LOVE DEMANDS US TO PREACH HELL

The doctrine of hell is routinely denigrated as “hateful.” Why? Secular wisdom believes that:

·       People don’t deserve hell. We are products of our nurturing. Instead, violence makes children violent; hatred makes haters; love makes lovers. Therefore, love conquers all. Meanwhile, belief in eternal punishment will turn us into punishers.

Some secularists take this to such an extreme claiming that if we had just loved Hitler and Stalin enough, we would have been able to turn them from their genocidal intentions. And the fault doesn’t even rest in an unloving society, because we are also products of our nurturing. This analysis, therefore, eliminates any blame or guilt for a pleasure oriented world.

It follows that the secularist can have nothing but disdain for the Biblical teachings on eternal punishment. Instead, I want to argue that we need to know of the eternal consequences for rejecting the only hope available to us.

Contrary to secular opinion, we need to know that God will ultimately judge. It is this knowledge that enables us to leave aside thoughts of revenge, hatred, and unforgiveness and to apply ourselves to what we have been called to do – to love.
Miroslav Wolf, who has survived the civil wars of the former Yugoslavia, has written:

·       The only means of prohibiting all recourses to violence by ourselves is to insist that violence is legitimate only when it comes from God…My thesis that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance.

Volf knew that his stance would be unpopular in the West. He understood that when we have no tangible experience with victimization, we also have no experience of the overwhelming, life-controlling need to avenge.

Writer and theologian Timothy Keller, explains:

·       Can our passion for justice be honored in a way that does not nurture our desire for blood and vengeance? Volf says the best resource for this is a belief in the concept of God’s divine justice. If I don’t believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation. Only if I am sure that there’s a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly do I have the power to refrain. (The Reason for God, Dutton, 2008, 75)

Instead of the belief that hell leads to a more hellish society, it seems that the absense of this believe will incline us to seek our own form of “justice.” Why? The impulse to seek justice transcends the way we had been raised. Even children universally demand justice. Desiring justice is part of our human nature, and it demands expression and satisfaction.

Keller observes that in societies where the doctrine of eternal judgment rejected, brutality reigns:

·       Many people complain that belief in a God of judgment will lead to a more brutal society…[but] in both Nazism and Communism…a loss of belief in a God of judgment can lead to brutality. If we are free to shape life and morals any way we choose without ultimate accountability, it can lead to violence. Volf and [poet Czeslaw] Milosz argue that the doctrine of God’s final judgment is a necessary undergirding for human practices of love and peacemaking.

Love warns. The greater the threat, the more must love warn. This is especially true in regards to eternal punishment. In the West, we readily dismiss this threat as so barbaric that it couldn’t possibly be the design of a God of love. However, it might just be our design.

Keller calls hell “simply one’s chosen identity” (78). In other words, hell is something we choose. Lewis calls hell “the greatest monument to human freedom.” In “The Great Divorce,” he paints a vivid picture of how we choose hell:

·       Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others…but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God “sending us” to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will be hell unless it is nipped in the bud. (78-79)

How do we nip it? By confessing our sins (1 John 1:9), crying out for Christ’s help (Romans 10:12-13)! How did we get in this mess? According to Lewis, we continue to harden our heart against the Lord until we have no heart left (Romans 1:24-28). With every refusal to turn away from our sins and to turn to Christ, we embrace our final destination. Lewis therefore concludes:

·       There are only two kinds of people—those who say “Thy will be done” to God or those to whom God in the end says, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. (79)

Is this assessment Biblical? Keller correctly reflects that there are no Biblical accounts of people pleading to be released from hell into God’s presence (Luke 16). This makes perfect Biblical sense. If we hate the Light so much in this life that we flee from it, we will flee all the more hastily when confronted with His greater intensity in the next life (John 3:19-21).

The Apostle Paul taught that we are a stench to those who are perishing (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). How much more will our Lord nauseate them in the next life! By that time, their die has already been cast, along with their tastes and preferences.

This is horrific. What then must we do if we love the hell-bound? We must warn!

How Can “Eternal Hell” Be Consistent with God’s Character?

Renowned atheist, Robert Ingersoll (1833-99), was no friend to the biblical faith. He had attacked it in perhaps its most vulnerable place – the doctrine of eternal damnation:

• Eternal punishment must be eternal cruelty…and I do not see how any man, unless he has the brain of an idiot, or the heart of a wild beast, can believe in eternal punishment.

Ingersoll had charged that hell was “eternal cruelty,” not eternal justice as we Christians believe. However, it is difficult to launch a defense. Although the doctrine of eternal damnation is scripturally well-established, much about the nature of hell is left uncertain, and perhaps purposely so. Scripture warns us that we are not going to understand everything:

• The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deut. 29:29)

To illustrate our uncertainty about the nature of hell, let’s take a look at one common revelation about it. According to Jesus, it will be a place of “wailing and gnashing of teeth”:

• “And will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:42)

• “Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'” (Matthew 22:13)

• "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.” (Luke 13:28)

These verses reveal one consistent problem in our attempt to understand the nature of hell. Much of the language seems to be figurative (poetic). The first verse associates the “wailing” with a “furnace of fire,” while the second with “outer darkness.” Both descriptions – fire and darkness - cannot be literal. Meanwhile, the last verse associates the “weeping” with the regret of missing out eternally on the benefits of the kingdom. While they wanted the benefits, they continued to reject the Benefactor as they had in their first life.

