Evangelism: Do You Tell People About Hell?

Here’s a simple question: When doing evangelism, do you tell people about hell?

When you share the gospel with a non-Christian, do you explain the meaning of sin and its ultimate, most devastating consequences? This is critical. This is essential. This is biblical evangelism. If we aren’t telling people about hell, we aren’t doing evangelism the way Jesus and the apostles did it.

Consider these verses:

In John 3, when talking with Nicodemus, Jesus says, “whoever believes in him will not perish” (v. 16). Then he says “whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

In Luke 13, Jesus makes the same statement two times: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (verses 3 and 5).

Consider the well-known “Sermon on the Mount”. The following statements also come from the mouth of Jesus: “But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:22) “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29) And in the next verse – “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:30).

Later in Matthew we read this statement, again from the lips of Christ: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

A few years ago I was in a Bible study with a group of men. We were discussing evangelism. One man began discussing the evangelistic methods of a particular preacher. He said, “Yeah, he uses the old fire and brimstone approach. Can you believe it?”

In other words, telling people about hell is no longer valid. It’s old-fashioned, out of style, and inappropriate for today’s world. Things are different now; people won’t respond positively to the gospel if we tell them about hell. It will “turn them off”. It just won’t work. Talking about hell is too “negative”; our message needs to be “positive” if we want to reach the lost.

What do you think? Jesus told people about hell. Shouldn’t we?

I pray you’ll take a close look at the content of the preaching of Jesus and the apostles. Read the New Testament carefully and you’ll see that hell was an integral part of the gospel message. So I challenge you today to consider this: if you’re not telling people about hell, you’re not telling them the biblical gospel and you are not doing biblical evangelism.