DINING WITH SINNERS
WITH (prep) function word to indicate manner of action
God Gets What He Wants #LoveWins
The point of this series of posts is an exercise in how I would answer the questions Rob Bell is asking as if I were in an actual dialogue with someone. This series is not meant to be read as a critique, review, a medium to bash Bell, or a way to prove I am “right.” See the first five posts in this series here, here, here, and here, and here.
If I were to rate the first four chapters of Love Wins in degrees of difficulty from 1-5 with 5 being the most difficult, chapter four would get a 5.
Not that what Bell is asking, “Does God get what He wants?” is so difficult, but the tension that exists in knowing that God desires all to be saved and the reality of the final judgement.
Chapter four can be summed up in the following:
Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices?
Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them creating space for the freedom that love requires.
Yes, this is a tension. Believe me when I say, I have wrestled with this tension soon after making a decision to follow Jesus, because I suddenly knew that very good friends of mine had died apart from the saving knowledge of Jesus. What would be their fate?
But Jesus himself states an answer to this question plainly. He said that at the final resurrection all will “come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgement” (John 5:29).
And we know that even “those who have done evil” can be redeemed:
And there will be “those who have done good” that will hear this:
The Finality of the Future Judgement
The question of the future state of the wicked and their eternal punishment is difficult to resolve with the tension that does exist between the love of God and his judgement. Biblically speaking, if there is one basic characteristic of hell, it is, in contrast to heaven, the absence of God or banishment from his presence.
Hell is an experience of intense anguish, incredible loneliness, of having seen the glory of God, of having realized he is the Lord of all, and then being cut off. There is then the realization that this separation is permanent. Whatever one is at the end of life will continue for all eternity. There is no basis for expecting to change for the better. This is why grace is so amazing and why it has been made available to all in this life.
So not only is the future judgement of those who have not repented and believed the gospel irreversible, but their punishment is eternal. Not only must we reject the idea that all will eventually be saved; we must also reject the idea that none will be punished for eternity.
Even though some biblical passages assert or imply that salvation is universal (see for example Philippians 2:10-11, Colossians 1:19-20, Romans 5:18 ), we must realize that Scripture gives no indication of a second chance after death. Surely, if there is to be an opportunity for belief after the judgement, it would be clearly set forth in God’s Word. What we find instead are definite statements to the contrary.
Michael Carpenter
Michael is an urban church planter in the Argenta Arts District of North Little Rock. He and his wife Amanda have been married since 2003 and have two children – Austin and Max. Michael is an entrepreneur, missiologist, and chef.
another interesting passage is 2 Cor. 5:18-20.
v. 18- God reconciled Himself to us thru Christ.
v. 19- is reconciling the world to Himself in Christ.
v. 20- “be reconciled to God.”
It seems to paint a picture that the sacrifice of Christ, from a God-to-us view, has done what’s needed- Christ’s sacrifice is reconciling the world to God. God is satisfied.
BUT, there’s still an us-to-God reconciliation- “be reconciled to God.”
Beautiful!
The tension definitely exists, and it is crucial to look at what the Bible says concerning the matter. I believe you gave a fair response to Bell’s questions. A chance after death is hardly seen in the Scriptures, but there is a verse or two that makes me think about the possibility. 1 Peter3:18-20 and 4:6, the open gate in Revelation(which is after the second death, but there are idolaters and stuff outside the city?), and some other obscure verses give me the idea that judgment may not be as black and white as we make it. However, there are those other verses, and plenty of them exist, that do make it seem like what’s done is done. That being said, we know that God has called us to reach out to the lost and make disciples.
1 Peter does raise some good questions. I by no means have resolved the tension. Not much in Scripture is neatly boxed up that we all like to have it. But that is the beauty of it.
Amen! I wonder what we would do if we had all the answers anyway? lol….better yet, what are we doing with the answer(Christ) we have now? These are good things to think about.