**If the toughest thing you can think of is hellfire then you do not know squat about heaven.**
If you can’t see hell AND heaven in those quotes FROM Jesus, John the baptist, and Paul, (not from me) then you need to read them again real slow.
Jesus said “escape”. Is there another place besides heaven to escape to?
John said “flee from”. Fleeing from damnation of hell means heading for the only other destination.
Paul said “unworthy of everlasting life”. Where is everlasting life.......oh,yeah.
Those preachers were unafraid to rip the people that claimed a form of godliness. They were ‘tough’ when the situation called for it.
Preaching to the hungry soul is easy. Preaching to those that are proud and/or selfrighteous, can be putting one’s self in harm’s way; that takes toughness. But, that’s what God expects from his FAITHFUL witnesses, and he empowers them to carry out the job before them.
Stephen preached the truth to the ‘religous right’ of his day, rebuking them at the end for their hard heartedness. You know how that ended.
I think Mr Robertson knew he was going to ‘step on some toes’, but, he had to let his yea be yea, and his nay be nay. That’s being true to the Word.
If heaven is nothing more than an escape to you, again you know nothing about the quality of heaven. Any bully can cherry pick Jesus and spout hell fire that was chiefly aimed at obdurate hypocrites (if a prostitute got thus threatened it was not documented); only those who have actually been saved into the joy of heaven's presence through the Holy Spirit on earth can speak of the quality of heaven.
I sincerely pray the Lord (and you) that you will take the trouble to learn the quality of heaven as more than some celestial fire escape. If that is all that heaven was good for, then those who protest Christianity by going to hell might have a point.
Let me fill you in on the secret that many souls are hungry but the church has thrown the food away!
And then they wonder why the hellfire they dish out to the hungry souls gets a bad reaction.
Discretion is the better part of valor.
And one of the foods that the church has thrown away is that which enables the honoring of God in the human body. And not having the food, it can not share it. The lucky soul who gets it, learns it quite by accident, as it were.
Would it be too much to say that all Christians should be “sexy”?
I don’t think it is. I don’t mean in a wanton sense but in a God honoring sense. Maybe the church at large needs some hell fire, by your own logic? Because it’s ignoring this food in its pride?
In fact have YOU shared that food? Or are you due some hell fire, as it were? (Hebrews tell us that hellish experiences await the Christian who is slow to learn.)
The book of Hebrews tells.
Preaching to those that are proud and/or selfrighteous, can be putting one’s self in harm’s way; that takes toughness.
One does not have to go to hell fire arguments at all in order to provoke such reactions from sinners. If you hurt their prides, they kick. Are you willing to be tough enough to forgive the wounds they will deal out to you while you make the word of salvation plain? That tells them that heaven is BETTER than their prides? (Not just better than hell.) Now THAT is the kind of tough that Christ showed on the Cross. ARE YOU MAN ENOUGH TO DO THAT.
And let me fill you in on another secret. ALL sinners are proud. Even you. Does that mean you must therefore be threatened with hell? Well, be careful because as you deal out, so will be dealt to you. God may shove hell in your face in response to some sin of yours because you were unwilling to chuck your own pride out when dealing with someone else’s similar sin.
Now some can be reached without hell fire threats. It is wimpy, and not truly tough, to assume that such threats are needed to conquer all pride... sometimes they are not. The ministries of Christians throughout the bible proves that.
There is a place for the extreme measures, and there is a place to refrain. Knowing where to refrain is a part of being the kind of tough that says no to your own pride when you’d dearly like to shove hell down someone else’s throat before all other avenues are exhausted.