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The Disappearance of Hell
ligonier.org ^ | 2/1/14 | John MacArthur

Posted on 02/09/2014 8:05:52 AM PST by SoFloFreeper

According to recent polls, some 81 percent of adult Americans believe in heaven, and fully 80 percent expect to go there when they die. By comparison, about 61 percent believe in hell, but less than 1 percent think it’s likely they will go there. In other words, a slight majority of Americans still believe hell exists, but genuine fear of hell is almost nonexistent.

Even the most conservative evangelicals don’t seem to take hell very seriously anymore. For decades, many evangelicals have downplayed inconvenient biblical truths, neglecting any theme that seems to require somber reflection. Doctrines such as human depravity, divine wrath, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the reality of eternal judgment have disappeared from the evangelical message.

The trend has not escaped everyone’s attention. Thirty years ago, for example, Martin Marty, religious historian, professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and critic of all things evangelical, delivered the Ingersoll Lecture on Immortality at Harvard Divinity School. The title of his message was “Hell Disappeared. No One Noticed.” Marty’s research had failed to turn up a single scholarly article dealing with the subject of hell in any significant theological journal over the previous century. Citing the dearth of attention being given to so large a topic, Marty suggested that if evangelicals really took seriously what Scripture says about eternal punishment, someone with a voice should notice.

Almost no one did. Eighteen years later, The Los Angeles Times featured a front-page article titled “Hold the Fire and Brimstone,” pointing out that many style-conscious evangelical church leaders were purposely omitting the theme of divine retribution:

In churches across America, hell is being frozen out as clergy find themselves increasingly hesitant to sermonize on … a story line that no longer resonates with churchgoers. [According to] Harvey Cox Jr., an eminent author, religious historian and professor at the Harvard Divinity School, “You can go to a whole lot of churches week after week, and you’d be startled even to hear a mention of hell.”

Hell’s fall from fashion indicates how key portions of Christian theology have been influenced by a secular society that stresses individualism over authority and the human psyche over moral absolutes. The rise of psychology, the philosophy of existentialism, and the consumer culture have all dumped buckets of water on hell.

The article profiled an evangelical pastor who said he believes in hell, but (according to the Times) “you’d never know it listening to him preach… . He never mentions the topic; his flock shows little interest in it.” Asked why the doctrine of hell has gone missing, this pastor replied, “It isn’t sexy enough anymore.”

The article also quoted a well-known seminary professor who more or less agreed. Hell, he said, is “just too negative… . Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer-oriented. Churches today feel the need to be appealing rather than demanding.”

The article closed with a quote from Martin Marty, almost two decades after his famous lecture on the subject. He agreed that market-driven concerns are the main reason hell is being expunged from the evangelical message:

Once pop evangelism went into market analysis, hell was just dropped. When churches go door to door and conduct a market analysis … they hear, “I want better parking spaces. I want guitars at services. I want to have my car greased while I’m in church.”

Years of indifference finally paved the way for open hostility. In the first decade of the new millennium, certain prominent figures in the “emergent church” declared war on the biblical doctrine of hell. The groundswell seemed to crest a couple of years ago with the publication of Rob Bell’s bestselling book Love Wins. Bell argued that it’s absurd to think a loving God would ever damn anyone to eternal punishment. He portrayed God’s love as a force that clashes with and ultimately eliminates the demands of justice. In the storyline Bell envisions, God requires no payment or punishment for sin. The divine response to evil is always remedial, never punitive. Furthermore, the wages of sin are mild, temporary, and reserved only for grossly malevolent villains—mass murderers, child rapists, tyrants who engineer genocide, and (one supposes) Christians who tell unbelievers they should fear God. When it’s all over, everyone will be together in paradise.

In such a system, God’s righteousness is compromised, repentance is optional, atonement is unnecessary, and the truth of God’s Word is nullified. In other words, nothing of biblical Christianity is left. Once anyone sets out to tone down or tame the hard truths of Scripture, that’s where the process inevitably leads.

Only a few leading voices in the evangelical movement have lobbied boldly for a more orthodox approach to the doctrine of hell. They seem to be outnumbered by those who think the disappearance of hell is a positive development.

Some have proposed alternative ways to speak of sin and judgment in gentler, toned-down, and more refined and socially acceptable terminology than Scripture uses. Sin is deemed wrong not because it is an offense against the righteousness of God, but because of the hurt it causes others. Hell is described not as a place of eternal punishment but simply as a realm apart from God. In the reimagined eschatology of stylish evangelicals, no one is ever “sent” to hell; sinners actually choose to spend eternity apart from God—and the “hell” they suffer is merely an abundance of what they loved and desired the most. Hell is necessary only because God is reluctant to overrule anyone’s free will. Therefore, with a more or less benign acquiescence, He ultimately defers to the sinner’s choice. God’s righteous indignation has no meaningful place in such a scenario.

