Is Hell Still Valid?
After a break from the blogging scene, it is time to begin the process again. I hope to add a post once per week.
In a couple weeks I will preach a sermon on the reality of Hell. It is not a plesant topic. It is not a topic upon which I want to focus. But Jesus had a lot to say about it. It has been an unpopular subject to preach on for a long time, but it still holds the intimidating power I believe the Bible intends for it to have - Eternal Fire? No thank you. Lake of burning sulfur? I'm running. The one place where God is not present? Get me as far away as possible!
Is it still valid to preach on Hell? Is it a cheap scare tactic used by crazy fundamentalist Christians to minipulate the gullable into the pew? A Pentacostal church in Cedar Hill, Texas spends thousands on a haunted house that portrays Satan's prison using hellish imagry as an evangelistic tool. A Baptist church in Chicago where the youth minister dresses up as Satan and people try to beg their way out of eternal torment convinces young people.
WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?)
Jesus used both fear and hope to call people to him.
Fear
"...It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Mat. 5:30)
"...where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Mat. 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30)
Hope
"In my Father's house are many rooms...I am going there to prepare a place for you..that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2,3)
Paul said that because of the fear of the Lord "...we try to persuade men." ( 2 Cor. 5:11) He said that he would use "...all possible means...[to]save some." (1 Cor. 9:22)
Hebrews both warns of destruction; "For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Heb. 2:2-3) and pulls with hope; "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest..." (Heb. 4:1)
James uses fear addressing the rich; "Your gold and silver are corroded. their corosion will testify against you and eat you rflesh like fire." (Heb. 5:3) He also uses hope; "You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." (Heb. 5:8)
Peter uses hope of our inheritance in 1 Peter and fear of destruction in 2 Peter both to encourage faithfulness to the truth and endurance through earthly suffering.
Revelation might be considered the ultimate fundamentalist propoganda. The overriding theme is that those who do not remain faithful to Jesus will end up in the lake of burning sulfur with Satan, but those who remain faithful will be with God in heaven, forever.
If scripture carries such a balanced presentation, I believe it is incumbant upon Christians to also preach a balanced message of fear and hope. However, this means that both need to be loud and clear.
Are the methods of churches like the "Hell House" concept to frighten people valid? They report that 2/3 of the people who go through it want to become Christians. If that helped them to respond to the good news - praise God. The good news of salvation is truly good news if we realize we are saved from something undesirable. Salvation is incredible in light (or dark) of the alternative.
Peter listed love as the highest stage of Christian development (2 Pet. 1:5-7) May we all grow from fear to love.
And may we all be faithful to the truth even when it is unpopular.
In a couple weeks I will preach a sermon on the reality of Hell. It is not a plesant topic. It is not a topic upon which I want to focus. But Jesus had a lot to say about it. It has been an unpopular subject to preach on for a long time, but it still holds the intimidating power I believe the Bible intends for it to have - Eternal Fire? No thank you. Lake of burning sulfur? I'm running. The one place where God is not present? Get me as far away as possible!
Is it still valid to preach on Hell? Is it a cheap scare tactic used by crazy fundamentalist Christians to minipulate the gullable into the pew? A Pentacostal church in Cedar Hill, Texas spends thousands on a haunted house that portrays Satan's prison using hellish imagry as an evangelistic tool. A Baptist church in Chicago where the youth minister dresses up as Satan and people try to beg their way out of eternal torment convinces young people.
WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?)
Jesus used both fear and hope to call people to him.
Fear
"...It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Mat. 5:30)
"...where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Mat. 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30)
Hope
"In my Father's house are many rooms...I am going there to prepare a place for you..that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2,3)
Paul said that because of the fear of the Lord "...we try to persuade men." ( 2 Cor. 5:11) He said that he would use "...all possible means...[to]save some." (1 Cor. 9:22)
Hebrews both warns of destruction; "For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Heb. 2:2-3) and pulls with hope; "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest..." (Heb. 4:1)
James uses fear addressing the rich; "Your gold and silver are corroded. their corosion will testify against you and eat you rflesh like fire." (Heb. 5:3) He also uses hope; "You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." (Heb. 5:8)
Peter uses hope of our inheritance in 1 Peter and fear of destruction in 2 Peter both to encourage faithfulness to the truth and endurance through earthly suffering.
Revelation might be considered the ultimate fundamentalist propoganda. The overriding theme is that those who do not remain faithful to Jesus will end up in the lake of burning sulfur with Satan, but those who remain faithful will be with God in heaven, forever.
If scripture carries such a balanced presentation, I believe it is incumbant upon Christians to also preach a balanced message of fear and hope. However, this means that both need to be loud and clear.
Are the methods of churches like the "Hell House" concept to frighten people valid? They report that 2/3 of the people who go through it want to become Christians. If that helped them to respond to the good news - praise God. The good news of salvation is truly good news if we realize we are saved from something undesirable. Salvation is incredible in light (or dark) of the alternative.
Peter listed love as the highest stage of Christian development (2 Pet. 1:5-7) May we all grow from fear to love.
And may we all be faithful to the truth even when it is unpopular.
posted by Daniel Cherry at 8:45 AM
2 Comments:
Daniel, I'm glad you're getting back with the blogging scene.
Best wishes whenever you present this sermon. To do the subject justice & to present it in an acceptable fashion to this culture is a true challenge.
Give 'em hell! ;-)
I vividly recal watching a sermon video at Harding in which a preacher rose the thermostat in the auditorium to something like 90 degrees and preached in front of a fiery red curtain. I am not sure if it was effective or not but you might give it a try.
Barna did a study not too long ago and the results showed that there are a great deal more people who believe in heaven than believe in hell. I found this interesting. We like to think that we deserve to go to heaven, but we dont want to think that anyone will go to hell. Just a thought.
Hope all is well!
~JK
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