You Can’t Scare People Out of Hell and into Heaven

Jesus ended his Olivet Discourse with the sobering reality of eternal punishment and eternal life.  Hell is frightening, unimaginable, and…frequent.  At least it is relatively frequent in the gospels.  Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else.  If you are wanting to be like Christ and speak like Christ, then Hell will be something you talk about. 

But how do you talk about Hell?  It can be done poorly and one of the common critiques against talking about hell is that it is just a scare tactic.  What is interesting about this critique is that it is both valid and invalid.  It realizes that there can be wrong approaches in speaking about hell, but it doesn’t usually get to the bottom of what to do about it. 

The critique is valid when one is using Hell solely as a scare tactic for one primary reason: fear does not create faith.  If what you want is for people to walk an aisle and pray a prayer, scaring them with Hell will work.  If you want them to attend church and serve, Hell can be a motivator.  This has been described as the fire insurance approach, and it is true that many people will do anything and everything in order to not go to hell. 

But keep this in mind, Satan doesn’t want to go to Hell either.  He is terrified of it.  But the solitary desire to avoid eternal punishment is no evidence of saving faith in people; it is only the evidence of a functioning intellect. And a functioning intellect will try to figure out ways to escape Hell.  Fear of hell can and does create all kinds of activity, but it does not create faith.  Knowing that hell is dreadful and feeling that dread does not also create eyes that see the glory of Christ and a heart moved by his beauty. Fear does not create love for God, humility, broken repentance, or a hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Remember, faith is a gift.  As Ephesians 2:8 says, “For you were saved by grace through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is a gift of God…”

Now, do people need to know about Hell?  Yes they do, and here is where the critique becomes invalid.  Just because Hell can be spoken of and used wrongly, does not mean it should be avoided or even softened.  Hell should be spoken of in scary ways because Hell is scary.  Jesus spoke of it regularly and gave us the terrifying descriptions we shudder at.  The question then is for what purpose did Jesus give us these fearsome descriptions?  It must not be so that a person prays a prayer or walks an aisle, because those actions are no evidence that His grace has changed them.  The purpose for talking about Hell is so people can know more about God.  Hell is the display of God’s perfect justice.  People need to understand that God will not let sin go unpunished.  They also need to know about Hell so that God’s mercy matters.  Mercy is irrelevant and the cross is unnecessary if sin is not punished. 

Once this is communicated, what is next?  If both children and adults know that eternal conscious torment is coming and that descriptions of fire and undying worms and gnashing of teeth are only pointers to suffering we can’t presently grasp, what then?  If people understand that God’s justice is real and every sin will be brought into full account, what then?  If people are not being called to pray a prayer or walk an aisle or clean up their life, then what are they called to?  They are called to cry out to God to save them.   God must give them eyes to see and ears to hear.  He must grant faith and repentance.  Jesus’ recounting of Abraham’s word to the rich man in Hell, asking for to be allowed to warn his brothers is powerful, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. ” (Luke 16:31).  You can’t scare people out of Hell even if you sent a Hell-ravaged person back to truly terrify them with first-hand accounts.  Instead, the Word of God through Moses, the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles must, by the Spirit, create faith in Christ and a hunger for life in him alone. 

Therefore, speak about Hell.  Scare people with Hell.  But do so in order that they cling to the mercy of the cross where Hell was endured for them by Christ.  You can’t scare them out of Hell, but perhaps the Spirit may awaken them out of their lethargy so that they flee to Christ.