The Offensiveness of Hell

In our therapeutic culture, you can’t say “no” to anyone. You might hurt their feelings.

The ultimate “no” that anyone can say is to talk about a destiny that has “no” written all over it.

Try telling someone that their destiny is not to have eternal self-fulfillment, but instead to have an eternal thwarting of their desires. In a therapeutic culture, such a pronouncement is triggering to the extreme.

People today feel entitled to map out their own course, plot their own path, steer their own destiny. When a person intrudes into that way-making and says that you are on the wrong path, that your forward progress ought to be stopped, and that there should be an utter refusal to keep walking that path, the response is obvious.

“How dare you!”

To the offended person who is creating their own destiny, there are few things as offensive as an eternal “no”. In other words, telling someone they are going to hell is the worst curse of all.

Strange to see that the use of hell as a cussword in common vulgar talk is seen as a simple conversation-killer. But because hell is not believed in literally, it is not a declaration about a person’s eternal destiny. Hell is only an negative adjective, or a temporary expression of disgust.

If you sincerely tell someone that they are going to hell, then you are entering into such a personal, yet forbidden area that is more offensive than using a cussword. To speak with clarity that a person has offended God and God requires that capital offense to be punished with the term limit that corresponds to his infinity.

But as Peter’s second epistle points out, after a series of examples, he says, “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9). This is where the fear should be directed. As Jesus himself said, “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 12:5). Jesus thought hell was so bad that he thought that personal injury or temporary pain was better to endure than to enter hell without it. He said, “it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” (Mt 5:30). Jesus spoke much about hell, which is why the true Jesus is less than acceptable in modern culture.

Therapeutic evangelicals can become ashamed to speak about hell because it makes them sound so harsh, so strange and because it is a sure pronouncement about the future, so arrogant. But the reality is that sinners must be warned to “flee from the wrath to come” (Mt 3:7).

It was interesting to see how Tony Reinke criticized the late Tim Keller for talking about hell and wrath very often. The thesis would be that Keller was being a therapeutic evangelical and minimizing the doctrine of hell because of its putridness to modern sensibilities. But to Reinke’s credit, he went through the Keller sermon archive, saw many references to hell, and even made statistical comparisons to other preachers such as Charles Spurgeon. Keller appears quite favorably in comparison to Spurgeon who was by no means a therapeutic evangelical!

When speaking about hell, Christians can muster up their courage and speak about the terrors of hell with defiance and vindictiveness. But God is merciful in allowing a window of time for people to repent of their sins, (Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Mt 4:17). So there when hell is spoken of, the advice of Robert Murray M’Cheyne to another pastor is important. M’Cheyne replied to a brother who had preached on the doctrine of hell, and said, “
Were you able to peach it with tenderness?”

We can’t stop speaking about the reality of hell. Jesus did. And God has “he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).

The reality of hell exists and Jesus is the one who will mete out that judgement. But in a therapeutic culture will we care about people enough to hurt their feelings now, so that they won’t be hurt for eternity?

Will we care enough about people to offer the hope that Jesus endured such punishment in order to deliver hell-bound sinners?