A hell fire gospel?
The Dangerous Presentation of the Gospel
I start by sharing that Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was preached to the church, not outside. Remember that!
Salvation comes by having a supernatural revelation of Christ the Savior for Jesus Christ said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life..no man comes to the Father but through Me – John 14:6. In this mighty spiritual revelation, the hearts of the blind are unveiled through the Holy Spirit and they see Christ, His Love, and receive the Father’s Love.
2 Corinthians 4:4: The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So the miracle happens when the Holy Spirit removes that thick veil over their hearts, eyes, ears, minds and spirits. A woman once saw a vision of the lost walking in mists with thick skin over their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds totally in darkness. So if you understand this..no matter what we say or do, unless the Holy Spirit removes that thick skin, veil and darkness, no message of Salvation will reach them. This is why PRAYER is so vital for sharing the Gospel. It is through our prayers that the veil gets torn off and suddenly, they see..suddenly they understand, suddenly they perceive, suddenly they receive. If you see..this is all happening in the spiritual realm and not in the natural realm.
Forgive me for saying this, but today, western evangelism drills in the fear of fire of hell in a desperate attempt to save the lost. We are limiting God by doing this because the Holy Spirit touches souls so supernaturally beyond what we do. A hysterical fear of us feeling if we do not mention hell is causing their loss of salvation is a false concept. Yes, we do mention hell, but not in a way to get people saved.
If people largely speak on hell thinking they are delivering the lost, the lost do not perceive this gospel in their spirits. We do not see Jesus preaching hell to draw the lost, but yes, He did speak of hell as He taught them, but this was never His first point of reference.
The lost hear and see these words about hell in the natural realm because the attempt by the evangelist is in the natural and not spiritual realm. Planting verses of hell all over is only speaking to the natural human mind and emotions. This is an emotional appeal not a spiritual one!
If we go to a huge public rally, there is a lot of energy, vibrancy and zeal going on. In reality, the thousands of souls together ignite a mass level of soul power so if emotions are high, they cry, they laugh, they are spurred out excitedly. Mass movements are caused by these soul power meetings. This is the force of soul power, it unites and ignites to do something new. After a while, leave the rally, conference and go back to daily living and you will find that high turn very dry. Why? Because things in the realm of the emotions do not last. They cannot say, “Until death do we part, because they cannot last.” People’s emotions keep changing, one day they will love you and a few years later maybe hate you! So if we present the Gospel in an atmosphere of fear, which is an emotion, this also attracts the demonic spirit Fear. So in reality, by our wrong presentation, we are doing a lot of damage to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Unfortunately, the lost are driven further away from God as we present emotional warnings of hell. Some people if they come to Christ, it is out of the emotion of fear. Salvation is NEVER in the realm of the EMOTIONS and should never draw people out of the emotion of FEAR. Fear is a spirit and only perfect Love casts out fear. Salvation is of the SPIRIT. DEEP CALLS THE DEEP.
Remember if your message of Salvation only punctuates the focus is HELL..then the people have not seen CHRIST..they have seen HELL..and if they come to GOD because of their fear of hell..this is an EMOTIONAL salvation. Given the test of trials, many will fall away. Salvation can never be lost, but if the person had never had a spiritual encounter with Christ in the first place, then it is not Salvation lost because it never was a Salvation of the spirit.
Millions in India, Iraq, China and many other nations come to Christ because of a revelation of Him…not because of a fear of hell…I have never known anyone come to Christ because of a fear of hell! They come because they love Jesus..they see the light and they receive His deliverance!
I know of many youth who grew up in churches which focused on hell teachings, their gospel presentations were all about hell, and finally, I know of many, many who turned away or turned to Buddhism or atheism or other faiths! Why? Because their salvation was based upon the fear of hell..an emotion, which changes, and the demon spirit Fear entered their lives.
Now Did Jesus Mention Hell?
Yes, He did when sharing the story of Lazarus and the rich man and many other references too. We do talk about hell as we talk to people, but we should never make it the starting point. Hell is in the Bible and we will bring it up, especially as we are teaching Scripture, but our point of reference for Salvation should NEVER BEGIN WITH HELL! Unbelievers also wrongly perceive God in Heaven is all about Hell..we are creating false perceptions in their minds! THE LOVE OF CHRIST WILL CALL THEM TO SALVATION, NOT FEAR!
