01/28/11
The Christian Post reported this morning that Mark Driscoll, pastor of megachurch Mars Hill in Seattle, preached unequivocably on the topic of hell this past weekend, saying “clearly, plainly and loudly” that anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as their savior in this life will go to a real place called hell, a place of eternal torment and separation from God, after they die. Driscoll’s sermon to thousands of people in person and online was scheduled as a part of the series he was preaching on the Gospel of Luke, but it also proved timely as it addressed the recent debate surrounding the release of Michigan pastor Rob Bell’s new book on heaven and hell, titled Love Wins. Although he said it was his most difficult sermon in 15 years of preaching, Driscoll nevertheless boldly proclaimed his duty to “tell the truth” on the subject of hell, and that he was greatly disturbed by “well-known pastors and preachers and authors (who) get invited onto television…and they squirm or they change the subject or they appeal to the emotions or they tell a story, they do anything but say, ‘Yes, if you don’t know Jesus you go to hell.'” Driscoll noted that God’s deep and abundant love for his children is evidenced by the atonement in the cross, but we shouldn’t focus on one aspect of God’s nature: “God is love, and whatever God does is loving. God is also just. God is also holy.” After spending much time on the sinful human condition and our need for a savior, he concluded the sermon begging the congregation to make the decision to trust Jesus for themselves while they still could and to beware of judging God: “For us to sit on a throne, even if it is an academic throne propped up by footnotes, asking the Creator of heaven and earth to pass before us that we might render a verdict regarding His holiness and justice is how all the trouble began in the first place.”
