It was Leonard Ravenhill, one of
the world's "great" evangelists, who penned the words in 1959, "If you only
want to be saved, sanctified and satisfied, then the Lord's battle hath no
need of thee."
Those words, I believe, hold true in
2004 just as they did then. I am comfortable saying that we need a renewed
vision in the "church".
We need a vision of hell.
Oh, indeed, some now tell us -
after all these centuries - that hell is a myth and scoff at our belief in it;
but I must pass that off as wishful thinking for some bound there if we do not
become militant again as a people.
How oft from pulpits have I (you?)
proclaimed that the lost need a vision of hell. How oft have I (we?) attempted
to preach folks into the pits with fiery declarations - or even flowery words
of love?
I tell you this day, it is we
who are blood bought and sit in our comfortable padded velvet pews who MUST
get a vision of hell! I dare say the best training for we preachers and
writers of the faith is not a theological seminary or writer's course, but a
full day spent dangling over the fires of hell.
Have I gone insane?
I pray not.
I simply extend to the reader the
thought that, unless we get that vision - of hell filled with those who have
rejected the precious gospel, screaming in torment and decrying us for not
telling them - the church as we know it will surely vanish.
Or, at the very least, become totally
non-effective.
I would say that we need to have the fervor
brought about by the dying words of an atheist many years ago (Charlie
Peace):
"If I believed what (the
church) says it believes, even if England were covered over with broken glass
from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and
think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like
that!"
May God forgive is, church -
Christian - for following each sermon with a McDonald's hamburger or an
Applebee's steak, rather than a soul wrenching hour of prayer followed by
action!
