Why are U.S. Christians so preoccupied with Heaven and Hell, and does this method of evangelism do harm at all? That’s the question my friend and I set out to get answered by some evangelists at a recent music festival. Unfortunately, they were unable to answer it for us. Not being content, I did some research on the issue and figured out it comes down to two problems stemming from one main problem, all of which go back to the Bible and early Christianity.
(*Disclaimer* The people described in the preceding paragraphs are well-intentioned people. I have no doubt that they do what they do because they want people to come to know Christ. I’m not trying to bash them. I do, however, want to critically look at their method of evangelism which is all too common amongst U.S. Christians.)
My friend and I walked up to the tent at the Unity Christian Music Festival that had a banner that read- “Are you going to heaven or hell? Find out in two easy questions.” We were curious what their criteria for going to either heaven or hell were. We were also curious as to why such a tent existed at a very obviously Christian event. The tent was complete with festival staff answering questions as well as tracts that outlined how everyone is a sinner and everyone is going to hell unless they choose to be saved by Christ. Something about all of it rubbed both myself and my friend the wrong way. We figured we’d dialogue with them about it.
We asked them why they were so pre-occupied with heaven and hell and where people end up and less about their lives here on this earth. They answered with the classic, “You could die on your way home today. Don’t you want to know where you will end up?” They also pulled the, “There’s a war going on between heaven and hell” card out of the hat. They even went so far as to say, “If you could see into the future and could tell that someone was going to die walking down the street in five minutes wouldn’t you want to help them? That’s what we’re doing. We’re helping them from going to hell.” Needless to say, none of their answers were very helpful in discussing the main question- why are they so preoccupied with heaven and hell?
My friend pushed harder. He had been a part of a ministry like that for many years and saw the damage it can do to someone. He brought up false conversions. If our goal is to simply convert them and they say they do, are we responsible for their fate if they aren’t actually converted? They argued no because it’s not up to us to know who is a Christian and who isn’t (which is a very true point). However, what really pushed me over the edge was a little while later when they asked us if we were actually Christians and if we had actually read our Bible because we didn’t prescribe to what they were saying. I simply bit my tongue and walked away. I wanted to say some very crass things to them at that point, but I refrained. To me, however, they lost all credibility when they completely contradicted their own statement from earlier.
My friend stayed and discussed with them for a little while longer whilst I waited elsewhere. I learned that they brought up homosexuality at some point and boy do I wish I had been there for that part, but it was probably best that I wasn’t. Anyway. My friend and I both graduated from Cornerstone together with B.S. in both Youth Ministry and Biblical Studies. Clearly, we’ve studied our Bible. He is even currently attending Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, so he is still reading and engaging the Bible for school, and I continue to do so for myself, and the rest of you reading.
After the whole incident, my friend and I left wondering (still) why U.S. Christians are so concerned with heaven and hell and whether or not this method of evangelism is helpful or harmful in today’s society; I would like to add another question to it as well- is this even a Biblical model?
The title of this writing is Gnosticism and the Gospel of Fear. I will answer the above questions in these two pieces that culminate in the very method of evangelism that my friend and I witnessed and debated.
I’m not expecting most of you to know what Gnosticism is. If you do, I apologize for rehashing things you already know. You may skim through this section briefly if you wish. Gnosticism (from the term gnosis, which means “knowledge”) was an ancient religious sect from before and during the time of early Christianity. It began before Christ and some forms of it were “Christianized” after His life.
Now, like Christianity today, there were many forms of Gnosticism that pervaded, each with their own different subtleties. Until recently, not much was known about what they believed. When we found the scrolls in Qumran we learned a lot more about that particular sect of Gnosticism, which is where a lot of what we know about them comes from. Because of this, the beliefs of the Gnostics that I’m going to relay to you may not have been those of all Gnostics, but are believed to be some of the main parts of the religion as a whole.
Gnostics believe in God. They do, though, see a difference between the NT god and the OT God. According to Gnosticism, there’s God, and then there is what they call a lesser god/inferior-god/demiurge. This demiurge, they state, created the world and all material. God, the real God, is entirely spiritual. They believe that humans are “parts” or “sparks” of the real God that were trapped in human form, and must now try to redeem themselves and return to unity with Him, outside the material world.
To them, “fall” and “creation” are the same event. (Yes, they do seem to still believe in the creation/fall/redemption narrative, they just put the first two together). The incident with the serpent, then, is quite different to them. They see the serpent as a messenger of the real God, sent to bring saving knowledge (gnosis) to the humans. (They ate from the tree of knowledge.) Jesus then came to be the ultimate knowledge and redeemer for them. Like Christianity, He was the sacrifice needed for salvation.
