Related commentaries – Believe

What Does it Mean to Believe? – John 3:13 – 3:24

Hell is no longer emphasized

 

Hell, it would seem, has fallen on rather lean times. It used to be that the vast majority of Christians, regardless of denominational affiliation, believed that Hell was a real place where the wicked go when they die. The very thought of the pains and torments of Hell was enough to scare sinners to repentance. It used to be that ministers of the Gospel would preach on the horrors of Hell to persuade reprobates to make a decision for Christ. But not anymore. Most American mainline and so-called Evangelical churches stopped preaching about Hell years ago. Hell made people uncomfortable. Hell was too “old-fashioned.” The topic of Hell was bad for the bottom line-attendance and income. Hell damaged people’s self-esteem. Hell has been retained in our modern lexicon as a convenient curse word, and as a metaphoric description of our worst experiences-as in “war is hell"-but hardly anyone today believes that the word “hell” corresponds to any objective reality. (Quintin Morrow, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ft. Worth, Texas.