I remember saying to a visiting lecturer in class one day “I think the church needs to bring back to the forefront of its mind that the lost are perishing and going to hell and that the proclamation of the gospel is the only way to save them” . Her response? “I think that is the worst thing that could happen in the church”.

In another conversation at another time in another college I was having a conversation about revival with an Elim pastor. I said to him “The church no longer seems to warn people about the sure danger of hell. Men of God of  who were deeply used of God in the past warned their hearers about hell” His response? “That was for then not now, it was just a cultural approach and that approach is not suitable for today’s culture”. These types of responses are not isolated incidents neither are they a minority view. Evidence shows that hell is all but a forgotten concept for the modern evangelical.

Yet I have to ask, have hell’s flames got any cooler? Does hell no longer exist? Are unrepentant sinners no longer destined for an eternal misery? Are we no  longer to teach something because it is no longer popular?

Hell is no longer popular in today’s church, particularly the evangelical church, yet it is no less a danger and a threat. People need to be warned about hell for the following reasons.

1) Jesus warned people about the everlasting condemnation of the wicked Luke 13:3

2) Jesus expected us to Matt 28:20

3) Hell is the destiny of all who die outside of saving faith in Christ John 3:18

4) The preaching of hell is nothing other than the preaching of the wrath of God, this is nothing other than the preaching of the full counsel of God which in turn promotes the fear of God Acts 20:26-28

5) The wrath of God waiting to be poured out in the final judgement is an essential component of the gospel Acts 17:30-31, John 3:16, 2 Thess 1:7-10