Should Pastors Still Preach About Hell?
By Joel Settecase / April 25, 2021
I wrote this on my phone while sitting at La Vita Cigars, so please excuse the wonky formatting.
The following was my response to the question on Quora, “Is it important for ministers to still preach on the eternal Lake of Fire and the entirety of Jesus’s teachings so believers stay grounded in biblical knowledge?”
And this is an understandable question. In our day and age, the preaching of Hell is often seen as passé and, if not downright harmful, at least rather peculiar. The reason is three-fold:
As a society we are largely moving past capital punishment, and the popular mindset is that there are no crimes that deserve “final” or “ultimate” punishment. Implicitly, we expect that God lahould follow suit.
We have collectively lost our understanding of the holiness of God and the gravity of opposing him.
We may just be unaware of the fact that Jesus himself taught so much about Hell/the Lake of Fire.
Since our question centers on the connection between the doctrine of Hell and the teachings of Jesus, it’s this third point I’ll mainly interact with in my answer.
so what is the answer?The answer is Yes.
When Jesus commissioned his church to “disciple the nations” (Matthew 28:19), he specified that the way to do that is by baptizing them and “teaching them to obey all that I commanded you.”
Well, one of his commands was, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” Matthew 10:28).
Hell is another name for the Lake of Fire. So then, so obey this command of Christ, it is necessary to believe in the Lake of Fire.
Preachers and Bible teachers don’t do anyone any favors by omitting the biblical truth about Hell.
Of course, this teaching should be coupled with the Good News, that while we all deserve Hell, there is salvation from Hell (and the sin that earned it) through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sinners and rose again. He faced death on the cross, so his people would never have to face eternal destruction in Hell.
To learn more about how to avoid the Lake of Fire and enjoy everlasting life with God, email us at thethink.institute@gmail.com.