Let me pause here and recognize that some readers of this blog will disagree with my view on hell--namely that hell exists, that it is a place of eternal and real suffering and torment, and that hell is not empty. In fact, when I posted a simply reminder of our summer service schedule plus what I thought was a harmless teaser about the sermon the day before I preached, a lively discussion ensued on my normally quiet Facebook page. So while I welcome that sort of discussion, my point here is for those who do affirm that the Bible is God's inspired Word (and you can't pull the I-place-more-weight-on-what-Jesus-said card on this one; Jesus talked about the reality of hell quite a bit), how do we teach teenagers about hell?
By now, at least a few of you have images of a well-meaning Sunday school teacher coercing young kids into conversion (or at least the appearance of conversion) through scary stories of people burning alive in hell. Or maybe that's just me. But whatever images (or personal experiences) we have in mind of manipulative (when it comes to speaking on hell) teachers or preachers, let me suggest that we approach this with a clear head.
Ready? All clear? Good.
Now, as I prepared to preach last Sunday (thankfully, I got to develop the sermon with my partner-in-crime, our junior high pastor Chad Holladay), I spent a lot of time in thought and prayer about how to deliver the message. To be honest, part of my wrestling had to do with sinful pride and how people would respond to this difficult message. In the end, my approach was to be as loving and truthful as possible.
That's also my prayer in how I approach the topic with the teenagers I serve.
In my own self-evaluation as well as in my interactions with lots of youth workers over the years, I would say that youth workers in general shy away from the topic of hell. I believe we do this for two reasons: 1) we don't want to manipulate emotions or produce false conversions, and so we swing the pendulum to the other side; and 2) the doctrine of hell might be the doctrine that most teenagers agree with, and teaching on it brings up all kinds of negative emotions in our students, which might be directed at us.
That is just plain wrong. And cowardly. And know that as I say that, I am judging myself.
What follows are some short theological observations that should guide our teaching. For brevity's sake, I won't get too in-depth here, but rather point you towards the sermon, where I cover most of this in detail.
Every one of us has sinned against our holy God and is deserving of spiritual death, i.e. eternity in hell. I find this to be the most unpopular of the topics surrounding the doctrine of hell. But it's an important baseline to establish, because none of us are good according to our acts. To drive this point home in the sermon, I mentioned that if God were to judge me according to my acts right now and send me to hell, he would be 100% just in doing so. Everyone--you, me, Hitler, Mother Teresa--are all in the same boat when it comes to our rebellion against God (James 2:10) and the death we deserve.
We cannot--on our own works or merit--atone for our sin. No matter how hard we try, we still rebel and our RAP sheet grows. But God provided a way through Jesus, the second person of the Trinity and the spotless Lamb of God. Jesus died on the cross on our behalf, taking upon himself the punishment for our sin and the wrath of God.
There is no other name under heaven but Jesus that we can be saved (Acts 4:12). To make the results of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross a reality in our life, we must trust in Jesus alone to save us. There are no magic or exact words, and no ritual that we must go through. We must simply trust that Jesus' work on the cross--not anything we can do--has saved us and provided eternal life. God is love, which is why he provided away. Many conclude that if hell exists, then God is not love. But rather, the reality of hell and what Jesus endured so that we might have eternal life is the most poignant picture of God's love.
Because of the points above, youth workers have an obligation to lovingly (and un-manipulatively, if I may create a phrase) tell students the truth about hell. From what I've already written, I'm not advocating an over-emphasis on hell at the cost of other important truths. But we ought not shy away from it. In fact, to do so would be shy away from telling the full truth. If the Bible really is true, then the only thing that can save us from the ultimate consequences of our sin is the sacrifice of Jesus. And if that's true, then don't we have an obligation to tell the students we love? As Mark Driscoll put it once in a sermon on heaven and hell, "My job is to tell you the truth. Your job is to make a decision."
QUESTION: What are good ways to lovingly and truthfully teach the topic of hell to teenagers?
