The Tender-hearted Savior and His View of Hell

We looked at a difficult doctrine today: eternal judgment. To be sure, there have been mean-spirited preachers though the centuries who preached this doctrine in an angry, gospel-less manner. But on the flip side, if the Scripture teaches it, and it clearly does, the meanest, most dangerous thing for a preacher to do is to ignore the doctrine.

And to be sure, the kindest, most gracious man to ever walk the earth, Jesus, certainly did not ignore the doctrine. Hear the remarkable words of the great 19th century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon on this issue:

You must confess, my dear hearers, that Jesus Christ was the most tender-hearted of men. Never was there one with so sympathetic a disposition. But for all that, not all the prophets put together, though some of them be stern as Elijah, can equal in thunderbolt the sound of that still voice of him, who albeit he did not cry or lift up his voice in the streets, spoke more of hell and the wrath to come than any that preceded him (Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermons, No. 344, “Tender Words of Terrible Apprehension,” delivered, Nov. 4, 1860 at Exeter Hall, London).