Post resurrection, in Revelations 14:9-12 hell is described. No service is done to the unchurched or weak brethren when the scriptural consequences of unbelief are artificially softened. Doing so is also an offense to the Gospel.
I think a great service is done when the lost are offered this choice: Choose God because you DESIRE to enjoy eternal life in the presence of your Creator who gave His very life for the remission of your sins, or choose to be the god of your life and enjoy the life God gave you as outlined in Ecclesiastes.
I call it very good news and an excellent example of allowing man to, of his own free will, choose Christ.
I think a very bad service is done when the lost are offered this choice: Choose God because you FEAR a terrible and unimaginable future where he will torture you in ways unimaginable for eon upon countless eons because of the crime of not really paying attention enough to believe he can and will do it. He will make Pol Pot and Stalin look like pikers.
I would not call that “good news”. I would call it coersion. That is not the message I see in the bible. Anywhere.
That's great, but the whole counsel of God reminds us that by himself man will never choose life. So we come from different places. I prefer the biblical stance you not as much at least where the Bible describes the difference between evil and good, light and darkness, how stark it is, how defined how final.
I would not call that “good news”. I would call it coersion. That is not the message I see in the bible. Anywhere.
Hell is Law, not Gospel. You are not rightly dividing the Word. No 'coercion' in the Bible? Elijah and the prophets of Baal. God vs Pharoah, Adam and Eve from the Garden, the jumbling of tongues on the plains of Shinar, etc.
think a very bad service is done when the lost are offered this choice: Choose God because you FEAR a terrible and unimaginable future
Fear God? Prov 9:10. The purpose of the Law, understanding of sin, basic lessons before the glory of the Gospel can be appreciated. Without sin, who needs God? Your methodology removes that fear of the Lord because the worst that will happen is I'll die, there is no afterlife, days of Noah Part deux. There's a bright tomorrow. Hope for the future. The belief in no afterlife, the dream of Satan.