It may be going too far with inference, but I don’t believe so, to say that Paul preached Hell to Felix (Acts 24:24-26).  Felix trembled at Paul’s teaching of “righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.”  The implication of the trembling is clearly that Felix was frightened.  It would be hard to understand the fear of Felix without the inclusion of Hell in the body of the lesson.  Additionally it should be noted that Paul did not simply preach Hell fire and brimstone, but included this in context of the greater lesson of righteousness, temperance, and judgment.  It would certainly seem that Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, believed that there were times when there was value in preaching Hell to the lost.

Before continuing and finding the value of preaching Hell to the lost today, perhaps we should have a quick review of what we know about Hell.

Firstly, Hell exists.  It may seem strange to suggest, but many today don’t believe in the existence of Hell.  We cannot accept the existence of Jesus as the Son of God, authoritative in all that He said, and not accept the existence of Hell.  Jesus preached Hell, and coincidently is the only person other that his brother James to use the word Gehenna to describe it.

Secondly, Hell is eternal.  Again, this is what Jesus taught.  Jesus taught that Hell was a place that existed after death (Luke 12:5-6).  Jesus also taught that Hell was everlasting (Mt 18: 8-9).  We cannot believe in Jesus as the Son of God and not accept that Hell is eternal.

So what is Hell like?  Jesus describes it as eternal Gehenna, “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9: 43-48)  Jesus uses Gehenna or the Valley of Hinnom, a worldly place to describe an otherworldly place.  The Valley of Hinnom was a valley south of Jerusalem where things detestable to God had taken place since Old Testament times.  It was where children were sacrificed as burnt offerings to the pagan god Molech (Jeremiah 7:30-31).  By Jesus’ time it was pretty much garbage dump, hence Jesus’ description of worms and fire.  Jesus was describing Hell as being that detestable and disgusting place for eternity.  He also spoke of the plucking out of eyes and the cutting off of feet and hands to avoid being cast into Hell.  What Jesus is communicating is that whatever one had to do to stay out of Hell was worth the effort.  Perhaps more correctly stated, whatever one had to give up to avoid Hell, was worth giving up.

Who will spend eternity in Hell?  There are several scriptures that describe this group of lost souls, but perhaps Paul describes them best as “them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).  Paul describes two groups.  We’ll discuss the second group first, those that obey not the gospel.  It is important that we in the church continue to preach the gospel as something to be obeyed, and not simply believed.  We need to understand the gospel for what it is, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).  We need to understand and teach that baptism is our initial obedience and participation in that gospel (Romans 6:3-4,17).  Baptism saves us by the resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 3:21).  Those who are not baptized will spend eternity in Hell.

The other group is those who don’t know God.  Of course many of these will also not be baptized.  Some however, who are baptized don’t know God.  Those who believe that they received salvation prior to baptism don’t know God (Mark 16:16).  Unfortunately, many who received salvation at baptism lose that precious gift by never taking the time or putting in the effort to know God.  Sometimes not enough time is spent in the scriptures to see what God says about Himself.  Sometimes we can spend much time in the scriptures to find proof text, and never a moment to find and know God.  Sometimes we spend no time in service, thus not allowing God to work through us that we may know Him and His power in that way.  The bottom line is we can’t know God if we don’t allow Him to be an intimate part of our lives.  Those who don’t know God will spend eternity in Hell.

Before we can discuss how this knowledge relates to evangelism, it’s important to understand how God is working in the world today.  We live in a world where God is blessing everybody.  We would like to think that God is only blessing the saved, but that is not true.  God is blessing the lost as well.  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17).  It says every good gift and every perfect gift is from God.  This excludes no good gift or perfect gift.  If an unsaved person receives a good gift or perfect gift, it is from God just as much as if the saved soul receives it.  This echoes the teaching of Jesus.  “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45).  In simple terms Jesus teaches that God’s children are to be a blessing to all men, because God is blessing the just and the unjust alike with sunshine and rain.  Jesus chose the illustrations well.  Too much, or the lack of enough sunshine or rain can bring death, while in the proper proportions either is a blessing.  Also the same rain that can be an inconvenience to the “just” picnicker can be a blessing to the “unjust” farmer.  (This is not to speak ill of farmers)  Another thing to understand is that if I give a good gift or perfect gift to another, the gift is not from me, but from God working through me as the source of all good gifts and perfect gifts.  Christians should find that pretty easy to understand, but the rest of the world has a hard time with that.  We also need to understand that when a lost soul gives me a good gift or a perfect gift it is from God working through that lost soul as the giver of all good gifts and perfect gifts. Until we gain this understanding, there is an abundance of lost souls that we will never reach.

One problem of reaching the lost is that they often measure their relationship to God by the abundance of their blessings.  This isn’t hard to understand because Christians seem to get caught in this same trap from time to time.  To say that we know our relationship to God by the amount of blessing we receive in this life is to say that we don’t know God.  My usual response to those who point to their blessings as evidence of their salvation has been, “How do you know that it is God blessing you and not simply that the Devil is not resisting you?”  I’ve been wrong in that approach.  While Satan certainly has no reason to oppose those that are already his, to say that God is not the source of good gifts is not biblical.  A better explanation is that God blesses everybody.  Then the lost soul needs to be told why this is.

Imagine what this world would be like if God withheld all of His blessings from every lost soul.  I mean that He withholds all.  For the lost soul, nothing good ever happens.  When they take their morning shower, the water is always ice cold, unless they want it that way.  They are always hungry, and if they do get to eat, there is no sense of smell or taste that they might enjoy their meal.  All of God’s goodness is removed from all but the saved.  The truth is that the lost would be so miserable that life would be miserable for the rest of us. 

So for now God has us in a world where good and evil co-exist.  Each person experiences a little bit of both.  God is the source of all that is good.  Man is given the opportunity to serve that God, have His presence in our life here with the promise of spending eternity in His presence.  This will be in a world where only that good remains  (Heaven).  Those who don’t choose God’s presence here will be placed in a world away from His presence (2 Thessalonians 1:9).  To be away from His presence is to be away from the presence of all that is good.  This is Hell.  God gives all men the choice.  God gives all men blessing so that they can make an informed decision.