Thoughts on the Preaching of Eternal Damnation

A group from our church has been meeting on Friday evenings to study the book of Romans, and as is normal for gatherings in our home, there are several “bird walks” during the course of the evening. One such bird walk at a recent meeting was a lively discussion concerning the state of the church in North America and Europe (we all agree from personal experience it’s deplorable!) and the belief that a contributing factor to the casual attitude Christians have concerning worship in particular but also all things theological is our off-hand approach to the righteousness of God and His hatred for sin. This of course led to a discussion about how hell as the promised punishment for sinners is no longer being preached from the pulpits nor is being believed in the pews (forget about non-believers—shudder).

Just for fun, I asked the small group (all of whom had been attending our current church for less than three years, but whose accumulated years as believers totalled well over a century) within the last five years how many times had they heard a sermon preached on this subject of hell as the punishment for unrepentant sinners. To a man (or woman) they said “To their recollection, never.” This came as something of a surprise to me when I considered how important this subject is in the Bible, especially in the NT, especially in several discourses of Christ, the very Son of God, who created hell for the devil and his angels as their rightful punishment for rebellion and who will one day condemn them (along with all unrepentant, unbelieving sinners) to its flames and torments forever. And let us not forget the warning Christ gives all people in Matthew 10:28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Greek word translated as “fear” is phobeo and means essentially to “be afraid, be very afraid.” It is common nowadays to hear people, even ministers of the Word, say that phobeo (fear) really means reverence or respect. Certainly in some few cases that is true. But far and away in both the OT as well as the NT, the words which are translated by the English word “fear” mean fear in the sense of being afraid, of terror, of fright, of dreadfulness and the like. This is but one example of where a liberal approach to Scripture is not only misleading, it is misleading in a very serious way, which in fact might contribute to a lackadaisical attitude toward the ever present danger of perdition.

We all agreed that we weren’t advocating that our preachers (our church currently has no minister of the Word, and we are being preached to by pulpit supply and two ministers-in-training) preach hell-fire and damnation exclusively. Such preaching inevitably gives rise to Christians who are legalistic, Pharisaical and cold-hearted (and maybe not even saved!). No, we are all born-again by God’s redeeming love, not His wrath against sin. No one wants to be beat upside the head with the Law, rather we want—and need— to be comforted, consoled and encouraged by the truth of God’s great love for His people, who “…so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

On the other hand, how can we truly know salvation without even a glimpse of damnation? It is critical that we come to know our own sinfulness and depravity and the hopelessness of our condition (”… being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness…whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans1:29-32). It is essential that we recognize the true nature of our condition so that we can repent of it and turn in faith to the all-sufficient saviour who has promised that if we come to Him (being drawn to Him through the working of the sovereign grace of God) He shall in no wise turn us away, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12).

Salvation only makes sense in contrast to perdition; heaven only in contrast to hell. This is not a popular message in “seeker-sensitive” congregations such as those based on the Saddleback/Willowcreek model, where what you hear constantly is a pandering from the pulpit to the “felt needs” of the members and the “seekers” in their midst. This is not to deny that some people (even in congregations like Saddleback, even under the heretical preaching of Rick Warren and his minions) do seek God, for we are commanded to seek Him: “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). But we also know that the Bible, which all authentic Christians accept as true, claims that there are none who are good, no one who seeks God: “…as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; (Romans 3:10) unless God Himself regenerate him and draw Him unto Himself: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44).

There are, undeniably, some in these worldly apostate assemblies, who are in fact seeking to know the one true God and who will one day by justified by Him. But all such must first come to an understanding of their own sin and the just and well-deserved reward for that sin, which is eternal punishment in hell. So let not our ministers and pastors abandon the preaching of hell entirely. But let it be as a sobering corrective, and a splash of cold water, not only for the unbelieving but also for the lukewarm and the backsliding among us. Oh that we would all come to fear Him who has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell.

Soli Deo Gloria.