Saturday night (2/26), the name Rob Bell was trending on Twitter due to a large number of tweets and retweets reacting to a post on a popular conservative, Calvinist blog called The Gospel Coalition. 

Rob Bell is a best-selling author and senior pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI. He has written a new book called Love Wins. Blogger and publisher, Justin Taylor, posted that Bell is "teaching false doctrine" and that he is glad Bell

"has the integrity to lay his cards on the table about universalism."

Taylor goes on to base his conclusion about what Bell's metaphorical "cards" show on a video teaser promoting the upcoming book that lasts 2:57 (the full video can be viewed at: RobBell.com/lovewins). Taylor writes,

"It seems that this is not just optimism about the fate of those who haven’t heard the Good News, but (as it seems from [the video]) full-blown hell-is-empty-everyone-gets-saved universalism."

The video Taylor refers to makes no positive statements about what position the book will take, but instead lists several important questions the subject matter of the book raises. How a conclusion can be reached about the content of a book from the questions the book raises is beyond me.

Nevertheless, inspired by the reactions to the mere concept of Love Wins, Monday night's T2T meeting will explore some of the questions raised by Bell and their relationship to the nonviolent stance of the group.

Bell's Questions:

1) "Will only a select few people make it to heaven, and will billions of billions of people burn forever in hell?"

2) "If that's the case, how do you become one of the few? Is is what you: believe; say; or do; or who you know; something that happens in your heart; or do you need to be: initiated; baptized; take a class; converted; born again?"

3) "What is God like? If believing in Jesus saves us from God's wrath, what kind of God would we need to be saved from? How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be Good News?"

Relationship to Nonviolence:

4) How does the nature of God inform your view of salvation, eternity, and nonviolence?

5) What is the Gospel? How does nonviolence factor into your view of the Gospel?