Hell

"And what is wrong with the old method of scaring the ungodly with
a sermon on hell?" - Vance Havner

Buddhism also teaches hell (naraka) which is fearfully and graphically presented.

My Question:
If the fear of hell is the driving force, why would a person become a Christian and not a Buddhist to escape hell?

brother Greg,

Nothing in Buddism truly will help a person escape death and hell. Only Christianity will. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, trampling death with death. His resurrection shows He is the only one that has triumphed over death and the grave and gives us hope of resurrection.

The Son of God manifested in this world is the only true hope and saving way. This is the Gospel of God, the good news that death has been defeated, Christ is risen, Hallelujah! Our sin debt has been paid.

Amen.

The answer is GRACE. The difference is the GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The bad news is that nothing good dwells in anyone. No one can truly do good because the principle of evil is in everyone who wants to do good.

All our self-righteous deeds are like a filthy garment to God (Isa. 64:6).

The Gospel we preach is the GOOD NEWS of GRACE.

"And what is wrong with the old method of scaring the ungodly with a sermon on hell?" - Vance Havner

This:

All men and women know there is a need for justification before God in some sense. They all yearn for this and are scared of death and punishment for sin.

Surely we are not commissioned to bring bad news to further scare scared people.

Good News (Gospel) give scared people comfort and hope!

Isa. 40:1 ”“
"Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

Isa. 49:13 ”“
Shout for joy, O heavens!
And rejoice, O earth!
Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!
For the LORD has comforted His people
And will have compassion on His afflicted.

Isa. 49:10 ”“
They will not hunger or thirst,
Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them
And will guide them to springs of water.

Rom. 10:12-13 ”“
……… the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

This is the GOOD NEWS (Gospel) from God!

Blessings

Obedience arising from fear of punishment is always begrudged obedience.

If we do not love the King, whatever begrudged obedience we may render is a sham. It is not salvation.

"And what is wrong with the old method of scaring the ungodly with a sermon on hell?"
We shouldn't use "methods" we should preach from the Word of God and the full council of God.

"Buddhism also teaches hell..." But that is a false religion and what they are teaching is completely irrelevant. We need to compare Scripture with Scripture.
For the Apostle Paul the Gospel was all that mattered, he preached Christ.

brother Greg,

Jesus scared people.

But how can anyone be scared of a loving and compassionate Saviour who healed the sick, changed water into wine, fed the hungry, calmed the storm and died to save us?

The words of Jesus were words of kindness, words of hope, words of life.

Luke 4:18-19 ”“
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Matt. 11:28 ”“
"Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

John 10:10 ”“
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].

There was no fear. There was hope.

Mark 5:27-28 ”“
When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

He preached more on hell than heaven.

How can this be when the Lord Jesus opened heaven that had been closed to us?

Gen. 3:24 ”“
So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

John 1:51 ”“
And He said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

The gospel is not good news unless there is bad news first.

Of course.

The bad news is already known in the million tears and endless sorrow and meaningless lives of people everywhere in the world.

The bad news already fills every page of the tragic history of mankind

What value is there in giving a starving man stone when he needs bread?

Scaring the ungodly with a sermon on hell changes nothing.

Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17)!

Only the feet of those that bring good news of good things are beautiful (Rom. 10:15)!

Blessings

Hi Markus,

How would you persuade a Buddhist that his beliefs are false?

These are some Buddhist beliefs:

THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

1. Right understanding and viewpoint (based on the Four Noble Truths).

2. Right values and attitude (compassion rather than selfishness).

3. Right speech (don't tell lies, avoid harsh, abusive speech, avoid gossip).

4. Right action (help others, live honestly, don't harm living things, take care of the environment).

5. Right work (do something useful, avoid jobs which harm others).

6. Right effort (encourage good, helpful thoughts, discourage unwholesome destructive thoughts).

7. Right mindfulness (be aware of what you feel, think and do).

8. Right meditation (calm mind, practice meditation which leads to nirvana).

Blessings

"My Question:
If the fear of hell is the driving force, why would a person become a Christian and not a Buddhist to escape hell?"

If a person truly fears hell then they would never settle for Buddhism as it offers no escape... simply dying to the world is not enough as many ascetics find out, rather being born again into Christ’s Kingdom is the victory and if we abide in Him by faith we will receive a share in His inheritance, namely His eternal indestructible life.

The "god of this world” is satan and in this "world” buddhism is "good” like the good side of the wrong tree... which is to say that tho buddhism has "scriptures” and they don’t promote evil but do promote good, there is still the issue of sin and nothing in any system can touch that, nothing but the blood of Jesus, so since the fruit of sin is death (issue of your question) and buddhism can’t address the root, any person who honestly feared hell would, if given the choice, choose the Risen King. Who not only defeated sin and death... but the world and the flesh and the curse of the law. And yes it is by His divine influence (grace) upon the hearts of men and as many take heed and do obey, these are His children.

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent"

" My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.”

brother Greg,

The bad news is worse then this………

"For who has despised the day of small things?” ”“ Zech. 4:10.

It is through the trials and sufferings of our present lives that God is working toward His great eternal purpose.

It is through the hopelessness and anguish of the situations in our present lives that we learn to abandon self-sufficiency and reach out for the all-sufficiency of God.

