Hell and Evangelism

Part 8, Preaching the Way Jesus Did

Fun fact: Paul never mentions hell.

Jesus, by contrast, talked a lot about hell.

As I point out in The Book of Love, this contrast surprises us. In our popular imagination, Paul comes off as the rigid fundamentalist, whereas Jesus is full of love, tolerance, and sunshine. But Jesus spoke of hell a great deal, and it was part of his evangelistic urgency.

That said, Jesus’ hell was different from how we tend to imagine it. Our vision of hell tends to be medieval. Hell is a space reserved in eternity where the damned suffer eternal and perpetual torment. Many of Jesus’ references to hell, by contrast, pointed toward a geographical location outside the walls of Jerusalem. This was the Valley of Hinnom, called “Gehenna,” and it was associated in the history of Israel with child sacrifices to Moloch. Gehenna came to symbolize God’s coming apocalyptic judgment upon the forces of darkness. To be sure, there are references to hell being “eternal” in the Gospels (Matt. 25:46) and that the fires of Gehenna are “never quenched” (Mark 9:43–48), but Jesus’ references to Gehenna concern judgment more than torment. Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom was eschatologically pressured. The Day of the Lord was approaching, when humanity would face the Great Sorting. Jesus was not engaged in speculating about the ultimate fate of the damned but was, rather, bringing God’s judgment to bear upon today in order to prompt a change of heart. Jesus wanted to bring his audience into a state of crisis.

For my part, this is how hell should function in evangelism. God’s judgment impinges upon life and brings it into crisis. The goal is not to abstractly speculate about the ultimate fate of humanity but to prompt repentance. As Paul puts it, today is the day of salvation.

It’s also important to notice how Jesus used hell to evangelize for social justice. The classic examples here are the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19–31) and the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt. 25:31–46). These two parables are noteworthy for two things. First, they are the two parables with the richest images of judgment and hell. Second, both parables are evangelistic in demanding concern for the poor and oppressed.

Recall our reflections over the last few posts about hell being more about hamartiology than eschatology. Jesus’ references to hell press that claim. Jesus’ parables are not speculations about the afterlife. They are confrontations. They name the kinds of people who stand under judgment. And they bring these people into crisis. They begin to feel, in John the Baptist’s image, the ax already laid at the root. The Rich Man is is a warning. The Goats are mirrors. Hell, in Jesus’ preaching, exposes sin and makes God’s judgment immediate and personal. And the aim is evangelistic, summoning repentance and calling hearers to believe the Good News.