Should the fear of dying and going to Hell be the motivating factor for people who become Christians? Should we ask people if they know where they are going when they die? Or where will they spend eternity? Even if our motive is not to produce fear within the individual or the audience, could this be the wrong approach? How many converts have we really won if they only came to Christ to avoid dying and going to hell? If within a few months or years they ended up walking away from the faith, convinced that they had a “Golden Ticket” for Heaven yet also persuaded that they were not good enough to remain worthy of being a Christian. Finding out that remaining a Christian is too hard for them, they walk away convinced that they will never live up to a standard put forth by an irate God. They came forward out of fear and this never produced a belief in a loving God. Has this approach produced generations of believers but not followers? Of church pew-dwellers but not go-and-tellers? Or millions of door-knocking evangelists who only know to ask the all-important question that they were asked, yet never produced a Love in them that casts out Fear. A crowd wanting others to come to Jesus, but then not knowing what to do after that. Come to Jesus. Come and sit. Come and sing. Ask people if they want to go to heaven but not give them the tools to learn how to walk with Him. A crowd less equipped to follow Him with their life, but always ready to inquire of others if they know where they will go when they die. A crowd that maybe even passes judgement on those who shut the door on them, or walk away from them when the question gets asked.
As a child, I grew up in a time when there were misguided end times movies that would certainly frighten all who would see them. Church attendance seemed to be a means to an end. Coming to Christ was a get-out-of-hell pass. This produced a fear in me that God was more than happy to send me to Hell when I died. As I lived my life learning curse words and generally not acceptable behavior for a young Christian boy, I would always repent at every altar call. Going back out into the world I found it far easier to be influenced by my fellow schoolmates and neighborhood friends. Whatever was supposed to be produced inside of me at salvation was not enough to keep me from sinning and so the image of an angry God became easily believable. As I dodged His attempts to play Whac-A-Mole with me, the weight of my guilt and the shame of not being able to be a good boy took its toll. The God is Love passage did not ring true for me and I could not reconcile a Saving Faith with this irate God who was certainly perturbed by my unrelenting sins. I could not stop sinning and at some point I believed that He had stopped saving. I had outrun His Grace, whatever that word meant. Flogging myself inside while at the altar, I cried out from my heart to a God that I wasn’t sure could hear me. Or that He even wanted to. My prayers were hitting the ceiling and falling on deaf ears in Heaven. I still believed in Heaven but it seemed so far away from an unceasing sinner.
The God of the Old Testament seemed to be pretty angry. He kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden and He just kept going from there. Forced Abraham to almost kill his son and wanted to kill Moses for striking a rock. Opened up the ground to swallow some people that He called his own. Told them to offer all kinds of animal sacrifices. Those poor animals. It seemed that the Bible stories were designed to keep up the belief in this disturbing God. There were a few that were positive in nature but the overall sense was that God was just ready to pounce on people at any moment. Wiping entire cities off the map and seemingly enjoying punishing people, surely this was not a God of Love.
Then came Jesus. That dude was cool with me, but He was not in charge. He was not God. Celebrating His birth and thanking Him for His death on the cross was easy. Finding Him to be a great man, full of love and compassion was simple. This New Testament Jesus became a favorite of mine. So the Old Testament was just a time when God went nuts on people. Then He sent Jesus to bring about salvation for those who chose to believe in Him. It was very hard to reconcile the two parts of the Bible. Whether intended or not, the people in the places of influence in my life did what they knew to do and I came away with these false assumptions and beliefs.
1 John 4 has become to me one of the greatest chapters in all of scripture, partly due to my own journey, partly due to the fact that John “got it”. He had discovered just how much God loved Him. He had walked with Jesus, seen all of the recorded events firsthand. He saw in Jesus, the very nature of God and until I did the same, I would never recover from my false ideas. Jesus trusted John enough to take care of his mother, Mary, after His death. He loved him so much that He allowed John to rest his head on Him as they ate the last supper together. John heard every word that Jesus prayed on the night of His betrayal. He recorded not only the words of petition for them as disciples but also the words Jesus prayed for all of us who would come after them (John 17). He allowed John to live a long life, continually discovering the depths of Christ’s Love so that he could write it down for us. Oh to be the one that Jesus loves! As I have uncovered the truth that I too can be a person that Jesus loves, I have been overwhelmed by His Mercy and Grace constantly flowing over my life.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.
1 John 4: 16-19 NLT
My fear of the Hands of an Angry God dissipated as I began to understand the true nature of His Love. That He does discipline those that He loves according to our sin, but in His rich Mercy and Unfailing Love, He stands ready to restore us. That He provides the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us learn to walk with Him every day. That He is not a monster, that He is Love. That He would not have us to live in fear cowering beneath Him, feeling like a bug waiting to be squished. But that we would stand confidently because we are His Beloved children. That we are no longer defined as sinners because we still have sins we commit, but that we are saints, considered righteous because of our faith in the risen Savior and His completed work. As all of this became true to me, as I experienced all of this through the adversities in my life, I grew to see Him as a Holy God that I could only approach due to what Jesus had done and my certainty of that. A healthy fear and reverence for Him overtook the fear of Him. As I focused on His Angry Hands, it became clear to me that those were the Nail-Scarred Hands of my Hero Savior. That Jesus was God and could sit on God’s right hand and plead for me was overwhelming to me.