Only the seed of the Word of Christ sown in the heart can sprout and grow into the Tree of Faith that will flourish by the River of Life and produce fruits to the glory of God.

I return to this quote:

"And what is wrong with the old method of scaring the ungodly with a sermon on hell?" - Vance Havner

Only the desire for God can expel the desire for the world and sin. And only a sermon that vastly magnifies the super-abounding goodness and love of God and the greatness of our salvation and unfathomable riches in Christ and the matchless beauty of God’s holiness can displace the love of the world and of sin in the human heart and turn the human heart to desire God.

How successful has been this old method of scaring the ungodly with a sermon on hell?

Blessings

Words of Jesus-

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. where "’the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.

Words of Jesus-

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

Words of Jesus-

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Words of Jesus-

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Words of Jesus-

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Words of Jesus-

"What have you gained if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? What will you give in exchange for your soul?

Something occurred to me that may be of help in understanding why the preaching and warning of the horrific reality of hell is absolutely necessary.

You wrote; " Of course.

The bad news is already known in the million tears and endless sorrow and meaningless lives of people everywhere in the world.

The bad news already fills every page of the tragic history of mankind

What value is there in giving a starving man stone when he needs bread?

Scaring the ungodly with a sermon on hell changes nothing.”

For an unregenerate mind to even begin to comprehend much less behold Christ Jesus, there must first be a real and sincere need that the unregenerate mind is seeking to remedy to no avail, hence the need for God.
For the religious mind, there is already a belief in God complete with experiences, yet they haven’t had a personal revelation of Jesus as the Christ, and so your quote above would be more applicable to this group.

But for the first group this is true,
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not"

and not everyone who is religious minded will accept Christ on His terms....
ie; the rich young ruler

So for he also, hell should be preached as clearly this man doesn’t fit into the category described in your quote... he was living his best life and when Jesus put His finger on the source of this mans confidence, he withered going away sad. So here this religious minded man sought and found Jesus for salvation, yet he went away sad not having the ability to see clearly that Jesus was willing to deliver him but he was not willing because he was in darkness and could not comprehend the value of what Jesus offered vs his personal wealth and integrity.
In this case, the effectual preaching of hell to this individual can surely help him to reevaluate the true value of his personal wealth and integrity when contrasted against the inevitability of eternal hell. This fact is purposefully used to startle someone in hopes of them being able to see the utter futility in placing confidence in earthly things.
For the unregenerate mind, hell is effective in creating a "backdrop” of inevitability that requires a remedy, which makes them more open to the grace of God :)

The effectual preaching on the reality of the inevitability of hell is absolutely necessary and sorely lacking in the church for quite some time, save a few.
Our enemy, satan, has made the preaching of hell so taboo so as to generally be spoken of as though it were an ancient myth and treated with less regard than an earthly prison sentence. No one I know has seriously contemplated the horrific reality of hearing, "depart from me, I never knew you”, much less the inevitability of hell for countless people. The goats fully believed they were the "good ones” and were surely saved but they found out different. The effectual preaching of hell can scare a stubborn goat into reconsidering the mercy of God in that "while we were yet sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for us” in a whole new light 💡 🙏🏻

it’s gonna take a preacher filled to the brim to bear witness to the horrors of an inevitable hell, it would be a clear display of Gods love and mercy to warn people of the eternal reality apart from Christ.

Hi Steve,

These words of Jesus stand.

How do you yourself measure up?

These are the words Jesus:

John 15:2 ”“ "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away………”.

There were some scribes and Pharisees who brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and said to Him, "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

These were the words of Jesus to the accusers:

"He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

These were the words of Jesus to the sinner:

"I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer.”

(John 8:3-11)

2 Cor. 5:21 ”“
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Hi Fletcher,

This is the Holy Spirit’s work:

John 16:8-9 ”“
"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin…………; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

This is work for Christ’s disciples:

Acts 1:8 ”“
"……but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be ***** My witnesses ***** both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Mark 16:15 ”“
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach ***** the gospel (GOOD News) ***** to all creation.”

That is only partially true as there are many more verses like ;
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

For you to have such command of scripture and yet consistently ignore is to deceive yourself and will be held to account for willful ignorance-
So I plea with you, please dear sister, reconsider your position and take the whole council of the word, dividing it rightly 🙏🏻

Jesus Himself went about not telling people how much He loved them but did go about preaching hell and judgement more than anything else... these are the facts - are you suggesting Jesus wasn’t loving or His preaching was misguided and unprofitable??

Luke 9:53-56 ”“

But they did not receive Him.....

When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”

"HERE IS LOVE”

Hymn of the Welsh Revival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZJmTVdDyLY&t=14s

LYRICS:

Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout heav’n’s eternal days.

On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.

Let me, all Thy love accepting,
Love Thee, ever all my days;
Let me seek Thy kingdom only,
And my life be to Thy praise;
Thou alone shalt be my glory,
Nothing in the world I see;
Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me,
Thou Thyself hast set me free.

In Thy truth Thou dost direct me
By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;
And Thy grace my need is meeting,
As I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring
Thy great love and pow’r on me,
Without measure, full and boundless,
Drawing out my heart to Thee.

--------------------

Eph. 3:17-19 ”“
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Zech. 4:6 ”“

"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD of hosts.