Gnostics, however, refute the idea that Christ was born or a man at all. Some say he only appeared as a man. Others state that the messiah came upon the man Jesus at his baptism. They also do not believe that Christ was actually crucified. Christ’s life and “death” brought the saving knowledge needed for redemption and to be reunited with the real God after death. (This knowledge is typically believed to be the knowledge of one’s origins- that they are “sparks” of the real God trapped in the evil material world).
Now, because the world was created by an inferior God it, and everything within it, has one quality that cannot be avoided or fixed- it is evil. Gnostics held that all matter is inherently evil. This caused opposition between the spiritual and material world. The saving knowledge they claimed to possess would allow them to see the material world for the evil that it is and live life in order to fully re-enter the spiritual world at their death.
If you’ve been skimming this is where stuff gets real. Now, because they believed in God, they believed in an afterlife. They also believed in a redemption event where all matter would eventually pass away. This meant that, to them, nothing on earth (save their gaining knowledge to be redeemed) mattered. This caused what appear to be two different trends amongst Gnostics. 1) Some engaged in all forms of debauchery, and are described as pleasure seekers doing whatever they want. They seemed to do this for two reasons. A) What happened to their body was irrelevant to their salvation because the body was evil and their spirit would survive. B) Some writings indicate that they engaged in these behaviors because they believed in order to overcome material and earthly desires they needed to engage in them in excess. This would saturate they desire for such things and “cure them”. 2) Other Gnostics took another position. They forbade marriage and all sensuality and many material things in order to not “fall into” the evil of the material world.[note]If you would like to learn more about Gnosticism you can get a brief lesson at theopedia.com/Gnosticism, or in Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Development pages 400-412; The IVP Dictionary of the New Testament pages (406-410); The Dictionary of the Apostolic Church vol. 1 pages (453-456)[/note]
One of the Gnostic sayings went something like this- “a man who finds himself (or discovered what the world really is) the world is not worthy of.”[note]Variations can be found in The Gospel of Thomas sayings 56, 80, 111[/note] Scholars agree that this is a compliment to those people. “The world is not worthy of” means they are better of the world. “Finding themselves” or “what the world really is” is in reference to discovering one’s “spark” or the idea that the world is inherently evil. This revealed knowledge makes them worthy of a place better than the world (the spirit world where God resides).
What does that have to do with our discussion, you may be asking. Well, we see in Gnosticism the idea that the physical world is evil and therefore doesn’t matter. All that’s important is the spiritual world where we will end up some day. In our modern U.S. Christianity, all that seems to matter is heaven and hell. The end game. We don’t care much about what happens here on earth apart from helping people know that they will get to heaven when they die. We perpetuate this idea in our theologies, our evangelism, as well as our music. Three songs come to mind instantly when I think about this idea.[note]There is no doubt that there are more songs that perpetuate the idea but these are those that come to mind quickly.[/note] (“This World is Not my Home” by Jim Reeves. “Living for the Other Side” by Capital Kings. “Where I Belong” by Building 429.)
“Christ called us out of the world”[note]John 15:19[/note] is the common answer to objections to this idea. However, they forget to include the verse immediately before where Jesus talks about the world hating him so they will hate us. Christ isn’t saying he’s called us out of the physical world and into some new spiritual world; rather, he’s called us out of the kingdom of the world. The world (the people of it) hated Christ because His love is contrary to the fallen reality we find ourselves in. Because the (people of) the world hated Him, they will also hate us because of Him. As such, we’re called out of the (kingdom of) the world, and into God’s kingdom. It’s not that we’re not part of the physical world.[note]This is a very brief exposition of the text. [/note]
Now the most important part of this history lesson is this- Christians (and Pagans alike) have always believed Gnosticism to be heretical. While it was somewhat common, it was never mainstream and always denied by major religions. It was, however, a threat to the early Church. Verses in the New Testament that speak to Gnosticism and its beliefs include (but are not limited to)- John 1:3; Acts 6:5; Colossians 1:16; Colossians 2:8,18,21,23; 1 Timothy 5:20; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:18; 2 Timothy 3:7; Titus 1:16; Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 2:14-18; Revelation 2:6,15. Also, the entire book of 1 John is believed to be written to combat Gnostic penetration within the early church.
So now we find ourselves nearly 2,000 years later and we’re still struggling with combating Gnosticism. It’s even become a core part of our evangelism, which, somehow, has become a core part of theology. We’ll talk about that after we address the gospel of fear.
The man: “If you die tomorrow, don’t you want to know that you’re going to heaven”?
Me: “So you want me to accept Christ out of fear?”
“No.”
“But that’s what you just said.”
“No, it’s not.”
“You told me I could die tomorrow, or at any minute for that matter.”
“That’s true.”
“If I’m only accepting Christ because I’m afraid of death I’m doing it out of fear.”
“No.”
“How so?”
“You’re doing it because you want to go to heaven when you die.”
