I’ve watched a couple of interviews on Rob Bell in recent days and have downloaded Love Wins on my Kindle. I actually plan to reference it in this week’s sermon on the doctrine of glorification. Some of the interviews with Bell have been done very well (I especially fond of Martin Bashir’s interview).
Honestly, though, I’ve had two surprises related to Bell’s interviews. The first is what appears to be a complete ineptitude and lack of preparation on the part of Bell to answer questions that he must certainly have known were coming. When asked if he had “Amended the gospel,” Bell simply has no coherent answer. For a man as often in the public eye and who writes so readily, it is almost unbelievable to me that he has no better answers to his interviewers than I have seen provided. Certainly his publishers and even his media-savvy staff could have helped him to be better prepared.
The second surprise for me comes on the part of the interviewers. Take Bashir, for instance. He is very pressing in his questions to Bell, but the one question for any universalist is this, “Is Hitler in heaven?” It is encouraging for many to believe in a God who forgives everyone, until the one given the free pass is a mass murderer, a pedophile, or a rapist. There is no justice served in Bell’s universalism/inclusivism. Perhaps Bell has refused to answer that question in an interview, perhaps interviewers do not want to hear an answer to that question…who knows. Either way, I find it incredibly ironic that Bell has not been pressed with that question.
What other questions are begging to be asked but have been ignored by interviewers?
