To Hell with them?

In recent downtown street conversations it’s been startling, although not surprising, to hear that most people don’t believe in Hell.  Heaven, yeah sure, many like that idea.  Hell, no way, can’t stomach that one.  Would we answer any differently? 

For many of us Hell is one of those beliefs we secretly hope never comes up in discussions with our not-yet Christian friends.   But like it or not, our ideas on eternity have far-reaching implications.

Christianity Today editor J.I. Packer wrote, “Emphasis on the lostness of the lost has come to be almost taboo.  The shift is startling.”  The pendulum has swung dramatically from concern for the unreached person’s spiritual condition to an overwhelming concern for their health, education and justice.  Make no mistake. It’s a good thing when we express love for others in terms of their here-and-now needs. But we do God, and the unreached a grave disservice when we opt-out of expressing love also in terms of a rescue mission from a bad-ending – regardless of how offensive or un-P.C. the notion is to post-modern thinking.

Greg Livingstone, founder of the mission agency Frontiers, reckons many Christians take what they ‘get’ of traditional belief and unwittingly mix it up with popular opinion.  It becomes a form of folk Christianity.  He rightly reminds us, “The issue is not what we feel comfortable with, but what is reality.”

Does the Bible shape our view of Hell? If so, how does that understanding shape us and our witness?  Maybe Hell shouldn’t be what motivates us, but what would cause us to make great sacrifice and go to those who are truly unreached?  “The honour of our Lord Jesus Christ is a greater motivation,” says Livingstone, “But if the prospect of bringing glory to God does not propel us toward the great goal of ‘a church for every people,’ then THINK about Hell!”