Southern Baptists Vote to Continue Believing in Hell
Southern Baptist Church leaders, after a two-day annual convention held this week in Phoenix, voted to continue believing that hell exists and that there really is an “eternal, conscious punishment of the unregenerate.” The resolution to continue believing in hell was announced on Wednesday.
The decision to put the centuries old Christian belief that there is a place in which God tortures non-Christians for eternity came after a book titled:Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived, by Pastor Rob Bell, challenged the traditional Christian belief in literal eternal damnation. The church described the views expressed by Rob Bell in his book as “bordering on heresy,” and after the resolution was passed to continue believing in hell, the president of the Southern Baptist Church Byrant Wright prayed, “Father, because the reality of hell is so real, the permanent separation from you is so real, and our hours here on this Earth are so limited, we pray that you will give us a fresh sense of conviction of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The resolution said that the Church:
“RESOLVED, That out of our love for lost people and our deep desire that they will not suffer eternally in Hell, we implore Southern Baptists to proclaim faithfully the depth and gravity of sin against a holy God, the reality of Hell, and the salvation of sinners by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.”
In his book Rob Bell said that, “At the Center of the Christian tradition since the first church has been the insistence that hell is not forever and love in the end wins.” According to the 
Baptist Press News , “Few events in recent memory have caused as much controversy and confusion among evangelicals as the the latest book by well known pastor Rob Bell who in ‘Love Wins’ denies hell and affirms a form of universalism…”
The Baptist Press News explains that Rob Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a nondenominational church but that Bell had, in the past, written books popular and widely accepted among evangelicals.
Bell had, also, in the past made controversial statements. When, in 2007, he was questioned on his views on homosexuality, he refused, according to the Baptist Press News, to state that God disapproves of homosexuality, but rather skirted around the issue.
But according to Pastor David Platt of the Southern Baptist Church, Rob Bell does admit in his book that hell really exists, he only raised questions about the eternity of hell when he pointed out that the Greek word, aion, translated “forever” in English versions of the Bible could also be interpreted as “indefinite period of time.”
David Platt warned believers to be very cautious when any one raises questions about what God said.
