In the end, Bell acknowledged that he stumbled and wandered in his attempt to answer questions. “I’m not very smart but I do know that there is good news.”

Just a day before the release of his controversial book on hell, Michigan pastor Rob Bell denied that he was a universalist.

Answering the straightforward question “are you a universalist?” posed by Newsweek’s Lisa Miller Monday night, Bell said, “No.”

“No, if by universalist we mean there’s a giant cosmic arm that swoops everybody in at some point whether you want to be there or not,” he elaborated.

“That violates the laws of love and love is about freedom, it’s about choice, it’s about do you want to be there? Because that’s what would make it heaven….”

Bell was at the New York Society for Ethical Culture to talk about his now newly released book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. The event drew hundreds to the venue and more than 6,000 people on the Internet.

Admitting he wasn’t a theologian, he didn’t offer any theological arguments on the always curious subjects of heaven and hell and the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. Rather, he said he was just “one more voice” in an ongoing conversation about things that matter most.

“I never set out to be controversial,” he said, alluding to the firestorm that erupted even weeks before his book’s release. Bell, who has been no stranger to controversy over his teachings, has been accused of being a universalist and moving far away from traditional Christianity.

“I don’t think that God honors it when people set out to be shocking, or dangerous or provocative,” said the popular author and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville.

“My interest is in what’s true and where is the life and where is the heart and what inspires. And if that happens to stir up a few things, that’s something I accept.”

When pressed several times on whether he believes there is a hell, Bell only spoke of a hell on earth and provided no indication that he believes in an eternal place of punishment.

“Is there hell? If not, does that take anything away from the cross?” one participant posed to him Monday.

“I actually think there is hell because we see hell every day,” Bell answered.
At an earlier point in the discussion, he described hell this way: “Greed, injustice rape, abuse, we see hell on earth all around us all the time … And we actually see lots of people choosing hell. We see oppression, we see tyranny, we see dictators using their power to eliminate the opposition, literally.”

“The essence of grace is Jesus saying ‘left to your own, we are all in deep trouble; we have made a mess of this place; we are all sinners; no one has clean hands.’ The essence of his gospel was ‘trust me, I’ll take care of it.”

He admitted that Jesus was “unbelievably exclusive,” pointing to famous statements like “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.”

But Bell pointed out, “He’s also fantastically inclusive,” pointing to other statements Jesus made such as “I, if I am lifted up, … will draw all people to myself” and there will be a “renewal of all things” (emphasis added).

“He’s like inexclusive,” he said, realizing he made up the word.

“I think what happens is, especially for followers of Jesus, is there are sort of his exclusive claims that are often at the expense of the other things that he says … be careful because I’m doing something for everybody,” Bell explained. “How exactly that pans out, that’s God’s job.”

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