Millions of Christians have struggled with how to reconcile God's love and God's judgment: Has God created billions of people over thousands of yea...
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reviews
Jul 15, 2011
Bill
rated it: 
I felt excited to read a book that is causing so much controversy in the Evangelical Christian world. It's nice to feel "current."
After watching Bell's trailer for the book and watching the Nooma video style of the presentation, I was looking forward to seeing how he would flesh out his ideas about heaven and hell in the book. It was disappointing to find out that the first chapter of the book was nearly word-for-word the trailer that I had watched on the internet. The ent More...
After watching Bell's trailer for the book and watching the Nooma video style of the presentation, I was looking forward to seeing how he would flesh out his ideas about heaven and hell in the book. It was disappointing to find out that the first chapter of the book was nearly word-for-word the trailer that I had watched on the internet. The ent More...
17 comments
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(30 people liked it)
Oct 26, 2011
Bells
rated it: 
I had to pick up this book and read it for a few reasons: Controversy and debate.
Rob Bell has his Mars Hill Church in my town. I know people that attend his church and love it there. I have heard so very much about this book, and thought the controversy was localized, but then I saw Mr. Bell’s idea of No Hell on the cover of Time magazine.
When I picked the book up and brought it to the register, the cashier glared at it, then at me. (GLARED, I tell you!) She then launched More...
Rob Bell has his Mars Hill Church in my town. I know people that attend his church and love it there. I have heard so very much about this book, and thought the controversy was localized, but then I saw Mr. Bell’s idea of No Hell on the cover of Time magazine.
When I picked the book up and brought it to the register, the cashier glared at it, then at me. (GLARED, I tell you!) She then launched More...
17 comments
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(16 people liked it)
Aug 02, 2011
Rhonda
rated it:
I rarely give books one star.....
Rob Bell tries to give us a new (but old) perspective on heaven, hell and God's love. To be honest, I have never really been a Bell fan. His style of seeking truth, while earnest, seems awfully fallible. When the Bible and your own experience have almost equal weight, TRUTH can be very ambiguous.
Things I agree with:
* God is love and his love is huge for everyone.
* Jesus came to give us right relationship with God.
* Havi More...
Rob Bell tries to give us a new (but old) perspective on heaven, hell and God's love. To be honest, I have never really been a Bell fan. His style of seeking truth, while earnest, seems awfully fallible. When the Bible and your own experience have almost equal weight, TRUTH can be very ambiguous.
Things I agree with:
* God is love and his love is huge for everyone.
* Jesus came to give us right relationship with God.
* Havi More...
2 comments
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(9 people liked it)
Oct 02, 2011
Jared
rated it:
Forgive me. I couldn't resist writing this in my best Bell-style prose.
In this whole whirlwind that Rob Bell has stirred up, there is one group that has been conspicuously absent from the wide net of universalism that he and others have cast out.
One group that has been neglected.
Ignored.
And they cry out for their just defense.
I speak of course about Satan and the demons.
After all, if God is a God of love, and if he loves all More...
In this whole whirlwind that Rob Bell has stirred up, there is one group that has been conspicuously absent from the wide net of universalism that he and others have cast out.
One group that has been neglected.
Ignored.
And they cry out for their just defense.
I speak of course about Satan and the demons.
After all, if God is a God of love, and if he loves all More...
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(10 people liked it)
Jul 15, 2011
Holmes
rated it: 
Everyone should read this. REALLY read this. Rob Bell asks the questions you've wanted to ask, he starts the conversations you've wanted to start, and he leaves the answers for us to decide. He challenges your thinking, but he uses age-old thoughts to do so. In no means meant to be solid theological block, Love Wins attempts to speak out about the true meaning of Grace, Redemption, Love, and Jesus.
Oct 21, 2011
Zero stars. I found this book to be very distasteful. Let me qualify this. I have no argument with the idea of a loving God, that idea is entirely biblical. However, after carefully pointing out that he has referenced every verse with the words hell, hades, and sheol, I found most of Matthew 25 to be conspicuosly absent (no mention of "everlasting punishment prepared for the devil and his angels). Also missing is any mention of the lake of fire. Hell is treated as little more than a mental
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3 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Oct 05, 2011
Allie
rated it:
FREAKIN' BEST EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN MATERIAL I HAVE EVER READ.
