On Speaking about Hell…
Why don’t Christians talk About Hell? I have a few proposed answers that run something like:
- We politely apologize for Hell. If it is mentioned, we are embarrassed by the topic and then quickly change the focus to the positive notions of God’s love, grace, etc.
- Similarly, we want to elicit a positive response so Christians emphasize “eternal life” not “eternal death” when presenting the Gospel message.
- Believers avoid difficult issues associated with the fate of those who never hear the Gospel and, choosing to become agnostic, we appeal to some kind of “mystery” or “ignorance” (i.e., “we can’t really know”).
- We honestly have never heard any teaching on what the Bible says about Hell and so our lack of knowledge is justified ignorance…at least in our minds.
What do you think?