As always I will preface this post by stating that I actually know nothing and have no real theological or biblical knowledge and so everything I say is just my opinion and purely an attempt at talking through my own thoughts and issues and questioning.
So I read Love Wins by Rob Bell. I liked the book. I don't think it deserved any of the controversy that surrounded it. I enjoyed the book. Rob Bell did a good job at just presenting differing ideas and thoughts on heaven and hell. Some were good; some were a little out there. It didn't change my life and it didn't change my views on heaven and hell. But it got me thinking.
Which I think is the point of books like Love Wins. There should've been a dialogue started. Questions asked, answers given and challenged and people should've been talking about a difficult topic. But instead it seemed like damage control was being done before the book was released or read. It was as if people were bashing the book so their congregation or followers would not even bother picking the book up and thus, no conversation could be started. If no one reads Love Wins and is challenged, then no one can ask questions.
And I will state, I understand a viewpoint where pastors or religious leaders would not want some people to read Love Wins. I'm not unreasonable and I understand that there are people, new and young in their faith and Love Wins would challenge them to a point that could be really hurtful to their belief in God. But I still don't believe that's a solid enough reason for all the hate thrown Rob Bells way.
So why aren't Christians happy about Love Wins? I have an idea I want to throw out there. Just go with me on this one.
There are people Christians don't want to go to Heaven.
Boom. If you don't believe me do a twitter search on Osama Bin Laden and just look at all the words from Christians about how happy they are that he's in hell. Look at all the tweets from non-christians about how happy they are that he's in hell. How blown would people be if they got to heaven and saw Osama Bin Laden there?
We aren't excited about the idea of rapists, murderers, terrorists, and people who have committed all sorts of evil being in heaven with us. I've heard people complain about death row inmates or people on their death bed being able to come to Christ right before they die. "How come they can live a life of evil and accept Christ right before they die and get into heaven? It's not fair!"
We will rejoice when parents, siblings, friends, and other people we love accept Christ, even on their death bed, but when it comes to people who we have deemed evil or unworthy, we aren't comfortable with the idea of them being in heaven.
But Jesus does address this in the bible and he address people being unhappy about it.
Matthew 20:1-16
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Is that the beauty of God? That he loves everyone so much and desires so badly to have relationship with everyone and spend eternity with everyone that it doesn't matter if you come to Christ at the age of 5 and spend your entire life serving and following him, or you come to him on your death bed, he accepts you and welcomes you with open arms. The reward at the end of the day is the same and that's the beauty of God's grace. It's all welcoming an all encompassing.
Shouldn’t the body, the bride of Christ, be excited that more people will be with us in Heaven? Shouldn’t God’s grace and redemption for everyone, no matter how, where, or when it comes, be something exciting and hopeful? Shouldn’t we be praying that somehow, someway God would change people’s heart and deliver people like Osama Bin Laden, so that they CAN spend eternity in Heaven with the Father? Should that be the goal? Shouldn’t that be our desire?
I don’t know who will be in heaven or what heaven will be like. The God that loves so much, that is love at his essence, that he would send people to hell to be tormented forever is hard to reconcile. Eternity is a mystery that no one living has figured out. But it’s good to engage in conversation, ask questions and talk about it.
Does love win? Can love win? Hasn’t love already won?
“For God so LOVED the WORLD that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
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