When I was a child growing up in my family's small country church, one of the most commonly preached on topics was about Hell. Looking back, it seemed like whenever the pastor or a visiting preacher didn't know what else to talk about, they would turn to Luke 16 and preach a "fire and brimstone" message about the dangers of dying and going to Hell.
While I cannot judge anyone's motivations, I did eventually start to wonder if the main goal of some of the preachers I heard was to essentially scare as many people as they could "out of hell" and "into heaven." In fact, I can imagine some people saying just that.
Because of that, around third grade, I remember making a decision to pray after one of those fiery messages about that fiery place to be saved for no other reason than I was scared to die! I didn't know much about the Bible or God at that point (because we had just started attending the church), but I at least knew that I didn't want to burn forever.
What Is the Wrong Way to Teach Kids about Hell?
While it is hard to say exactly what the right way is to teach children about the realities of Hell, I can think of a few ways that are simply not helpful or just plain wrong. Calling out these wrong methods helps us see a better way.
To avoid it altogether.
I have heard many times that the Bible (and Jesus in particular) talks more about Hell than Heaven. Whether that is true or not, it is absolutely clear from Scripture that Hell is a very real place that not only the devil and his angels will end up residing in, but that lost souls will end up in forever. As uncomfortable as that is to talk about, especially to a child, we would be wrong to avoid what is true in Scripture.
So instead, one correct way to teach children about both Heaven and Hell is to emphasize that we will all live somewhere forever and that we each get to choose where that eternal destination is. God created us with immortal spirits that will live on far beyond the death of our physical bodies. And God also created us with free will to decide to accept his payment for our sins so that we can live forever with him, or to reject his gift of salvation and live forever away from him.
Make a bigger deal about it than God's love.
I'm not sure whether it is just our human nature or not, but it seems much easier to focus on the negatives of sin, death, and hell. But those things aren't the focus of the gospel - God's love is. Apostle John explains in one of the most famous Bible verses of all time (John 3:16) that it was for love that God sent his Son, Jesus, to the earth to die, not just because he wanted us to avoid hell. Later in John 17, we read the following words from Jesus's own prayer:
"...so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." - John 17:23, ESV
From all of the descriptions of Heaven throughout the Bible, it sounds amazing. But if the preaching about the love of God, displayed on the cross, is not enough to convince someone to be saved, then neither will preaching about the beauties of heaven or the horrors of hell. So instead of emphasizing the consequences of our sins more than anything else to scare people away from an eternity in hell, emphasize the love of the Heavenly Father who wants "all people to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4).
May our prayer for our children echo Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church:
"...according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, ESV)
To lie, exaggerate, or speculate about the details that are not made clear in the BIble.
Just because something makes sense to us doesn't mean it's right. Through my life, I have been led to believe all kinds of things about Hell that the Bible doesn't say. For example, I have heard it said many times that Hell is located several miles below Earth's crust, at the center of the Earth. I have also been told (from a couple of preachers as well as the cartoony "Chick Tracts" that I read as a child) that the devil is already in Hell, where he is ruling in the midst of flames (possibly with a pitchfork and a pointy tail).
Even worse, I have been told that Hell is really just a metaphor or state of mind for the state of non-existence that the lost will experience. While it is true that sometimes the word we read as "hell" is referring more to "death" or the "grave" (what some scholars translate as "hades", such as in Luke 10:15), the Bible does not teach that Hell is just a metaphor and not a real place. For example, to explain how God has a much greater power and authority over us than other people (who can only kill our physical bodies), Jesus said in Luke 12:5 that we ought to "fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell." (Luke 12:5, ESV). If hell were just the "grave" or the state of non-existence after our death, then what Jesus said here wouldn't make any sense.
So instead of trying to fill in the gaps we find in Scripture with tradition, our own speculation, or fantasy, we need to exegete Scripture well enough to know what the authors really mean.
What Bible Passage Can Help Us Teach Our Kids about Hell?
As I mentioned earlier, one of the passages most commonly used to teach on Hell is the story of "the rich man and Lazarus" in Luke 16. While I always heard that this was a true story, I understand it now as a parable (an earthly story given for a spiritual lesson) and not a historical event for a variety of reasons. First, some wise Bible translators and scholars themselves (in particular, those of the English Standard Version and the King James Version) call this passage a parable. Secondly, the passage is given in context with other parables Jesus was telling. Thirdly, the unique details provided in the passage seem to reflect more of a parable than a historical account.
I bring this up because if it is a parable told by Jesus, then we must be careful not to see the details about life and eternity as fact, forming doctrine around them, and teaching it to others. However, suppose we present it to our children as a real story. In that case, we need to study it thoroughly to be prepared to provide a biblically sound explanation for the follow-up questions that will likely arise, rather than relying solely on our thoughts, feelings, or traditions. Case in point, when I heard someone teaching on this passage a few weeks ago, he used an actual name for the rich man that he had obtained from tradition, rather than from Scripture. I am concerned that when we teach the Bible with our own speculation and fantasy intermingled to fill in the gaps, we risk turning it into more of a book of fables and bedtime stories rather than the Word of God.
Heaven and Hell are real places that our children and young believers need to be aware of. We must not avoid or ignore these topics when teaching the Bible, nor must we teach wrong facts about them. Instead, we need to study the Bible on our own, be honest about what we know and what we do not know, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and to teach others through us.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Vitaly Gariev
