Halloween is one of my least favorite times of the year. Don’t worry. I am not going to launch into a tirade about how Christians need to protest this pagan holiday. I hate Halloween because it is one of the times each year when I want to take my evangelical name tag off and hide it for a few days. One of the reasons I want to go incognito is the proliferation of Christian Halloween Hell Houses. Yes, in another sad attempt to mirror the popular culture we have taken the bad idea of the haunted house and made it into the infinitely worse idea of the Hell House.
What is the Hell House concept? It is series of vignettes that show the results of sin in wretched excess.The idea is literally to frighten you so much that you will be saved. I call it Fear Christianity. I had to admit I enjoyed the play on former NBA star Daryl Dawkin’s slam dunk taunt rewritten to promote the Hell House.
Shake your city with the most “in-your-face, high-flyin’, no denyin’, death-defyin’, Satan-be-cryin’, keep-ya-from-fryin’, theatrical stylin’, no holds barred, cutting-edge” evangelism tool of the new millennium!
I think the “Satan-be-cryin’, keep-ya-from-fryin’” riffs are particularly catchy. Does anything promote the grace of our Lord Jesus any better than a good “keep-ya-from-fryin’” taunt? Promotional information proclaims that groups of twenty people will tour Hell House with their own personal demon acting as a tour guide. Timeout. Your own personal demon? A lot of us have been trying to get rid of a personal demon for years…not hire him as a tour guide. But let’s continue to the description of Hell.
“In Hell the tour meets Satan himself. Hell will be hot, smoky, loud, visually disturbing, and sensually confusing.”
To me that sounds like Las Vegas. But again, I digress. For the low price of $7 (unless you tip your personal demon) you will see the following:
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A funeral scene of a homosexual teenaged boy who has died of AIDS
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A riveting (?) reenactment of an abortion
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A satanic ritual involving human sacrifice
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A drunk driving accident in which a father realizes he has just killed his own family
The list of disturbing scenes goes on and on.
So if you are interested in scaring the hell out of your community you will want to order the Hell House Kit for only $299. You will receive a production manual, dvd, and special effects CD. But to do it right you want to add some additional resources (apparently you can’t replicate hell for 300 bucks). I recommend the Hell Screams Background CD ($20) which is described as seventy-three minutes of screaming, groaning and agonizing of what sounds like people in torment in Hell. (perhaps they recorded fans of my Cleveland Browns watching a game this season) Your Hell House hell-dwellers will love you for helping them vocally.
I believe no one deserves a helping hand more than your hell dwellers. I do not doubt the sincerity of those involved in the Hell House concept. The website uses Paul’s admontion to the Corinthians as a Biblical basis for the program (sorry…I have a hard time calling it a ministry).
“I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel…”
I believe this is a bit of an exegetical stretch. Paul’s comments in context seem to send a very different message.
When I am with the Jews, I become one of them so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law, so that I can bring them to Christ. 21When I am with the Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law,[f] I fit in with them as much as I can. In this way, I gain their confidence and bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. I do all this to spread the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy its blessings. 1st Cor 9 NLT
Isn’t Paul saying that he makes an attempt to empathise with those who don’t know Christ? That he tries to understand their needs and then develops a strategy about how the Good News of Jesus can be communicated? I can’t see how this verse can be used as a basis for the disturbing Hell House program. I was raised in a church where Fear Christianity was the primary evangelistic tactic. Over and over I heard the story of the man who resisted the call to come forward and then was flattened by a steamroller on his way home. And of course that poor pancaked sinner went to hell because of his stubbornness and incredible misfortune to encounter a steamroller on a Sunday. I am grateful that I came to faith not out of fear of a vengeful God. I became a Christian out of the realization of my need to be reconciled to a loving God. A God who showed amazing grace to save a wretch like me. For me I doubt that a faith based on fear would have been lasting. Scripture does teach about hell. We should not avoid that. But God’s Word also talks about heaven. And it talks about a personal relationship with Him and about faith that changes men and women. Evangelical means good news. We could use a little good news today. And I think Paul is saying we should communicate that with grace.
