Hell and Fear

Many people first met Jesus through a question about fire: "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" The message was simple: believe, or burn forever. Jesus did warn about Gehenna, more than anyone else in the Bible. The question is what he said, and to whom.

If you were scared into a prayer at eight years old, or lay awake picturing your grandmother in flames, you're not imagining how much damage that did. For centuries fear of hell has filled pews, silenced questions and kept people in line. This lesson takes Jesus' warnings seriously, because they are real. It also shows how much of the picture you were given came from later writers and painters, and how often his warnings were turned toward people he never aimed them at.

Measured against the center