Book #170: Love Wins by Rob Bell

 

Love Wins

Rob Bell

 Released: March 15th, 2011

My 36th book for 2026 was Rob Bell’s Love Wins.  

I picked this book up back in the early 2010's at the recommendation of my friend Pam in Ohio.  This is a very thought-provoking book, and it has divided some people on how it reads.  I figured this would be a good book to explore and learn more about.

Rob takes a closer look at how Heaven and Hell are perceived by people, and what the deeper meaning truly is.  He uses stories from the Bible, and Jesus' own teachings to make a case for what redemption truly looks like, and how it can be applied to modern day world.

I've had people on both sides tell me this is both a good and bad book.  Those in support of it see the book as a better interpretation of Christianity and how Jesus intended for us to be.  Those against it feel that it goes against a strict interpretation of scripture.  Personally, I enjoyed it.  I feel Rob's ideas are not far outside the realm, and it is backed up with scripture and different elements.

A lot of the book deals with Hell and what that truly looks like.  Typically, we think of a fiery place where people suffer for their sins.  Rob's idea is a lot closer to home.  The decisions we make here on Earth lead us to personal hells we must battle against until we redeemed ourselves.  God will always meet us where we are, but we must conquer our own personal hells as part of the journey.

A good example of this is the story Jesus told about 2 sons.  One decided he didn't want to work anymore, took his earnings from his father, left the house, and spent it all lavishly.  The other son remained behind, stayed loyal to the family, and continued working hard.  The younger son felt ashamed, and made the decision to return home and apologize, feeling he was no longer worthy to be a son.  When he got home, his father gave him the best robe and sandals and threw a huge celebration.  The older son was bitter about the excitement caused over the younger son.  He felt his loyalty was far more deserving of a celebration than one who ran away and squandered money.  

Rob's idea here is that the story is about redemption.  It doesn't matter how far you go, if you see the error of your ways and acknowledge the wrong, you are redeeming yourself.  In the same way, the older son feels bitter because his own personal hell is seeing the effects of jealousy.  So even in good moments, hell still has a seat at the table.

I got a lot of great quotes out of this one.  I really enjoyed these ones:

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"What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now."

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"Eternal life doesn't start when we die; it starts now.  It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive even death."

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"Some people are primarily concerned with systemic evils-corporations, nations, and institutions that enslave people, exploit the earth, and disregard the welfare of the weak and disempowered. Others are primarily concerned with individual sins, and so they focus on personal morality, individual patterns, habits, and addictions that prevent human flourishing and cause profound suffering."

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Hell is our refusal to trust God’s retelling of our story.

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There's a lot more good stuff in this one.  I enjoyed it, and it was a quick read.

Here is what I learned:

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• Jesus story has been hijacked by other stories.
• God is practically on trial in Lamentations.
• Jesus would respond to almost every question he was asked with a question.
• The age of accountability is said to be around 12.
• All that matters is how you respond to Jesus.
• “Is someone else’s eternity resting in your hands?”
• A person should have a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
• Luke 23 features a man dying on a cross with Jesus and asks him “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
• In John 3, Jesus tells a man that to see the kingdom of God, one must be born-again.
• Matthew 6, Jesus says that God will forgive those who forgive others.
• Jesus speaks of punishments for people who intentionally cause children to stumble or go astray.
• There are 623 Commandments in the first five books of the Bible.
• “You will win life in the Age to come.”
• “Olam habah” is Hebrew for “eternal life”.
• “A racist would be miserable in the world to come.”
• “Jesus and the prophets lived with an awareness that God has been looking for partners since the beginning, people who will take seriously their divine responsibility to care for the earth and each other in loving, sustainable ways. They centered their hopes in the God who simply does not give up on creation and the people who inhabit it. The God who is the source of all life, who works from within creation to make something new. The God who can do what humans cannot. The God who gives new spirits and new hearts and new futures.”
• God acts.  Decisively.  On behalf of everybody who’s ever been stepped on by the machine, exploited, abused, forgotten, or mistreated.  God puts an end to it.  God says, “Enough.”
• Heaven is an accepted substitute for God. (I.e. Kingdom of Heaven)
• There’s nothing wrong with possessions; it’s just that they have value to us only when we use them, engage them, and enjoy them.
• That’s why wealth is dangerous: if you’re not careful, you can easily end up with a garage full of nouns.
• How we think about Heaven, then, directly affects how we understand what we do with our days and energies now, in this age.
• Jesus teaches us how to live now in such a way that what we create, who we give our efforts to, and how we spend our time will all endure in the new world.
• “Around a billion people in the world today do not have access to clean water.  People will have access to clean water in the age to come, and so working for clean-water access for all is participating now in the life of the age to come."
• "It often appears that those who talk the most about going to Heaven when you die talk the least about bringing heaven to Earth right now, as Jesus tauhht us to pray: ’Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.’"
• Honest business, redemptive art, honorable law, sustainable living, medicine, education, making a home, tending a garden - they're all sacred tasks to be done in partnership with God now, because they will all go on in the age to come."
• What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now.
• "Reign" means to actively participate in the ordering of creation.
• "Eternal life doesn't start when we die; it starts now.  It’s not about a life that begins at death; it’s about experiencing the kind of life now that can endure and survive even death."
• "Jesus teaches again and again that the gospel is about a death that leads to life. It's a pattern, a truth, a reality that comes from losing your life and then finding it. This rich man Jesus tells us about hasn't yet figured that out.  He's still clinging to his ego, his status, his pride-he's unable to let go of the world he's constructed, which puts him on the top and Lazarus on the bottom, the world in which Lazarus is serving him."
• "Some people are primarily concerned with systemic evils-corporations, nations, and institutions that enslave people, exploit the earth, and disregard the welfare of the weak and disempowered. Others are primarily concerned with individual sins, and so they focus on personal morality, individual patterns, habits, and addictions that prevent human flourishing and cause profound suffering."
• Hell is our refusal to trust God’s retelling of our story.
• The story of the son leaving home and spending all his money has themes of hell and love in it.
• The younger son believes he is no longer worthy to be a son, unbeknownst to him that his father will forgive him and celebrate his coming home.
• The older son is bitter because he stayed and did all the right things, but the father celebrates the youngest son.  He doesn’t see that it’s a celebration of reconciliation.

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Overall, very interesting book and a different way to approach the Bible and how to understand God's word and the purpose of Jesus Christ.  Very good and easy read.

Recommended.

On to Book #171: Last Rites by Ozzy Osbourne

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Need to catch up?  See previous blog post: Argylle.