During some quiet time the other morning, I had a thought: “I think I know why ‘hell’ doesn’t worry people.”
I truly don’t think that the thought of hell is as much a factor in the realm of Christian evangelism as it once was.
Why?
Because we continually hear about a not-so-bad hell in our everyday language.
Think about it…
Every time you hear the following, think about what it does to your mental-understanding of hell:
“The Phillies had one hell of a season this year.”
“I’ve been going through hell-on-earth this month.”
“That experience was hell for me.”
Not only is the “worldly”, vulgar neighbor guilty of ‘dumbing-down’ hell, but even the sincere Christian brother or sister that labels their current or former life-experience as “hell” can be guilty of making hell much less the Biblical-example of eternal separation from God and much more a bad-week, a bad-month, or even a POSITIVE adjective for a sports-season.
Don’t be caught making hell less than what it is for someone who may very well be on the road to that very place. Remember to think before speaking.
Hell is a real, horrible place ([youversion]Revelation 20:11-15[/youversion]). People are going there everyday. I refuse to be guilty of making that truth less horrifying.
Pastor
I was just finished a book, 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese. He writes Hell being a real literal burning place. Some people think Hell as just being removed from God,but I think it is a lot more than that.
Stev,
Your so right… I never really thought about it like that. Sounds like an edgy sermon to me.
Hell scares me bad.
Careful you $250 worth of pastorship. You might really get them “post-modern, secular humanist type Christians” all up in arms with talk like that. Stakes, stones and crucifixes, OH MY!!!
Keep it up!
Wow! Good one.