What Is Wrong With the Emphasis on Saving Souls From Hell?
Let us say there was a father who was also warden of a prison. The prison was a frightful place of torment and there was no escape.
The father had a son who was stubborn and disobedient. The son left home and lived in sin. He was a liar, a thief, a drunkard, and a fornicator.
The father knew that if his son continued in this way of life he eventually would be sent to the prison from which there was no escape.
The father’s heart yearned after his son. He wanted him to cease his wickedness and come home to his father’s house so his father might bless him and make him heir of the family estate.
He was lost to his father’s presence and wealth.
Let us say also there was a friend of the son. He cared nothing for the father or the father’s desire that his son be reconciled to him. But he was concerned that the boy not be sent to the prison in which there is continual torment and no escape.
The father sent a letter to his son saying if he would stop his drunkenness, lying, thievery, and fornication and return home all would be forgiven. He would be received by his father and welcomed back into the family. Otherwise he would be in danger of being confined in a place of torment from which there is no escape.
The father sent the letter by the hand of the friend of the son.
The friend read the letter and thought, "I must save this boy from the place of torment. No matter what else may happen, the boy must not go into that prison.
"I don’t know whether or not the young man will change his way of living but the main thing is to keep him out of prison.
"I know what I will do. I will change the letter and ask the boy to accept the father’s love and forgiveness so he will not be sent to the place of torment. I will remove the part stating it is necessary he refrain from his drunkenness, lying, thievery, and fornication. It might be desirable that the boy change his way of living, but boys will do these kinds of things! The first and most important consideration is that the boy not go to the place of torment. I must save him from that horrible fate!"
The emphasis here is not on the desire of the father to receive back his son or that the son change his way of living. The emphasis is on avoiding the prison from which there is no escape. The son’s welfare is emphasized but the Father’s welfare is not emphasized.
This is the way the Gospel is preached today. There is little stress on a change of behavior, on what God desires. The main point is to save human beings from Hell.
We submit that the emphasis on saving souls from Hell, as being more important than making disciples and teaching them to obey the commandments of the Lord, is coming from Satan.
First because people who through Christ keep the commandments of God are a threat to Satan’s kingdom while those who claim to be "saved from Hell by grace" are not.
Second because it is Satan himself who hopes to be saved from Hell. It is Satan’s plan to arm humanity, particularly the Christians, against the idea that anyone should be put into Hell. The idea is that no individual, human or angelic, should be confined to a place of endless torment. All must be saved from Hell regardless of whether their behavior pleases God.
If Satan can keep the believers busy telling others how to escape Hell (not how to enter into life with the Father through Jesus but how to avoid punishment), there never will be a Church without spot or wrinkle that will threaten Satan’s kingdom.
Also, one day (Satan hopes) the believers will find a way to deliver him from Hell.
This is the force behind the "save souls from Hell" emphasis. It is not scriptural. It is not scriptural because its source is not the Holy Spirit of God but Satan, who is inspiring the adamic nature of man to attempt to shield people from the consequences of the sinful, fallen nature of man apart from any change in their behavior.
It is the same spirit that spoke through Peter, encouraging the Lord Jesus to turn away from the harsh judgment of God that had to be borne because of the sin of mankind.
From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (Matthew 16:21-23)
Satan in Peter would have prevented the blood atonement and also the triumphant resurrection of the Lord—all in the name of "love"!
On many occasions God does give us a love for people. We feel His love moving toward individuals to whom we are to be ministering. Such Divine love is very different from the "passion to save the lost from Hell" that is enjoined on believers, who ought to be fed the Word of God until they are ready to bear fruit.
The minute a baby is born he is commanded to go out and get more babies. How about feeding the baby until he or she is old enough to get married?
There is no doubt in our mind, because of personal experiences we have had, that God at times permits a believer to feel the Divine passion, the Fire of Divine love that is always ready to receive the sinner who turns to Christ and begins to think, speak, and act in a righteous manner. But such Divine passion comes in God’s time and in God’s way to bring about God’s purposes. It is not a duty that is to be laid on each convert, a duty to which the majority of believers are unable to respond but which only sears their conscience, deadens their faith, and denies them the food they must be fed if they are to grow to maturity in the Lord.
The Christian Church must always proclaim that the wages of sin is death and that there is no deliverance from God’s wrath except through the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition the Church must address itself to changing the converts into new righteous creations through Christ’s grace. If it does not, then it is just selling fire insurance and cares little about God’s desire that His children walk in holiness and obedience to Himself.
Why don’t we preach the Bible instead of the traditions of men? We have made a business out of "saving souls" with our "four steps of salvation." The Holy Spirit of God uses ten million steps of salvation.
We are presenting a packaged salvation, a canned forgiveness that operates by the wisdom and power of the flesh and sometimes is practiced for the glory of man. It lacks the breadth of God, the knowledge of the Lord, the timing of the Holy Spirit, the righteousness, holiness, and genuine compassion of the Holy One of Israel.