Hell? Are you trying to scare me into heaven?

I interrupt the trinity of revelations because the objections I “heard” at the end of the last post are too important to ignore.  You may have noticed that the reaction of the world to our talking about hell is less than welcoming (British understatement!).  Before I deal with the issues I need to deal with what I believe lies behind this, in many ways, understandable reaction.

They tell me I am difficult to correct. I don't doubt it. It was not that long ago that I wrote in my journal “I have yet to find a single person, and I most certainty include myself, who is able to hear the truth.”  The difficulty of hearing the truth is underlined by Jesus when, at the close of His earthly ministry, He tells His disciples “I have many things to say to you, but you are not yet able to bear them”. The fact of the matter is that it is hard to hear the truth. Note closely He is talking here to believers. What I am saying is that if those who walked with Him, and sought with all that was within them to follow Him for three years here on earth,  had problems hearing the truth, it is no wonder that the rest of us (including the World) have difficulties.

The Scripture instruct us to speak the truth in love. There are many who are willing to speak the pure unadulterated truth,  but most of the time it is not in love.  When it is not spoken in love, we cannot hear. We also need (by our lives) to earn the right to be heard. This takes time, it takes relationship.  Even then,  when we speak the truth it needs to be in gentleness and in love, because the truth is too difficult to hear.   But it is the truth that sets us free.

If you are like me in this (and you may not admit it,  but you  probably are) you both want the truth and you don't want it. I think it is part of our fallen human nature. I have wanted people to love me enough to confront me when necessary. But I do know that I am not easy to confront. I remember this song on the radio when I was a boy. “Two lovely black eyes – oh what a surprise. Only for telling a gal she was wrong. Two lovely back eyes”. I did not understand the song at the time.  But I understand it now. As children we are much easier to correct (I don't say easy). And of course, part of being able to enter the Kingdom is becoming as a little child.

To start to address the issue behind the issue,  if heaven and hell are real, and if we go to one of the two places when we die, and if it depends on the decisions we make in the here and now, it would not be loving of me not to try and tell you about it, even if it made you mad. Think of it this way, if you knew that your friend was driving down a road where round a sharp bend the bridge was washed out, and that they would likely  plunge  to their deaths, would you not try and warn them?

So then if this thing about heaven and hell is not true – it is a huge guilt trip, but if it is true (and believe me we are convinced that it is) then perhaps you can understand that at times it is an intolerable burden that we are not allowed to tell you.  It it made worse by those who share these things without sensitivity or love. Let me apologize for those who do this. I do not identify with their insensitivity, but I do understand what drives them.