The doctrine of hell, claims an article in National Geographic, \u201cisn\u2019t as popular as it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
But evangelist David Stockwell apparently hasn\u2019t received the memo. He has preached on hell at every single one of his evangelistic meetings through 45 years of full-time evangelism and told Baptist Press he sees people respond \u201cwith conviction and a great desire to get right with God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stockwell, president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, is among evangelicals who defend the traditional doctrine of hell and dispute the notion that individuals who have not received Jesus as their Lord and Savior simply cease to exist when they die — a belief known as annihilationism and defended by some scholars quoted in the National Geographic article.<\/p>\n
Other proponents of the traditional view — like California pastor Ben Skaug and Boyce College professor Denny Burk — dispute National Geographic\u2019s suggestions that annihilationism may soon become the dominant perspective and that belief in eternal conscious torment for the unrighteous has not always been the consensus view of Christians.<\/p>\n
\u2018Compelled to preach the truth\u2019<\/p>\n
The National Geographic article, published May 13, reports that 58 percent of Americans believe in hell, down from 71 percent two decades ago. The article quotes seven contemporary and historical Christian figures who have defended annihilationism and four who support the traditional teaching on hell.<\/p>\n
In tandem with the article, the National Geographic Channel aired a documentary titled \u201cMap of Hell,\u201d which explored the history of belief in the afterlife.<\/p>\n
In the article, writer Mark Strauss claims \u201cit is difficult to know\u201d where \u201cmost evangelicals stand on the issue of hell.\u201d He references \u201ca conundrum that continues to tug at the conscience of some Christians, who find it difficult to reconcile the existence of a just, loving God with a doctrine that dooms billions of people to eternal punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Stockwell, the greater \u201cconundrum\u201d is how a holy God can accept sinful humans as His children.<\/p>\n
\u201cEternal judgment in pain, agony and flames of hell are what we all truly deserve,\u201d Stockwell said. \u201cBut God … who is rich in love and mercy, because of His great love for us, so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son\u201d to pay \u201cthe penalty for our sin.\u201d Only those who do not receive this gift must suffer judgment in hell.<\/p>\n
The mandate to preach hell as a place of eternal conscious torment, Stockwell said, stems from Scripture passages like Jude 1:22-23 and the fact that \u201cJesus talked about hell twice as much as He talked about heaven.\u201d During Stockwell\u2019s ministry, messages that included discussion of hell have led people to Christ who went on to become International Mission Board missionaries and leaders at prominent churches among other paths.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we really believe God and what He has said in His Word,\u201d Stockwell said in written comments, \u201cthen we would be compelled to preach the truth of what God has said: that those who die without Christ in their hearts will spend eternity in hell, forever and ever! We would realize that our friends and neighbors, members of our own families, people all around us are dying in sin, without Christ, and on their way to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consensus on hell?<\/p>\n
Skaug, who is writing a doctoral dissertation on the doctrine of hell at Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, noted that judgment of the wicked is commonly referenced in Scripture as an expression of God\u2019s justice.<\/p>\n
The Old Testament Minor Prophets spoke of \u201cthe day in which God would bring judgment to the wicked.\u201d In the New Testament, every book \u201cspeaks to or references God\u2019s judgment of the wicked,\u201d said Skaug, executive pastor of Los Angeles-area Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif., and a former vice president at Gateway Seminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince all judgment has been given over from the Father to the Son, hell is the place where Jesus Christ will sentence the wicked (John 5),\u201d Skaug said. \u201cIt will be a place where they will face eternal fire (Matthew 18:6-9). This place is the very same place that has been prepared beforehand for Satan and his fallen angels (Matthew 25:31-46), where the worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hell, he said, \u201cis described as eternal destruction in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10[*]. In other words, it is the place where the omnipresent God is actively pouring out His perfect wrath on the wicked who have rejected Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skaug questioned National Geographic\u2019s claim that \u201cin its earliest years, Christianity didn\u2019t have a consensus on the nature of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early church \u201cdid not have a unanimous understanding of the doctrine of hell,\u201d Skaug said, noting that the third-century theologian Origen believed postmortem punishment was only temporary. \u201cHowever, to say the early church did not have a consensus on the doctrine of hell is another matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theologians like Tertullian in the second and third centuries and John Chrysostom in the fourth century believed in eternal conscious torment, and Augustine popularized that view in the fourth and fifth centuries, Skaug said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Augustine through the medieval period, the traditional doctrine of hell was considered standard orthodoxy,\u201d Skaug said, and it continued to prevail in the Reformation era. The Enlightenment of the 1700s saw some churches begin to depart from orthodoxy, yet \u201cthe conservative church maintain[ed] its hold on the traditional doctrine of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
A matter of authority<\/p>\n
In the end, Skaug said, beliefs about hell are determined by an individual\u2019s view of Scripture.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is not to judge the Scriptures to determine if they fit inside of our Westernized perspectives, but rather allow the Word of God to mold and shape our thinking so that our thoughts are closer to God\u2019s thoughts,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the Bible declares that hell is a real place, then evangelicals should not be embarrassed to proclaim the traditional doctrine of hell as truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burk, who contributed to the 2016 book \u201cFour Views on Hell,\u201d made a similar observation, suggesting many theologians who reject the traditional doctrine of hell \u201ctend to be drifting in other crucial areas of doctrine as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not claim this is true in every individual case,\u201d Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce, wrote in a blog post, \u201cbut it is true in many cases. What we believe about Hell is fundamentally a reflection of what we believe about God, His character, and His justice. Revisions in the doctrine of Hell, therefore, are often accompanied by other revisions that undermine orthodox evangelical faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
The National Geographic article, Burk wrote, uses a tactic common among annihilationists when it notes that Anglican author and pastor John Stott, who died in 2011, was an annihilationist.<\/p>\n
While expressing profound respect for Stott, Burk argued \u201che had a patently unbiblical view of Hell\u201d which, because of Stott\u2019s \u201cotherwise impeccable credentials,\u201d has \u201cprovided cover for others who have drifted away from the traditional view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burk questioned a prediction attributed to theologian Preston Sprinkle by National Geographic that \u201ceven within conservative evangelical circles, the annihilation view of Hell will be the dominant view in 10 or 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burk responded, \u201cIt may very well be that belief in annihilationism is on the rise. But still, is it the \u2018dominant\u2019 view? Dominant among whom? Bible-believing Christians? Bible-believing Christians around the world? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the entire 2,000-year history of the Christian church,\u201d he wrote, \u201cthe near consensus view has been the Eternal Conscious Torment view. The recent decline of that view in the West may simply be a sign of Christianity\u2019s decline in the West. I\u2019m not convinced it\u2019s a sign the Christian church is undergoing some historic shift in its doctrine of Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among Southern Baptists, seminary professors and other entity leaders must affirm the Baptist Faith and Message, which states in Article X on \u201clast things,\u201d \u201cThe unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
* The original article incorrectly had 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The doctrine of hell, claims an article in National Geographic, \u201cisn\u2019t as popular as it used to be.\u201d But evangelist David Stockwell apparently hasn\u2019t received the memo. He has preached on hell at every single one of his evangelistic meetings through 45 years of full-time evangelism and told Baptist Press he sees people respond \u201cwith […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1442,1741,105,1132,108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}