Seven Reasons Halloween Judgment Houses Often Miss the Mark
— Friday, October 29th, 2010 —
This commentary was originally posted on October 31, 2008.
1. They’re not scary enough. To speak of hell, Jesus used the imagery of a garbage dump overun with worms, a place where babies were once sacrified to demons (Mark 9:43-48). Teenagers in plastic red devil masks and styrofoam pitchforks usually don’t convey what it means to “fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). The answer isn’t better technology, though, since nothing we could conjure up can convey the anguish of the damned walled off from relationship with God.
2. They assume people’s problem is that they don’t know about judgment. But the Bible says they do. All of us have embedded within us a conscience that points us to the Day of Judgment (Rom 2:15-16). We have a “fearful expectation of judgment” (Heb 10:27). The problem is we block it out of our minds, diverting ourselves with other things. The problem isn’t that lost people don’t hate hell enough. It’s that they don’t love Christ. Hell is the Abyss they run into in their flight from him.
3. They abstract judgment from the love of God. I know most “Judgment Houses” present the gospel at the end. But in the Bible the good news doesn’t come at the end. The prodigal son leaves the father’s house, but the father is eager to receive him back (Luke 16:11-31). The awful news of God’s judgment is always intertwined in Scripture with the message of the gospel of a loving, merciful God. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17).
4. They abstract judgment from the glory of God. The prophet Isaiah doesn’t see that he’s “undone” first by the horror of judgment. He sees it in light of the glory of God’s presence (Isa 6:1-6). The Apostle John tells us the glory Isaiah saw was Jesus of Nazareth (12:47). When we preach Jesus, the glory of God breaks through (2 Cor 4:6). Some people recoil at that light; some people run to it (John 3:19-21).
5. It’s hard to cry at a Judgment House. But Jesus does when thinking about judgment (Matt 23:37). And so does the Apostle Paul, pleading with sinners to be saved (2 Cor 5:20). These evangelistic tools though are meant to take on the feel of a “haunted house,” a place of thrill-seeking and festivity. It’s hard to convey the gravity of the moment in such a way.
6. The Holy Spirit doesn’t usually like to work that way. Pop quiz: How many people do you know who came to know Christ through the witness of a friend? How many do you know who came to know Christ through faithful parents? How many are in Christ due to the week-to-week preaching of Christ in a local church? Probably a lot, right?
Okay, now answer this: How many people do you know who came to know Christ through a Halloween “Judgment House” or “Hell House”? If you know one, you’re outpacing me, and everyone I’ve ever talked to about this. The Holy Spirit tends to work through the preaching of Christ (Rom 10:17). That’s how he points the world to sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8).
7. They’re easier to pull off than talking to people. Can people be saved through Judgment Houses? Sure. I have a colleague who was saved at a Stryper heavy metal concert in the 1980s. Are the intentions behind them good? Absolutely. If you have a Judgment House and it’s enabling you to share Christ, have at it with blessings on you.
But the fact remains that most lost people in your neighborhood are going to be saved the same way people have always been saved, by Christian people loving them enough to build relationships, invite them to church, share the gospel, and witness to Christ. The problem is that for many Christian’s that’s scarier than a haunted house.
Dr. Moore,
I’ve written a similar article: http://jaredmoore.exaltchrist.com/2010/10/13/judgment-house-5-common-lies-and-heresies/, but your article is more eloquent. You make some great points!
Thanks for making me think brother. Keep up the good work!
In Christ,
Jared Moore
Dr. Moore, I do have a family member (husband of a cousin) who was saved at a Judgement House, but I’m confident it was the relationships that were then built by the people he encountered that has made him into a man following hard after God. Thanks for your words.
Greetings,
Interesting article, but I’ve never heard of a “Judgment House” before. What’s the premise? If you republish the article, you may want to add an explanation for readers who have never encountered the phrase before. It sounds like they are haunted houses that try to scare you into become a Christian… which sounds like a pretty sketchy concept, in the first place.
@Eluros Aabye, I agree. I have never heard of these before.
