St. Augustine’s response to Rob Bell
Let me say up front that I’m not defending Rob Bell, or his new book Love Wins. I’m merely letting St. Augustine speak into the situation at hand within American evangelicalism.
With that said, St. Augustine was a loyal proponent of the view that Hell consists of eternal punishment (Enchiridion, XXIX:112-113). Yet, the quote below (two translations of it) from The City of God, XXI:17 is how he might respond to Rob Bell (Justin Taylor, Kevin DeYoung, and all you Gospel Coalitionists take note):
“And now I must turn from the pagans to deal, however gently, with some of our own tender-hearted fellow Christians, who are inclined to feel that there must sooner or later be liberation from hell, if not for all whom the perfect justice of God has judged worthy of its pains, at least for some.”
–The Fathers of the Church, ed. Joseph Deferrari, trans. Gerald G. Walsh, and Daniel J. Honan (The Catholic University of America Press, 1954), 378.
“I am aware that I now have to engage in debate, devoid of rancor, with those compassionate Christians who refuse to believe that the punishment of hell will be everlasting either in the case of all those men whom the completely just Judge accounts deserving of that chastisement, or at least in the case of some of them….”
–Concerning The City of God against the Pagans, ed. David Knowles, trans. Henry Bettenson (London: Penguin Books, 1972), 995.
Apparently, he didn’t believe those he addressed were outside of Christianity (a.k.a., heretical, although these teachings were rejected by “orthodox Christianity”), and he respectfully engaged this dispute as an “in house” debate.
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Posted on March 16, 2011, in Theology and tagged Augustine, christianity, Eugene Peterson, Hell, Justin Taylor, Kevin DeYoung, Rob Bell, Salvation, Theology, Universalism. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Brother, do not deceive your readers so.
Augustine continues by saying that Origen held a more “indulgent” view (which I will refer to as 2) than the view of the tender-hearted Christians (1) and was condemned (as a heretic) for 2 along with other beliefs.
The issue has never been whether Bell’s intentions are based on charity or rebellion. Dear brother, was Arius any less charitable in his desires?
The issue remains that Bell is in flat contradiction of scripture and of at least one scripture in particular that has been used against his view for the past 1600 years!
In now way do I decieve readers. First, I state upfront that Augustine rejected univeralism and thought Origen and other universalists were wrong. Second, at the end, I clearly state that this view lies outside of “orthodox Christianity”. Third, I said nothing about Bell’s intentions.
I’m merely demonstrating Augustines approach to dealing with this view as an “in house debate.” Please feel free (if you can) to provide a statement from Augustine whereby he himself explicitly anathematizes or pronounces this teaching “heretical” or that those who hold to this view are not actually Christians.