Monday, March 7, 2011

Hell, stressed in unwise ways

Nevertheless, it is possible to stress the doctrine of hell in unwise ways. Many, for fear of doctrinal compromise, want to put all the emphasis on God's active judgment, and none on the self-chosen character of hell. Ironically, as we have seen, this unBiblical imbalance often makes it less of a deterrent to non-believers rather than more of one. And some can preach hell in such a way that people reform their lives only out of a self-interested fear of avoiding consequences, not out of love and loyalty to the one who embraced and experienced hell in our place. The distinction between those two motives is all-important. The first creates a moralist, the second a born-again believer.

--Tim Keller

Source: here

1 comment:

Charlie's Church of Christ said...

that is a fantastic point. Huge, actually. I actually think that it is the most hardcore supporters of hell that have created the Rob Bell quasi-universalists. By taking the idea too far/expressing it in unhealthy ways they made the idea so crazy that people couldn't help but go a totally opposite direction.