Surprised by Hell: Evangelism

I think the disproportionality of the traditional teaching of hell unconsciously hurts our evangelistic efforts. To teach Jesus, we feel the need to teach the need to be saved. From what? Well, from hell. But an everlasting hell of conscious torment is a very, very tough sell in the modern world (or, I should say, Post-modern world).

It’s just so awful, so seemingly unfair, so disproportionate that many have rejected the faith on this doctrine alone. How could a just, loving, merciful God condemn good people to an everlasting hell just because they didn’t put faith in Jesus — perhaps having never having even heard of him!?

Now, the rejoinder is that denying an everlasting hell takes away the motivation to seek and save the lost. Many have found in the doctrine of hell ample reason to travel the world to save the lost from this awful fate. If we make hell less awful, perhaps we’ll be less evangelistic!

Well, I heard the same argument when I first started teaching grace a long time ago. I was told: you may be right, but this is a dangerous teaching. If people understand grace as you teach it, they’ll lose their incentive to be moral and do church work. They need a good healthy fear of hell to be good!

But I now have decades of experience that have taught me that people do more, serve more, and live better because of grace than because of hell. God’s love, not hell, changes people.

I think the same principle holds true of evangelism. People respond far better to a call to live forever than a call to escape being tortured forever. Obviously, many millions have been baptized out of a fear of hell, but how many of those have truly been converted? I mean, put yourself in God’s position. How would you feel if the only reason your kids came to Thanksgiving dinner is fear of torture? You wouldn’t feel very loved — nor would it say much good about you!

Think of it this way. Somewhere on the other side of the country a child falls into a deep well. The story makes the 24-hour news channels. Thousands of dollars are donated. Rescue equipment is shipped from across the country. Churches have special prayer meetings. Everyone does all they can do to save that child’s life — even though the news outlets show us that the poor child lives in poverty with ignorant parents. We do whatever we can do to save lives.

And Jesus says,

(John 11:25-26) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus certainly spoke of the destruction of the damned, but he offered life eternal. Isn’t that exciting enough to share with your neighbor? I mean, if you found an over-the-counter pill that would extend your life for 10 years, you’d tell everyone you know! Why not share the secret of eternal life? It’s not that hard to talk about, really — once you take hell out of the picture.

Now, I say this because I think we do much better in our evangelism when we preach for eternal life rather than against perpetual torment. But I do not want to unduly de-emphasize the horrors of rejecting Jesus. For those who’ve never heard of Jesus, the after-life will be awful.

(Luke 16:24) So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

Being destroyed at the end of time will be horrible. It will be even worse because it will be away from the presence of God.

(2 Th 1:8-10) He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

Those with faith will be in Jesus’ presence and will marvel at his glory. But those without faith will be excluded from his presence — for the first time. After all, Jesus is present on this earth. He cares for all who are here, with or without faith. We have never been truly separated from Jesus so we have no idea how horrible that would be.

But those without faith will learn what it’s like to be without Jesus at the End, and it will be punishment indeed.

And so, I don’t think our preaching of the gospel to the lost should exclude the fate of the damned. They have something truly awful to escape. But Jesus promises a proportionate punishment —

(Luke 12:47-48) “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 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.”

The lesser the sin, the lesser the punishment.

And this avoids, in large part, the psychological barrier many potential converts have. They feel that accepting Jesus is the same as damning their parents or siblings. If they accept their need for salvation, they implicitly accept the need of their deceased grandmother for salvation — and it’s too late for her. And so many have rejected Jesus rather than have to admit to themselves that their parents or grandparents are burning forever in hell.

And so, I truly hope that this better understanding of damnation frees many a lost soul from that prison — and allows them to freely accept the love of Jesus, realizing that his punishment, though real, will be just and fair.

In short, I’m persuaded that a truer, fairer, more just doctrine of damnation will make evangelism easier — and that the motivation will not decline but increase — greatly.