Teaching our children that punishment comes when they
misbehave is obvious, and as adults we know that breaking the law or violating
policies and standards at work or in our community will bring unpleasant
consequences.
While a large majority of
Americans are regular church goers, take their faith seriously and will go out
of their way to patronize businesses and organizations that are faith based,
the conversation of God’s punishment in the nature of Hell’s Rath and Fury has
diminished on a variety of levels and for many different reasons.
In know the existence of Good and Evil are real, for I have
experienced them first-hand in my own spiritual journey with God. Sermons delivered weekly in churches in the U.S. and around the world vary widely in content
depending if delivered in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches,
and all too often they seldom focus on that place called Hell. In societies where children have access to
all types of media, pumping out questionable, distracting and sometimes harmful
content, the ability to get them to focus on an ethereal realm where the
unworthy and unrepentant end up can be difficult. Quite frankly, it is hard to get many adults
to focus on it as well as accountability for our actions stares us in the face
while contemplating the subject.
On the Protestant side the secular-cultural pressure is
definitely denting the message. Greg
Garrison reported in USA Today that a Protestant workshop discussion of hell
revealed that “pastors do shy away from the topic of everlasting damnation.” Kurt Selles, director of the Global Center
at Samford University's
Beeson Divinity School,
told Garrison that, during an annual pastor school retreat, he discovered that “none
of them had ever delivered a sermon on hell.”
Rev. Fred Johns believes it comes from a “fear we’ll not appear
relevant. It’s pressure from the culture
to not speak anything negative. I think we've begun to deny hell. There’s an
assumption that everybody’s going to make it to heaven somehow.”
Kurt Selles derides this “soft selling of hell” that he says
reflects an increasingly market-conscious approach. “Pretending that hell doesn’t exist, or
trying to preach around it, short-circuits the Bible. This is a doctrine, a teaching, that’s being
neglected in churches. It needs to be
preached. It’s part of the Gospel” he
said.
So where does that leave our children, the inheritors who
must carry on the tradition and keep faith alive. Generalizations are often truisms, and thus
again it must be said that “it all begins with the parents.” But Vassula Ryden, author of Heaven
There are a lot of people in the Church today, starting with
many pastoral leaders, who aren’t sure what to believe about Hell. We don’t really hear a lot about Hell in
sermon messages these days. Why? Has the topic become too controversial or too
confusing for the Church?
And how does this affect our children?
While I don’t condone scare tactics with our kids, I
conducted a little impromptu experiment.
Today as I was writing this article, my 9-year -old walked into my
office. He asked what I was writing
about and I looked up and told him, “About Hell.” Wide eyed, he looked at me
and reminded me I had just used a bad word. “No” I said. “I’m writing about the place, Hell.”
I asked him what he knew about Hell. “It’s where you go if you’re bad.” His response made me realize I had better
take the time to further explain God’s rescue plan of Jesus to MY OWN son!
I stopped writing and began a conversation with him about
Jesus; about how none of us were good
enough to share an eternity with God, and that the Father sent Jesus down to
earth to pay our price (by dying in our place) to get into Heaven so we could
have that eternity with Him. It wasn’t
based on how good we are.
“Mom” he asked, “Do good people go to Hell?” Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to
answer his question, without sounding trite or insincere; because God IS LOVE. He desires no one to go to Hell.
There are lots of mixed messages right now about Hell and
it’s important that our children have a firm grasp of what the Scripture says.
John 3: 16-17, 36: “For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. For God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not
obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
It’s also important for our children to understand the
urgency of the Gospel and that we reflect that urgency in our own daily lives.
Because if we truly believe that there is a Hell and that the saving grace from
the sacrifice of Jesus is what ensures us a place in Heaven…then we HAVE to
take spreading the Gospel message a little more seriously—and urgently.
Whether it’s through fear, complacency or lack of knowledge,
many in the Church are only comfortable being with other saved brothers and
sisters. Let’s face it; talking to the
unsaved about Jesus is difficult. Not
because we lack conviction, but because it takes us out of our comfort zone.
What if I offend someone? What if I say something Biblically wrong?
Take for instance our Muslim neighbor, who we love having
over for coffee, but who we don’t want to offend in matters of faith…how do we
start a conversation about Jesus with her?
Thought process: Maybe if my actions are simply Jesus-like enough,
she’ll ask me some questions about my faith! Nope—total cop-out. Because if I believe that Jesus was the only
means that kept my nice neighbor out of Hell, I should have a sense of urgency
to share the Good News with her!
If your child asked a question about Hell, how would you
answer it? Should the Church have an
urgency to talk to people about Hell in order to help save them from going
there? Let’s start a dialogue…
About Vassula Ryden:
Vassula Ryden, author of Heaven is Real But So is Hell: An
Eyewitness Account of What is to Come, is a Greek Orthodox Christian mystic
with a worldwide following. Born of Greek parents, Ryden grew up in Egypt, until her family moved to Switzerland
when she was a teenager. Then in 1985, while she was living in Bangladesh, she
had a spiritual encounter that changed her life, as well as many others. Ryden
was working on a grocery list when she felt the presence of an angel. "My
hand was taken as if by an invisible hand, and I let it go because I felt he
wanted me to write something," she says.
At the time of the encounter, she had no relationship with
God and hadn't received any religious training. Soon after that encounter, God
allowed Ryden to experience a painful purification process. After experiencing
this dark and lonely time when she did not hear from God, she made the decision
to fully surrender to Him and put God first in her life.
Since then, she has had thousands of similar experiences,
transcribing "messages" from God in a different style than her normal
handwriting. The messages have been compiled in books, videos and other
materials, which are promoted and distributed under the title, 'True Life in
God' after Vassula was told by God in 1987, I have chosen you as a blank canvas
to fill it up only with My Work which I will name: "True Life in
God."
Ryden also has what she calls "interior visions"
of heaven and the future and has foreseen three important events, which came to
fruition:
The destruction of the World Trade
Center towers on
September 11, 2001;
The Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004; and The fall of Communism
in the former Soviet Union.
But such "doomsday" prophecies are not the focus
of her ministry. God's messages to Ryden emphasize His love and desire that all
people have an intimate relationship with Him. They also stress the need for
unity among Christian denominations.
Although she is Greek Orthodox, Ryden has a large Catholic
following. She has cordial relations with many Vatican
officials and presented a copy of "True Life in God" to Pope Benedict
XVI in 2008.
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