Reject? The consistent absence of any attempt to confess sins and repent makes their rejection of God rather obvious. It was absent from Judas’ thinking. Instead of confession and repentance, he elected to pay for his betrayal of Jesus himself by his suicide. It was absent from Jesus’ parable about Lazarus and the rich man, who, upon death, found himself in a place of torment. Instead of confessing his sins asking pleading for forgiveness, he merely requested that his torment be slightly eased (Luke 16).

This leads us to another question about hell – one that opens the window to a possible understanding of divine justice in this matter. What if hell is self-chosen? Jesus gives us a hint of what this might look like:

• For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict [“condemnation,” NKJV]: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:17-19)

According to Jesus, He need not condemn us. We are self-“condemned already,” because we have rejected the Son, the only way of finding forgiveness. And it seems that the condemnation in the next life will be little different. Because we have chosen the darkness of sin instead of the light of Christ, it is we who have made the choice for our eternal destiny! If we loved darkness here, we will continue to love darkness there and will flee from the now blinding and terrifying Light of the Presence of the Savior.

This is not to deny that there will be a great judgment in the end. However, it does suggest that God might simply approve the very judgment we have chosen for ourselves. Heaven and hell, therefore, might simply be a matter of God giving us what we have chosen for ourselves.

Another illustration of this principle is found in the Garden account. After Adam and Eve had sinned, their orientation towards the Light was radically transformed. While prior to their sin, they enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God in the Garden. They were so comfortable with this arrangement that their nakedness caused no discomfort whatsoever. However, once they sinned, they hid in the darkness from the Light, which had now become distasteful to them, and determined to deal with their guilt and shame in their own way, much as Judas had done. While the first couple attempted to cover their sin with fig leaves, Judas resorted to a hangman’s noose.

Even after God had given them room to confess their sin, they lied and refused to take responsibility for their betrayal. Indeed, God cast them out of the Garden and out of His Presence. However, they never once pleaded for His mercy. Even after they were informed that they would be sent to a place of pain, death and hard work, they never once expressed any objection to this terrible judgment. Instead, it seems that they were more than willing to endure the pain in order to avoid the Light.

Perhaps this is a dim picture of the supreme and terrifying justice of hell? I don’t know. However, I am confident that our God is just and merciful despite our perplexities. He promises as much:

·         “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:47-48)

Reclaiming Hell

We need hell, and, from the very start, the church has laid claim to this vital doctrine. On the day of its unveiling – Pentecost – Peter preached damnation. Israel had committed the premier sin. They had murdered their promised Savior:

·        “This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23)

They were guilty as charged and knew they deserved the worst punishment. In his next sermon, Peter was even more explicit:

·        “And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet [Jesus] shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:23; NASB)

 Therefore, in horror:

·        When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37)

In order to be receptive to the Good News of salvation, they first had to understand the bad news of eternal condemnation. The condemned had to be alerted to their desperate status before they’d become receptive to the answer. No one will take medicine unless he is first convinced that he needs it.

In contrast, it is common to hear Christians saying,

·        We shouldn’t preach “hell.” This would just bring people to Christ for the wrong reason – fear. Instead, they first need to love Him for whom He is.

However, fear might be a necessary to get their attention. Besides, salvation lacks meaning if we aren’t first aware of from what we are being saved! The first Great Awakening was said to have been launched by a fear-provoking, hellish sermon.

   

In the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, preached on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut by perhaps America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards, fear-of-hell was the centerpiece. Wikipedia writes:

• Jonathan Edwards was interrupted many times before finishing the sermon by people moaning and crying out, "What shall I do to be saved?" Although the sermon has received criticism, Edwards' words have endured and are still read to this day. Edwards' sermon continues to be the leading example of a Great Awakening sermon and is still used in religious and academic studies, over 270 years later.

Edwards had helped his people to graphically perceive the reality that confronted them if they didn’t confess and repent of their sins. They cried, "What shall I do to be saved?" This was a healthy and appropriate response, given in light of the prospect of falling into the hands of a righteous and just God (Hebrews 10:30).

It would be wrong to warn our children and our congregations about hell if there is no easy solution. Likewise, it would be wrong to warn our children about adults who might lure them into their cars with promises of candy, if this wasn’t a real threat and if there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. However, there is an easy solution, as Peter promised:

• "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

We must reclaim “hell.” A recent study concluded that the belief in eternal judgment leads to moral living. I don’t want to let studies determine how I will believe and speak, but perhaps they are able to point out an imbalance in our understanding of Scripture. Perhaps we have discarded “hell” without good reason. Perhaps also, our message is anemic without this warning. Take for example this typical conversation. After presenting the Gospel, the hearer responds,

• I’m glad that Jesus works for you, but I’m happy with myself and my life just the way it is.

