--Mark Twain
The biggest hoop-la lately is Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. (Subtitle: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.) Takes in quite a bit of territory. The book just came out March 29 and yet it has a lot of people enraged. Bell was even interviewed on CBS the other morning. He has a video, which you might want to check out stating his case. He said that one of his members told him that Gandhi was in hell. That remark set Pastor Bell to thinking. Kiran Thadhani has written for Sojourners: “Really, the potential for a Hindu peacemaker to be in heaven upsets so many people?” Pretty good question.
Bell’s book had made the top ten list of topics discussed on Twitter. People are taking sides. Poor Rob, I am sure his phone has not quit ringing. What do I say about all of this hell talk? I would agree with Reinhold Niebuhr when somebody asked him about the afterlife. He said, ”I refuse to conjecture on the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell.” That just about sums it up for me. Jesus said don’t judge who’s in and who’s out.
I grew up in a church that was sure we had all the answers. Those that had been properly baptized, said the right words were gonna get in. Those who had been sprinkled, led by some Pope, didn’t agree with our very narrow interpretations about everything or worship like us--would certainly not get in.
Bell makes a pretty good point by saying that God’s kingdom is a pretty big place. He breaks that down to say: all nations, everybody. He’s talking about folk with different skin colors, languages we cannot understand, dialects, accents, eating all kinds of food and having strange customs and traditions that seem downright un-American. He says they may just be included in the circle. Who’s in—who’s out? I do not know. I do know some of the meanest people I have ever met were in church just about every Sunday. I sometimes wonder where they will be. And down the street—one of the kindest people who never darken the door of anybody’s church--makes you glad you’re a human being when you are with them.
This hell talk sounds mostly like an intramural sport. I don’t believe the discussion will really make it into the Final Four. Jesus spent most of his time with the wrong kind of people—not because he was afraid of their going to hell as much as he laid awake at night thinking about how hungry they were, how much they had suffered, how broken their hearts were and how they could be touched and loved and find a better life for themselves and their families.
America is in two wars and with another waiting in the wings. Congress trying to slash just about every item that deals with human need. Many rich and well heeled are worrying about health care somebody else may get. With a foreclosure on every street—seems to me we have better fish to fry. Jesus said it well—why not try to take the beam out of your own eye before you sorry about the mote in your brother and sister’s eyes. Rob Bell is right about one thing: Love really does win. Maybe unpacking the ramifications of that principle might keep us busy for a long time.
Which Afterlife?
ReplyDeleteIn his new book "Love Wins" Rob Bell seems to say that loving and compassionate people, regardless of their faith, will not be condemned to eternal hell just because they do not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Concepts of an afterlife vary between religions and among divisions of each faith. Here are three quotes from "the greatest achievement in life," my ebook on comparative mysticism:
(46) Few people have been so good that they have earned eternal paradise; fewer want to go to a place where they must receive punishments for their sins. Those who do believe in resurrection of their body hope that it will be not be in its final form. Few people really want to continue to be born again and live more human lives; fewer want to be reborn in a non-human form. If you are not quite certain you want to seek divine union, consider the alternatives.
(59) Mysticism is the great quest for the ultimate ground of existence, the absolute nature of being itself. True mystics transcend apparent manifestations of the theatrical production called “this life.” Theirs is not simply a search for meaning, but discovery of what is, i.e. the Real underlying the seeming realities. Their objective is not heaven, gardens, paradise, or other celestial places. It is not being where the divine lives, but to be what the divine essence is here and now.
(80) [referring to many non-mystics] Depending on their religious convictions, or personal beliefs, they may be born again to seek elusive perfection, go to a purgatory to work out their sins or, perhaps, pass on into oblivion. Lives are different; why not afterlives? Beliefs might become true.
Rob Bell asks us to reexamine the Christian Gospel. People of all faiths should look beyond the letter of their sacred scriptures to their spiritual message. As one of my mentors wrote "In God we all meet."
I saw lots of talk about Bell's book on the internet, even before it was available to read (therefore many were commenting before having opportunity to read the book). Amazing how many Christians were so eager and happy to consign so many to Hell, and were so upset at the idea of some imaginary ledger of souls leaving their hands!
ReplyDelete"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
ReplyDeleteis what i keep going back to when i think about people i love who don't claim to be christian but are more christlike than the christians i know... that and as you said, not my job to judge.
and also, i think that the afterlife will have some of the same rules as this one... that we must choose it. how many times has god had to wait on me to let go before answering my prayers... too many!
i still say if we live our lives doing our best to act in love towards other people and the earth, we are loving god and that's the bottom line for all questions.