{"id":4585,"date":"2019-02-28T10:44:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T16:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nafwb.org\/?p=4585"},"modified":"2019-02-28T10:44:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T16:44:17","slug":"what-happened-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/what-happened-to-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happened to Hell?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leroy Forlines<\/strong><\/p>\n

The two most awesome\u00a0thoughts that have ever\u00a0crossed my mind are the\u00a0thoughts of Hell and atonement.\u00a0lt is awesome that God\u00a0takes sin so seriously that He pronounced\u00a0on sinners the sentence of\u00a0spending eternity in Hell.<\/p>\n

It is even more awesome to think\u00a0that the holiness of God takes sin so\u00a0seriously that if Jesus Christ was going\u00a0to be our Savior, God’s justice required Him\u00a0to suffer the full\u00a0wrath of God for our\u00a0sins. The justice of God\u00a0would take no less from\u00a0Jesus Christ than was required\u00a0of us if He was going to take our\u00a0place. That is awesome!<\/p>\n

In answering the question:\u00a0What has happened to Hell?<\/strong> the answer\u00a0is, “Nothing.” Hell was established\u00a0by an immutable decree of\u00a0God. Jesus tells us that the day is\u00a0coming when He will say to sinners,\u00a0“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting\u00a0fire, prepared for the devil\u00a0and his angels” (Matt. 25:4lb).<\/p>\n

The real question is:\u00a0What happened\u00a0to preaching about Hell?<\/strong>There may be some exceptions, but\u00a0I do not think anyone will question\u00a0that there is not as much preaching\u00a0about Hell as there was a generation\u00a0ago. Why?<\/p>\n

If you gave pastors and evangelists\u00a0a questionnaire to fill out, those\u00a0whom we know would check the\u00a0right answers. If anyone among us\u00a0would dare question the doctrine of\u00a0an eternal Hell, we would have holy\u00a0war about it.<\/p>\n

But there does not seem to be any\u00a0problem not preaching about Hell as\u00a0long as you say you believe in it.\u00a0If my observations are correct, the\u00a0question is: Why does preaching on Hell receive such little attention in\u00a0today’s conservative pulpits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer is found, not in what\u00a0people say they believe, but in how\u00a0they feel (When I speak of “feeling,”\u00a0I am thinking of feeling as informed\u00a0by thinking) about it. When preachers\u00a0have deep feelings about a matter,\u00a0it shows up in their preaching.<\/p>\n

The shortage, and almost absence,\u00a0of preaching on Hell tells us that\u00a0preachers do not feel as deeply\u00a0about Hell as they once did.\u00a0The shortage of deep feelings\u00a0about Hell is also seen in the pew. In\u00a0the general population, feelings go\u00a0anywhere from weak feelings about Hell to hostility toward the whole idea.<\/p>\n

The big question is: Why has\u00a0there been such a shift in the way\u00a0people feel about Hell?\u00a0<\/strong>The answer\u00a0is that there has been a shift in worldview\u00a0thinking.<\/p>\n

A person’s world view is the way\u00a0he answers what I call the inescapable\u00a0questions of life. These are\u00a0questions like: Is there a God? If so,\u00a0what is He like? How can I learn about\u00a0Him? How do I know what is right and\u00a0what is wrong? Is there life after death?\u00a0If so, how can I get ready for it?<\/p>\n

It is obvious that the way a person\u00a0answers these questions will seriously\u00a0affect the way he feels about\u00a0sin and Hell. I like to talk about the\u00a0way things were in the 1930s and\u00a01940s. The reason is that when you\u00a0go back that far there was, for the\u00a0most part, a Christian consensus.<\/p>\n

Most unsaved people would have\u00a0answered the inescapable questions\u00a0the same way Christians would\u00a0have. In that society people had deep\u00a0feelings about sin, and they were\u00a0concerned about dying and going to Hell. Preachers preached regularly\u00a0about Hell.<\/p>\n

A significant shift away from\u00a0Christian world-view thinking started\u00a0about 1960. Secular world-view\u00a0thinking has been gaining ground\u00a0ever since. That change in society’s\u00a0thinking has strongly influenced the\u00a0way people feel about sin.<\/p>\n

