A Brick in the Valley

“If I had a choice, that is if Scripture were not so clear and conclusive, I would certainly not believe in Hell.  Trust me when I say I do not want to believe in it.  But if I make what I want –or what others want–the basis of my beliefs, then I am a follower of myself and my culture, not a follower of Christ.  ‘There seems to be a kind of conspiracy,’ writes novelist Dorothy Sayers, ‘to forget, or to conceal where the doctrine of hell comes from.  The doctrine of hell is not ‘mediaeval priestcraft’ for frightening people into giving money to the church: it is Christ’s deliberate judgment on sin . . . We cannot repudiate Hell without altogether repudiating Christ.’  In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis writes of Hell, ‘There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.  But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”  Randy Alcorn, Heaven, page 26, emphasis his.

John Piper recently said, “the post-modern mind has no place for the biblical truth of the wrath of God (The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, page 76).”

To the extent this Piper’s evaluation is on target, this is a tremendous problem.

1.  The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).
2. A fear of God’s wrath motivates us to live godly lives.
3. An understanding of God’s wrath is basic to saving faith and to evangelism.
4. Trusting in the justice of God helps us avoid bitterness and feel compassion for enemies.  When Bonhoeffer was imprisoned by the Nazis (before they executed him) he wrote to a good friend, “. . . it is only when God’s wrath and vengeance are hanging as grim realities over the heads of one’s enemies that something of what it means to love and forgive them can touch our hearts.
5. An understanding of the wrath of God, is basic to understanding the atonement.

The list could go on and on.  Pastors must be more willing to proclaim the truth of the wrath of God. 

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”(Jn 3:36, NIV).”