So I'd recently started John Shelby Spong's Eternal Life: A New Vision (will write about that one when I finish it!), but then...
B&N had this on display.
I sat in the store and read it all the way through.
OMG.
1) This is VERY BOLD for a megachurch pastor. Rob Bell is an open-minded contemporary voice, which mainstream Christianity in this countray has needed for a long time. MA More...
So I'd recently started John Shelby Spong's Eternal Life: A New Vision (will write about that one when I finish it!), but then...
B&N had this on display.
I sat in the store and read it all the way through.
OMG.
1) This is VERY BOLD for a megachurch pastor. Rob Bell is an open-minded contemporary voice, which mainstream Christianity in this countray has needed for a long time. MA More...
3 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Mar 29, 2011
Mike
rated it: 
Can a book have value, even though most people reading it don’t agree with its philosophy or conclusions?
Can a book have value, even if the writer is flawed in his writing skill, his debating skills and his rhetorical approach?
When people read books they don’t agree with, they react in several ways. First, they don’t recommend that others read the book. Second, they find as many people as possible who also don’t agree with the book and trash it. Third, they refuse to see More...
Can a book have value, even if the writer is flawed in his writing skill, his debating skills and his rhetorical approach?
When people read books they don’t agree with, they react in several ways. First, they don’t recommend that others read the book. Second, they find as many people as possible who also don’t agree with the book and trash it. Third, they refuse to see More...
3 comments
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(16 people liked it)
Mar 16, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
Right now, it's hard to avoid the controversy that is surrounding this book. After being rejected by the Christian publishing powerhouse Zondervan for not conforming to its values, Love Wins was ultimately published by a secular company. Before the book was even released, conservative Christians were calling the author a heretic, a universalist, and a false prophet peddling a book that would lure people away from Christ and toward an eternity in hell. That's a pretty impressive feat for a 200 p
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2 comments
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(17 people liked it)
Mar 15, 2011
Kate
rated it: 
Rob's not a universalist.
But God is.
But God is.
7 comments
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(21 people liked it)
Apr 11, 2011
Matt
rated it:
One of the main reasons I wanted to read this book is because I’ve enjoyed Rob Bell’s teachings in the past. I’ve seen many of his Nooma videos and listened to countless podcasts of his sermons. I heard that Bell may be proposing some controversial views on Hell within this book, so I decided that I wanted to read it for myself rather than accept other people’s opinions about his writing. I was surprised by the fact that within the first page and a half Bell wrote that he feels the belief tha
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0 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Jan 30, 2012
Jeff
rated it:
Controversial book? Nah… New stuff? Some. Old Stuff? LOTS!!!
As Bell starts the book and explains Heaven (nothing new if you read N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope) and Hell (nothing new again if you have heard Rob Bell's sermons before.) However, what is new, is Bell talking about Hell as a place for correction, not for damnation, but instead for a chance for redemption. Believing that in the end God's love wins because God's love is stronger than any other thing in the universe, Bell belie More...
As Bell starts the book and explains Heaven (nothing new if you read N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope) and Hell (nothing new again if you have heard Rob Bell's sermons before.) However, what is new, is Bell talking about Hell as a place for correction, not for damnation, but instead for a chance for redemption. Believing that in the end God's love wins because God's love is stronger than any other thing in the universe, Bell belie More...
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 10, 2011
Jay
rated it:
This book was not altogether horrible, and there were a few paragraphs here and there that were commendable. I certainly agree with Rob's optimistic assessment of 'the end times' and find that to be a refreshing departure from the depressing and unbiblical eschatology so popular in American Fundamentalism.
As far as style... The style of the book was at least unique, which is rare in a work like this.
But.
I found the style to be.
Annoying mostly.
Entire More...
As far as style... The style of the book was at least unique, which is rare in a work like this.
But.
I found the style to be.
