Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Urgent: The Disappearance of Hell

I want to quote R. Albert Mohler Jr. introduction of his article Is Hell is Real? in length here:
“The rejection of Christianity’s historic teaching on hell has come swiftly in our culture. It is now routinely dismissed as an embarrassing artifact from the ancient age – a reminder of Christianity’s outdated worldview. Yet the disappearance of hell within the church’s walls, at least in some circles, presents a kind of mystery. How did such a central doctrine come to suffer widespread abandonment among some Christians?
The answer lies in the history of Christianity in the modern world, and it warns of further possible compromises on the horizon. For as the church has often been reminded, no doctrine stands alone. Take away hell, and the entire shape of Christian theology may be altered.”

Yes, the doctrine of hell has somewhat disappeared and it seem to me that hardly anyone had noticed it. I'm not surprise why it is so. Here are the 3 main reasons why, in my opinion, the doctrine of hell is never registered in our church next week sermon. First, in Malaysian Christians context, preaching about hell or to even say something about eternal punishment is a ‘no-no’ subject to our tolerance-watered-down-gospel ears. Talking about hell is offensive and too ‘radical’ to share. Thus, to keep quiet about it is the ‘wisest’ thing to do lest we’ll be dislike by our hearers (or readers). We love God the Savior (very familiar) but not God the Judge (almost never taught!). Second, to share about Biblical truths from the Scripture verses on hell to our modern generations nowaday is almost next to impossible because they tend to be selective in their reading, thus, ignorance about it [if they ever read the Bible at all!] Third, honestly, we don’t know much about the doctrine of hell or simply say: We don’t care! My opinions could be wrong, but I hope some may hits home. Timothy Keller writes, “…the lost of the doctrine of hell, judgment, and the holiness of God does irreparable damage to our understanding of God’s grace and love, and of human dignity and our value to him. To preach the good news, we must also preach the bad.”
....
If you ask me do I believe in hell? I’ll say, “Yes”. You might then says, “Tell me why?” My answer would be, “Because Jesus taught about it!” Jesus speaks of hell are as frequent (even more) as He speaks about the Kingdom of God. The Christian message is not complete without the doctrine of hell, since Jesus did speaks about it directly in the four Gospel (e.g. Matthew 5:22, 5:29-30, 18:8, 23:15, Luke 16:23, Mark 9:43-48, John 3:36) and in the writings of the prophets (e.g. Isaiah 66:24, Daniel 12:2) and the apostles. But you may ask further questions such as; “Richard, how could it be fair to punish people in hell?”; Isn’t God a God of love, why He did that?”; “Is it eternal?”… Good questions… yes, good questions… may you ask because you care.

Therefore, I want to offer you a free book entitle Is Hell for Real or Does Everyone go to Heaven? for this month of March. It’s a thin book but quite heavy-stuff to read together with your Bible. I hope that this book may be your valuable resource for you to discover more about this rare but important doctrine in your Christian walks. With this knowledge in mind, I pray that you may treasure the important of sharing the Gospel and somehow it might ignite some urgency in your soul to preach Christ to the lost. Urgent!

THINK BIG START SMALL GO DEEP
"Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body;
they cannot touch your soul.
Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell"
(Matthew 10:28NLT)

.................................................

I’m giving away copies of this book (only available until end of the month) as per request (max: 3 copies). You are welcome to get a copy for yourself, friend or anyone you're recommended to read it. Do these 2 things:
1) Comment below “Rich, give me ___ (max: 3 copies per request) of this book. ___(Your name).”
2) E-mail me at Motivates4life@hotmail.com or send message to my Facebook your real name, phone no. and your postal address
Best Blogger Tips

7 comments:

  1. Example;
    Rich, give me 2 copies (me and my friend)of this book. [Jackson]

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rich, give me 2 copies of this book. yvonne
    will send you the address to ur Fb later...tQ very much

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rich, give me 2 copies of this book. Kee
    thanks..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rich, give me 1 copy of this book. [Samuel]

    ReplyDelete
  5. Will send to you (plural) tomorrow evening ya :) To read is to love with your mind.

    ReplyDelete
  6. “Rich, give me 2 of this book. (Connie).

    Thank you Rich :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Okay Connie, will sent to you by end of this month ya :)

    ReplyDelete

They Click it A lot. [Top 7 last 7 Days]