How Do We Talk to Our Children About Evil and Hell? Vassula Ryden Brings a Personal Touch to Difficult Problem

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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