Shaking the Apple Cart

When Chad Holtz lost his old belief in hell, he also lost his job. The pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal torment for billions of damned souls. Two days later, Holtz was told complaints from church members prompted his dismissal from Marrow's Chapel in Henderson.

from the Yahoo News article:
Who's in Hell? Pastor's Book Sparks Eternal Debate

Update, March 25th: I ran across this very brief video where Rob Bell answers the question, What if you're wrong about hell?

A few days ago, I wrote the blog post Who Gets to Define Christianity, which was largely inspired by the debate in the Christian community over Rob Bell's book Love Wins (and I suppose it's ironic that all of the evangelical negative "buzz" about Love Wins will probably make Bell's book a bestseller). Now, it seems, that the controversy over what is "hell" and is it eternal, has made its way to the mainstream news outlets. I wasn't going to spend any more time on Bell's book and how the various aspects and denominations of the Christian world are responding to it, except that I find they're still responding in a very poor manner.

I spend a lot of time in the classes I teach, talking about our responsibility, as believers, to sanctify the Name of God. I describe this as living a lifestyle and generally behaving in a way that honors the Jewish Messiah we serve and that brings glory to the Name of God. As Christians, we have a choice we must make every day; are we going to sanctify His Name or desecrate it?

I've already briefly defined how we sanctify His Name, but the details have to do with our behavior. Whenever we encounter an ethical or moral decision point, what do we do? When we see someone who is hungry, do we feed him? When we know someone is in the hospital, do we visit her? When people see how we live, listen to how we talk, observe how we behave when we're under stress, do they see us actually operating out of the faith we are supposed to cherish? The opposite, desecrating the Name, means behaving in a manner that is inconsistent or opposed to our stated faith and values. It means flipping someone off when they cut us off in traffic. It means cussing someone out when they beat us to the last spot in a crowded parking lot. It means holding a grudge against our next door neighbor who borrowed our favorite power tool six months ago and still hasn't given it back. It might even mean wishing someone ill when they write a book that disagrees with our current understanding of hell.

Living a life that desecrates the Name of God means acting as if we have no faith in Christ at all.

So, how is the evangelical church behaving? I'm not convinced they're acting out of their faith or at least, they're not doing a very good job of expressing their faith (although I have no doubt they think they are). Was firing Chad Holtz out of hand the right thing to do when he started publicly questioning the assumptions the church makes about hell?

For all I know, it was the right decision. I'm only getting this through the news media and I have no illusions about the objectivity, or lack thereof, regarding information they publish. I don't have the inside story. Still, on the surface, it seems rather harsh. I have also heard it said that the church is the only army that shoots its own wounded, and it's quite possible this is a true assessment. More's the pity.

Apparently, a well-known (though I've never heard of the guy) evangelical pastor named John Piper used his twitter account to deliver a very succinct message that summarizes the evangelical opinion of Rob Bell and his book:

"Farewell, Rob Bell."

I wonder if that's the same thing as, "Go to hell, Rob Bell", but I digress.

Not all of the responses in the above-referenced news article were severe or unkind. Some people seemed to generate a more measured reaction and even some Christian concern:

"I just felt like on every page he's trying to say 'It's OK,'" said Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler at a forum last week on Bell's book held at the Louisville institution. "And there's a sense in which we desperately want to say that. But the question becomes, on what basis can we say that?"

Page Brooks, a professor at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, thinks Bell errs in a conception of a loving God that leaves out the divine attributes of justice and holiness. "It's love, but it's a just love," Brooks said. "God is love, but you have to understand you're a sinner and the only way to get around that is through Christ's sacrifice on the cross."

I think Bell has done the Christian community a tremendous favor. As people of faith, we need to evaluate, re-evaluate, and constantly challenge our theological beliefs and what we understand. That's how we grow. I created this blog last summer to chronicle my personal exploration into this realm and anyone who's been following me since the beginning knows that, at times, it's been very painful and distressing. Of course, it hasn't affected me to the point of losing my livelihood, as it did Reverend Holtz, but asking such questions takes a person's faith and strips it down, exposing the bone and nerves of what you know...and what you suddenly realize you don't know.

However, my experience with many other people of faith is that they never question their assumptions. Once they arrive at a basic theological understanding of God, faith, the Bible, and all of the details held dear by their church and their Pastor (hell, the rapture, Jews, and so on), they stop looking, learning, and developing in any significant manner.Oh sure, they go to Bible studies, but those are the sorts of experiences that have been canned and scripted with the conclusion already in mind, and it's a conclusion that completely agrees with the established doctrine of their church. What's there to learn?

Sometimes it helps if you shake up the apple cart, just to see what falls out.

Is Rob Bell right or wrong about hell? I can't say for certain. I do believe that, beyond a certain point, you don't get to come back to God. I believe there's a line you cross and once you've crossed it, you don't get to reverse your steps. How that all works though, in intimate detail, I don't know for sure. The Bible doesn't provide those details and, as no doubt you understand by now if you've been reading this blog, the Bible isn't the simple, straightforward document we all wish it was.

The point for me, at least in the short run, isn't whether or not Bell is correct or incorrect (or whether he's going to hell or not...people haven't publicly said it in those terms, but I'm sure that's what some of them are thinking), but what the results are of his "apple cart shaking".

Some of the apples have popped out of the cart and frankly, they don't look so polished.

Dear evangelical Christianity. You have a choice to make today. You have a choice to make every day. It's the same choice I make every day, and it's the same choice all people of faith make, whether they're aware of it or not. Here's the choice. Are you going to sanctify God by your actions or desecrate Him? Before opening your mouth and uttering your answer, would you think about it...please?

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.