Sunday, April 21, 2013

Recently, I had sometime on my hands, so I decided to read Rob Bell'sLove Wins. I will start of by saying this: I will never get that time back.

I have heard a lot about this book. It made quite a splash when it came out a few months back and I, being a curious fellow, decided to give it a whirl. As a literary work, it is, to say the least lacking. Its written in a staccato, had-too-much-coffee-not-enough-toast-this-morning type prose. It was very easy to skim, it never truly grabbed me and pulled me in, which in the end was probably a good thing.

As for the theology, well, it was, to say the least, lacking. As I was reading/skimming the book John 10:1 kept coming to mind: "Truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in another way is, that man is a thief and a robber." Bell tries with great veracity and very little success to turn the head of the reader. His premise is basically
this: John 3:17, Jesus really didn't mean that. Nope, not at all, he was kind foolin, yeah. Srsly!

In short, he stops at John 3:169a. The whole bit about "whoever believes in me shall be should not perish but have eternal life" he just kind of pushes away. And John 3:17? Forget it, doesnt exist.