Happy Easter

It seems appropriate, on Easter, the day Jesus rose again and ascended into heaven, to draw attention to the questions raised by Grand Rapids' own Rob Bell, the popular pastor, bestselling author of Love Wins and recent subject of a Time cover story. The book's subtitle,  "A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived", hints at it's overall theme (disclosure: I've not read the book, but have followed the news and controversy over it, and am interested in the topics it addresses.) Put simply, it asks: Do you need to be a Christian to get into heaven? Obviously, this question and its subsequent discussion has sparked uproars in churches across America - if you don't need to be a Christian to go to heaven, what's the point of being a Christian? It rocks the very foundation the church is built upon: John 3:16, "that whomever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

But the question Bell presents at the front of the book is an intriguing one - is Gandhi in hell? According to a traditional Christian theology, yes, he is in hell. For that matter, then, of the 7-odd billion persons on Earth at this instant, billions of them are going to hell too. That's hard to accept, but that's what some interpretations of the Bible say. Kinda makes you want to become a missionary.

A quote from the article: "Bell insists he is only raising the possibility that theological rigidity — and thus a faith of exclusion — is a dangerous thing. He believes in Jesus' atonement; he says he is just unclear on whether the redemption promised in Christian tradition is limited to those who meet the tests of the church. It is a case for living with mystery rather than demanding certitude."

We'll just have to find out for ourselves when we get there.

And now: Bears.

Mama, Me, Mac (the chubby one :) ), then Jon.


God Bless the troops. Glad they have time to have at least a little fun.



This is classic. In the immortal words of Bubb Rubb, "Wooo Wooooooooo!"