“But I’m only doing it now because I’m afraid to die. And I’m only choosing to accept Christ because I’m afraid of going to hell.”
“You should be scared of going to hell.”
“So you want me to accept Christ out of fear.”
“No.”
I don’t really understand how he didn’t see the connection…. but we have a problem here. When we evangelize and warn people that they are either going to heaven or hell when they die and that they could die at any time without knowing it so they should choose to accept Christ now, we are scaring people into it. There’s no way around that. When we describe hell as eternal punishment and torture we are scaring people into choosing Christ in order to avoid that. I’ve even seen bumper stickers and shirts and a plethora of other “swag” at Christian events that states, “Jesus scared the hell out of me.”
We’re perpetuating a gospel of fear.
Quick Bible quiz for you. What’s the most uttered command in the Bible?[note]I use command lightly.[/note] “Do not be afraid” (or some variation of the sort). In the KJV there are 63 “Fear Not”s and 23 “Be Not Afraid”s. That’s more than any other statement or command. That has to mean something. Now, before I get a bunch of push-backs, I need to address something. Yes, the Bible does say to fear the Lord. There is, however, a major difference between that and the fear we’re talking about.
First, fearing the Lord isn’t so much about being afraid as it is about giving reverence and honor. It’s about being in awe of Him and His power (which, admittedly, is pretty scary). It is not, though, meant to be an actual fear of Him as if He’s some monster. Second, when we fear death and/or hell and choose to follow Christ because of that fear we aren’t fearing God, we’re fearing death, and we’re fearing punishment. There is a vast difference between the two.
I’m honestly not sure where the gospel of fear came from. Perhaps it’s still a remnant of Gnosticism. Maybe it became a hybrid of Christianity and Gnostic thoughts on the afterlife and U.S. Christians just ran with it. But, unfortunately, it’s way more prevalent than it should be and is dangerous.
Like my friend said with the men at the tent, evangelizing this way can cause false conversions. People who say they are Christians because they’re afraid of death or hell, but aren’t actually. The people we discussed this with tried to say you couldn’t know if it was fake or not, but then also went on to say you can tell if someone is saved by the way they act. They tended to flip-flop a lot.
In any event, a false sense of salvation created because someone is afraid is, in my opinion, worse than someone not being saved at all. If we scare someone into saying a prayer to “accept Christ” (which isn’t what we should be doing anyway, but I digress) and they don’t actually mean it, they are now under the presumption that they’re saved and are going to heaven when they die. Things on earth don’t really matter to them anymore because they’re going to heaven. (There we have that Gnosticism again). Furthermore, we’ve done more detriment to them than had we let them decide to come to Christ on their own terms. When they realize that they weren’t actually following Christ because the quick prayer they said wasn’t genuine, they’re in for a real eye opener.[note]I’m not saying that all fear based “conversions” are false. But it is a very high probability.[/note]
So, what do we do now? First, we can look at how Jesus witnessed to people. He never ever did it from a position of fear. He always witnessed through love and acceptance.[note]You could argue that the women caught in adultery was in fear when he told the men to cast the first stone, but he was not fearing her into something, he was confronting the men.[/note] He always accepted, loved, and got to know people. “You’re going to die, where are you going to end up!?” was never part of his ministry. So why is it so prevalent in ours?
Lastly, I want to take a quick moment to discuss the entire problem we have here. We’ve already shown how the “heaven or hell” method of evangelism is heretical at worst, and simply dangerous at best. My question now is how did evangelism become so prevalent and such a high priority within the U.S. Church? “Christ said to go make disciples!” I can hear you cry already. Don’t worry, I’m not ignoring that.
I do need to push back, though. Christ said to go make disciples, not converts. There’s a substantial difference between the two that we tend to ignore. A convert is what we get when we have someone choose Christ because they’re afraid of hell. A disciple is someone who truly follows Christ; who wants to live like Him all day, every day. Christ’s disciples followed him for three years and walked in his footsteps. It took time. It took commitment. He had to know his disciples, and they had to know Him. That’s what Christ asked us to do.
However, there’s an even greater problem at hand than our misunderstanding what Christ asked us to do. What did Christ say was the greatest commandment? It wasn’t to make disciples (and especially not converts.) It was to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Love was the greatest commandment.
“But if you know how to help someone and you don’t do it you’re not being very loving,” is what the evangelists argue. And that’s true, yes, but scaring someone into something is not very loving either. “Either do this or you’re going to be tortured forever” is not love. Love is saying, “I care about you. I want what’s best for you. That includes what’s best for you on this earth as well as your afterlife.” Love is not created by walking around handing out tracts. Love is created and nurtured through relationships with one another. That’s what Christ commanded us to do. That’s what He said was greatest. Why are we making evangelism through fear and based on Gnosticism more important? That makes me afraid for the state of our churches and the lives of those within them.
