I’ve grown up hearing that Jesus said more about hell than heaven. That’s partially true . . . if you have bad theology.
Jesus mentions hell eleven or twelve times. Not insignificant. But most of those references draw on the Old Testament image of the “Valley of Hinnom” or Gehenna, translated as Hell. It was a valley outside Jerusalem used as a trash dump in the New Testament era, and a site of pagan child sacrifice in the Old.
In a frequently quoted parable, Jesus uses the word hades to describe the intermediate state between death and final judgment. That’s not hell, though many preachers leap to that conclusion. The rich man’s brothers are still alive in the story, which means the final judgment hasn’t happened yet.
Contrast those dozen references with this: Jesus speaks of the new creation — the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven — around 120 times. The Bible’s vision isn’t some ethereal existence in the clouds. That’s a preacher’s assumption, not Scripture. The promise is a new creation, a new Jerusalem descending from heaven to earth.
Bad theology and sloppy biblical interpretation have real consequences.
First, cheap evangelism. The skewed reading of Jesus leads evangelicals to frame the gospel primarily as hell-avoidance. After all, Jesus said more about hell than heaven. Except for the fact that he didn’t. He said ten times more about the Kingdom.
A corrective: preach eternity in God’s presence as the goal, not escape from punishment.
Second, crappy eschatology. Build on the “Jesus said more about hell” myth and you get an end-times theology about escape rather than perseverance. You get the rapture — invented 150 years ago — instead of the historic church’s conviction about the second coming. You can’t think clearly about the end times while ignoring Jesus’ teaching on the coming kingdom.
Third, a war-culture bunker mentality. If the world is disposable and temporary, the church lobs the gospel in from a safe distance and treats neighbors like enemies. But God is making all things new. This world is not throw-away. Jesus called his followers to be salt and light — not to reduce the gospel to a raised hand and a repeated prayer.
The kingdom is here. It is expanding. And it is coming. That was the center of Jesus’ teaching. It should be ours.