Dealing with the idea of Hell
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I fear the Lord as in awesome, praise worthy in thankfulness not because He scares the blank out of me.....God has shown us His LOVE by giving His Son Jesus to DIE IN OUR PLACE and that is what needs to be presented to people not scare the blank out of them saying You Will Burn if You Don't Change!!!!
We need to show them God's love and tell the love story not the end of the story first....that is my point....
No my problem is not with Jesus it is the misrepresentation of God humans use that I have a problem with.
We need to show them God's love and tell the love story not the end of the story first....that is my point....
No my problem is not with Jesus it is the misrepresentation of God humans use that I have a problem with.
You are right, It is not unbiblical to use HELL/LAKE of Fire as a motivator to convince people to get right and trust into JESUS..... but it really works. I have never seen any actual conversions, in all my years with the Lord,when somebody preached hell fire and damnation, all I saw were false fear filled conversions and mental assent.
I have seen many come to Jesus when they met God's goodness and love and realized they were a sinner, because God's grace over powered them.
Romans 2 reminds us that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
Proverbs 16.6 makes it very clear that iniquity is purged by mercy and truth first and then by the Fear of the Lord men will depart evil. A lost person cannot know the reverential fear of the Lord until they come to know him.
As you said, Preaching, teaching and demonstrating the Love of God and letting the Holy Spirit convict a person seems to be the best formula.
I have seen many come to Jesus when they met God's goodness and love and realized they were a sinner, because God's grace over powered them.
Romans 2 reminds us that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
Proverbs 16.6 makes it very clear that iniquity is purged by mercy and truth first and then by the Fear of the Lord men will depart evil. A lost person cannot know the reverential fear of the Lord until they come to know him.
As you said, Preaching, teaching and demonstrating the Love of God and letting the Holy Spirit convict a person seems to be the best formula.
I think I understand what you mean, not so much ignoring the fear or pretending it doesn't exist, but not letting it be the opening line when trying to share the gospel. I agree, once we share and they seek and God enters them He will take the wheel in their lives, then as they grow they will be more able to understand and "get" the fear of God stuff. Makes sense to me.
P
okay, quick summary and i'm gone. (stop applauding 
)
God's Word comes to us basically in two forms:
His Law (Word of demand)
His Gospel (Word of deliverance)
some people are already aware of their sin and need grace.
some people are hard hearted and unaware and need to be warned.
just depends where God the Spirit is in the process.
that's all i've got.
)God's Word comes to us basically in two forms:
His Law (Word of demand)
His Gospel (Word of deliverance)
some people are already aware of their sin and need grace.
some people are hard hearted and unaware and need to be warned.
just depends where God the Spirit is in the process.
that's all i've got.
We don't win people to anything.....it is God that gives the increase as we but sow seeds.....and to be quite frank I don't keep records as that is the job of God.......now I will say that I have had the opportunity to speak at about 25 churches, on radio, TV, cable TV, written a 212 page book on the 2nd coming of Christ (three rounds of printing in numerous states and been picked up to be published) and have testified to probably 500,000 people in my life through the mediums listed....and there have been MANY that have responded, trusted the Lord, surrendered to preach, re-dedicate themselves unto the Lord, apologize to the church of their membership etc........and sometimes I have utilized HELL just as the LORD DID and sometimes NOT...both are biblical.........God is the God of LOVE.....he is also the God of JUDGMENT and BOTH are biblical, applicable and to be UTILIZED.....
I do not disagree with on the whole council of God. We saw this arm twisting in the 60's-early 80's and it did nothing.
The only time I have witnessed this working is when some old timer hell fire preacher/evangelist whips people into a fear frenzy and all you got where false fear induced conversions and mental assents, that never produced Godly sorrow or true turning away.
Methods change and the world is so desensitized to evil now, preaching they are going to hell, is actually a relief for thousands, because they believe they are in a living hell now.
Preaching hell makes for great christian only mountain top revivals, but very rarely does it work at all in the valley.
The Love of God and the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of God always brings people to the cross.
The only time I have witnessed this working is when some old timer hell fire preacher/evangelist whips people into a fear frenzy and all you got where false fear induced conversions and mental assents, that never produced Godly sorrow or true turning away.
Methods change and the world is so desensitized to evil now, preaching they are going to hell, is actually a relief for thousands, because they believe they are in a living hell now.
Preaching hell makes for great christian only mountain top revivals, but very rarely does it work at all in the valley.
The Love of God and the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of God always brings people to the cross.
I think JL has a good point....one day when I was driving to college, I drove past a guy standing right outside the school with a sign that said something like: "accept Jesus or you are going to hell" want to know what I heard from classmates all day long? How that one act turned them off of Christianity...that approach is not the best approach...there is a better way to preach the gospel and approach the topic of hell.
It is all about approach.
It is all about approach.
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I fully agree....the point is that the whole council of God is biblical and to leave out hell or negate it contradicts the simple truth that JESUS used it in his ministry...who is our example...JESUS is...and to tell me that it is not right or biblical to preach or teach or mention hell is contrary to the truth!
You are missing what we are saying.....I am not saying it is not right to talk about hell....I am saying how you do it is important....and I believe that is where jl is coming from.....Where did I say that we should not talk about hell? Please dont run around insulting people using hell like I have seen in the past....that is where I am coming from and I think it is important to remind people of this
You see the times I remember reading about Jesus talking about hell wasn't to scare someone into submission at least I didn't take it that way.....
It is quite obvious my Blond mind doesn't think on the same wave length your mind thinks....scare tactics just don't work with me and I am not the only person in the world that thinks that way....Love does work and God uses what works with people and I would venture a guess that Love preaching works better than scary hell preaching.
It is quite obvious my Blond mind doesn't think on the same wave length your mind thinks....scare tactics just don't work with me and I am not the only person in the world that thinks that way....Love does work and God uses what works with people and I would venture a guess that Love preaching works better than scary hell preaching.
Maybe slow down and read what I have written and pay attention to the bolded bro.....
We don't win people to anything.....it is God that gives the increase as we but sow seeds.....and to be quite frank I don't keep records as that is the job of God.......now I will say that I have had the opportunity to speak at about 25 churches, on radio, TV, cable TV, written a 212 page book on the 2nd coming of Christ (three rounds of printing in numerous states and been picked up to be published) and have testified to probably 500,000 people in my life through the mediums listed....and there have been MANY that have responded, trusted the Lord, surrendered to preach, re-dedicate themselves unto the Lord, apologize to the church of their membership etc........and sometimes I have utilized HELL just as the LORD DID and sometimes NOT...both are biblical.........God is the God of LOVE.....he is also the God of JUDGMENT and BOTH are biblical, applicable and to be UTILIZED.....
We don't win people to anything.....it is God that gives the increase as we but sow seeds.....and to be quite frank I don't keep records as that is the job of God.......now I will say that I have had the opportunity to speak at about 25 churches, on radio, TV, cable TV, written a 212 page book on the 2nd coming of Christ (three rounds of printing in numerous states and been picked up to be published) and have testified to probably 500,000 people in my life through the mediums listed....and there have been MANY that have responded, trusted the Lord, surrendered to preach, re-dedicate themselves unto the Lord, apologize to the church of their membership etc........and sometimes I have utilized HELL just as the LORD DID and sometimes NOT...both are biblical.........God is the God of LOVE.....he is also the God of JUDGMENT and BOTH are biblical, applicable and to be UTILIZED.....