Love Wins by Rob Bell Video Transcript

Here is the written transcript of the short promotional video that Rob Bell id for his 2011 book Love Wins.

 

Several years ago we had an art show at our church and people brought in all kinds of sculptures and paintings and we put them on display. There was this one piece that had a quote from ghandi in it

And lots of people found this piece compelling. they’d stop and sorta stare at in and take it in

And reflect on it

But not everybody found it that compelling

Somewhere in the course of the art show somebody attached a handwritten note to the piece

And on the note they had written

Reality check – he’s in hell.

Ghandi’s in hell? He is?

And someone knows this for sure?

And felt the need to let the rest of us know?

Will only a few select people make it to heaven? And will billions and billions or people burn forever in hell?

And if that is the case, how do you become one of the few? Is it what you believe or what you say or what you do or who you know?

Or something that happens in your heart or do you need to be initiated or baptized or take a class or converted or being born again?

How does one become one of these few?

And then there is the question behind the questions. The real question: What is God like?

Because millions and millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message – the center of the gospel of Jesus is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus.

And So what subtly gets caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God.

But what kind of God is that, that we would need to be rescued from this God? How could that god ever be good. How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?

This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian faith. They see it as an endless list of absurdities and inconstancies and they say why would I ever want to be part of that?

See what we believe about heaven and hell is incredibly important. Because it exposes what we believe about who God is and what God is like.

What you discover in the Bible is so surprising, unexpected and beautiful

That whatever we’ve been told or taught - the good news is even better than that. Better than we could ever imagine. The good news is that Love wins!

 

Love Wins By Rob Bell - Animated Version

Is God In Control?

I keep hearing people talk about God being in control. Something bad happens and people say “Don’t worry, God is in control”. Your kids gets sick, you lose your job or your house burns down – what is the first thing people will tell you? “God is in control”. What on earth does that even mean?  Have you ever had something horrible happen and your friends and family are trying to help you and make you feel better, but when someone says that, it doesn’t help me feel any better at all. As a matter of fact it actually makes me feel worse.

Meaning
We need to take a second look at that and figure out what it actually means and at what they are implying when they say that. They are trying to imply that God is in charge and there is always a part of it that says that God is using it for something good. I don’t like that concept at all. It doesn’t sound like the God I know. Does that mean that the bad stuff was part of some master plan God has? If you’re in control, doesn’t that mean you’re running the show and and got it all covered? When I hear someone say that God is in control, then it even makes me question whether or not we have free will.

Free Will
And if I have free will and can chose to do good or chose to do bad, then other people have that same choice. If someone else chooses to do something bad, then God wasn’t in control of that. We can’t blame God for the bad. But if God wasn’t in control of the bad, then we can’t just arbitrarily say that God is in control. We have to discern that God is involved in life, and to what extent He is involved and chooses to take control. I believe that God is all powerful and can chose to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. But when He is letting humans make choices, both good and bad, then He is waiting and watching and my guess is that He would often be shaking His head in disbelief. Here are some thoughts that I wonder if God might be thinking: “Why do these humans keep on choosing to reject me and throw away all of the good stuff that I’ve given them. Why can’t they grasp that I love them and want to have a perfectly close relationship with them. Why can’t they understand, that just as it started for Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, I want that for all of mankind and womankind. To spend time walking and talking in the Garden. To give us the opportunity to enjoy My creation and all of the great things it offers, and just relish the thought of us spending our lives together. Why can’t we all just get along? Love. My Love. That all they need to get.”

Well in my mind none of that fits with what I know about God. The one thing that I think everyone would agree on is that God Is Love. If God is Love, then He wants good things for us, right?

And what if God weren’t love? Well that just doesn’t work at all. there’s no reason that any part of the Bible would be true then. If God isn’t love, then He would be so unpredictable and self focused that life just wouldn’t make any sense at all. God Is Love!

Next Section
Check out the next section that will talk about If God isn’t “In control”, does that mean that He is “out of control”?