It's Time to Stop Scaring the Hell Out of People

On pursuing a deeply-rooted, others-focused faith that actually means something.

Someone once told me that they were thankful for scary, hell-oriented conversion methods because that's what worked for them. They were scared into becoming a Christian thanks to the threat of hell.

At the time, I wasn't sure what to think. Did the ends really justify the means? After all, the people around me seem to think no amount of temporary pain, fear, or trauma mattered if it meant escaping hell. I was beginning to see things differently. But at the time, I concluded that while this was a valid exception, it should not be the norm.

Now I see these scare tactics for what they are: a tool for compliance into a self-centered faith, and one that does not look like Jesus' example.

I know this brand of faith well. In fact, I was taught the corresponding evangelistic technique that goes with it: The Way of the Master, as popularized by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.

This technique, which claims to be following in the way of Jesus, is centered on manipulating people into confessing themselves as dirty rotten sinners deserving of hell. You were instructed to withhold messages about God's love until you were sure they were going to repent, and it's only when they show they are really scared and sorry that you give them the antidote: a prayer of salvation from the clearly-deserved eternal flames of hell.

It was even icky-er than it sounds.

Of course, the conversational manipulation tactic wasn't the only tool used. There were also "gospel tracts" — scraps of paper that did the whole sin-manipulation routine for you in a convenient-to-hide-or-hand-to-someone format, especially if you were too rushed or scared to talk to them personally.

I hated it, and for the most part, I didn't use it.

They addressed that, too. In the manual, they call it "God's will" to use this method and that if you're struggling, you need to have a personal Garden of Gethsemane experience so you can get on board.

Still, as became the norm for me, I decided to be a bad Christian and not follow this teaching, believing that if making people feel loved and valued meant I wasn't in good standing, oh well.

It wasn't until many years later that I had the insightful experience of being on the receiving end of The Way of the Master tactic.

It was even worse than I thought.

It was impersonal. It was arrogant. It was slimy.

I walked away wanting nothing to do with the religion that I was supposedly already in.

Since then, I've been wondering what it means to evangelize.

~

That experience happened in 2018 and I haven't heard anyone mention or use this specific tactic since. But using hell as a means of coercing others has not gone away.

Nowadays, the hell coercion method comes in the form of insisting straightness is a fruit of the spirit and that walking the wrong political line can have eternal consequences. During my time creating content in the Christian space, I have received several threats that I am hell-bound from both strangers and personal acquaintances. 

Here are a few reasons why I'm supposedly deserving of hell:

• I'm affirming of LGBTQ+ people
• I don't believe the Bible is inerrant
• I reject the notion that "hell" is eternal conscious torment
• I don't believe there is anything wrong with taking hormonal birth control
• I did not vote for the Republican candidate in the last election

Isn't it strange? None of those things have anything to do with Jesus, and yet somehow, they make me rotten enough to deserve hell. But thankfully, despite their claims that they are simply speaking for God, they aren't, and their theology is not one that I would like to emulate.

Here's the thing with fear-based conversion: it boils down to conversion for the sake of self. A get out of hell free card. It reduces life to a high stakes game of monopoly, never once considering what our faith should mean for others—except to make sure they stay in whatever lines we decide to draw (and then claim they are God's lines).

What is so startling to me about The Way of the Master and other hell-oriented evangelism methods is that they claim to be following in the footsteps of Jesus. Frequently, I've heard others claim that Jesus talked about hell more than anything or anyone else. I decided to go through all four gospels and see for myself if that was true.

The short answer is: it's not.

Here's the longer answer.

