In all my previous articles, the attention has been on unbelievers and their inborn, God-given inclinations to believe in an afterlife and even a lasting place of deserved justice called hell, no matter how strenuous their vocal political correctness may say otherwise. God truly has put eternity in the hearts of men, so that means all the arguments for hell previously made come straight from heaven. With all that being said, one would naturally think that Christians and churches would capitalize on these arguments plus the more sure-footed argument from the authority of God's Word on the subject. One would think that we would not be timid or tepid when we approach this subject. Consider the few following observations:
1. The Old Testament speaks about God's wrath some 600 times, and it uses 20 different Hebrew words to do so.
2. The New Testament speaks about God's wrath too, and its teaching is more terrible and frightening. In the Old Testament God's wrath is largely confined to acts of temporal punishment upon obstinate, disobedient people. In the New Testament the emphasis shifts very strongly toward eternal punishment.
3. There is more written in biblical revelation about His anger than His love.
4. Of the 1870 verses from the lips of Jesus, 13% are about judgment and hell.
5. Of the 40 parables that Jesus tells, over one half relate to eternal judgment.
6. Of the twelve times that "Gehenna" (hell) is mentioned in the New Testament, 11 of them come from Jesus Himself.
7. For those who want only the Ethical Teacher/Pacifist Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount have to wrestle with what this Jesus says in His straight talk express from that Sermon, such as warning people of "the fire of hell" (Matthew 5:22), the danger of being "thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29), and the need to turn from "the road that leads to destruction." (Matthew 7:13)
So much so for the idea that we have an angry, vindictive "God" of the Old Testament, and we have a nicer, kinder "Jesus" of the New Testament. God does not have a split personality, nor has He mellowed over time. He is the same loving, sin-hating, holy God of the New Testament as He is in the Old Testament. Our God changes not, and He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
For several Sundays in our Sunday morning Bible study time at our church, we looked at the far-reaching wide biblical teaching on eternal judgment from the three "hell" words, which are Sheol, Hades and Gehenna. Many Christians may not be aware of the shades of difference among those three words and what immediately transpires after one's death and at the future end-time judgment before God. (Surely that can not be because we have been derelict in teaching on the subject, or that we would dare tip-toe around such harsh-sounding, non-seeker-sensitive language, right? or not right?)
At one time I thought I would spend some time in these articles in going over what we covered on Sundays, but I decided to go in a different direction. If I just barely touched upon a twentieth of what we covered on Sundays and of what the Bible teaches on the matter of eternal judgment, then if you think these articles are too long now with too many continuing parts, then you would not know what to think of I just sent a rough outline on the doctrine of hell. This teaching is not hidden in some obscure passages in 3 Chronicles or Hezekiah. It is there for all pastors, youth ministers, Sunday School teachers, elders, deacons, evangelists, Bible college instructors and seminary professors to find for themselves and to teach it to others under their care. It is there for every Christian to find for himself, even when others avoid it like the plague.
So the question is no longer along the lines of whether people in general really believe in hell, even when they say they don't, but the question has to be with all this biblical data at our fingertips is whether Christians really believe in hell, even when they say they do. Silence on the subject speaks volumes. If judgment begins with the household of God, then we could narrow that down and say that judgment begins with the household of God on its silence on the judgment of God.
Brian McLaren is a name you need to familiarize yourself with these days. He is pastor, speaker, author and leader in the so-called Emergent Church Movement, which takes the Seeker-Sensitive and Purpose-Driven model a step further. He is a bosom buddy of Rick Warren and Bill Hybels and has spoken at their respective churches on numerous occasions. Both Warren and Hybels praise McLaren to no end.
Recently at Hybels' church in South Barrington, Illinois, McLaren said that many of our traditional doctrines need some serious revision. He wrote about such things in his 2007 book, "Everything Must Change", in which he argues that the doctrine of hell needs radical rethinking, because people who believe in hell may be inclined to dominate and take advantage of other people rather than help them. If we quickly pass off McLaren as some sort of nut job out in left field all by himself, then we greatly underestimate his wide influence in evangelical circles. When McLaren speaks, it may surprise us who is listening, even at churches here in the Bible Belt of America.
I know of a great many Christians who will vigorously nod their heads in agreement when asked if they believe in the sovereignty of God, but when the matter is pressed all the way to the salvation of sinners, then somehow God loses a significant part of His sovereignty. I know of a great many Christians who will vigorously nod their heads in agreement when asked if they believe in an eternal hell, but when the matter is pressed all the way to defining who actually goes to hell forever and why, then somehow the population of hell decreases to a trickle. Do today's Christians really believe in hell, even when they say they do?
Why would a good, loving God send people to hell, though? The answer is that God does not send people to hell. He sends sinners to hell. Furthermore, if we reject the Bible's teaching on hell, how can we trust its teaching on the mercy of God, the gift of forgiveness, and the hope of eternal life? Pretty soon then, I will have to do a follow-up series on "DO CHRISTIANS REALLY BELIEVE IN HEAVEN, even when they say they do?"
Yours in Christ,
Chris
