WHEN HELL BECAME AN IDEA INSTEAD OF A PLACE, IT LOST MUCH OF ITS HOLD ON FOLKS - Hugh Hewitt
I am just about to read Rob Bell's chapter on Hell but before I do, I thought I would share a few thoughts on the topic. Hell has become an embarrassment to the church. Preachers don't like preaching on it and church folks even view the word now as a swear word to be avoided and not talked about. If heaven is the most loved doctrine of the church, certaily hell is the least liked one of them all. But if Christians and other followers of Jesus are really honest. the doctrine of hell is not just offensive to people (within and without the church) but so is the doctrine of grace. It just doesn't seem fair goes the argument or it goes against our modern senses to think bad people can get into heaven in the end and people who are really good but reject Jesus don't get in at all.
At the end of the day, nobody believes they deserve hell. That alone should tell us something! We think we are fine or at least as good as everyone else around us. If there is a hell, its probably not that bad of a place any way. But it was Augustine who once said, "Anyone who thinks that such damnation is excessive or unjust clearly does not know how to measure how great was the wickedness in sinning where it was so easy not to sin." I might add, not only do we minimalize the consequences of our sin but we minimalize the greatness and awesomeness of God.
Maybe we don't really want to think about hell and all that damnation stuff. But if we really think about it, the more we may realize that everyone wants to be saved from hell, but not everyone wants to be saved from his or her sins.
When people were protesting the war and the draft, there were signs like "Hell no, we won't go." Maybe some of the protest against hell is also about people who simply don't want to sign up or be drafted in the Lord's army? Even the church needs to be reminded what C. S. Lewis once said, "Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed . . . in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
I am just about to read Rob Bell's chapter on Hell but before I do, I thought I would share a few thoughts on the topic. Hell has become an embarrassment to the church. Preachers don't like preaching on it and church folks even view the word now as a swear word to be avoided and not talked about. If heaven is the most loved doctrine of the church, certaily hell is the least liked one of them all. But if Christians and other followers of Jesus are really honest. the doctrine of hell is not just offensive to people (within and without the church) but so is the doctrine of grace. It just doesn't seem fair goes the argument or it goes against our modern senses to think bad people can get into heaven in the end and people who are really good but reject Jesus don't get in at all.
At the end of the day, nobody believes they deserve hell. That alone should tell us something! We think we are fine or at least as good as everyone else around us. If there is a hell, its probably not that bad of a place any way. But it was Augustine who once said, "Anyone who thinks that such damnation is excessive or unjust clearly does not know how to measure how great was the wickedness in sinning where it was so easy not to sin." I might add, not only do we minimalize the consequences of our sin but we minimalize the greatness and awesomeness of God.
Maybe we don't really want to think about hell and all that damnation stuff. But if we really think about it, the more we may realize that everyone wants to be saved from hell, but not everyone wants to be saved from his or her sins.
When people were protesting the war and the draft, there were signs like "Hell no, we won't go." Maybe some of the protest against hell is also about people who simply don't want to sign up or be drafted in the Lord's army? Even the church needs to be reminded what C. S. Lewis once said, "Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed . . . in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."
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