It’s something you don’t hear preached about anymore. There seems to be a notion that the gospel is more about how you can succeed here on earth. You could believe from the things many Christians discuss about their faith that it is just another formula for how to live a successful life. Happiness is assumed to be everyone’s heritage and being a Christian is the way to attain it. We are told to take our problems to Jesus.

One gets the idea that God is really a super “genie in the bottle” kind of being. He exists so that we can have a nice life and all our troubles are for Him to take care of for us. We do the best we can and He is there in the background to bail us out when things go wrong or life gets tough. Jesus is our comforter, our helper, He understands and doesn’t condemn us.  Find in the scriptures the many promises of God to undertake for our needs.

There is more than one thing wrong with this concept but for this article, the absence of hell is my focus.

Not much is said about sin, as if it’s an outdated concept. Being a Christian means God loving us, whoever we are and whatever we are. He sees our faults and overlooks them. No one’s perfect yet. Don’t judge me, I’m a work in progress. Just do the best you can and everything will be ok.

But in this current notion of Christianity, something has been overlooked. We have forgotten what the gospel is really all about. We have forgotten that Jesus himself said that “Narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it.” We skip over his words, “Repent or you shall all likewise perish.” When he was asked by one of the apostles, “Are there many saved?”, his answer was that many will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Nobody takes that seriously anymore.

We have forgotten that the game of life is not played for success on earth but for eternity. It is not trying to get God to do for us here and now but for eternity. The gospel is not a ticket to earthly happiness. Yes, a true understanding of the gospel can produce earthly happiness. But the real issue that Jesus spoke of so many times is entering into a heavenly kingdom and avoiding eternal damnation.