You’re right. Christians need a healthy fear of hell

Question:

During the five years I attended a church in my area, I never heard the preacher once mention Hell or God's wrath, or the fact that Christians need a holy fear of God. Your "If I Don’t Preach on Hell" summary was excellent. Is a church that doesn't preach the full counsel of God a lukewarm church (Revelation 3)? It preaches only feel-good messages that do not convict of sin nor calls people to real repentance, preaches messages that teach how to live good life morals, teaches how to just improve things of this life but never considers how the time of this life and the stuff of this life is nothing (Philippians 3:7). In 100 trillion years from now what will matter: only a true relationship with Jesus. The reason Jonathan Edwards caused a true revival was that "Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God" was biblical, and conveyed the true reality that even after 10,000 billion trillion years (even after this amount of time, eternity wouldn't have even begun), a person in Hell will be burning in fire with no rest, thirsty, hopeless, tortured beyond comprehension. God created Hell and has full control over it, and as you have pointed out, He makes it extremely clear to fear it, and that it really exists. I pray that God will stamp eternity on my eyes. The concept of eternity puts everything in perspective. Hell is one heartbeat away for the majority of the people going to churches like mine. It is so horrible that the preacher won't even warn them. If the preacher isn't even going to talk about God's wrath, why would any of the churchgoers take it seriously? I have felt alone in my opinion, but reading your message has been encouraging.

Thanks for your ministry.

Answer:

Your comments are interesting as I can't imagine how to teach moral principles without addressing sin. There is a place for teaching both positive and negative messages from God's word. It takes both the encouragement to do good and the warning against doing evil to motivate permanent change in a person's life.

I'm glad the lesson was encouraging you to stay on the right path. If you are interested in finding a church in your area that preaches straight from the Bible, let me know what city you are near and I'll try to locate one for you.

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