I was recently having a conversation with somebody about the doctrine of Hell and I was reminded of the post below. I am utterly convinced that, for the most part, we play down Hell because we simply find it too awkward. It is too hard to tell somebody that it is real, Jesus was quite upfront about it and seemingly nice people will be going there because they have rejected Christ.

I think we play the doctrine down in our evangelism because we don’t think it will fly and we want to avoid offence. We play it down in the church because we would rather smooth over relationships than warn people they may be in serious danger. In either case, we are not being very kind. In the name of being nice, and not offending people, we refuse to tell them the truth about the peril they are in.

The stakes could not be higher. If we comfort people into believing they are alright when we strongly suspect they are not, it is tantamount to buying them a one-way ticket to destruction – encouraging them away from the Lord Jesus. By contrast, if we warn people about eternal judgement – and even question their standing in Jesus – but happen to be wrong, the Lord nevertheless knows who are his and though we may have done them a disservice, it is one without the same ultimate deleterious effects.

If I am going to be wrong (and I am obviously not aiming to be), I would rather wrongly reckon a person hasn’t yet come to know Christ and warn them of the dangers in failing to trust him than assume they are safe, encouraging them to take heart and continue as they are, only to discover on the last day that Jesus says ‘depart from me, I never knew you’. It bears saying that Paul wasn’t at all shy about warning believers – who he definitely considers to be believers – of the consequences of denying Christ. One of the purposes behind warning passages of scripture is that the faithful will hear those warning and be encouraged to press on in faith, not wanting the consequences of denying Jesus to be true of them. If Paul saw fit to use such warnings to those he is explicit are certainly believers, how much more ought we to warn those over whom we have nagging doubts?

These are some of the issues I dig into in the post below. Check it out.

Downplaying Hell and our cultural problem of awkwardness