My guess is some of you are offended by the title of this post.
Are you as "offended" that the majority of people in your sphere of influence are destined for hell...at least at this point?
Is it not amazing that so many people yell at other people to go to someplace in which they do not believe?
Is it not tragic that so many professing Christians also deny the Biblical reality of hell?
I'll not make an argument here. I will simply type the last verse of Matthew 25
"And they will go away into ETERNAL punishment, but the righteous into ETERNAL life."
So said Jesus. And He used the same word to modify punishment as He did to modify life.
Therefore (and though one should rarely build a doctrine on one verse - but this is rather clear), Jesus said there is a place called hell that is just as real as heaven and lasts just as long.
Candidly, sometimes I don't like the idea of hell.
Which simply displays my lack of understanding of God's holiness and justice.
I do not believe the fact of hell should be our primary reason to pray and witness. That first motivation should be obedience to the command of Jesus - "you shall be My witnesses (interesting, the Greek word translated "witnesses" is the word from which we get martyrs)."
But the fact of hell...and the fact that every person in our sphere of influence will spend eternity there or in heaven, based on what they've done with Jesus, should fire our witnessing.
You've heard of Penn and Teller, the magicians? Penn is what I would call an evangelistic atheist. He not only professes to be an atheist, he actively wants other people to join him in his atheism.
And if you make the time to watch this video (it is from 2010; he has lost a bunch of weight since), you will never forget it: