Dear Sir,
After finishing May’s issue of en I was suddenly struck by the fact that in all the articles, etc. I could not recall any mention of hell. Surely any person with a love for the lost and speaking to them of Jesus should be driven by a clear vision of the reality and permanence of hell.
Evan Roberts, a young man greatly used by God in the 1904-05 revival in Wales, was given several visions to prepare him for his work. One of these was a vision of hell.*
He saw himself at the open doors of a great fiery dungeon of unimaginable immensity enclosed by unclimbable great walls. He could see its occupants suffering there, but it was the place that left the greater impression on him. Then he found himself with his back to the closed doors of hell and saw a great crowd marching towards him in an endless column; millions of people of every age, nationality and class. All were resolutely hell-bent… Evan Roberts called out: ‘Where are they all going?’ and got the answer: ‘To hell.’ Then he shouted with great passion for God to save them from this terrible place and implored him to close the doors for a year, so that he could take the gospel to them.
God saved 100,000 souls in Wales that year. Surely, even in these days of PC, hell should still be preached, not as a threat but as a warning with many tears – the kind of tears that Whitefield wept when he preached to the miners in Bristol. Hell is what gives the must to ‘You must be born again’. Hell is real and eternal and not presenting this honestly undermines the gospel’s power.
Yours sincerely,
