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."

"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 - or believing that all people will be saved and enter heaven regardless of whether they accepted Jesus - and moving far away from traditional Christianity.

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.

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.

"Do you believe, first of all, that hell is a real place or just on earth? And if we do de-emphasize the doctrine of hell, what does that do to the motivation for Christian mission?" he asked. Again, Bell talked about the hell people create for themselves on earth.  The Michigan pastor expressed his struggle with the concept that only a select few would make it to heaven and that billions of people would burn forever in hell.

As for heaven, he warned against turning speculation about heaven and the afterlife into dogma. "What I find really fascinating is Jesus turns the whole discussion upside down because he comes from a very first century Jewish worldview and he keeps insisting [that] actually God is interested in restoring and renewing this world," he highlighted. "He speaks of it as sort of a real place and yet it's always heaven and earth becoming one. As opposed to how do we get there, his interest is how do we bring there here?"