Why don't they talk about HELL in church anymore?

Taken from a sermon "Hell No Exits" Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994)

"When you last hear a sermon on TV about hell? About everlasting destruction? It's not fashionable, it doesn't bring the money in. Doesn't tickle the ears, tickles the conscience..." Leonard Ravenhill

Steve notes:
After listening to Leonard Ravenhill's sermon above, I decided to read Jonathan Edwards' infamous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741). These choice words jumped off that page at me.



From Section IV:
So that is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and don't resent it, that he don't let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such as one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation don't slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them, the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her moth under them.

From Section V:
The devil stand ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents them as his "goods," Luke 11:21. The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back; if God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

From Section IX.
They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done; he don't intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take care that shall be effectual, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.

Under Application section:
The use may be of awakening to unconverted person in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. The world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God, there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of: there is nothing between you and hell but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this, you find you are kept out of hell, but don't see the hand of God in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for you own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.

Some paragraphs down in Application section:
Thus are all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls, all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life (however you may have reform your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, and may be strict in it), you are thus in the hands of an angry God, tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.

Last paragraph:
Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over great part of this congregation: let everyone fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed." Gen 19:17

Steve concludes:
Can you imagine Joel Osteen preaching this?

What has your church turned God into? Santa Claus, a best buddy, a magic genie with three wishes, Jesus is my homeboy, self-help God? Do you never hear of Jonathan Edward's God there? God is only love? Is God not righteous (just) and morally perfect? And we are not?

Most people would call this hell fire preaching. And I agree, but what I have a problem with is that if you truly believe what's in your Bible, what would be wrong with warning people of the wrath to come? We have been tricked by today's political correctness to believe that not offending people is more important than warning them of what happens in the next life. How logical is that? But most of us, me included, suffer from this. We know that we won't be very popular if we start talking about hell to unbelievers, luke-warm believers.

I'm not saying we should return to hell fire preaching, but we should not be afraid to talk to people about the reality of hell. We need to verbalize to people that hell exists and is a real place that some people will definitely spend eternity if they don't trust in Jesus Christ and repent of their sins. It can be done in love.

Revelation 20:15 (NIV)
"If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Read Luke 16:19-26 - Lazarus and the Rich Man


A sermon from Robert Jeffress "The Truth about Hell" January 1, 2008