Katie, a professed Christian, said the following on her site: "I am all for God. I do believe in Jesus as my savior. And I also believe in Hell just as much as I believe in Heaven. But I don't think that trying to scare people into changing their minds is the way to spread the coolest thing I have ever experienced and the person who has changed my life."
I responded thusly: "Why did Jesus speak more about the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" in hell than He did about the glory of Heaven? Was He trying to "scare people into changing their mind"? Why would He speak so much about hell? You must surely have a problem with the amount of time He spent on the horrors of being in eternal torment. You seem to have only skimmed over my site and did not take the time to look at all of it, but instead judged the whole on only a small portion.
Think about it Katie. Jesus believed in hell, right? Get a Bible and look up the references. Matthew 5:22; Matthew 8:12; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 24:51; Matthew 25:41,46; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; Luke 16:23-24; John 5:29. Jesus didn't mince words. He talked more about hell than about heaven.
No matter how men may try to do away with hell, it is still in existence and was a grim reality to Jesus who constantly warned his hearers of its terrors. It is true that some of His descriptions of the place of final punishment may be figurative, but still they indicate a dreadful reality. The words He used all imply utter and hopeless ruin and reveal how candid He was when speaking of the eternal destiny of those rejecting Him and His witness. It was the Savior - who came as the personification of divine love - that spoke of:
"The broad way that leadeth to destruction" (Matthew 7:13)
"Outer darkness" (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30)
"Unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43-44)
"Wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:42,50)
"The whole body cast into hell" (Matthew 5:29-30). "Everlasting fire" (Matthew 25:41,46)
Katie, I would say let others hold their peace about hell if they will. I dare not do so. I see it plainly in Scripture and I must speak of it. I fear that thousands are on that broad road that leads to hell, and I would arouse them to a sense of the peril before them. What would you say of the person who saw his neighbor's house in danger of being burned down, but never raised the cry of "Fire"? Can it be in bad taste to speak of hell? It is a matter of charity to warn people of their danger. It is my duty to declare all the counsel of God. If I never spoke of hell, I should think I had kept back something that was profitable, and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil.
Beware of new and strange doctrines about hell and the eternity of punishment. Beware of manufacturing a God of your own - a God who is all love, but not holy - a God who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none - a God who can show good and bad to be side for side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own - as true an idol as was ever molded out of brass or clay. The imagination of your own mind has made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and aside from the God of the Bible, there is no God at all. Your heaven would be no heaven at all. A heaven containing all sorts of characters mixed together indiscriminately, would be miserable discord indeed. There would be little difference between it and hell.
Beware of forming fanciful theories of your own, and then trying to make the Bible square with them. Beware of making selections from the Bible to suit your taste - refusing like a spoiled child whatever you think is bitter - and seizing whatever you think is sweet. What is all this but taking Jehoiakim's penknife and cutting God's Word to pieces? What does it amount to but telling God that you, a poor, short-lived worm, know what is good for the human being, better than He does? This will not do. You must take the Bible as it is. You must read it and believe it all. You must come to the reading of Scripture in the spirit of a little child. Never say, "I believe this verse for I like it; I receive this for I can understand it; I refuse that for I cannot reconcile it with my views." "Nay, but 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?" (Romans 9:20). Surely it were better to say about every portion of the Word of God, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."
If people would consistently accept every part of the Bible, they would never try to throw overboard the doctrine of eternal punishment of the wicked. Jesus says, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." (Matthew 25:46)."
Know Him and LIVE.
You may not have tomorrow.