Rob Bell raised concern for many evangelicals in his book Love Wins. (See my review: http://bookwomanjoan.blogspot.com/2011/04/love-wins-by-rob-bell.html.)
Conway wants us to know “Hell is a real place.” Hell is the fate of much of humanity, he says. “The most unloving thing I could do is hold out false hope or go mute about this awful, endless reality.”Conway reminds us that for two thousand years “Christians have understood eternity in terms of heaven and hell.” “Bell's book challenged the traditional, orthodox view of what happens when people die.” Bell held out the promise of postmortem salvation. Bell's message is “fatally flawed,” Conway says.
Hell was not a theologian's idea. “We learn more about hell from Jesus than from any other source in the Bible.” Jesus said more about hell than He did heaven. If we are going to take Jesus at His word, how can we not accept the reality of hell? Hell is God's idea, Conway says.
He admits that hell is a topic that makes people uncomfortable. He reminds us, “When something in Scripture is distasteful to us, we must realize that we, not God, are the problem.” He realizes the truth is hard to digest. “We must take it by faith that one day we will see as God sees.”
Conway critiques many of the statements Bell made about hell in his book, showing how they differ from what is found in the Bible. He suggest Bell commits the interpretive fallacy known as eisegesis (reading into the Bible one's own ideas). He identifies the themes that seem to emerge in Bell's book (postmortem salvation, nuanced purgatory, inclusivism) and how they contradict Scripture.
“But Love Wins, because of its confusing and sometimes dangerous message, will potentially deceive countless thousands who would have been much better off just hearing what the Bible actually has to say.”
After emphasizing the reality of hell, Conway reminds his readers that it need not be their fate. He presents the gospel and the opportunity to escape that judgment of God.
At the end of each chapter are additional video resources.
This book is in ebook form only.
I received an egalley of this ebook from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
1 comment:
Conway is absolutely ridiculous. I've watched many of his youtube videos and will read his book to give him a fair chance. Plain and simple, he's as far away from humility as you can get. The Scriptures do not teach eternal punishment.
www.whatthehellbook.com
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