(RNS) Excerpts from Rob Bell’s “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived.”

“A staggering number of people have been taught that a few select Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”

“At the center of the Christian tradition since the first church has been the insistence that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins.”

“When people say they’re tired of hearing about “sin” and “judgment” and “condemnation,” it’s often because those have been confused for them with the nature of God. God has no desire to inflict pain or agony on anyone.”

“For some, the highest form of allegiance to their God is to attack, defame, and slander others who don’t articulate matters of faith as they do.”

“None of us have cornered the market on Jesus, and none of us ever will.”

(Cathy Lynn Grossman writes for USA Today.)