gospel in places we will never go.
How do you need to respond to hell today?
If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.
And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees,
imploring them to stay.
If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions,
and let not one person go there unwarned and unprayed for.
– Charles Spurgeon (as quoted in Christ Alone by Michael E. Wittmer)
Erasing Hell by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle addresses the current hell controvery. In a simple easy-to-read fashion they explore the various verses in Scripture that speak about hell. In the process they write against Rob Bell’s recent book as well as the American “everyone goes to heaven” funeral mentality. This is much needed in the world and church today.
Still, where the book really shines is when it challenges the way Christians respond to this doctrine of hell. Hell should make us weep. Hell doesn’t make sense to us, and so should humble us before a God that is greater than we are. Hell should cause us to examine ourselves to see if we are really of the faith. Hell is more than a doctrine to fight about or an issue only for the lost. Hell is something that Christians must wrestle with and live in light of. The reality of hell has ramifications for how we live. And these reminders are much needed in the church today.
I am in process of preparing a sermon on hell from Luke 16, and so I’m researching the issue a bit, and thought I’d share a few resources available.
Rob Bell’s book (see prior post) has unleashed an avalanche of books supporting the traditional Biblical understanding of hell. My former classmate and professor Michael Wittmer has a short book called Christ Alone that interacts with and critiques Bell’s book. Francis Chan has a new book called Erasing Hell that looks at the relevent Biblical passages. Mark Galli has a book coming soon called God Wins that according to Randy Alcorn (via Justin Taylor) looks more at the historical and theological aspects. It also includes a small group study guide. See Taylor’s summary of the books by Chan and Galli here. In August, Keller, Mohler, and Packer have a brief book coming out called Is Hell For Real or Does Everyone Go To Heaven? Too bad these last two books are coming out too late for me to look at for my sermon.
With all these new books coming out, Tim Challies looks at how well those with the traditional Biblical view of hell (himself included) responded to the Bell controversy. In part of his critique he argues that all the uproar actually helped sell the book. Taylor has a brief response. I would simply add that while the uproar may have helped sell the book, Rob Bell was already a best-selling author whose book would have sold well even without an evangelical response – and the evangelical response was greatly needed (as Challies readily acknowledges). While many may be led astray by Bell’s book, he has forced the church to re-examine and address the issue. And with the recent slew of books, many will be better educated on the Bible’s teaching on hell. And for that we can be grateful.
A few months ago, I encouraged you to sign up for Christian History magazine’s free issue on the KJV. Christian History is now offering a free handbook on the history of Christian thought on hell. As I wrote about the current hell controversary (from Rob Bell’s new book), I thought some of you might be interested. If so, you need to sign up here by June 30.
Note: in signing up you are adding yourself to their mailing list for future magazines, and they are hoping you will give a donation to keep the magazine going.
Found this helpful quote on Ray Ortland’s blog that reminds us of the important decision each of us must make:
“Meet me in heaven! Do not go down to hell. There is no coming back again from that abode of misery. Why do you wish to enter the way of death when heaven’s gate is open before you? Do not refuse the free pardon, the full salvation which Jesus grants to all who trust him. Do not hesitate and delay. You have had enough of resolving, come to action. Believe in Jesus now, with full and immediate decision. Take with you words and come unto your Lord this day, even this day. Remember, O soul, it may be now or never with you. Let it be now; it would be horrible that it should be never. Farewell. Again I charge you, meet me in heaven.”
C. H. Spurgeon, All of Grace (London, 1897), page 128.
As I have been reading about the hell controversy (see last post), I have been doing some reflecting on some of the issues related to this issue. Here are a few thoughts:
The Centrality of the Gospel
Christ’s church disagrees on a lot of issues. Even in my local church, there are different convictions on numerous things – from tithing to translations to issues of divorce and remarriage, and on the list could go. So who cares if Rob Bell has a different view about hell? Why the big fuss? The answer is the centrality of the gospel. No one is going to go to hell if they get tithing wrong. But if we get the gospel wrong, we are in a lot of trouble. The gospel is the core of what the church believes. God, Christ, and salvation, are all tied to this issue of hell – and to the gospel. As his book redefines the gospel, it is a big deal. While there is room to disagree on minor issues, we must hold fast to the basic truths of the Christian Faith as taught in the Scriptures and held by the Church for the last 2000 years.