We need to be able to retort,

• I’m also glad for you, but this is irrelevant. We all must face an eternity of punishment or bliss, and now is the time to confront this reality.   

Eternal punishment is a reality, as Peter later attested. After listing several widely-accepted instances of God’s judgment – punishment of the angels, the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – Peter concluded that eternal judgment isn’t a fairy tale (2 Peter 2:4-9).

We need to know that a just God is in charge as we experience victimization. Otherwise, we will be tempted to seek revenge. Paul wrote:

• For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. (2 Thes. 1:6-9)

 It is because we are convinced that God will judge that we are free to love (Romans 12:14 – 13:4). We don’t have to play pay-back with our enemies, because justice will pay them back. If we trust God in this area, we need not take this upon ourselves.

The doctrine of “hell” was also central to Jesus’ teachings. In fact, He spoke more about hell and its horrors than did anyone else within the Bible:

• "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:18-19)

 In one sense, we are self-condemned because we have refused to avail ourselves of the only cure – the light of Christ. Some will argue that the future judgment is therefore also a matter of self-condemnation. If we have hated the light in this life, we will continue to hate it in the next, when we are confronted with the light in all its intensity.

However, my concern is not with the mechanics of condemnation but with its reality. Even if we are merely self-condemned, this is not going to make the condemnation any more bearable. Similarly, if hell is literally a “consuming fire” or merely an “outer darkness” doesn’t address the question of pain. Instead, the question of hell’s pain and perpetuity is foremost. Jesus regarded hell as a fate worse than death:

• "And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

 Death is not to be feared. Hell is, along with the God who has the power to send us there. The fear of God should be a healthy terror for those who aren’t on His right side. However, for those who are His, it is our “delight,” as it is for His Messiah (Isaiah 11:3).

As Jesus maintained, no one will escape this judgment:

• “And [they] shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:29)

 I’ve heard many say that if there is a heaven and a hell, they will be going to heaven because, “I am a good person!” This assumes that God grades on a moral curve. However, Jesus assured us that any sinful act can merit hell:

• "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” (Matthew 5:22)

There is no place for self-righteousness in God’s kingdom. Instead, we all must repent of our sins:

• And He [Jesus] answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2-3)

Anyone who knows their own conscience, knows that they are a sinner who deserves condemnation (Romans 1:32). It is only the blindness of self-righteousness that obscures this critical inner knowledge.

In many instances, Jesus taught that hell is a place of torment, so much so that if it were possible to avoid hell by cutting off both hands and feet, this would be a small price to pay:

• "And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire.” (Matthew 18:8)

We cannot reject speaking of hell, seeing that Jesus so often did so. Besides, if the disease is so threatening and the cure so simple, we cannot withhold this. It would be like our doctor failing to tell us that we have an operable cancer because he doesn’t want to offend us. Let us pray that we will have the boldness of Jesus who proclaimed:

• “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36; NIV)

Give the People Hell!

The late scientist Isaac Asimov famously claimed:

• I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.

However, perhaps “fearing hell” and longing for heaven – the carrot and the stick – serve as necessary social and moral glue. Recently, in the wake of the Colorado shootings, evangelical author, Jerry Newcombe expressed these very sentiments:

• "Tens of millions of young people in this culture seem to have no fear of God. It's becoming too commonplace that some frustrated person will go on a killing spree of random people. If they kill themselves, they think it's all over. But that's like going from the frying pan into the fire."

• "Where's the fear of God in our society? I don't think people would do those sorts of things if they truly understood the reality of Hell."

• "The founders gave us a system where voluntary God-fearing was the underpinning of civility in society. The more internal restraints people have, the less need they have for external restraints.

Although the Huffington Press had libelously and maliciously insinuated that Newcombe had insensitively made these statements in regards to the victims of the shooting, research supports his position:

• Research shows that if religious thoughts are implicitly aroused in people’s unconscious, they will be less dishonest and more charitable…But why? Well, if supernatural punishment increases adherence to moral norms, and economic success rests on minimizing corruption and maximizing honest trade, then it makes sense that these types of religious beliefs could have a large scale impact. Indeed, we and others have argued that religious beliefs—and in particular those regarding omniscient, punitive supernatural agents that police our moral behavior—may have been instrumental in producing the level of cooperation required for early societies to grow beyond small groups where everybody knew each other.

Atheist turned Christian, Peter Hitchens - he's the brother of the late atheist Christopher Hitchens - wrote that the fear of eternal punishment had kept his immoral behavior in check and eventually led him to call upon the Lord. And he is not alone in this. One survey found that 26% admitted that the fear of hell had been at least somewhat responsible for their turning their back on sin.

Instead of criticizing religions’ teachings regarding ultimate rewards and punishments, perhaps secularism needs to acknowledge the wisdom behind such teachings.