Allen Webster

Topic(s): Eternity, Pain & Suffering, Sin

Links to this entire series:

• If I Don't Preach on Hell: Part 1
• If I Don't Preach on Hell: Part 2
• If I Don't Preach on Hell: Part 3
• If I Don't Preach on Hell: Part 4

If I don’t preach on hell, then I do not love souls as much as I should. Mary’s “other favorite son” said, “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). That is as good a definition of preaching as you’ll find (cf. Proverbs 11:30; Romans 11:14; 1 Corinthians 9:22; 1 Timothy 4:16; Philemon 1:19). Saving souls made in God’s image and worth more than all the world’s money is what preaching does.

How to do this? Use every “tool in the box,” every “weapon in the arsenal,” and every “play in the book!” Someone says, “Our ‘Brother Hananiah’ is such a loving preacher, he never preaches on hell.”¹ Well, Brother H demonstrates a lack of love by not using every available means to reach souls. Another “favorite son” in Jesus’ family² gave this two-pronged approach to saving lost people: “And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire . . .” (Jude 1:22-23; cf. Zechariah 3:2).

McChynne wrote: “Oh! If we had more love to you we would tell you more about hell.”³ Judging from the Bible, it seems he was right. Those who had hearts most filled with love spoke most of this dreadful subject. With tears Jesus protested, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings ...!” (Matthew 23:37), and with the same breath He warned, “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Paul’s tears seem often to have fallen on the parchment as he wrote (2 Corinthians 2:4; Philippians 3:18; cf. Acts 20:19, 31; Romans 9:2), yet he used “the terror of the Lord” to persuade men (2 Corinthians 5:11; He-brews 10:31). Those who most love us tell us the most truth. Our best friends flatter us least. A physician who fails to inform a patient of problems his medical tests have shown is guilty of negligence, and a preacher who fails to tell what happens to the disobedient is a “physician of no value” (Job 12:4).

Someone says, “But I believe in a God of love, not vengeance.” The true God is both—and a whole lot more. But, where did you learn of this “God of love”? You did not learn that God is love from the books of philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle climbed high in worldly wisdom, but not high enough to bring back the good news, “God is love.”

You certainly did not learn that God is love from nature. The same nature that produces beautiful flowers also gives thorns and thistles, cockleburs and cactus. The same nature that produces grain to feed us also sends drought to kill us. The same nature that gives us blue skies and rainbows, also gives us gray skies and tornadoes. The same nature that splashes us with gentle waves also crashes us with tsunami tidal-waves. The same nature that provides materials to build houses also sends hurricanes to destroy them.

The truth is that no one ever knew of the God of love until he read the Bible. Yet the same Book that tells us of divine love demonstrated by a rugged cross also reveals divine wrath fulfilled in a fiery lake. The same volume that teaches of heaven, teaches about hell. To take only part of what it says is to caricature God, and a caricatured God is fiction—a cartoon, if you will—certainly not a Savior.

If I don’t preach on hell, then I take the teeth out of the Gospel. R.W. Dale, in his day Britain’s leading Congregationalist minister, did not believe in eternal punishment. Before he died, he sighed and said, “No one fears God nowadays.”⁴ The second fact is the logical conclusion of the first. In teaching people to disregard divine punishment, he had taught them to discount divine power. After an army chaplain told his men that he did not believe in hell, one of them suggested that his services were not needed. If there is no hell, then why worry about death? “In rejecting heaven and hell, the rationalistic modern consciousness also rejects the awesome seriousness of moral and immoral behavior.”⁵

We see the fruits of this in our own time. Why is the morality of the common man slipping at such an alarming rate? “There is no fear of God before his eyes” (Psalm 36:1). Why is there no fear of God before his eyes? He has been told that “God is love” and the devil is only a cartoon character with a red suit, horns, and a pointed tail. A.W. Tozer hit the nail squarely: “The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has be-come a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.” A wide majority of people do not believe in the devil’s hell. Most Americans now believe that Satan is merely a symbol for evil. Only 27% strongly believe that Satan is real.⁶ A Harris poll found that while 89% of Americans believe in heaven⁷, only 31% believe in a place of actual torment where people will be sent.⁸ Less than 25% believe they and/or their friends will go there.⁹ Jesus insisted that more than 50% are going there—in fact, only a “few” will escape it (Matthew 7:13-14).

Our view of life after death directly affects our view on life be-fore death. If we know that retributive judgment faces us at the end of the road, we live differently as we pass the mile markers. R. A. Torrey said, “If you in any way abate the doctrine of hell, it will abate your zeal.”

Hell is a powerful, persuasive subject (2 Corinthians 5:11). It is a part of the potent Gospel (Romans 1:16). Hell is a significant part of the inspired Scriptures. Consider 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

• What is right? Instruction in righteousness.
• What is not right? Correction.
• How to get right? Doctrine.
• What to do to stay right? Reproof.

Footnotes:

¹Cf. Jeremiah 28:9-17
²Some believe he was the other apostle named Judas (Thaddeus) (Adam Clarke, for instance), but Albert Barnes believed: “Jude sustained a near relation to the Lord Jesus, being, as James was, ‘the Lord’s brother’” (Galatians 1:19).
³Weirsbe (editor), Classic Sermons on heaven and hell, pg. 129-130
⁴The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 188
⁵Kenneth L. Woodward, “Heaven,” Newsweek, March 27, 1989
⁶“Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by Denomination” (2001), Barna Research Online, http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID= 92&Reference=A
⁷Taylor, Humphrey (1998), “Large Majority of People Believe They Will Go to Heaven,” http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=167.
⁸“Beliefs: Heaven and Hell” (1996), Barna Research Online, [On-line], URL: http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageCategory.asp?CategoryID=3.
⁹USA Today poll, 12-86