:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

Today we continue my Christian Survival Guide series focusing on the topic: Sharing the Gospel.

Why do we share the Gospel?

Last week I talked about our motivation for sharing the Gospel. In brief, Jesus commanded us, and we have experienced the love and freedom of Christ. However, there may be another reason driving us.

We also fear what may become of those who resist the love of God.

Hell can be a powerful motivator, driving us to tell everyone we know that they need to follow Jesus or risk missing out on the life he offers in this world and in the world to come.

Do our beliefs about hell shape how we share the Gospel?

Do our beliefs about hell make us more up-tight when sharing the Gospel? With so much at stake, especially if we believe that hell brings eternal, conscious torment, I think it’s very possible that the love of God can be lost in the process. We can turn into messengers who only warn of a coming flood with a message of how to find safety.

That does not mean we should ignore hell. The Bible makes it quite clear that there are consequences for rejecting the love of God. However, sharing the Gospel is more about whether or not we will be with God, not whether or not we will be eternally punished. The former is relational and consistent with a Messiah who calls us his friends and his children, while the latter is a transaction.

And then there’s another possible response to thinking of hell as eternal, conscious punishment. We may block out the negative images from our mind. Is it perhaps so terrible that we cannot deal with it? In other words, can our view of hell drive us to the point that we fail to think about it?

I personally have wrestled with this. I almost can’t bear to think of hell and what it could mean for anyone, let alone someone I know. Hell has been a terrible abyss that I’m afraid to stare into, to consider, to wonder if it really is so.

Will a less terrible picture stop us from sharing the Gospel? Are there any possibilities for hell beyond eternal, conscious torment?

Can we know what is hell really like? Does it matter for sharing the Gospel?

At the most basic level, hell means separation from God. I think hell essentially can begin on earth as we make choices to move away from God’s caring rule. Being outside the Kingdom of God, as depicted in the Gospels, is a place of weeping and regret.

For the sake of argument, I’m going to rule out Purgatory and Universalism. While I know that some Christians believe in them, I’d rather focus on the ones that I and the majority of my readers here are likely to find more plausible. The traditional view of hell says there will be fire, darkness, and torment for eternity. The metaphorical view of hell states that hell exists but the details of New Testament are viewed as metaphor and hyperbole. Lastly, the conditional view proposes a hell where those within it are annihilated.

Will there be torment, suffering, and fire? Are we reading the scriptures as intended? A plain, literal reading does not work for poetry, metaphors, and hyperbole, and if we are mistaking metaphors and hyperbole for hard facts, we could be misrepresenting God and his plans for humanity.

It has been my suspicion that a real hell exists, but that the majority of references to fire and eternal suffering range toward metaphor and hyperbole ( I don’t have time to get into all of the arguments, but I’ll post links to other resources below to follow up). Jesus often used this Rabbinic teaching method (eg. “cut out your eye”), and many of the references to hell occurred in parables and stories. In addition, keep in mind that the Old Testament doesn’t speak of hell all that often. The dead go to Sheol, though a few later books like Daniel and the end of Isaiah make references to hell, which makes sense since the Intertestamental books of the same period also began to mention hell.

All that to say, we should be very, very careful when speaking of hell and using it as a motivating force in our evangelism. I think it is quite accurate to warn people about being separated from the love of God, but telling others they risk eternal, conscious punishment in flames and darkness (which when you come to think about it, doesn’t go together) may stray from the point. Will there be suffering in a state of separation from God? I have no doubt about it. But focusing on the nature of it, pulls us off course.

God desires that all people will come to know him. If we have also shared in the life he offers, we have two very good reasons to tell others about the good things God has done for us and to live differently because of the impact he has had. The consequences of rejecting him offer a third reason, but we should carefully consider the way hell impacts our evangelism.

For further reading on hell, see:

Four Views on Hell

Two Views of Hell

Wikipedia on Hell

Religion Facts on Hell