The Gospel that Jesus Preached:
The gospel that Jesus taught during His ministry is culminated in Mark 1:14-15: “Now after John [the Baptist] was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’” His message was about the reign, the rule, the dominion, of God the Father, as well as of the Son, the One who is to be the King of that Kingdom (see John 18:37; Revelation 19:11-16).
The phrases “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” are found over a hundred times in the New Testament, the majority of them in the four gospels. “The gospel of the Kingdom of God” encompasses grace, faith, redemption, justification, sanctification, salvation, glorification, and all the other doctrines of Christianity, fulfilling His plan for humanity. The Kingdom of God is the goal of God’s great purpose so we partnership with Christ to preach it in its essence and truth.
As we know, the word “gospel” derives from an Old English word, gödspel, which literally means “good news” or “good tidings.” Thus, when Christ preached, He proclaimed the good news of the soon-coming Kingdom of God.
Now we may think Is this not God’s world? Is He not its Creator? Why did Jesus have to announce that God’s dominion was on its way?
The answer is simple: God created this world and He is sovereign over it. THIS IS GOD’S EARTH. but this is not God’s world system. the Devil has got a grip of the world system since the Fall. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you,” declares Isaiah 59:2. In turn, sin has resulted in a miserable world, wars, hatred, murder, poverty, disease, deception, distrust, and death. Taking back the Kingdom of God is bringing down the devil’s world system and this happens with the Gospel of the Kingdom come in Truth of His Word and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Satan the Devil has enthroned himself as “the god of this age” and blinded the minds of men and women to the truths that would set them free (II Corinthians 4:4). He has managed to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9), not only about himself, but about God and His way of salvation.
Gospel of the Kingdom Message is the Right Gospel to Preach
This is the way Jesus Preached: The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. (Luke 4:18-19)
As we preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, healing is a big manifestation that happens because Christ is our deliverer. Jesus preaches the good news to the spiritually poor people of this world, whom Satan has imprisoned and deceived, and to begin the process of freeing them from the oppression of sin. He would proclaim liberty from their debt of sin, just as the year of Jubilee freed the Israelites from their financial debts (Leviticus 25:8-12). The Jubilee is a type of Christ’s thousand-year reign, often called the Millennium, which will begin with His third coming and the binding of Satan (see Revelation 20:1-6).
The gospel of the Kingdom has to be presented in its fullness: Preach the birth of Christ, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His return, and then the Kingdom rule of Christ for a thousand years after which Satan is again released and punished forever, into the Lake of Fire where he and his demons, fallen angels and ones who rejected Christ will go..and then the eternal reign of Christ in the New Heaven, New Earth, (New Jerusalem) a kind of Eden regained…where the righteous will live forever along with the angels, Jesus, and where God dwells in His glory among the people.
Rolled in this package is belief, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of God’s Holy Spirit and walking in new life in Spirit in the power of Christ to do mightier things for the Kingdom. God forgives and justifies them through His grace, and then they become sanctified both by the imputation of Christ’s holiness as well as through the lifelong process of overcoming their sins, growth in righteousness, and bearing fruit of godliness, finally in Heaven glorified as God’s sons and daughters. They, as the Bride of Christ forever (Revelation 19:7-9), will reign as kings and priests (Revelation 5:10).
Remember again, if hell is only is the manifesto when preaching to the lost, we are harming many souls and doing a greater damage to the Kingdom, likewise the hateful speech and condemning people to hell too that goes along with it. And by the way, we don’t have any rights to condemn people to hell.
Just focus on the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit will do the rest. We will see miracles, and wonders and salvations on earth as never before. This is how it is happening in nations which are closed to the Gospel, yet they are getting gloriously saved, some through dreams, visions, some through house churches, some through the Bible and remember, no one ever starts by first telling them about hell!
So next time, lets not stand on crossroads and scream about Hell or they are sinner to the people of the world. They will never understand it!
Rita F. Kurian
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