The doctrine of a literal hell with a literal and conscious torment causes many Christians to squirm uneasily, as the culture we live in is very oversensitive to the concept of a place called hell. This often causes an aggressive reaction when Christians try to appeal to the unsaved that Jesus Christ can rescue them from sin and the prospect of an eternity in hell.
In this article, Tim Callies makes the point that if he were to deny the existence of hell, he would also have to:
- deny what Jesus taught
- deny the plain sense of Scripture
- deny the testimony of the Church
- deny the gospel
We live at a time when a defence of the doctrine of hell is understandably very unpopular with non-Christians and often even denied by Christians. Whilst we acknowledge that this doctrine is very difficult to communicate with the unsaved, to be complicite in denying this clear doctrine calls into question the integrity and honesty of Scripture. If Jesus said what he meant and meant what he said, either He was lying about hell or the existence of hell is regrettably a distinct reality for all who reject salvation through Him. We cover Scriptural descriptions of hell in our article The Truth of Judgment Day, the reality of hell should cause us to seriously investigate the claims of Jesus Christ!
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