Whilst browsing the pages of the Daily Mail recently I came across the banner ‘Whatever happens to Ghislaine, she will burn in hell’. It was a comment attributed to one of Jeffrey Epstein’s female victims in an article relating to Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial in the US for her alleged complicity in his abuse.

Another reference to hell that I happened across in a tabloid newspaper concerned the double murdered David Fuller, whom it had been discovered, sexually abused corpses in a hospital morgue where he had worked as an electrician. This particular headline assured readers that a special place in hell was reserved for this individual.

What both of these statements hold in common is an understanding of hell which (accepting that any such place might exist) appears to reserve its punishments exclusively for the most corrupted, depraved and wicked individuals. No daily Mail reader would seriously countenance that normal, decent human beings – my work colleagues, my friendly neighbour, the charming and dedicated young women who teaches my child’s class – are at risk of suffering the torments of hell upon their demise.

Hell is understood to be a place of punishment. Punishment is actually quite a difficult concept for us to process, more so in a society increasingly shaped by humanistic thinking, which identifies wrongdoers as victims in their own right. We struggle with punishment not least because it has no redeeming features – it is simply the penalty that follows as a result of bad or wrong choices. Moreover, scripture tells us that hell’s punishment is eternal and immutable (Matt 25:46, Rev 14:11).

The Catholic Church, historically, found this bleak characterisation of hell so disturbing that they incorporated a reformative dimension through the doctrine of purgatory, which translated hell into a place where individuals would be purged of sins (the practice of indulgences would shorten the process), until they were morally fit to enter heaven.

The mainstream protestant churches have never entertained this as a credible doctrine. Luther rejected indulgences in his 95 thesis that he nailed to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, and the Church that subsequently bore his name rejected the idea of purgatory as having no basis in scripture.

The response of many protestant denominations in our present day seems to be to largely ignore the subject of eternal judgement and hell altogether. Within the evangelical sphere there are contemporary books written on the subject, and it is quite prevalent as a topic on platforms such as YouTube, if you care to search for it. But as part of the Church’s discipleship and teaching, as a subject it has largely disappeared. For example, the Alpha course, arguably one of the most successful evangelistic initiatives in recent time, makes no mention of either.

In my own experience, as someone who has moved in evangelical charismatic circles for over 40 years, I have only one clear recollection of someone preaching specifically about eternal judgement and hell. This particular occasion was as part of the Festival Manchester outreach event in the early 2000s. An American preacher, who was attached to a Christian BMX display team at the event, gave it ‘both barrels’, to an unsuspecting audience who had turned out to watch the bike display in Heaton Park. Central to his message was a description of the plight a youth they had previously encountered who had rejected the message of salvation. The youth had subsequently died, and was as a consequence, according to our preacher, ‘burning in hell as I speak to you’. Needless to say, his alter call did get quite a response.

Now, many would view such an evangelistic approach as insensitive at best and crass and manipulative at worst. And, of course, this highlights the primary difficulty with the subject of hell. It is not something that we can realistically present with great sensitivity; more so when one moves from generalised ideas about the topic to the specific case of an individual whom any hearers might identify with, as the American preacher had done.

There are other reasons why we might purposely choose to avoid referencing hell in our witnessing. Although people may describe certain dire situations as ‘hell on earth’ (such as the plight of victims in the Nazi concentration camps during WW II), the reality is that no-one can actually imagine, envisage or ever fully experience the utter horror and desolation that is likely hell itself. To that extent hell is an abstract idea. This is not to say that it does not exist, only that people in general cannot easily relate to it. It should be said the same is also true of heaven.  We might read wonderful descriptions of heaven, yet whatever adjectives one might apply, it means very little to the hearer if they have no tangible experienced of what is described. Thus, it may be argued, someone is unlikely to make a sincere decision to accept Christ, simply on the basis of the threat of hell or the promise of heaven.

A further reason, not unrelated to the above, is that in the time when preachers were far more minded to reference eternal judgement and hell in their preaching (the 18^th and 19^th centuries), death was much more imminent in peoples experience. Infant mortality was extremely high, and life expectancy was significantly lower than it is today. In view of the prevalence of death and suffering all around, people were likely more focussed on their personal situation when the inevitable came calling. In contrast today, even in the face of the current pandemic, many people are found living with the apparent delusion that death will not touch them.

In view of the above, one may reasonably question whether it actually matters that the Church appears to have quietly dropped the subject of hell from much of its discourse. I would suggest it does for the following reasons.

First, even a cursory reading of the gospels reveals that Jesus made repeated reference to judgement and hell in his teaching. If we are to be faithful witnesses of the gospel message then surely, we must convey the whole message, rather than simply cherry pick those sayings of Christ we view as positive and life affirming.

Secondly, if the Church is to accurately represent Christ to the world, we must acknowledge that those particular character traits that manifest themselves as fury, wrath and indignation are no less aspects of God’s person than His propensity for demonstrating compassion, love and mercy.  There is, not unreasonably, a desire to view the God of the Old Testament – the One who reigned fire and brimstone upon all of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah – as somehow removed from the Christ revealed in the New Testament.

Thirdly, if the present-day Church abandons the doctrine of hell for all practical purposes, then others will likely step in and fill the theological void with their own distorted understanding. The headline writers of the Daily Mail, whatever their personal views on the afterlife might be, as has been noted already, are promoting a particular understanding of eternal punishment that is fundamentally at odds with the gospel.

However, arguably the most compelling reason for maintaining a clear doctrine of eternal judgement and hell is that any diminution of the doctrine inevitably opens the door to universalism – the belief that all are saved irrespective of any confession or active faith in Christ as saviour. Moreover, if there is no eternal judgement, no possibility of punishment for sins, if all are welcomed into heaven by a loving God, then surely Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is rendered largely meaningless.

Thus, whilst it is understandable that when planning the next sermon series, one might choose to skip over those unpalatable bible verses and sayings of Jesus that reference hell, I believe that such an approach is short-sighted – the church needs to teach on this topic, albeit with wisdom and humility rather than taking the judgemental attitude of the preacher described above. Furthermore, I believe we should re-evaluate an evangelistic approach that effectively airbrushes eternal judgement and hell from our messaging – in some instances it does appear that the Gospel is being presented as some sort of life enhancing option which people might like to try, rather than the eternal imperative that it actually is. As the writer to the Hebrews clearly states, ‘How shall we escape [eternal judgement], if we neglect so great a salvation!’ (Hebrews 2:3).