Christian thought believes there is\u00a0ultimate truth that judges things to\u00a0be right or wrong, that truth has its\u00a0authority in God and is revealed to\u00a0us in the Bible. Secular thought either\u00a0denies or ignores God. There is\u00a0no ultimate authority that makes\u00a0things right or wrong. There are no\u00a0moral absolutes.<\/p>\n

With no God to be accountable to\u00a0and no moral absolutes, there is no\u00a0place for Hell and no need of atonement. I am not accusing conservative\u00a0preachers of being guilty of secular\u00a0world view.\u00a0I am saying that the impact of\u00a0secular thinking has greatly diminished\u00a0people’s feelings about sin,\u00a0and that this loss of feeling about sin\u00a0has invaded the clergy.<\/p>\n

The culture that I was brought up\u00a0in had more impact on the way\u00a0people felt about sin than the church\u00a0does now. The culture helped people\u00a0develop the feelings about sin that\u00a0made the doctrine of Hell make sense.<\/p>\n

Secular thought permeates the\u00a0media. A constant onslaught against\u00a0Christian values is channeled into\u00a0our homes by television. Even in\u00a0cases where this does not succeed\u00a0in robbing people of their position on\u00a0morals, it succeeds in diminishing\u00a0the way they feel about morals.<\/p>\n

Weakened feelings about sin\u00a0translate into less preaching about Hell. If we do not recapture deep feelings\u00a0about sin, the time will come\u00a0when there will be an open challenge\u00a0to the doctrine of Hell. The need\u00a0of Hell in our thinking will be gone.<\/p>\n

The one thing that folks seem to\u00a0be agreed on about today’s society\u00a0is that it is a troubled society. That\u00a0certainly means that they need the\u00a0help that Christ offers in facing life in\u00a0the here and now, but being troubled\u00a0and mixed up is not what made it\u00a0necessary for Jesus to die for our\u00a0sins. It was the fact that we were guilty.<\/p>\n

In the last 25 years or more, I have\u00a0said a lot about helping hurting people.\u00a0I am all for it. But if, in our Preaching,\u00a0we do not keep Christianity in\u00a0the context of meeting eternal needs,\u00a0what we preach will cease to be\u00a0Christianity. People need a Redeemer\u00a0from the guilt of their sin, not just help\u00a0in meeting their here-and-now needs.<\/p>\n

I am not suggesting that we go to\u00a0an extreme in preaching about Hell.\u00a0There is a right way and a wrong way\u00a0to go about it. I am saying that\u00a0enough needs to be said about sin\u00a0and Hell that will keep People reminded\u00a0of what God says about\u00a0these awful subjects.<\/p>\n

About the Writer: Revered Leroy Forlines is a professor emeritus of Bible and theology at Welch College. He chaired the Commission for Theological Integrity for more than 50 years. Article adapted from Contact\u00a0<\/em>magazine, March 1995.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Leroy Forlines The two most awesome\u00a0thoughts that have ever\u00a0crossed my mind are the\u00a0thoughts of Hell and atonement.\u00a0lt is awesome that God\u00a0takes sin so seriously that He pronounced\u00a0on sinners the sentence of\u00a0spending eternity in Hell. It is even more awesome to think\u00a0that the holiness of God takes sin so\u00a0seriously that if Jesus Christ was going\u00a0to be our Savior, God’s justice required Him\u00a0to suffer the full\u00a0wrath of God for our\u00a0sins. The justice of God\u00a0would take no less from\u00a0Jesus Christ than was required\u00a0of us if He was going to take our\u00a0place. That is awesome! In answering the question:\u00a0What has happened to Hell? the answer\u00a0is, “Nothing.” Hell was established\u00a0by an immutable decree of\u00a0God. Jesus tells us that the day is\u00a0coming when He will say to sinners,\u00a0“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting\u00a0fire, prepared for the devil\u00a0and his angels” (Matt. 25:4lb). The real question is:\u00a0What happened\u00a0to preaching about Hell?There may be some exceptions, but\u00a0I do not think anyone will question\u00a0that there is not as much preaching\u00a0about Hell as there was a generation\u00a0ago. Why? If you gave pastors and evangelists\u00a0a questionnaire to fill out, those\u00a0whom we know would check the\u00a0right answers. If anyone among us\u00a0would dare question the doctrine of\u00a0an eternal Hell, we would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4586,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585\/revisions\/4586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}