Reading Christian Books – Writing Christian Music
Love Wins – Jesus Is Saving Everything and Everyone
(Post 11 of the current book selection “Love Wins” by Rob Bell, Chapter 6)
Another misconception that Christians have is they can think that the name of Jesus must be used or his name must be known about or He isn’t there. But, a correct understand of God’s story shows that’s not true. Paul said that Christ was the rock that the Israelites drank from in the desert (I Corinthians 10:3-4). But, they didn’t know it was Jesus. The truth is that He is shown throughout all of creation even if His name is not known.
Essentially, He is bigger than a religion; especially the one called “Christianity.” He says that no one comes to the Father but through him, but he doesn’t say how, or when, or in what manner this happens. He doesn’t even say that those who come to the Father through Him will necessarily know that it happened.
The Jews had this misconception. So did the first Christians. They believed that what God was doing was exclusively for them, not others. Until God set them straight through the apostle Paul. He explained that Jesus’ purpose was not to establish a new religion that we would then go and try to recruit people into a special group that would avoid eternal punishment. The “mystery” of Jesus is to “bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)
God is putting the world back together through Jesus. Jesus is saving everything in creation and everyone in it.
Yes…it is hard to conceive that the same power that created the whole universe became a man. But, the universe is far beyond anything we can comprehend anyways…so that fits right in. So, we shouldn’t be surprised that people come to Him in all sorts of ways without knowing who or what it is. It happened in the Exodus. It happens today. Sometimes they use His name. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they even encounter Jesus and can’t fathom that it’s Him because of the massive misconception they’ve developed of what the name means.
So, we should be careful about judging people’s eternal destinies.
Now it’s your turn. Does this post make you want to be careful about judging people’s eternal destinies? Why or why not?
Note: The next post is now available on chapters 7 and 8 – “Trusting a Different Story from a Different God”
(Disclaimer: The content of this post is the post author’s perspective on the book selection’s content and not the opinion of the post author. To purchase the book, click on the link below)
About the author
Michael Fleming lives near Canton, Ohio with his wife Kristin. Michael is involved as a teacher with the Soul Care Center, a non-profit school in Canton that provides Christian counseling, teaching and coaching to the Stark County area. He also writes and records music for his pop alternative music project (also called 2nd man united) that can be heard in the sidebar of the site.
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“Does this post make you want to be careful about judging people’s eternal destinies? Why or why not?”
I don’t judge people’s destinies, that’s God’s job. But scripture is clear about many things that lead to eternity without him.
“ …but he doesn’t say how, or when, or in what manner this happens.”
That completely negates the purpose of Jesus speaking those words. Jesus was very deliberately putting the focus on him in a very visible way to make it clear that to get to the Father we must go through Him. This was a call to action, not just a side note! The apostles understood this and lived it and spread the message both of Christ’s love and his judgement (Acts 24:25). By sweeping this scripture under the rug Bell is launching a direct assault on the entirety of Christ’s purpose and plan, as well as the message of all scripture.
Now, I do agree completely with Bell that Christ reveals himself to people in a variety of ways. By pointing this out, Bell negates his own argument that we have an eternity to receive salvation. This must be done before out time on earth expires, so God is makes sure everyone gets a chance to accept or reject His Son.
Stoney -
“so God is makes sure everyone gets a chance to accept or reject His Son.”
So, a 3-year old that dies in a car accident faces God and He says “Sorry, you said no to me. You had your chance. It’s off to eternal punishment for you.”
“So, a 3-year old that dies in a car accident faces God and He says “Sorry, you said no to me. You had your chance. It’s off to eternal punishment for you.””
This reminds me that most Christians tend to believe that ALL children that die before the age of accountability go to heaven.
What specific scripture(s) supports this? Or, is it that we take the bigger picture of God’s nature into account when we believe such?
Do we dare to imagine that these children will suffer all eternity because of the sin of Adam & Eve? Or, do we trust that Jesus’ sacrifice was more than enough to overcome inbred sin for all? (I Cor 15:22; Col 1:20; Rom 5:18; Rom 11:32)
Nope. Never said that. The same argument could be made about those who are mentally retarded or an unborn child that is aborted. As Craig said, this is where Christians believe in an age of accontability, whenever that is. But, he’s right. There is no scripture to support that. So my view is to trust in the sovreignty of God and believe He is wise enough to handle that situation. The age of accountability is a mere human attempt to explain something we do not know or understand about God. No need to chamge the scriptures to make God more “fair” in our own humanistic eyes, much like Bell attempts to do.
Stoney -
“But, he’s right. There is no scripture to support that. So my view is to trust in the sovreignty of God and believe He is wise enough to handle that situation.”
The problem with your answer is that we can also trust in the sovereignty of God to end the story with love winning and everyone going to heaven even though we don’t understand how with a bunch of scripture that seemingly contradicts it. Similarly, you are trusting Gods sovereignty to work out giving everyone a chance before they die although there is no scripture to support it and even scripture that says “all will be saved.”
There is no scripture that talks about 3-year olds who die. There is scripture that talks about those of us who are competent to make a choice and choose to reject God. Altogether different issues.
And there is scripture that talks of everyone getting saved.