"I hate it when Christians talk about hell. They shouldn't make people feel guilty"I have heard Christians and non-Christians make this statement and there is something about it that I resonate with. But as a Bible teaching seeking to focus on Jesus, it is very hard not to talk about hell. He had a lot to say about it!
But then I realised the other day while watching TV that I am not the only one who will utilize guilt. While watching TV over a 24 period (I wasn't watching it for 24 hours!!) here is what I was made to feel:
- I am a bad father for not having the safest car on the market, which apparently is a Mercedes S Class.
- I am a bad husband for not arranging life insurance to pay for my funeral.
- I am a bad person for not supporting the starving in Africa.
- I am a bad father again for drinking beer in front of my kids and not making a Bridgestone tyre swing for them.
I am not against the advertising world for using guilt for these products. I think it is entirely appropriate. They are the kinds of things that I should at least aspire to get right. Indeed one only needs to think of the AIDS ads with the grim reaper going bowling to see how effective they can be.
As a side note, can you imagine pitching that one: "Well there is a grim reaper and he is bowling but the pins are people, we were going to go with playing darts...but well....it was pretty messy."
But back to my issue: the point is when we talk about hell - something that is more important and has bigger implications (forever is a pretty long time) then we need to talk about what's at stake and not feel guilty about it.
Why does everyone else get to do it and we don't??
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