{"id":554,"date":"2011-03-07T08:42:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T08:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html"},"modified":"2011-03-07T08:42:55","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T08:42:55","slug":"the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html","title":{"rendered":"The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">What happens after we die?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">According to early press reports, Rob Bell (pastor of the<br \/>\n10,000 member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI) has taken up the topic in<br \/>\nhis newest book,&nbsp;<span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.<\/span>&nbsp;The controversy over the book has become so<br \/>\nintense that it was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/03\/05\/us\/05bell.html?_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">reported in the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">It began when conservative Christian blogger <a href=\"http:\/\/thegospelcoalition.org\/blogs\/justintaylor\/2011\/02\/26\/rob-bell-universalist\/\" target=\"_blank\">Justin Taylor<br \/>\nresponded<\/a> to early publicity about the book (he hadn&#8217;t read the<br \/>\nbook, just excerpts) with vehement disagreement over the suggestion that all<br \/>\npeople (might) end up in heaven.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Other Christians chimed in to discuss an array of<br \/>\ntheological positions on the topic of our eternal destiny. A traditional<br \/>\nconservative view of the afterlife is simple: people who have acknowledged<br \/>\nJesus as their personal savior go to heaven. Everyone else goes to hell.<br \/>\nForever. But, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2011\/marchweb-only\/rob-bell-universalism.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mark Galli of Christianity Today pointed out<\/a>, there has been a<br \/>\nspectrum of beliefs about who goes to heaven and what constitutes hell for<br \/>\ncenturies. (I highly recommend Galli&#8217;s post as a helpful guide to this spectrum of viewpoints within the Christian tradition.)<\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal\">In addition to the traditional view is the idea that hell might exist but be empty&#8230; or the thought that God, in his mercy, annihilates people who don&#8217;t end up in heaven rather than have them suffer the torment of hell(John Stott has advocated this position in the past)&#8230; and also the possibility of universal salvation, supported by the theological concept that Jesus&#8217; sacrifice saved every human being one way or another. As Karl Barth reportedly said, &#8220;We don&#8217;t know if there is universal salvation. But we can hope.&#8221; In all of these cases, salvation comes through Jesus and by grace alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal\">The spectrum grows wider when you consider non-Christian ideas about the afterlife, including the atheists who believe there is no God and no eternal life, and, on the other end, the person who believes that all religious roads lead to God. (This final position is also a variance of universal salvation, but the salvation here does not come through Christ.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal\">So what do you think? What happens after we die? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Who belongs in each place and why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What happens after we die? According to early press reports, Rob Bell (pastor of the 10,000 member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI) has taken up the topic in his newest book,&nbsp;Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.&nbsp;The controversy over the book has become&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What happens after we die? According to early press reports, Rob Bell (pastor of the 10,000 member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI) has taken up the topic in his newest book,&nbsp;Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.&nbsp;The controversy over the book has become&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-07T08:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All? - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All? - Thin Places","og_description":"What happens after we die? According to early press reports, Rob Bell (pastor of the 10,000 member Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI) has taken up the topic in his newest book,&nbsp;Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.&nbsp;The controversy over the book has become&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-03-07T08:42:55+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html","name":"The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All? - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-03-07T08:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-07T08:42:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/03\/the-controversy-over-rob-bell-who-goes-to-heaven-after-all.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Controversy Over Rob Bell: Who Goes to Heaven After All?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}