Annoying mostly.
Entire More...
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 16, 2012
Yanxi
rated it:
I have witnessed many debates centred on this book, and the people who I look up to had firmly called Rob Bell a "liar", so I must admit that I did not open up this book with an entirely open mind. But to my surprise, half way through it I already found myself agreeing with most (if not all) of what Bell has written. I suspect his ideas aren't entirely new, but they did open up my mind and offered me a fresh perspective to look at the Gospel. To some extent, this book completes my unde
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Feb 14, 2012
I have only gotten through the first chapter of the book. This is kind of the culmination of months of prayer and contemplation and study since the book first came out. This book upset me in concept and caused such a stir that it was in front of me for weeks when I decided to do my own study of biblical references to hell. All the talk about Rob Bell's vastly different interpretation of how it all ends for all mankind made me wonder what I really knew about the bible and what it said about ju
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Jan 28, 2012
Tara
rated it:
"millions have been taught that if they don't believe, if they don't accept in the right way that is, the way the person telling them the gospel does, and they were hit by a car and died later that same day, God would have no choice but to punish them forever in hell. God would, in essence become a fundamentally different being to them in that moment of daeth, a different being to them forever. A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them wo
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Jan 21, 2012
I commend Bell on writing this book. Although I'm not a Christian. (I left the faith in large part due to modern irrelevance, and doctrines, such as hell that I found morally repugnant. These weren't the only reasons I left, but they were large ones.)
Although Christianity was emotionally abusive to me and I can't see myself ever embracing it, even in the Rob Bell way, I am encouraged by Christians coming forward to preach a genuinely loving Christianity.
Had I been raised with More...
Although Christianity was emotionally abusive to me and I can't see myself ever embracing it, even in the Rob Bell way, I am encouraged by Christians coming forward to preach a genuinely loving Christianity.
Had I been raised with More...
Jan 12, 2012
As one reviewer states, Rob Bell "...gives voice to the people in church who haven’t felt able to ask these questions, even though they’ve been plagued by them. The people who habitually disagree with Bell will hem and haw at his mistakes (and rightfully so), but if they ignore that real people are asking these real questions … well, they do so at their peril. That’s where your reading of Love Wins will be somewhat dependent on your experiences. If you’ve found yourself asking these questio
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Oct 23, 2011
Robert
rated it:
The very fact that this book is being attacked & misrepresented by so many from the status quo (you Pharisees of today) only highlights its exposure of (sadly uncomfortable, to those whose egos yearn for the eternal exclusion & "conscious torment" of vast majority of the billions of souls that God (according to status quo sadists) created for the sole purpose of torturing them for eternity. The hypocrites attacking Bell, if they would or could analytically examine their own sloppy atta
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(2 people liked it)
Oct 23, 2011
This book has raised lots of dust in Christian circles. I've read and heard several reviews and opinions, some by critics who have condemned it and its author without reading it. I really have a problem with that. So I read it.
Within the first two chapters it impressed me as saying some of the same things as N.T. Wright in Surprised by Hope, in less scholarly language, things about what all Jesus redeemed, the relationship between the present and the future, earth and heaven and hell. More...
Within the first two chapters it impressed me as saying some of the same things as N.T. Wright in Surprised by Hope, in less scholarly language, things about what all Jesus redeemed, the relationship between the present and the future, earth and heaven and hell. More...
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 16, 2011
Andrew
rated it:
As much as Bell claims to be part of a bigger Christian tradition in writing what he has, this book is clearly a departure from, or at least a challenge to, the main orthodoxy. And let's face it, we Christians take a lot of security from orthodoxy - and rightly so. Because of that there is going to be something strange about this book. Aside from that, there's something else that's unsettling about it - something not quite right. His theological framework just doesn't quite seem to click, and I'
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 30, 2011
Nathan
rated it:
As promised I am writing a review of the book "Love Wins" by Rob Bell. I don't think of myself as a good book reviewer...because I tend to focus in on what the book meant to me and what stuck out to me rather than treating the book as a whole and giving it an unbiased presentation and review, so I apologize for that. However, if you are reading this you probably already know my style of presentation and know that you'll receive here more of my opinion which you are to weed through ra
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 27, 2011
Jeremy
rated it:
Rob Bell gives an extended conversational sermon - in book form - about what theologians call the doctrine of universalism. Bell recounts his conversations and personal wrestlings with the seemingly opposed concepts that God is a god of universal love and that God consigns those who don't believe in a particular theological way to an eternity of punishment. Based on his reading of Scripture, of church history, and of his own spiritual experience, Bell comes down on one side, namely - love wins.
