Modern Christianity... for the better or the worse...

I grew up in an old church. I still remember going to camp meeting each year.
My parents were the Children's evangelist for over 30 years at this camp.
Fairmount Wesleyan Camp grounds were my home away from home. When we moved every 3 to 4 years to a new home this place and these people were the constant.

Fairmount was an old campground. In fact it still is. You can see it on the Gaither's Down at the Tabernacle homecoming that was filmed there. I still remember as a kid the noise that would come from the preachers. I never understood it. But I remember it. I remember the women and their hankies and numerous other events that took place.

But today those things are considered fanatic. And today I am pondering that.

What was the overwhelming message of the preachers? Heaven and Hell are real and we are destined for one or the other. FEAR OF GOD. And the compelling obligation to evangelize.

This morning I found a link to an old book by a man who died in 1668 at the age of only 34. Yet it is said he 'Spent his life well' as everyday he considered it a day to spend reaching the lost. He was compelled to reach EVERYONE he could. He didn't want God to find him idle. His life was SPILLED OUT, his age SPENT for the service of a HOLY GOD. He wrote a book originally called 'An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners'.

Yet today we don't want to talk about Hell, and thus we don't glorify Heaven. This leads people to have an attachment issue with THIS present world and not live daily thinking about the GLORY of Heaven.

And what about the lack of preaching about Hell... You look at preachers of old and many of them had a very HEALTHY FEAR of GOD. They feared his grace, his love, his justice, his perfection... They knew we were nothing, not deserving and thus they sought to be HOLY AS UNTO GOD! Many of them lived a life that lead to martyrdom at an early age. They were so compelled and driven by HEAVEN that they studied the word and sought to live a life PLEASING to God. Yet today we talk about the LOVE of God and ignore the other part of his nature; His Justice.

If a Preacher taught about his justice then they are considered a fanatic, a Bible Thumper; Intolerant; Condemning... Yet are they?

If we truly believed that everyone around us were headed to a eternal future of HELL; the fire that never perishes, where there is weeping and GNASHING of teeth... would we not spend every waking moment trying to live as to SAVE THEM out of the LOVE of GOD that pours out from us?

But we sugar coat it all.

Oh and we even sugar coat history. For example Joseph Alleine's book "An Alarm to the Unconverted Sinner" is now called Alleine's Alarm. We even have changed that bit of History...

So the question becomes: How do we live with a healthy fear of GOD, and Healthy attention to our Future Reward of Heaven?

If we do then have a HEALTHY knowledge of Heaven and Hell... How does that change our resolve to 'Go into all the World...'