Let me preface this discussion with a spoiler alert. If you have not read the book and wish to, which I highly recommend, stop here. If not, continue. =)
Rob Bell's style of writing feels more like you are reading a sermon than reading a book. It is a very distinct style and feels like he's simply have a conversation with you. It's pretty sweet (but repetitive at times--intentionally). So I am going to walk you through each chapter touching on what jumped out to me. Page numbers precede the quotation. Comments are in italics.
What About the Flat Tire
6 "So is it true that the kind of person you are doesn't really matter?"
9 "Often times when I meet with atheists, and we talk about the god they don't believe in, we quickly discover that I don't believe in that god either."
**Rob Bell loves hypothetical and rhetorical questions in this book. He really makes you think.
**9 is an interesting point. Prefacing such conversations with particular definitions of what one believes God to be is important.
Here is the New There
25 "I've heard pastors answer, 'It will be unlike anything we can comprehend, like a church service that goes on forever,' causing me to think, 'That sounds more like hell.'"
35 "Here it is, a big, beautiful, fascinating world. God says, 'Do something with it.'"
45 "It often appears that those who talk the most about going to heaven when you die talk the least about bring heaven to earth right now."
50 "How would we each do in a reality that had no capacity for cynicism or slander or worry or pride?"
**He talks about the idea of "Kingdom" a lot, which I like. I would argue that he is saying: what we do here on Earth DOES matter.
**25 made me laugh; 50 is another one of his interesting rhetorical questions. Very thought provoking.
Hell
72 "It is absolutely vital that we acknowledge that love, grace, and humanity can be rejected... we are terrifyingly free to do as we please."
**"Terrifyingly free," he explains this well, but some theologians may disagree.
Does God Get What God Wants?
99 "What we have in common--regardless of our tribe, language, customs, belief, or religion--outweighs our differences."
108 "To be clear, again, an untold number of serious disciples of Jesus across hundreds of years have assumed, affirmed, and trusted that no one can resist God's pursuit forever, because God's love will eventually melt even that hardest of hearts."
109 "At the center of the Christian tradition since the first church have been a number who insist that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins and all will be reconciled to God."
**This is the heart of the issue for many critics, and also the theme of his book.
**Honestly, I don't think he is preaching universalism here. You have to read the whole book to really understand what he is trying to say. Don't take it out of context, please!
Dying to Live
136 "When we cling with white knuckles to our sins and our hostility, we're like a tree that won't let its leaves go. There can't be spring if we're stuck in the fall."
**His personal rendition and analogy of absolute devotion.
There are Rocks Everywhere
144 "Paul finds Jesus there, in that rock, because Paul finds Jesus everywhere." (I Cor 10)
**Do you find Jesus everywhere?
The Good New is Better than That
168 "Grace and generosity aren't fair; that's their very essence."
170 "Hell is our refusal to trust God's retelling of our story."
175 "Hell is refusing to trust."
**168 for more on this I recommend Phillip Yancey's book What's So Amazing About Grace.
**His emphasis in this chapter is our response to God's grace and trust in God.
The End is Here
197 "Jesus passionately urges us to live like the end is here, now, today."
**Do we live like this?
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I think a lot of the critics are just looking for something to criticize. Rob Bell certainly doesn't bluntly support universalism. He even clarifies such issues in numerous interviews before and after the book's publication. I think MSNBC was extremely harsh and unfair with him. They were leading him into absolute, polarizing questions... giving him either-or questions that were just not cool. They oversimplified God. Despite their behavior, Rob Bell was very gracious in his remarks to his interviewer. Many of the people accusing him of being a universalist (in my experience) have not even read the book cover to cover. They are taking things out of context and giving too much weight to the opinions of others. Furthermore, I don't think the intention or even the main scope of this book should be classified under "who gets in and who doesn't." In my opinion, we shouldn't be worrying about that anyway. What we need to be more concerned with is the kingdom here and now, not there and later. If nothing else, this book asks a lot of good questions that will make you think about your own ideas of heaven, hell, the kingdom, sins, faith, righteousness, grace, and most of all... love.
I stumbled upon this shortly after finishing the book. Coincidence? =)
All the best to each of you! Thanks for reading!
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