Wayzata Community Church, one of the largest congregations of the United Church of Christ in the U.S., will host author Rob Bell for a talk and book signing for his recently released book- Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
Bestselling author of VELVET ELVIS and the 2 million-plus selling Nooma videos, Rob Bell, faces squarely the question: Does it really make sense that God is a loving, kind, compassionate God who wants to know people in a personal way, but if they reject this relationship with Jesus, they will be sent to hell where God will eternally punish them forever?
In LOVE WINS, Bell goes to the heart of these issues and argues that the church’s traditional understanding of heaven and hell is actually not taught by the Bible. Bell is emphatically not offering a new view of heaven and hell. Instead, Rob looks closely at what the Bible says and discovers that Jesus’ most fundamental teaching about heaven and hell is, “Love Wins.”
Rev. Dr. Allen Hilton, Wayzata Community Church’s teaching minister says: “Rob Bell’s book crosses boundaries, and that’s rare in American Christianity. He sings out the expansive love of God, even when the wide reach of that love violates cardinal beliefs of the evangelicalism from which he comes. His color choice is not limited to either an evangelical or a liberal palette. That frees it to be wholly and polychromatically Christian. I can’t wait to hear Rob talk about the book on April 11!”
About Wayzata Community Church
Wayzata Community Church (WCC), located in Wayzata, Minn., has been helping people with their faith journeys for 130 years. Today the church has nearly 3,000 confirmed members, and is among the top five largest congregations of the United Church of Christ in the U.S. Besides worship services, WCC offers Music at Wayzata concert performances, author visits, scouting organizations, support groups, Nursery School, the annual Rummage Sale and other community events.
If you go:
7:00pm, Sanctuary
Doors open at 6:30pm
125 Wayzata Boulevard, Wayzata MN 55391
2 responses to “Author Rob Bell to Appear at Wayzata Community Church”
In his new book \”Love Wins\” Rob Bell seems to say that loving and compassionate people, regardless of their faith, will not be condemned to eternal hell just because they do not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Concepts of an afterlife vary between religions and among divisions of each faith. Here are three quotes from \”the greatest achievement in life,\” my ebook on comparative mysticism:(46) Few people have been so good that they have earned eternal paradise; fewer want to go to a place where they must receive punishments for their sins. Those who do believe in resurrection of their body hope that it will be not be in its final form. Few people really want to continue to be born again and live more human lives; fewer want to be reborn in a non-human form. If you are not quite certain you want to seek divine union, consider the alternatives.(59) Mysticism is the great quest for the ultimate ground of existence, the absolute nature of being itself. True mystics transcend apparent manifestations of the theatrical production called “this life.” Theirs is not simply a search for meaning, but discovery of what is, i.e. the Real underlying the seeming realities. Their objective is not heaven, gardens, paradise, or other celestial places. It is not being where the divine lives, but to be what the divine essence is here and now.(80) [referring to many non-mystics] Depending on their religious convictions, or personal beliefs, they may be born again to seek elusive perfection, go to a purgatory to work out their sins or, perhaps, pass on into oblivion. Lives are different; why not afterlives? Beliefs might become true.Rob Bell asks us to reexamine the Christian Gospel. People of all faiths should look beyond the letter of their sacred scriptures to their spiritual message. As one of my mentors wrote \”In God we all meet.\”
Rob Bell has all the markings of a Last Days teacher…telling all the folks what their itchy ears want to hear.Telling people there is no hell sure sounds like a great message to people who are destined to go there.If there is no hell, Rob Bell, what exactly did Jesus come to save us from?Jesus clearly told us, \”I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father (heaven) but through me.\”By speaking those words Jesus set out a VERY narrow path. Probably why he tells us that \”Narrow is the path that leads to life and few will be on it. Wide is the road that leads to destruction (hell) and many will be on it.\”Rob Bell, we will continue to pray for you because as a claimed Teacher of the Word…you have opened yourself to be held to a higher level of responsibility…and you are telling people lies. Who did Jesus tell us the Father of all Lies is?