Is It Unloving to Tell People About Hell?

There is one teaching in Scripture that I sincerely wish did not exist. It would be so comforting if it wasn't in the Bible! But, oh, brothers and sisters in Christ, this very somber, uncomfortable teaching is in Scripture! Guess what? Jesus, Love Personified, talked about it more than almost any other subject! I truly wish that this teaching did not exist. Sadly, I see it all over the Bible. There is no way of evading it. It is heartbreaking to know that it is real and that many people will experience it!

I'm talking about the teaching about Hell.

Yes, I realize that it is unpopular, even in the Christian community, to broach the topic of Hell. If you are like me, you may have never heard your Pastor preach a sermon on this topic. It does not make for drawing crowds and most Pastors long to fill their church pews every Sunday. Is that not so? A number of books have been written by people who claim to have died (or almost died) and have been to Heaven. These books are almost always very popular with the public. And almost all of us, my brothers and sisters in Christ, would far rather talk about Heaven than to mention Hell. We fear that we will turn people off. After all, it is considered politically correct, by our culture, that a good, loving God would never send anyone to Hell. Now would He? But this topic is often neglected, even avoided, by many Pastors and by most in the pews. I understand this avoidance. So many of us have been turned off by "hellfire and brimstone" preaching of the past. "Turn or burn!" AS a child growing up, I have been approached by street preachers warning, "Repent or be damned by God!" Like most people, I tuned it all out. No, in most cases, God will not call us to walk up to people and challenge them, "Repent or else you will go to Hell." At least not at first.

We love to say how real Heaven is. Many people believe that all of us are automatically headed for Heaven. There is a belief system, called Universalism, which declares that everyone, no matter what he or she believes, is going to Heaven. How comforting a teaching this is! The only trouble is, the Bible does not teach this. Nor does Jesus, the compassionate, loving Second Person of the Trinity, teach this. Jesus, in fact, taught about a broad road to hell that most people are on" and that the "way to life is narrow and few find it." Even if people agree that Hell is real, they may rationalize it or soften its unsettling impact by subscribing to a teaching called Annihilation, which tells us that those who go to Hell simply stop existing. Ah, I can find little in Scripture that supports this teaching. Rather, the Bible and Jesus teach that those who dwell in Hell will suffer alone, fully conscious of this suffering, and will suffer forever. Hell will be more horrible than we can possibly imagine, just as Heaven will be more wonderful than we can conceive. But do you get why God created Hell?

God is eternally loving. Of that there is no doubt. But He is also eternally holy. He must punish sin and those who commit it. He can't tolerate any sin in HIs holy dwelling. He had to take action to make it possible to be with Him in Heaven. He loves us so much that, in Jesus, He came to Earth to live a perfect human life and to die in our place, so we would be with Him in Heaven instead of Hell. Now, the only thing that sends us to Hell is rejecting God's plan of forgiveness--Jesus as Savior and Lord. I would rather not blog about Hell, post about it, or mention it in conversation. I know that some people, in talking about despised criminals, tend to say this, "Let him or her rot in prison and then after death, let them rot in Hell!" In frustration or anger, we may order someone, "Go to Hell!" And some may even joke about Hell, saying, "I will be playing poker in Hell with my buddies." Reader, if we know what Hell is actually like and believe what the Bible teaches about it, we will never say those things or wish Hell even on our worst enemies. If we are serious about being Christlike, may I suggest that this includes warning people about Hell and how they can avoid it?

To learn more, visit 23 Minutes in Hell.

News That We Need to Apply & Share

Sometimes, when the justice system fails and a criminal gets leniency or even acquittal, we say, "He or she will face justice in a higher court." And we are very right. When criminals, child molesters or other offenders manage to evade the law altogether (because laws tend to protect offenders and ignore victims), we say, "He or she will have to stand before God one day." We are correct. When many criminals, especially murders or child molesters are sentenced, we may says, "Let them rot in prison and then face justice in Hell." Again, correct. But guess what?

Each of us, too, will one day die and have to stand before the same Higher Court and before the same God Whom we declare that "those criminals" will have to face.

We who are Christians know that our own righteousness is "as filthy rages" to God and that we are all spiritually criminal and morally bankrupt in His sight. Yet we may fall into the old trap of believing that, somehow, though we know better, that we can somehow evade giving an account of ourselves because "it is all covered under the blood." Yet the New Testament makes it clear that all of us, Christians and non-Christians, will have to stand before God and give an account of our lives. Are you ready?

We must be ready to face God at all times, as life is so fragile. If you are without Christ, you have to give account of all you have done and you will be told that you must pay for your sins because you did not accept God's provision of pardon. If you had accepted His provision and His sacrifice in Christ on your account, then your sins would have been credited to Christ and Christ's righteousness and sacrifice would have been credited for you, and you would not have to bear the penalty for all your sins. But because of your rejection of Him, you will have to face the punishment for your sins. Forever and ever. The Bible, not I, says this. This is not my idea, but Someone Else's.

We who know Christ may believe that we are eternally secure in Him and that "all is covered by Calvary." I'm certainly NOT minimizing all that was wrought for us by Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. His perfect life and blood atonement DO indeed cover us fully; all our sins are transferred to His account and His righteousness is transferred to our account. Without this Great Exchange, there is no way that we could ever know God or go to Heaven. But in spite of this assurance, we still have to face God and give an account of how faithful we have been as Christians--with our money, our time, our talents, our minds, our bodies, and our lives. We will have to render an account of every word we have ever said, every deed we have done that we have long forgotten, and we will have to account for the good things that we have left undone. Does knowing these things make you tremble?

Believe me, I wish that these teachings of the Judgment of non-Christians and of Christians and the teaching of Hell, did not exist in the Bible. But they do and we ignore these teachings at our eternal risk. It is better to deal with this now than then. But guess what? In Christ, God paid it all, a horrible price, so we can go to Heaven and enjoy Him and others. Forever and ever. Heaven is everything that we have ever longed for. All those who are without Christ need to do, to enter there, is to call on Jesus to forgive them and deliver them from the power of sin; then they are empowered to live as God wants them to. And if you do this and died now, you would be at home in Heaven. In the case of us Christians, all we need to do is keep our eyes on Christ and, counting on His power, to strive to remain faithful to Him. Then we remain saved and will enjoy the full benefit of Heaven's wealth. Believe me, I know that it's so easy to get caught up in the affairs of this life that we forget the eternal. But we can't afford to think only of this life and not think about the world to come.

This is news that everyone can use, right?