The recent shooting of young teenagers by other teenagers has prompted the Government to advise that our youth should attend Church. While I accept the Government’s advice, its effectiveness is questionable in this modern age. In the past, children feared a beating from parents and teachers for minor infractions. They also feared an eternity in hell for major infractions, which influenced them to stay on the straight and narrow way.
We may spend years in our modern churches and not hear about this place. Pastors seem embarrassed to speak of it and seem to pride themselves as not being one of those outdated ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers. They do this despite Jesus warning about it regularly and insisting that those who wish to follow Him do likewise. Our children are more likely to be taught that everyone and their pets go to heaven.
HAPPY HELL, BORING HEAVEN.
Modern Churches do our youth a grave disservice because they learn about hell from other sources. Hell is described to today’s youth in video games, comics, songs and movies as a liberating place where exciting and pleasurable fantasies may be pursued. Heaven is shown, by contrast, to be a place of eternal boredom. To better influence our wayward youth, the modern Church should push-back on this deception with the truth.
SUPER POWERS.
According to the Bible, those who remain on the straight and narrow way will have bodies like that of Jesus after He was resurrected. This suggests that our bodies will at least have the following super-powers: almost indestructible, can move through solid objects, can vanish at will and can fly. We are to travel to those solar systems that we can barely see in our telescopes and beyond. What will we be doing there? Managing life on other planets.
Clearly, we are not ready to manage other planets when we cannot seem to manage this one. The Bible teaches that at the end of this age, when enough people have decided to spend an eternity with God, Jesus will return to set up His government on Earth and manage our training for 1,000 years before we are deployed. Heaven is the place of fulfilling exciting responsibilities.
Meanwhile, those who chose an after-life without God will exist away from Him, unemployed in eternal torment in hell. When presented with those two available options, why would any of our wayward youth choose a life of crime? They would not. So, why do they? Because they are not told the truth.
ILLEGAL TEMPTATIONS.
Every person will be tempted to do wrong things until they die. Some of those wrong things are illegal. Why do most of us stay on the right side of the law? Because we fear the consequences of being: charged by the police, convicted by a jury, sentenced by a judge and imprisoned, perhaps for life – in the hell-on-earth.
The Bible teaches that some are motivated to stay on the straight and narrow path through love and others through fear – both approaches are useful. Paul explained that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Jesus explicitly explained whom we should fear.“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5)
UNHAPPY HELL.
Our wayward youth need to be presented with what Jesus, who will judge them at the end of the age, taught about hell. Jesus explained that their worms will never die and the fire is never quenched – there will be eternal decomposition of our present bodies if we choose to go there. It is not a place designed for human flesh, but God does not force us, but respects our free-will decision to spend an eternity away from Him.
Jesus gave a detailed account of a fellow in hell who begged for relief from the constant pain, but it was not possible. He then begged that someone on the other side be sent back to warn his brothers to make a better choice. However, he was told that if his brothers will not listen to the scriptures that already warned them, they would not believe someone who came back from the dead. Hell is not a fun place, but a place to be avoided – at all costs.
The blogmaster invites you to join and add value to the discussion.