Allegedly, everyone will be with God! In the end, love wins (with a hat tip to Rob Bell). In his deconstructed “Christianity,” Recker reads the Bible out of its historical-grammatical context and depends heavily on liberal theologians and those who hold to non-Christian worldviews. 

The phrase, “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things charity,” has been attributed to Augustine, Philipp Melanchthon, German Lutheran theologian Rupertus Meldenius (1627), and Marco Antonio De Dominis. So, although there doesn’t seem to be unity on the origin of the thought, there seems to be unity on the sentiment the phrase conveys. There are absolute essentials in the faith – those beliefs and teachings that must be universally believed by all Christians of the various churches and denominations, in order to actually be Christian.  Then, there are admittedly important but non-essentials in the biblical faith, things that various Christian churches and denominations may disagree on, but which do not place individuals or groups outside of the Christian faith. You might notice that Churches and Christians do disagree on certain issues, and not all such disagreement puts one or the other outside of the faith!

For those who wonder what exactly the essentials are, the late Dr. Norman Geisler would often say, “the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things.” We would suggest that these beliefs can be narrowed down to five or six in the essentials category.

• the nature of God,
• the nature of Man,
• the nature of Sin,
• the nature of the Resurrection,
• the nature of Salvation,
• the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture

Eternal life is the direct outcome of salvation. Biblically, we are separated from God by sin and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” according to Romans 3:23. But we can be united with Him by believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and calling on Him as God. In Ephesians 2:1-7, the Apostle Paul wrote:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

“Dead” means separated, not non-existent or annihilated. Thankfully, our salvation comes not by living perfect lives, or doing enough “good works,” but as a result of believing in the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf – and brings peace with God and eternal life with Him. No human being can earn God’s grace by any means. That’s why it is called “the Gift of God.”

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:23

But what of the doctrine of Hell? Is Hell an “essential” of the faith? In Brian Recker’s book, Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love, he indicates that he had been raised believing Hell is the essential of the faith:

I thought a lot about that as I recently read Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love by Brian Recker. As he tells the story of his “faith deconstruction,” we learn that he grew up in a very legalistic church, and he went on to be the type of pastor he grew up under, which, as it happens, was the church his own father pastored. Many of us have had that experience growing up. In that particular church setting, Christianity’s main essential message is Hell. In fact, the title of chapter 1 of his book is, “The Most Sobering Reality. How Hell Takes Center Stage in Christianity.”1

Now certainly, separation from God and the eternal punishment of unbelievers are taught in Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments. During His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke of those who would be in torment and those who would be with God. For example, in Matthew 25:46 He says:

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

According to Jesus, both punishment and life have the same duration, eternal. The Lord describes the fate of the unrighteous and righteous, but does not include it as part of the gospel that transfers someone from being unrighteous to being righteous. As we point out in “Eternal Conscious Torment or Temporary Eternal Life?,” and as Pastor Craig Ireland acknowledges in his excellent article, “The Eternal Flame (Updated),” there are solid believers who hold differing views on this subject.

Is it an essential, or is it an important non-essential? If we care about the eternal destiny of others, it is important, but although it may have taken “center stage” in his particular church experience and personal ministry, the doctrine of hell is not “Center Stage in Christianity.” It is God and His gift of salvation that is center stage in Christianity. Yet sadly, in Brian’s deconstruction, God is moved from the center of the story and replaced with a new Idol, the idol of love, particularly self-love. The reason is not at all difficult to understand. In seemingly trying to find a more biblical understanding, Recker did not turn to a historical-grammatical biblical context but instead embraced the Panentheist Richard Rohr, (whom he quotes 27 times), Universalist Rob Bell, and other liberals and progressives who deny not just hell but the other essentials of the faith as well. In our book, Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret, we have documented Rohr’s denial that human beings are sinners separated from God. In his teaching, no salvation is necessary but only the realization that we have always been with God.

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