Did Jesus speak twice as much about hell as heaven?

i think to be accurate in terms of heaven, you would also need to investigate all the metaphors that He used....e.g. Kingdom

Steven L. Spencer said:

In one of R. Kent Hughe's commentary he mentioned that Jesus spoke twice as much about hell as heaven.  Is there a way to a Bible search that confirms that statement?

I know some people who speak of hell a lot more than Jesus ever did.  [:D]

I did a search of ESV NT in Words of Christ for hell, heaven, and kingdom and got this:

hell: 12

heaven: 118

kingdom: 107

Hell is translated as γέεννα every time but 1; I did a BWS on γέεννα to see if it was translated any other way (since Words of Christ uses surface words I believe), and it was not.

Maybe this is not entirely accurate, but my conclusion would be Jesus spoke of heaven much much more than hell.

MJ. Smith said:

Steven L. Spencer said:

  Is there a way to a Bible search that confirms that statement?

Somehow,I never thought that that the Bible included everything that Jesus spoke, so I'd label the question unanswerable until we have a time machine and 33+ years to do research.

Good point...we will need to make sure that we remember this thread so that we can update it then.  I will try to remember.

Just an observation.

A few months back someone wondered "how many times" Pharaoh said or did something in Exodus and asked what search would yield the results he was looking for. Many suggestions were offered. My response was "read the account...and count". I would suggest doing the same thing here. The are cases when no pre-programed search will yield satisfactory results...you just have to read and count.

Another observation...with a query.

Suppose Hughes is absolutely right. What of it?

Suppose Hughes is absolutely wrong. What of it?

After you've read and counted, what conclusion would you be able to make, other than restating the fact? I suppose what I'm wondering is...why does it matter?

"Wondering" is not "challenging"....and "challenging" another person is not necessarily a bad thing. Don't you challenge your children to do their best?

That said...just answer the question. Explain why it matters. Of course, in doing so, "you" (i.e. whomever is offering the explanation) will want to avoid reading into the explanation a lot of suppositions that are little more than eisegesis.

" rel="nofollow">Keep Smiling 4 Jesus said:

Personally puzzled ? since Bible analysis shows more Heaven than Hell.  Searching Words of Christ likewise finds much more Heaven than Hell.

I was puzzled as well. I'd never heard this before (and it seems suspicious). That sent me searching to see if I could find the source of this information:

Comes from R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Sermon on the Mount:

Note the quote that precedes that comment. It is footnoted as coming from D. A. Carson's The Sermon on the Mount (1978). That is not available in Logos, but I was able to look inside it on Amazon.com and with the aid of some other sources that had more of the surrounding context quoted was able to discover this from Carson:

"“You may not believe that a hell exists. In that case, you may dismiss Jesus as a liar or a fool. Alternatively, you may be so attached to your sin that even the threat of final and catastrophic judgment may not induce you to leave it. But you will be foolish indeed if you simply accuse Jesus of frightening you into the kingdom. The real issue is the truth behind Jesus’ words, the truth which prompts Jesus’ warning. Either there is a hell to be shunned, or there is not. If there is not, then Jesus’ entire credibility is shattered, for he himself speaks twice as often of hell as of heaven."

So the source of Hughes' statement is D.A. Carson. It remains to be learned where Carson got that idea. He might be just repeating an unsubstantiated cliche. Here's a whole forum discussion about that subject: http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=5257.0. So it appears that Hughes and Carson are flat out wrong, even if you're very generous in counting all the metaphorical references to hell (fire, utter darkness, gnashing of teeth, etc.).

This all goes to show, never take anything you read at face value without determining its source and checking up on it, especially if it goes against your gut instinct. But your gut can be wrong too sometimes.

elnwood said:

It would be interested to see someone actually break down what Jesus says about heaven instead of word-counting. I started doing this, but got bored.

