BY NATHAN BROWN

urveys of belief often come up with interesting anomalies. For example, a recent study by the Barna Research Group compared Americans' understandings of the afterlife (www.barna.org). The results are interesting, revealing a snapshot both of the state of belief and of human nature.

As a starting point, 81 percent of those surveyed believe in some kind of afterlife. Seventy-six percent believe in a heaven, leaving 5 percent who believe in a less-than-conventional post-existence existence. Notably, a belief in hell is less popular than in heaven, endorsed by only 71 percent of respondents.

Contrary to the seemingly popular concept of hell, in this survey more people expressed belief in hell as a "state of eternal separation from God's presence" (39 percent) than those describing hell as "an actual place of torment and suffering" (32 percent).

However, things got particularly interesting when participants were asked where they expected to end up after death. Twenty-four percent were honest enough to admit they have "no idea." Sixty-four percent claimed to be heaven-bound. But perhaps the most attention-grabbing statistic is that less than 1 percent expect to end up in hell. The bottom line according to the Barna report: a widely held belief that hell is for other people.

Speculating on what percentages of humanity might be saved or lost is futile and perhaps dangerous. But even if--by virtue of the overflowing grace of God--those whose end is hell might be as low as 1 percent, the only relevant percentages are 100 or 0. It's an all-or-nothing question for each of us.
One of history's most famous--or infamous--sermons was preached on July 8, 1741, by Calvinist preacher Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was one of the most powerful preachers in a revival known as the Great Awakening in the New England region of the United State in the 1740s. Although he is reported to have had only a feeble voice, his preaching was described by one of his biographers as "a kind of moral inquisition; and sinners were put upon argumentative racks, and beneath screws, and, was an awful revolution of the great truth in hand, evenly and steadily screwed down and crushed" (William Safire, Lend Me Your Ears).

While we have arguments with some of Edwards' theology, the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" paints a graphic and sobering picture of the risk in which all of us stand if we choose to live apart from the grace of God. Edwards describes the sinner as a spider hanging by a single thread above a pit of destruction with "nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do."

It is uncomfortable stuff. However, while it is much more popular to talk of the love of God, the Bible does present an alternative to the "happily ever after" ending upon which we like to dwell. Life without God has an unhappy and unpleasant end: a "darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25:30, NIV). It is the bit about "perishing" that is to be avoided in John 3:16.

It also provides an added urgency for our witnessing. While our primary motivation for sharing our faith with others might be God's love for them, our concern for others--especially people we care about--can also be motivated by a realization of the alternate reality. There is both eternal life to gain and eternal death to avoid.

Some of the greatest evangelists throughout history have been motivated by this urgency in the face of possible eternal loss. Dwight Moody, the nineteenth century preacher, reputedly once stated that his mission was to set up a "rescue shop within a yard of hell."

This is the point at which whatever we might be choosing--or not choosing--about our connection with God becomes deadly serious. That is what "saving" is about; that is why we need a Savior; that is why we need to share our Savior and His love with those around us.

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Nathan Brown is editor-elect of the South Pacific edition of Signs of the Times and the South Pacific Division Record.