{"id":393,"date":"2011-11-15T21:25:52","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T21:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/?p=393"},"modified":"2012-01-21T16:01:47","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T00:01:47","slug":"rob-bells-release-of-companion-guide-to-love-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/rob-bells-release-of-companion-guide-to-love-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions We Invite You to Answer…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Is the thing that God is up to in the world through Jesus Christ going to be smaller or bigger than our imagination? \u00a0Is it going to shrink, or is it going to be something more expansive than we first thought? \u00a0What direction is God’s \u00a0work going in the world? \u00a0Is it getting smaller or is ti getting bigger?…Does God fail? …Is history tragic?” (Love Wins \u00a0Companion pg 78)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The following questions are for those who “doubt their doubt” about God’s ability and purpose to restore all things to Himself and “make all things new” as well as for those who believe all the questions have been answered in relation to the debate regarding the nature of hell:<\/p>\n

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1. If God is holy and perfect would it be reasonable to conclude that He would leave most of His creation in a state of unholiness and imperfection (forever)?<\/p>\n

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2. Was Jesus Christ The Savior of the World or just The Potential Savior of the World?<\/p>\n

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3. Can we legitimately and honestly claim that, “God conquered sin, death and hell” if most of mankind are going to exist in a perpetual state of sin, death and rebellion forever in hell? \u00a0Does God conquer death or does He sponsor death? (LWC pg 18)<\/p>\n

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4. How can God be “all in all” and “everything to every one” if most are consigned to an eternal hell “away from” the presence of the Lord?<\/p>\n

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5. But if all living beings are “sustained by His grace” and “held together” by the word of His power how can anyone truly be separated from God in a place called hell forever? \u00a0Will God be there with them in hell sustaining them during their eternal punishment?<\/p>\n

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6. Why are the words “away from” or “separated from” added to II Thess. 1:9 \u00a0which significantly changes its meaning from “an age of punishment\u00a0from\u00a0<\/em>the face of the Lord “to “away from<\/em>\u00a0the presence of the Lord?” \u00a0Are these not two\u00a0very\u00a0<\/strong>different\u00a0meanings? \u00a0One is very serious indeed but not without hope given God’s promise to “make all thing new”. \u00a0The latter is entirely\u00a0without hope.<\/p>\n

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7. How can justice be paid or satisfied with a sentence that never ends? \u00a0Does God inflict infinite punishment upon those He says “are but dust” and of whom He says, “He knows our frame”? (Psa 103:14)<\/p>\n

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8. Why do we advocate social justice for all, even for unbelievers, and for restorative justice in our prisons if it is only an earthly temporal reality with absolutely no reference to God’s ultimate justice? Are we to love our enemies?<\/p>\n

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9. How can God promise “justice for all the oppressed” if most of the world’s oppressed die before they ever receive it? \u00a0Are they resurrected to receive their justice for the evil done to them only later to be thrown into hell with their oppressors?<\/p>\n

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10. If the word justice is the same word for righteousness, which literally means “right-useness”, would it not be true therefore that\u00a0God’s justice is in harmony with His love<\/em>\u00a0which naturally seeks to return and restore His creation to its original intention and design?<\/p>\n

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11. If God asks us to pray, “Our Father” and every knee will bow “to the glory of God the Father” and “we are all His offspring” how is it in the end His primary role will be as the Eternal Torturer of\u00a0most<\/em>\u00a0of His offspring?<\/p>\n

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12. Why is the concept of an eternal state in a place called “hell” absent in the Old Testament? \u00a0And therefore why would God neglect to warn people for thousands of years of the most horrific reality ever to face mankind?<\/p>\n

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13 \u00a0How do you account for all the passages where “the world”, “all people”, “all of creation”, and “every knee” is bowing in worship of our God in the future?<\/p>\n

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14. Is not the idea of death, rebellion, hatred of God and sin cycling forever in “hell” more like a form of dualism than the plan of a holy, loving, all-powerful God?<\/p>\n

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15. If you are defending an eternal hell on the basis of preserving man’s free-will to choose then how is it that eventually every knee is said to bow which, in your estimation, would be\u00a0against their will<\/em>?<\/p>\n

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16. If you claim that man has ultimate free-will then does not this mean that God ultimately loses His? \u00a0But did he not say, “I am not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to repentance”?<\/p>\n

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17. When we consider all the references to God’s name (well over 600) why do we not find a single name that depicts an image of an Eternal Torturer?<\/p>\n

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18. Are we to love our enemies while God does not? \u00a0Does\u00a0God help us obey<\/em>\u00a0His command to love our enemies while He does not?<\/p>\n

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19. Can we love our neighbor and love God at the same time if He is planning on sending the majority of our neighbors to hell forever?<\/p>\n

How do we truly keep both commands? \u00a0If we love our neighbor as ourself we will naturally wish their good and not damnation (against God). \u00a0If we love God we will have to naturally support God’s damnation of most of our neighbors (against our neighbors).<\/p>\n

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20. What do you perceive we will be doing in a million years? \u00a0Will all of heaven hate those in hell while all those in hell hate those in heaven? \u00a0Or will those in heaven love those in hell? \u00a0 Does hatred never fail<\/em> or does love never fail<\/em>?<\/p>\n

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  “Is the thing that God is up to in the world through Jesus Christ going to be smaller or bigger than our imagination? \u00a0Is it going to shrink, or…<\/p>\n

Read MoreQuestions We Invite You to Answer…<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,16,47,48,19,13],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelical-universalism","tag-evangelical-universalism-2","tag-hell","tag-hell-questions","tag-love-wins","tag-love-wins-companion","tag-rob-bell","excerpt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/godslovewins.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}