Opinion of Rob Bell

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Another Christian theologian whom many here will probably deem unobjectionable.  Yet, he offered some fresh insight into religion and God in last weekend's episode of Super Soul Sunday where he promoted his book.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/rob-bell-oprah_n_4220602.html
http://sojo.net/blogs/2013/11/05/rob-bell-oprah-winfrey-and-christianity%E2%80%99s-identity-crisis/

Clearly he's a guy who sees the glass half-full, and that inevitably structures the way he believes, sees, and defines God, but I still find the way he talks about God to be very fresh and profound.  In a way, it makes me wonder - assuming a creator God exists, does God exist in a purely subjective fashion, and if so, is that the reason we have free will?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I don't know why, but I seem to remember him as that guy who wrote that book about how hell didn't exist a while back. Am I correct?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I don't know why, but I seem to remember him as that guy who wrote that book about how hell didn't exist a while back. Am I correct?

I'm not sure.  Bell believes hell is a real place.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Even tho he hasn't been willing to embrace the moniker, he definitely leans towards Universalism.  The quotes in the slideshow on that page were mostly about his difficulties with the idea of everlasting punishment for the wicked.  (For me, the SDA tenet of annihilationism is an acceptable resolution of the tension between there being a omnibenevolent God and a God who provides everlasting punishment for the wicked.)  Yet he gives no answers and thus leaves the question of evil largely unexplored. Using that glass metaphor, it sounds like he doesn't see that the glass is half full, he sees that the glass has water in it.  That is a weakness of many liberal Christians, and it sounds like Bell is no exception in that regard.  Yet the problem of evil is one that any ethical religion must resolve.

So a slightly positive opinion, but not fully positive.   Indeed, at this point I'd have to say I have a higher opinion of Paul Washer than Rob Bell.