In days long gone by, when Christian leaders held divergent opinions regarding matters of theology and Scripture, they would take their debates to public forums, such as large councils and meetings. The Nicene Creed was formed out of just such a council, which met to discuss the various opinions that had arisen regarding Christ’s nature.
Now theological debates seem to be centred not in geographical arenas, but in totally different types of public forums such as the blogosphere. An interesting example of this occurred last weekend, when pastor, speaker and author Rob Bell came under attack for his latest book entitled: “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” The furore raised by this book, primarily over the Twitter platform, resulted in Rob Bell’s name trending alongside the likes of the weekend’s biggest headlines concerning Oscar winners like Colin Firth and Natalie Portman.
Justin Taylor, the vice president of editorial at Crossway, wrote a blog suggesting that Bell was now a universalist and moving "farther and farther away from anything resembling biblical Christianity." Universalism is the belief that all people will ultimately be saved, and that God will not allow anyone to spend an eternity in hell.
Interestingly enough, Taylor admitted drawing this conclusion purely from the book’s promo blurb and introductory video and without reading the book itself. Another well-known pastor and author John Piper picked up Taylor’s comments, and was upset enough to send out a tweet linking the article with the words “Farewell Rob Bell.” There has been fierce discussion around what exactly Piper meant by his tweet, with most seeming to think he is saying Bell’s position now excludes him from orthodox Christian belief. Piper has also not actually read Bell’s book, and has come under fierce criticism from other Christian leaders for a tweet they say is disrespectful and potentially misinformed.
Both Taylor's post and Piper’s tweet went viral, with the blog post generating over a 1,000 comments and 24,000 Facebook shares. Piper’s tweet was re-tweeted enough to place Rob Bell’s name into the national trending topic for Twitter. Bell’s supporters also readily entered the debate (before reading the book themselves it should be added) and by the end of the weekend, there was a huge and fiercely contested public debate over issues like heaven, hell, universalism, atonement, God’s mercy and justice. As can be imagined, pre-orders for Bell’s book have also soared.
Despite the novelty of huge theological debates entering unique public forums such as the various social media platforms, the point is that this particular debate over heaven, hell and God’s judgement touches upon real vulnerabilities and fears for many. Rachel Held Evans clarified these concerns most succinctly in her article in The Washington Post:
“Like a lot of evangelicals, I am eager to have this conversation because my own doubts about Christianity sprang from questions related to heaven and hell. As a little girl, I struggled with the idea that my hero Anne Frank had died in a prison camp only to suffer eternal torture in hell at the hand of an angry God because she was a Jew and not a Christian. If my Sunday school teacher was right, I reasoned, then the German guards who professed Christian faith were more likely to make it into heaven than the Jews they persecuted.”
Evans goes onto to say that in her travels, she is regularly approached by young Christians expressing these exact, same worries in a variety of ways. Bell’s book, whether is does teach universalism or not, is therefore a timely contribution to an increasingly important discussion that will probably rage on in a variety of ways, although it does seem that face-to-face personal discussions will be vitally important as part of this overall process. After all, while Twitter and the various social media platforms are tremendously helpful communication tools, it is doubtful they could have hammered out an effective Nicean Creed.