Heaven is ...

at hand (Mt 3:2, Mt 4:17)
belongs to the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3)
belongs to the persecuted for righteousness' (Mt 5:10-12)
where God is (Mt. 5:16, 34, 45; 6:1, 9)
where those who teach and obey the commandments will be called great (Mt. 5:19-20)
where God's will is done (Mt. 6:10)

Perhaps this could be done with the assistance of some of the Topical Indexes available in Logos (e.g., Collins Thesaurus of the Bible, New Nave's Topical Bible, The Thematic Bible, Topical Analysis of the Bible, What Does the Bible Say About, etc.). But it would be more spiritually fruitful to go through the entire NT with a fine-toothed comb and do the exercise on one's own, looking for both explicit references, synonyms, and metaphors for both heaven and hell.

One other solution to your question would be to contact the author - either through his former church or through his publisher.  My experience is that authors are willing to correspond with readers with questions and/or concerns.

Rosie Perera said:

" rel="nofollow">Keep Smiling 4 Jesus said:

Personally puzzled ? since Bible analysis shows more Heaven than Hell.  Searching Words of Christ likewise finds much more Heaven than Hell.

I was puzzled as well. I'd never heard this before (and it seems suspicious). That sent me searching to see if I could find the source of this information:

Comes from R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Sermon on the Mount:

Note the quote that precedes that comment. It is footnoted as coming from D. A. Carson's The Sermon on the Mount (1978). That is not available in Logos, but I was able to look inside it on Amazon.com and with the aid of some other sources that had more of the surrounding context quoted was able to discover this from Carson:

"“You may not believe that a hell exists. In that case, you may dismiss Jesus as a liar or a fool. Alternatively, you may be so attached to your sin that even the threat of final and catastrophic judgment may not induce you to leave it. But you will be foolish indeed if you simply accuse Jesus of frightening you into the kingdom. The real issue is the truth behind Jesus’ words, the truth which prompts Jesus’ warning. Either there is a hell to be shunned, or there is not. If there is not, then Jesus’ entire credibility is shattered, for he himself speaks twice as often of hell as of heaven."

So the source of Hughes' statement is D.A. Carson. It remains to be learned where Carson got that idea. He might be just repeating an unsubstantiated cliche. Here's a whole forum discussion about that subject: http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=5257.0. So it appears that Hughes and Carson are flat out wrong, even if you're very generous in counting all the metaphorical references to hell (fire, utter darkness, gnashing of teeth, etc.).

This all goes to show, never take anything you read at face value without determining its source and checking up on it, especially if it goes against your gut instinct. But your gut can be wrong too sometimes.

I'm looking at this again today because some claims of the percentage of Jesus' teaching came up again. We're doing Treasure Principle and Alcorn make the assertion that Jesus teaches about money and possessions 15% of the time, and that it exceeds his teaching on heaven and hell combined. So I haven't categorized everything personally, I still need to do that, but I think this is a wrong conclusion.

Anyway, I found the quote you referenced, Rosie, in a Logos book: page 142 of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of Matthew 5–10 [logosres:jsussrmconfwrld;ref=Page.p_142;off=1498]

The broader context shows that what Carson is getting at is that Jesus teaches twice as much about hell in the Sermon on the Mount. Probably depends on how you count it, but this is much closer to the truth. And I wonder if others have read this or heard others repeat it and applied it to all of Jesus' teaching.

[quote]

Similarly, Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount by honestly attempting to frighten men and women into the kingdom, into salvation. You may not believe that a hell exists. In that case, you may dismiss Jesus as a liar or a fool. Alternatively, you may be so attached to your sin that even the threat of final and catastrophic judgment may not induce you to leave it. But you will be foolish indeed if you simply accuse Jesus of frightening you into the kingdom.

The real issue is the truth behind Jesus’ words, the truth which prompts Jesus’ warning. Either there is a hell to be shunned, or there is not. If there is not, then Jesus’ entire credibility is shattered, for he himself speaks twice as often of hell as of heaven.

Agree with MJ. The quotes come from the authors. And thus, depending on your views, the mix is a Holy Spirit (or not) issue (avoiding theology, sort of).

From a practical perspective, I doubt Jesus stopped talking after his 'sermon'. The crowd would be a bit mystified. I only mention this, since my software has analyzed the text by subject, term, etc within broad dating ranges ... you're always looking at the delivered product.