It is a serious mistake to imagine that we improve Scripture or enhance its effectiveness by blunting its sharp edges. Scripture is a sword, not a cotton swab, and it needs to be fully unsheathed before it can be put to its intended use. “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The gospel is supposed to be an affront to fleshly pride, offensive to human sensibilities, foolishness in the eyes of worldly wisdom, and contrary to all carnal judgments.

No Christian teaching exemplifies those characteristics more powerfully than the doctrine of hell. It is an appalling truth. We rightly recoil at the thought of it. The doctrine of hell thus stands as a warning and a reminder of what a loathsome reality sin is. No reasonable or godly person delights in the reality of eternal damnation. God Himself says, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:11).

Yet the severity of God’s wrath and the woes of hell are prominent in Scripture. The New Testament speaks more vividly and more frequently about hell than the Old Testament does. In fact, Jesus Himself had more to say about the subject than any other prophet or biblical writer. Far from smoothing over the difficulties that seem to embarrass so many evangelicals today, Jesus said:

Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! (Luke 12:4–5)

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. (Matt. 18:8–9)

We do no one any favors by downplaying the truth of God’s wrath or neglecting to mention the severity of His judgment. We certainly don’t eliminate the threat of hell by refusing to speak or think of it. If we truly believe what the Bible teaches about the eternal fate of unbelievers, it is in no sense “loving” to remain silent and refuse to sound the appropriate alarm.

What, after all, is the good news we proclaim in the gospel? It is not an announcement that no one really needs to fear God or fret about the possibility of hell. As a matter of fact, there would be no glad tidings at all if God merely intended to capitulate to the stubborn will of man and forgo the demands of His perfect righteousness.

The good news is even better than most believers understand: God made a way for His righteousness and His love to be fully reconciled. In His incarnation, Christ fulfilled all righteousness (satisfying, not nullifying, the demands of His law). In His death on the cross, He paid the price of His people’s sin in full (assuring the triumph of perfect justice). And in His resurrection from the dead, He put a powerful exclamation mark on His own perfect, finished work of atonement (thus sealing the promise of justification forever for those who trust Him as Lord and Savior).

That is the message we must declare to a worldly culture utterly lacking any real fear of God. We cannot do it faithfully or effectively if from the very outset we have omitted the harsh truth Scripture declares about “the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Rev. 19:15).


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afterlife; christians; hell; religion; trends; truth
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To: CynicalBear; Salvation; .45 Long Colt; metmom
>> “What did you think the change was from before the law of Moses and after?” <<

.
Is Matthew chapter 5 not in your Bible?

"After" the Torah comes about 1000 years into the future. (Mat 5)

Yehova is still expecting a loving remnant to obey his commandments to day as he did at Sinai. That is what his son told us in Matthew 5, and in the rest of the gospels for that matter.

You are twisting the words of Paul. He did not declare a framework of time separate from any previous period and call it “the dispensation of Grace.” He merely announced that grace was dispensed to us. Grace was also dispensed to Moses, Joshua, and David, or they would be lost. How could they have any hope without grace? They were sinners, and the blood of goats and sheep couldn't atone for sin.

Isaiah 1:

[11] To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

Hebrews 10:

[1] For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
[2] For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
[3] But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
[4] For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Do you see any salvation by animal in those verses?

You reject Torah?

Romans 2:

[12] For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
[13] (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

James 1:

[22] But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
[23] For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
[24] For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
[25] But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Note that James identifies Torah as "the perfect law of liberty."

Your ideas are completely at odds with every part of Yehova's word. Torah is to our benefit, not our diminishment. Who ever said that we don't need Torah? Not Paul, not James, not Peter, Who?

.

161 posted on 02/09/2014 5:21:20 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: thecodont; Salamander; elcid1970; shibumi

And look at the account of the prodigal son.

The father was waiting and watching for the son and welcomed him back with open arms in spite of the sin.

I think people have this whacked out understanding of God, that He’s up there just waiting for someone to do something wrong, looking for an excuse to zap them.

Scripture reveals a loving heavenly father who understands that we are weak and so came to earth in human form, lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we couldn’t die, convicts us, enlightens us, draws us, puts us in the exact place and time where we should live to make it as easy as possible for us to come to Him.

If He’s going to go to such extreme measures to save us, He’s not going to abandon because we aren’t perfect. He already knows that. As a matter of fact, He knows we CAN’T be perfect. Otherwise He would not have gone to such lengths to ave us.

The way I see it is that God is not looking for excuses to damn us, but rather to save us.

No human parent disowns his own child every time they disobey, even if they do it regularly. God is no different that way.

And no, it’s not a license to sin, but there is comfort in knowing that we are still His even when we fail.


162 posted on 02/09/2014 5:30:26 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: Former Fetus

There is no “dispensation of law.”

Not as a framework of salvation. That is Dispy gymnastics, nowhere to be found in the word.

Salvation has always been future, at the last trump.