Matthews Bantsijang
Good article.
Thanks, Matthews Bantsijang.
Mrs. Adams
19 `AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. 20 `THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. 21 `AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’ Acts 2. This was included in the original evangelical outreach message. It’s in our prime example of how we should preach to convert people. It’s scarry stuff that helped the people want to embrace Jesus.
I’m not opposed to showing the reality of what is avoided by embracing Jesus, because that is very biblical. Of course the above verses are only the best example I know of, and far from being the only one. It’s the biblical method. I cerainly would never on my own choose to use a method that is challenged by those in the know, and on the surface seems distasteful. Regardless of my preferences, the Bible is all we have to lead us and it should be trusted when deciding what to include in our presentation of the facts to the unsaved.
I personally don’t believe in terror or horror just for the fun of it. 30 some years ago, a Christian college was presenting a night of terror and horror (or something like that) by the drama department. I was bothered by the whole thing; especially the play about the woman who was terrorized by the bad guy and couldn’t flee because of her wheelchair boundness. There seemed to be no redeeming value to these plays. Just terror and horror and such. I describing my basic feelings of “what would Jesus do?” regarding these presentations to a student of the college. She drug me into a professor where she proceeded to lay out my concerns. His answer was that we all had different consciences, and that was ok. Me, I still think Jesus wouldn’t promote terror and horror for pleasure. It seems that’s a devil type thing.
Hadley Baker
Great article, Dave. Still, I have to believe that there are some people who will not be "motivated" by the message of God’s love and gift of eternal life. There are individuals who need a "sobering" presentation of the Gospel message before they will respond. I believe the church must have balance–we cannot overpreach hell or overpreach God’s love. Either one creates an unhealthy mentality–one feels like he can never please God and the other feels like God accepts him no matter what sin He might be wallering in (so why would he want to quit practicing that sin?) There must be balance. While many will respond to the message of love and hope, there are still those who will only respond to the message of judgement. I guess it takes all kinds. Thanks for your website…I really enjoy your articles.
Hadley Baker
Sheila Henne
My brother was the one who led me to the Lord in July ’79. I had just turned 15. My brother tried to explain the concept of realizing sin by using the example of walking on someone’s grass daily, until a “do not walk on the grass sign” was put up one day. Then you’d realize you were doing wrong….. etc.
That went completely over my head. Then my brother told me that if I didn’t accept Jesus as God’s son, I would go to hell. Statement of fact. That part I DID understand. I didn’t want to go to hell, so I told God, “Okay God, you can come into my life.” before I went to bed that night. No sinner’s prayer, mind you, but the permission for God to come in was good enough for him. 🙂
I still didn’t understand the concept of being saved from sin for a long time afterward, but at least I had God in my life anyway. 🙂
John Frost NBS
A few days ago I drove by a church in Orlando that had "Judgement House" on their marque, an obvious advertisement for their scare the hell out of the sinners Halloween festivities. Unfortunately, they must have forgotten what was written in stone right above the section for removeable letters. It referred to their church as "The Caring Place."
Patricia
I am grateful too, that I didn’t come to Christ out of intimidation or fear, but a conviction that I needed to get right with God. I hope that my pastor and all pastors read your book, because together we can make a difference. I think pastors need to know how to reach people for Christ without intimidating them, and how to show sincere love to them.
Lonnie
The Gospel is winsome. In his book SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY CHURCH, Dean Merrill tells a story about Abraham Lincoln.
‘At a reception during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln made a passing reference to Southerners as ‘erring human beings’
–a much softer term than his audience would have preferred. A woman quickly chastised him for his choice of words. In her mind, they were enemies to be destroyed, and the sooner the better. ‘Why, Madam,’ replied Lincoln, ‘do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?’
Which would you prefer…friends you’ve scared into relationship, or friends you’ve won to relationship?