Heaven and Hell in the Preaching of the Gospel: A Historical Survey -- By: David L. Larsen

Journal: Trinity Journal
Volume: TRINJ 22:2 (Fall 2001)
Article: Heaven and Hell in the Preaching of the Gospel: A Historical Survey
Author: David L. Larsen


Heaven and Hell in the
Preaching of the Gospel:
A Historical Survey

David L. Larsen*

* David L. Larsen is Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.” Matt 7:13–14, 21–23

Jesus Christ, in his preaching, plainly declared a duality of human destinies possible for human beings in the life to come. There is a heaven to be gained and there is a hell to be spurned. At this point he reflected the consistent testimony of those who spoke for God in the OT, as when Moses the man of God declared: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life … “ (Deut 30:19). So the psalmist contrasts the two ways in the first Psalm and so agree all the prophets in their proclamations and their pleas.

Christ spoke of the beauties of the Father’s house and, by contrast, of the place of torment, the place of fire, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 24:51), where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). In this solemn teaching about the dual destinies before us and of Christ as the only way of salvation and forgiveness of sin, the apostolic writers and preachers followed their Master. The idea of inevitable judgment—reward or retribution (which is reflected in the lore of every known people in human history)—is seen pervasively in the witness of the apostles.

Our thesis is that essentially the preaching of Christ and the apostles must be the standard and norm of our preaching. That is,

the preaching of Christ and the apostles defines and determines for us and for all what the content of Christian preaching really is.

We propose to examine representative preachers in the successive periods of church history to...

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