163 posted on 02/09/2014 5:33:57 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: metmom; DManA

Hi, metmom. I have some verses:

Matthew 25:46
“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Revelation 20:10
“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Matthew 25:41-46
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

Daniel 12:2
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Revelation 14:11
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”


164 posted on 02/09/2014 5:35:22 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: editor-surveyor; Salvation; .45 Long Colt; metmom
>>Is Matthew chapter 5 not in your Bible?<<

It most certainly is and let’s see what it says.

Matthew 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.<<

And then he said about the ability for man to even get close to following the law.

Matthew 5: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

But then He fulfilled the law that we might put on His righteousness by faith.

Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

>> After" the Torah comes about 1000 years into the future.<<

Perhaps for those who follow Rood but those of us who have put our faith in Christ alone will be ruling with Him during that thousand years.

>> Yehova is still expecting a loving remnant to obey his commandments to day as he did at Sinai.<<

Oh He expected a lot of apostates to deny him and still preach the law. That’s where the fraud Rood and those who follow him come in.

>>You are twisting the words of Paul. He did not declare a framework of time separate from any previous period and call it “the dispensation of Grace.”<<

Ephesians 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

>>[25] But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.<<

John 6:28-29 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

I follow Christ and His word rather than listen to the frauds like Michael Rood.

165 posted on 02/09/2014 6:00:36 PM PST by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: metmom; .45 Long Colt; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan; boatbums; caww; count-your-change
Sobering indeed. Those who put their faith in Christ alone can have the assurance of eternity with Him. Put trust in any other entity and it’s akin to idolatry.
166 posted on 02/09/2014 6:05:19 PM PST by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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To: CatherineofAragon

Those verses don’t say that those in the lake of fire are consumed.

On the contrary, *eternal punishment* and *tormented day and night forever and ever* kind of disproves that theory.


167 posted on 02/09/2014 6:12:41 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: metmom

Exactly...it’s without doubt.


168 posted on 02/09/2014 6:13:18 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males----the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: CatherineofAragon

OK. I wasn’t disputing the lake of fire part, just the consumed part, IOW, soul annihilation.


169 posted on 02/09/2014 6:15:05 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: DManA

>> I’m a Christian. Hell is a myth.

Existence is Hell.


170 posted on 02/09/2014 6:17:41 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Salvation

Christ simply did not spend three days tormented in Hell. That’s a misunderstanding of what Scripture teaches. Christ’s work was completely finished on the cross. He had no need to go to Hell and suffer. He promised the thief “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Hell and paradise are not the same place.

Now, if by “Hell” you mean simply that his body died, then I can go along with you, but I don’t believe that’s what you mean.


171 posted on 02/09/2014 6:20:11 PM PST by .45 Long Colt
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To: metmom
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:15)

Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Mat. 25:41)

...to be cast into hell fire— where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ (Mark 9:47-48)

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night (Rev. 14:11)

Do I need to continue?

172 posted on 02/09/2014 6:26:42 PM PST by Former Fetus (Saved by grace through faith)
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To: Rennes Templar
I think He is more merciful, and he has other ways to punish us.

Not according to Scripture. Matthew 7:14, spoken by Christ says:

"14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few"

(Matthew 7:14 ESV)

"And those who find it are few."

and... Matthew 25:45:

"45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. ’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:45-46 ESV)"

Seems pretty straight-forward to me.

God the Son said this. I think I'd take this at face value instead of trying to make God fit what we think he should be... or do.

Grace and Peace

Hoss

173 posted on 02/09/2014 7:05:25 PM PST by HossB86 (Christ, and Him alone.)
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To: Former Fetus

Not for me.

I’m convinced.


174 posted on 02/09/2014 7:23:23 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: HossB86; Rennes Templar

God provided a way out at great cost to Himself.

There is no excuse and no one to blame but oneself if they don’t make it to heaven.

Hell sounds harsh, but He gives us the option. Nobody has to go there.


175 posted on 02/09/2014 7:25:13 PM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith....)
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To: Rennes Templar

The issue is is who will abide in the presence of true Holiness for all eternity.

He doesn’t have to endure the presence of iniquity for all eternity.

The real question is, Why doesn’t He send us all there immediately?

Answer:
Because He loves that which He made and affords us all the opportunity for salvation.


176 posted on 02/09/2014 7:29:44 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: SoFloFreeper
The Disappearance of Hell

Yup...

...it has flown out the window along with SIN.

177 posted on 02/09/2014 7:34:11 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: LostInBayport

Who?


178 posted on 02/09/2014 7:35:03 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MichaelCorleone
What are your reason(s) for that?

Probably my tagline...

179 posted on 02/09/2014 7:35:49 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Rennes Templar
I don’t think it’s God’s plan to have billions of souls burning in a physical fire for eternity. I think He is more merciful, and he has other ways to punish us.

Strangely; there seems to be a quite popular book that states otherwise.

180 posted on 02/09/2014 7:37:27 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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