• You know how the English translations of the Bible translate the many different words for "love" into that singular one? The same thing is true for the word we read as "hell."
• Jesus never talks about hell as eternal conscious torment. You have to bring a whole lot of extra baggage and assumptions to the text to actually make him say that, and a "plain text reading" is an awfully irresponsible hermeneutic.
• Unfortunately, another word that is almost always misrepresented is the word "eternal," which, given the context of other teachings of Jesus, would better be translated as "age" or a set period of time. In fact, several parables speak about the bad guys in the story paying back what they owed, but not indefinitely.
• Jesus almost always used the word "Gehenna" when he is referenced what we read as "hell." There's a whole lot of history you can go read about on your own, but this notion of being "outside the city" is very important to the overarching story of the prophets and whatever comes next. There is one instance where Jesus uses the word "Hades" in the story he tells about Lazarus and the rich man, which is a story he seems to have told regarding how the rich man cared about his wealth and his pridefulness in his life.
• Jesus talked about "eternal life" way more than he talked about any kind of "eternal fire" or "eternal punishment," which is really strange if the whole point is escaping hell.
• He also wouldn't shut up about the kingdom of heaven and how it's right here, right now, not some disembodied future place. In fact, he said that the kingdom of heaven is within us (Luke 17:21).
• Jesus spent so much of his time healing people, comforting people, seeing people, showing kindness, and making sure their needs were met. He preached about helping people practically by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, and loving your neighbor as yourself. He spoke against objectifying and dehumanizing others.
• Jesus' harshest words were reserved for those that took advantage of people and those that cared more about tradition and heaping burdens on others rather than caring for those around them.

Jesus said several things I never caught before. Here's one from Matthew 23:15: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell [Gehenna] as you are."

Truly a mic drop moment, and if I'm being honest, that's what some of these hell-coerced converts feel like to me when I take inventory of the impact they have had on my life.

Not to mention, it's these people, the ones concerned with image and tradition to whom Jesus says in Matthew 23:33, "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell [Gehenna]?"

I'll say it again: Jesus' harshest words were reserved for the religious that thought they had it right as they heaped burdens on others and berated them for not following their human-drawn lines. They missed the whole point of love God, love people.

What I found was that Jesus was primarily concerned with bringing heaven to earth now rather than making sure people escape hell later.

And so we circle back to our original topic: what should evangelism look like?

Well, if the point isn't to escape hell, then what is it?

Based on Jesus' teachings, we are tasked with bringing heaven to earth and participating in the kingdom of heaven here and now. We invite others into that mission by showing them the way Jesus showed us.

Seems kinda vague, right?

That's the point.

Be wary of anything formulaic. Chances are, substance had to be sacrificed in order to make the method bite-sized.

Jesus emphasized over and over again that behavior modification and tradition is not the answer. You can't fake your way through following Jesus. It's a heart matter. It's in the fruit. Does your theology produce good fruit? Does it bring joy? Is it kind? Do people feel loved? Do others feel more broken and shameful after spending time with you? More uplifted and cared for? How about your social media interactions? Would a stranger on the internet see Jesus in your comments without mentioning his name?

You see, the religious leaders tried so hard to make rules—and rules for their rules!—in order to stay in right standing with God. All the while, they neglected the very basis of Jesus' message: love God, love people.

The Billy Graham era of faith brought an important and unfortunate shift in Christian culture. Getting people to say a prayer became the focal point instead of showing them what it means to follow in Jesus' footsteps by bringing heaven to earth.

It's never been about escaping hell. It still isn't.

The sorry state of Christian culture, particularly in the United States, is that when you start to take the words of Jesus seriously, people begin accusing you of being an enemy.

I know. I live it.

If Jesus came today, the same exact thing would happen as it did back then, and there is a startling lack of self-awareness on the part of Christians for the fact that they would reject him and his message as being "too woke."

~

In a book I read several years ago, it talked about how in other cultures, converting to be a follower of Jesus is taken very seriously. There are no rushed conversions because they want the person to fully understand what it means to follow Jesus. In other words, their conversion is not about their individual salvation, but what they can do for the world in the name of Jesus.

Fear-based conversions are self-centered, miss the point, and are not real choices.

Where does that leave us with evangelism? I'm not sure, though I know for certain it should look nothing like what I'm leaving behind.

Again and again, I come back to this saying: "Go into the world and preach the gospel. When necessary, use words."

Oh how the Christian world would look so much different if we'd just shut up and start acting like Jesus.

(And if your conclusion is that I'm going to hell, this one is for you.)

____________________________

If any of this information was new to you, check out these starting points:

The Skeletons in God's Closet by Joshua Ryan Butler

The BibleProject Podcast, episodes on Heaven and Earth

Compelled: Speaking and Living the Gospel by Tim Mackie — watch here