“It’s not a problem to ask questions but sometimes when certain questions are asked it’s by someone who’s a coward and doesn’t have the conviction to declare their answer.” Mark Driscoll in “Hellbound?”
I assume Driscoll was referring to the question-drivenness of Rob Bell in Love Wins. But as many have noted the newly released docu-movie “Hellbound?” continues the questions. What do we make of all these questions? Is Driscoll right?
Driscoll’s assessment of questions revealing “a coward without conviction to declare their answer” is first and foremost ignoring the fact that Jesus asked a lot of questions, especially challenging the established religious traditions through His parables. We actually appear to be failing to ask enough questions of our theological status-quo. Jesus challenged the Pharisees: “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:57)
Secondly, Driscoll is making one very serious declaration when he says he understands God’s ultimate judgment and that it will be “eternal conscious torment” when God has explicitly told us that His judgements are in fact beyond tracing out. In addition, Driscoll has pronounced that God’s revealed judgments of: “the last enemy to be destroyed is Death,” of Christ coming “to destroy all the works of the Devil,” and “making all things new,” as “the Savior of the World” somehow are not true. He says he understands God’s ultimate judgment and that it is absolutely that of an eternal hell of endless torment. However, when God has spoken to us about His judgments they are always presented as being far above our human grasp … and always in terms of more mercy than we imagine or expect:
“For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that it might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)
“Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'”
“Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?” Matt 20:15 (The parable of the Vineyard Workers)
“‘That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live’…And the LORD said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’”
GodsLoveWins.com was created not just to raise questions but, contrary to Driscoll’s accusation of “coward,” we will also declare the answers we have discovered. So what do we believe to be the nature of “hell” and the scope of the redemption of Christ? Astonishingly we have found the answers declared within the evangelical Church especially among the “Young, Restless, and Reformed” such as Tim Keller, John Piper, Matt Chandler, Tullian Tchividjian, Mark Driscoll, D. A. Carson etc.,
We have observed at least 17 ways the Church itself is forming and walking in the Gospel of ultimate reconciliation of all. There is no need to read or follow “universalist” teachers. The Church itself is providing the paradigm from within its very own spiritual DNA. It appears to be written on our hearts as the Body of Christ:
1. The grace movement that is presently racing through the Church directed from both the Calvinists (e.g., Jesus+Nothing=Everything) and the Arminians (e.g., Grace by Max Lucado). In order to preach the grace message they borrow theology from their opposing theological camp and are proclaiming: God loves and offers salvation to all humanity and all is a gift of grace, even our faith!
2. Our Missional focus of the Church which sees “the logic of election” to be for others (Lesslie Newbigin)
3. Our God-given desire that “none perish but all come to repentance.”
4. The understanding of true Biblical justice as restorative rather than punitive. (Colson, Keller, Driscoll, Olasky)
5. The centrality of social justice as an outworking of a true grasp of the Gospel (Tim Keller).
6. The diametrically opposed positions of the Calvinists vs Arminians leading to a “Gospel Third Way.”
7. The “Lordship Salvation Debate” pointing to a paradigm that includes both perfect assurance and accountability for personal holiness.
8. Our worship music that allows us to sing a theology we cannot yet speak.
9. Our theologians that often say things they are not supposed to mean in regard to the ultimate reconciliation of all.
10. The absence of the concept of an eternal hell within children’s books such as The Jesus Story Book by Sally Lloyd-Jones. It appears to reflect our instinctive sense that children possess a more generous hope than we give ourselves.
11. Our renewed sense of the Resurrection as central to the Story of God giving way to seeing the Resurrection/Life paradigm as the “last word.”
12. Our need for an absolute and objective assurance that only comes from an understanding that God’s “love never fails” and that “His mercies never come to an end.”
13. Our understanding that “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.” (Piper)
14. The revelation that beauty is central to our description and recognition of the Gospel.
15. The recent emphasis on Biblical-storying that reveals the big picture from Genesis to Revelation. (Bible Mesh, Echo the Story)
16. It’s general absence, evasion or downplay within our speech, our sermons, books and websites.
17. The “Elder Brother” syndrome expressing itself in anger whenever the suggestion is made that God may be more generous, inclusive, or merciful than our tradition has allowed (ie., Jonah, the Pharisees etc.,)
To read article unpacking all of the above in one place see HERE
For more on Driscoll and his own unintentional support of Universal Salvation see HERE
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