So I ask again, should our toolbox for bringing others to Christ include Fear as a motivator? I’m not saying that we should not ask the eternity questions. Obviously, these are fair questions and we should help people enter into certainty about their future. I am only interested in causing us to pause and think about our approach. To make sure that they are motivated by Christ’s Love for them, in order to enter into a Saving Faith with Him. That God loves them, Jesus Christ died for them and that the Holy Spirit will help them to walk with Him. To not only make sure that they “get Saved” but that they also learn to walk with Him because of His Amazing Love for them. Let us resolve to not only make converts but to make followers who are motivated by His Love for them. That they will have counted the cost and then decided to be all in for Him. Let no one ever again come to Him out of fear, but because they understand that they are sinners and that they have a God who loves them so much that He came down in the body of Jesus to die for them. Make sure that they understand it is all possible only by His motivation to Love us just because…..
As a child, I grew up in a time when there were misguided end times movies that would certainly frighten all who would see them. Church attendance seemed to be a means to an end. Coming to Christ was a get-out-of-hell pass. This produced a fear in me that God was more than happy to send me to Hell when I died. As I lived my life learning curse words and generally not acceptable behavior for a young Christian boy, I would always repent at every altar call. Going back out into the world I found it far easier to be influenced by my fellow schoolmates and neighborhood friends. Whatever was supposed to be produced inside of me at salvation was not enough to keep me from sinning and so the image of an angry God became easily believable. As I dodged His attempts to play Whac-A-Mole with me, the weight of my guilt and the shame of not being able to be a good boy took its toll. The God is Love passage did not ring true for me and I could not reconcile a Saving Faith with this irate God who was certainly perturbed by my unrelenting sins. I could not stop sinning and at some point I believed that He had stopped saving. I had outrun His Grace, whatever that word meant. Flogging myself inside while at the altar, I cried out from my heart to a God that I wasn’t sure could hear me. Or that He even wanted to. My prayers were hitting the ceiling and falling on deaf ears in Heaven. I still believed in Heaven but it seemed so far away from an unceasing sinner.
The God of the Old Testament seemed to be pretty angry. He kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden and He just kept going from there. Forced Abraham to almost kill his son and wanted to kill Moses for striking a rock. Opened up the ground to swallow some people that He called his own. Told them to offer all kinds of animal sacrifices. Those poor animals. It seemed that the Bible stories were designed to keep up the belief in this disturbing God. There were a few that were positive in nature but the overall sense was that God was just ready to pounce on people at any moment. Wiping entire cities off the map and seemingly enjoying punishing people, surely this was not a God of Love.
Then came Jesus. That dude was cool with me, but He was not in charge. He was not God. Celebrating His birth and thanking Him for His death on the cross was easy. Finding Him to be a great man, full of love and compassion was simple. This New Testament Jesus became a favorite of mine. So the Old Testament was just a time when God went nuts on people. Then He sent Jesus to bring about salvation for those who chose to believe in Him. It was very hard to reconcile the two parts of the Bible. Whether intended or not, the people in the places of influence in my life did what they knew to do and I came away with these false assumptions and beliefs.
1 John 4 has become to me one of the greatest chapters in all of scripture, partly due to my own journey, partly due to the fact that John “got it”. He had discovered just how much God loved Him. He had walked with Jesus, seen all of the recorded events firsthand. He saw in Jesus, the very nature of God and until I did the same, I would never recover from my false ideas. Jesus trusted John enough to take care of his mother, Mary, after His death. He loved him so much that He allowed John to rest his head on Him as they ate the last supper together. John heard every word that Jesus prayed on the night of His betrayal. He recorded not only the words of petition for them as disciples but also the words Jesus prayed for all of us who would come after them (John 17). He allowed John to live a long life, continually discovering the depths of Christ’s Love so that he could write it down for us. Oh to be the one that Jesus loves! As I have uncovered the truth that I too can be a person that Jesus loves, I have been overwhelmed by His Mercy and Grace constantly flowing over my life.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.
1 John 4: 16-19 NLT
My fear of the Hands of an Angry God dissipated as I began to understand the true nature of His Love. That He does discipline those that He loves according to our sin, but in His rich Mercy and Unfailing Love, He stands ready to restore us. That He provides the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us learn to walk with Him every day. That He is not a monster, that He is Love. That He would not have us to live in fear cowering beneath Him, feeling like a bug waiting to be squished. But that we would stand confidently because we are His Beloved children. That we are no longer defined as sinners because we still have sins we commit, but that we are saints, considered righteous because of our faith in the risen Savior and His completed work. As all of this became true to me, as I experienced all of this through the adversities in my life, I grew to see Him as a Holy God that I could only approach due to what Jesus had done and my certainty of that. A healthy fear and reverence for Him overtook the fear of Him. As I focused on His Angry Hands, it became clear to me that those were the Nail-Scarred Hands of my Hero Savior. That Jesus was God and could sit on God’s right hand and plead for me was overwhelming to me.
So I ask again, should our toolbox for bringing others to Christ include Fear as a motivator? I’m not saying that we should not ask the eternity questions. Obviously, these are fair questions and we should help people enter into certainty about their future. I am only interested in causing us to pause and think about our approach. To make sure that they are motivated by Christ’s Love for them, in order to enter into a Saving Faith with Him. That God loves them, Jesus Christ died for them and that the Holy Spirit will help them to walk with Him. To not only make sure that they “get Saved” but that they also learn to walk with Him because of His Amazing Love for them. Let us resolve to not only make converts but to make followers who are motivated by His Love for them. That they will have counted the cost and then decided to be all in for Him. Let no one ever again come to Him out of fear, but because they understand that they are sinners and that they have a God who loves them so much that He came down in the body of Jesus to die for them. Make sure that they understand it is all possible only by His motivation to Love us just because…..
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