Rob Bell Bell says he was surprised by the controversy around his book. Critics said he was preaching universalism, a theology that suggests everyone goes to heaven and hell is empty.
“I’m not a universalist. So that’s just not true.”
Americans may have thought that cracks in the façade and framework of evangelicalism would show up most visibly when serious evangelicals argued whether Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee would be the better presidential candidate.
But now we have a chance to see that other divisive issues among evangelicals beg for attention. The topic? Hell, and a punishing God’s use thereof.
While sliding close to what critics consider the heresy of “universalism” — that all humans will eventually be saved — Rob Bell never uses the term in his book.
Mars Hill pastor Rob Bell — one of the leaders in the supposedly leaderless Emerging Church movement — has become the subject of a heated online debate regarding his forthcoming book “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.”
The discussion erupted on Twitter and many Christian blogs after Justin Taylor, vice president of editorial at Crossway, published a blog post titled “Rob Bell: Universalist?”