I wish Rob Bell was right. . .but he's not.

I just finished reading the book Erasing Hell by Francis Chan. It is such a well-written book, and I cannot recommend it enough to any believer out there.  A while back, Rob Bell wrote a book called Love Wins, in which he basically says that "hell" is all of the terrible things people have to face here on earth.  According to Bell, each of us will get as many tries as it takes until we finally come to accept Jesus as Lord.  What all of this means specifically, I cannot tell you.  

But I wish he was right.

I wish that I could sleep at night knowing that every person will eventually end up in heaven.

The only problem is: this isn't what the Bible says.

Most of Chan's new book is looking specifically at what the Bible says about hell and (most importantly) what that means for us.  For some reason, when Rob Bell wrote his book, it struck a nerve with many Christians.  People were all up in arms, calling him a Universalist and writing him off.

And while I think Rob Bell was wrong in his book Love Wins, aren't we just as bad?

I believe hell is real.  I believe that those who don't have the forgiveness of Jesus will be there after they die.  And yet most days I do nothing to change that.

Isn't that worse??

I can't stand for someone to say they don't believe in hell, but I will stand by and watch thousand of lost souls continue on the path towards hell without doing anything about it.

The truth is that yes, hell is real, AND yes, I need to do everything I can, not to scare people out of hell, but to share the amazing gift of forgiveness, healing, hope, and eternity we have been offered in Jesus.  If I can't do that, then what do my actions really say about my beliefs?

I am a pretty open person.  If something is bothering me, I'm going to talk to someone about it.  If I am excited about something, I will probably talk about it with everyone I see.  How come I don't have that same attitude about heaven and hell?  It should bother me--rock me to the core--that so many people don't know the love of God.  There are still whole people groups with no Bible, for crying out loud.  And I should be so excited about my salvation that I share it with everyone I see.  Not in an annoying, in your face way, but the same way I share anything else I am passionate about.

I hope that if you are reading this that you know about God's love and forgiveness.  If you don't, please ask me about Him.  And if you do, please tell someone else about it.