A Passion for God and Compassion for People
I sometimes struggle with what I should include in this blog. It does after all have a theme – does this discussion even fit? I think it does. A passion for God includes a passion for his truth. And compassion for people means warning people that a bestselling author they might read will teach them things that could lead them astray. Compassion for people means not only warning of error, but then also reminding them of the truth. That is what I sought to do in the last post.
The Need to Preach Hell
As a pastor, I don’t preach hell much. Not many pastors I’ve heard do. I wonder how many Christians are simply unprepared to address this issue, to think Biblically about it because they have not been taught about it. How many might be led astray by this book because we have failed to preach an uncomfortable truth? And if we really have compassion for people, shouldn’t we warn them of the reality of hell, and the certainty that they will go there apart from Christ? Jared Wilson discusses this further, and Ligon Duncan has some suggestions on how pastors can do it.
True Humility on Hell
It is common for certain Christians to argue that humility calls us to approach our convictions tentatively, to recognize that we could be wrong, to hold nothing definitively as truth. That allows them to question everything and hold to not much of anything. But God has spoken in his Word, giving us answers, giving us truth to believe. Humility in this case requires us to bow the knee to his revelation, to hold to his truth. There is nothing particularly humble about refusing to hold firm to what God has clearly taught.
Is God or Man Primary?
It seems to me that one of our hangups on the issue of hell is this question of who is primary. If man is primary, then how dare God send us to hell! How dare God punish us! Who does he think he is? But what if God is primary? What if God made me and hence can do whatever he pleases with me? What if God is holy and we have sinned against him? What if God is glorious and our sin is a gigantic offense against his glory? What if God is just and will punish sin? If God is primary and Creator and holy and glorious and just, then hell begins to make sense. We don’t like it. It eats at our pride. It offends our attempted godhood. But we don’t have to like it. We just need to recognize that God says hell is a reality. We just need to receive Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. We just need to give thanks to God that through Jesus we can be spared. We just need to go forth and tell others the good news that they too can find salvation in Jesus.
For further thoughts on this controversy, check out some interesting posts from Kevin DeYoung, Trevin Wax, and Tim Challies.
On Sunday mornings, our church has been working our way through Luke 13-14. In Luke 13, Jesus tells us: “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (v24). Jesus goes on to tell us that a time will come when the door will be shut (v25). People will want to enter but won’t be able to do so (v25-27). There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when they see others inside the kingdom, but they themselves cast out (v28). In Luke 14, Jesus tells the story of a man who invites many people to a banquet, but the people make excuses not to come (v15-24). The point of course is that Jesus invites us to enter the kingdom, but many people make excuses for not doing so. The passage ends with these sobering words, “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited [but made excuses] shall taste my banquet” (v24). If you refuse to enter the kingdom, you will be locked out.
From these two passages alone, comes a pretty clear picture of hell. Hell is to be cast out of the kingdom. It is place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the time to escape is very limited. Once shut out, it will be too late.
Enter Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. The promotional video questions the picture of hell Jesus gives us in Luke 13-14. It suggests, without ever stating it definitively, that what Jesus teaches in Luke 13-14 (and numerous other passages) is simply wrong, that God is too loving to leave people in hell. And with that, the blogosphere exploded. Worth visiting is Mike Wittmer’s post which has Bell’s promo video, plus a creative and compelling response.
There are now several reviews of Bell’s new book worth considering by:
What these reviews suggest is that while Bell is hard to pin down, he at least wants to open the possibility that all will be saved. Even more disconcerting are his views of the atonement, Christ, and God Himself. As one reviewer suggests, Bell is essentially gives us liberal theology for the 21st century. I’ll leave you to read the reviews if you want to for all the details. What I want to do in the rest of this post is provide some helpful links to help us explore the doctrine of hell further.
First, Collin Hansen gives us some helpful background in a three-part interview with Christopher Morgan:
Toward A Better Understanding of Hell
What About Those Who Haven’t Heard?
Second, with that background, you might consider some helpful reflections on the issue:
Why Hell Is Forever – Russell Moore
Hell and Forgiveness – Chris Brauns
What Is Universalism? – J. I. Packer
Helpful Questions About Hell – J. I. Packer
How Do God’s Love and God’s Wrath Relate – D. A. Carson
Brian J. Mikul 