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Sep 08, 2011
Adriane
rated it:
Finally, Rob Bell has given the world what it has been clamoring for: answers to the questions How could a truly loving God send billions of people to go to hell?, and If there is a God why does He allow pain and evil? Bell tackles the issues that have made the image of God and Jesus repulsive to many, and unfolds instead a God who is powerful enough and loving enough to redeem an entire universe that is not what it should be…yet.
Bell portrays a Jesus that every person in their righ More...
Bell portrays a Jesus that every person in their righ More...
Sep 02, 2011
Van
rated it:
"Sex God" by Bell is one of the best books I have ever read. His "Velvet Elvis", while I did not agree with everything in it, made me think. Nobody asks better questions than Bell or is better at wondering why we do things the way we do or believe or think the way we do. "Love Wins" does a great job of pointing out the many negative ways that Christians act. Christians can do stupid things, I believe not because they are Christian but because they are human. I used
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Aug 28, 2011
Benjamin
rated it:
Still trying to figure out what I think about this book. Strangely compelling, but potentially toxic? Not sure. Bell writes like an armchair theologian who got carried away with a Hebrew dictionary. The problem is that he doesn't admit what he's doing. He's giving a fresh interpretation, but its not a more Biblical one the way you might think from reading his book with his myriad of Bible proof-texts and word domain-based definitions. Bell has a lens and he sees the entire scripture throug
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(2 people liked it)
Aug 23, 2011
Michelle
rated it:
I've been sitting here trying to come up with some witty way to describe what I thought of this book. It's not happening, so here goes, in plain language. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It has changed my life and given me words for what I want to teach my son about God and God's plan for creation. It asked some tough questions and offered some interesting answers. It challenged some of my old beliefs and expanded my definition of God's love. It offers the most beautiful depiction of the gosp
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 09, 2011
Mike
rated it:
I hate books like Love Wins. It seems like every few years, or so, the evangelical church gets bored and searches for fodder for indignation and protest. A few years back it was The Da Vinci Code, a poorly written fiction book which sole purpose was to help past the time on long plane flights or bouts with constipation. Had the church not fallen all over itself to create a controversy, The Da Vinci Code would have been lining the shelves of used bookstores, collecting dust among the other unknow
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Aug 04, 2011
Eugene
rated it:
By Eugene C. Scott
I wrote this in May for my blog “The Philosopher’s Stone" http://ecscott.wordpress.com but thought it might still be pertinent.
I’m coming late to the Rob Bell lynching. In case you’re coming in late too, Bell is swinging from the gallows for writing a book titled “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.”
Despite the megalomaniacal title, Bell’s book shouldn’t have earned him a golden noose. Thi More...
I wrote this in May for my blog “The Philosopher’s Stone" http://ecscott.wordpress.com but thought it might still be pertinent.
I’m coming late to the Rob Bell lynching. In case you’re coming in late too, Bell is swinging from the gallows for writing a book titled “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.”
Despite the megalomaniacal title, Bell’s book shouldn’t have earned him a golden noose. Thi More...
Aug 01, 2011
Gerald
rated it:
In his latest book, Love Wins, Rob Bell has pushed his “let’s work for a heaven on earth” theology beyond a Biblically-defensible stance. Part of what makes reading Bell’s books so enjoyable is that he is a master of the “continual flow” approach to arguing. He presents evidence, draws a conclusion and then is on to his next topic without a breath to analyze his conclusion or assumptions. While it makes for an engaging read, Bell’s style makes it difficult to tie him down – in this case, whet
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