When Deconstruction Becomes Sentimentality: Why Rob Bell Isn’t My Guy
I’ve read two books by Rob Bell: Love Wins and What Is the Bible? I read them with an open mind—but also with a hope. A hope that maybe, in all the talk about new ways of seeing and thinking, I’d find something worth holding onto.
Instead, what I found left me frustrated.
It wasn’t that Bell asked hard questions—I’m actually for that. It was that he didn’t seem all that interested in answering them with any intellectual depth. The arguments were thin. The tone often emotional. And even when he said something that sounded right, it felt more like an echo of personal intuition than a reasoned position rooted in the text or tradition.
Feelings ≠ Foundations
To be fair, Bell isn’t alone. There’s a brand of deconstruction today that trades theological rigor for storytelling and vibes. It’s all heart and very little head. That might make for a compelling TED Talk, but it doesn’t make for good theology.
Compare that with someone like Peter Enns. I don’t agree with everything Enns says, but I respect that he builds a case. He knows the scholarship. He’s engaging ideas, not just feelings.
If you’re going to challenge long-standing doctrines or reframe biblical theology, you carry the burden of proof. And when a writer reinterprets major beliefs about hell, judgment, or the nature of Scripture itself, I expect more than poetic reframing and rhetorical questions.
God Is Not Just Love
Here’s where it gets trickier. Bell’s central claim, especially in Love Wins, seems to be that God is love—and that’s essentially the whole story. But that’s not what the Bible says.
Yes, Scripture says “God is love” (1 John 4:8).* But that’s one line—among many.
Scripture also describes God as:
- Just (Deuteronomy 32:4)
- Jealous (Exodus 34:14)
- Holy (1 Peter 1:16)
- Righteous (Psalm 7:11)
- A consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29)
- The Lord of hosts (Isaiah 6:3)
- The One who brings vengeance (Romans 12:19)
- The Judge of all the earth (Genesis 18:25)
Many deconstructionists seem eager to throw out every traditional view of God—except this one: that God is love. They question the historicity of the Exodus, the teachings of Paul, even the resurrection. But somehow, the one claim that survives unchallenged is “God is love.”
That feels… selective.
Especially in a world filled with suffering, injustice, and real evil. The most obvious, natural conclusion isn’t that God is only love. It’s that God’s character must include other traits too—traits like holiness, justice, even wrath.
The Bible doesn’t present a sentimental deity. It presents a God who is complex and consistent—loving, yes, but also holy. Compassionate, but not permissive. Merciful, yet also a judge.
To truly understand divine love, we have to hold it together with divine justice. Love that never opposes evil isn’t love at all—it’s apathy dressed up in warm language.
A Better Conversation
If you’re wrestling with how to think about God’s love and God’s justice, I highly recommend God of Love and God of Judgment by Steve Moroney.
https://amzn.to/3H7r9PS
This book will help you think more clearly, biblically, and theologically about how the two belong together—and how they shape the Christian understanding of who God truly is.
Notes:
* The authorship of 1 John is traditionally ascribed to the Apostle John, though some scholars debate this. Regardless, the statement “God is love” is part of the biblical canon and should be interpreted within the wider scope of Scripture.
