But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. – Luke 12:5, King James Version (KJV)

In his book Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, Martin Lindstrom writes:

In a surprising 2008 study, researchers at the University of Bath, UK, found that the fear of failure drives consumers far more than the promise of success; the latter oddly tends to paralyze us, while the former spurs us on (and pries open our wallets). In fact, as the study found, the most powerful persuader of all was giving consumers a glimpse of some future “feared self.”

This is not to say that the promise of success fails to motivate. It certainly does motivate! But fear is a more powerful motivator, and failing to remember this truth has damned many a soul to hell.

For years there has been a push in American Christendom to remove the teaching of hell from the Gospel message. The thought process is that the idea of hell is offensive, so the Gospel message would be more attractive if Christians would emphasize the more positive component of God’s love. To be sure, God is love, but we can appreciate the true depths of His love only by realizing why He died on the cross for us – to save us from hell! If there is no hell, from what do we need to be saved? Without telling people of the reality of hell, how are they to know the true consequences of not accepting God’s free gift of salvation?

Christ preached heaven frequently, but He also preached hell frequently. According to one source, Christ mentioned hell as many as 46 times in the Gospels. Regardless of whether or not this sum is correct, the truth is that Christ preached that hell existed, that it was a place of torment, and that there was only one way to avoid going there: faith and trust in Himself.

I trusted Christ as an 11-year old boy when my dear sister gave me the Gospel. Part of the Gospel message she related to me was the punishment that awaited me in hell if I did not repent. It was the threat of hell alone that motivated me to immediate action. Sure, my sister showed me how loving God is, having given His only begotten Son for my soul. But it wasn’t until years later that I even remotely began to understand the depths of that love. I understood hell immediately, and it motivated me to repentance.

Am I saying everyone’s salvation process is like mine? Of course not! All I am saying is this: if Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, made hell part of His message, why on Earth would we not do the same? Yes, the topic of hell can be offensive, but so what? Christ said that He did not come to bring peace but a sword, so we are foolish to think that we can share His message without eventually making someone mad. We just need to remember that the purpose of the Gospel isn’t to spare people from offense. It is to spare them from eternal damnation. The only way we can do our part in that mission is to tell them that such a thing as eternal damnation exists.