Fri
06
Feb
2009
Edwards: Scare Them With Hell (Part 2 of 2)
For those of us who love God's Word, we must agree with Jonathan Edwards and never cease warning people of the horrors of hell. And we must also make sure that, as preachers, our delivery on this topic backs up the seriousness of hell itself:
"If you should continue to speak to it only in a cold manner, as you are wont to do in ordinary conversation about indifferent matters, would not those about you begin to think you were bereft of reason yourself?"
"When ministers preach of hell, and warn sinners to avoid it, in a cold manner--though they may say in words that it is infinitely terrible--they contradict themselves."
We must not neglect our responsibility as Christians, and especially as preachers, to speak and preach of hell in the dreaded tones that it truly deserves. It's the worst place ever, and frightening people from it is a good thing.
"Some talk of it as an unreasonable thing to fright persons to heaven; but I think it is a reasonable thing to endeavour to fright persons away from hell. They stand upon its brink, and are just ready to fall into it, and are senseless of their danger. Is it not a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house on fire?"
Based on my readings from Experiencing God: Selected Readings From His [Edwards] Spiritual Classics, Compiled by Robert Backhouse, p41-42.
(For the whole text, see The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.)
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