Dr Moore, in the past I have been part of putting on a Judgment House or Hell House and have taken groups to a Judgment House. So, I have experience. To be honest, I’ve felt uneasy about them the entire time. Your reasons are excellent, but based upon what I’ve seen, I would add two more reasons they miss the mark:
1) They get you scared at the wrong being. They usually communicate that salvation by faith in Christ is ultimately about being saved from the devil. No doubt, once in Christ, we have personal victory over Satan, but we must get the biblical perspective concerning from whom we are saved. Ultimately, God, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, saves us from God Himself. It’s not the devil that unrepentant sinners should fear. It’s God. It’s God who can destroy both body and soul in hell. It’s God who will pour out His wrath forevermore on unrepentant sinners, including the devil and his demons. We should fear God way more than the devil.
2) They get you to answer the wrong question. Like similar minitries such as “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames,” they try to get you to answer this question: do I want to go to hell? I’ve certainly heard a few in my day say that they do want to go to hell, but 99% say that they don’t want to go to hell. Then Judgment House leaders will usually say something like this, “If you don’t want to go to hell, pray this prayer, and ask Jesus into your heart.” If you do so, they’ll then pronounce you saved from the fires of hell. The only problem is that they’ve gotten you to answer the wrong question. The question of the gospel is not “Do I want to go to hell?” The question of the gospel is “Do I want Jesus as my Savior and Lord?” Almost everybody wants to avoid to hell. They want Jesus as Savior for “fire insurance,” but few want Jesus as Lord. The only problem is that if Jesus is not your Lord, He is not your Savior. Judgment Houses almost always miss this part of the gospel.
@Ben Simpson, Excellent additions.
Thanks for your thoughts just a couple of responses to each point as I was a part of about three of these when I was younger.
1. Well…yeah, of course! What is scary enough? (We never used red devil masks anyways.) The room was almost always completely dark and the realities of hell were described more in propositions in the scripts than just some spectacular technology display.
2. Well…. just because people suppress the understanding of judgement that is really there doesn’t mean that you don’t bring it to light through the truth of God’s word. And (at least in our understanding) of going through the work of putting one of these on our underlying assumption was not, “people don’t know about judgement.” It was “people don’t know the gospel and judgement is a necessary part of sharing the gospel.”
You seem to be wrong in your premise here.
3. The gospel was always presented from the first scenes onward and not just at the end or after the judgement presentations. Our situation was different from your experience. You are misrepresenting some JHs here.
4. Yes, you are right here. In our experience the script writers never did this. And they should change.
5. This was not a thrill-seeking event in our case. Many people left concerned about the nature of their souls and many wept at the realities they many were forced to think about as they went from scene to scene. So, no, from my experience you are not representing the whole reality of these events.
6. Well, I don’t know what to say. My cousin became a Christian through one of these events. Just because these events exist and people become believers doesn’t mean that they replace preaching or church. Preaching is sharing the gospel. And you can clearly and powerfully share the gospel in other ways other than just preaching.
7. True, but you seem to imply that churches who are doing the JHs are not doing the normitive personal evangelism. This is, of course, a false dichotomy which did not play out in our church’s case. #7 seems to be a bit of a strawman.
Overall, you have good points for all to consider who do these things. However, your understanding of these things were completely different from my experience. Too bad churches your experiences didn’t do them right.
“Sure. I have a colleague who was saved at a Stryper heavy metal concert in the 1980s.”
Thanks for sharing Dr. Mohler’s testimony with us. haha
Just because people “pray a prayer to accept Jesus” on the basis they are afraid of hell does not mean they are saved. People can be afraid of hell and still not love Jesus the way He has called us to. With that being said, numerous decisions for Christ are made at these events. Praise be to God if He uses these events. However, the language at these events can be troubling. Many “first-time decisions” and “rededications” are made at Judgment Houses. As a student minister, I spend a lot of my time teaching students that God’s salvation is complete and sufficient. Therefore, true conversion only needs to be a first time decision. AS for recommitment, I made that decision before I entered into a relationship with Jesus. I misunderstood the gospel. Rededication usually means that we want to live better so that we don’t have to make anymore decisions. Taking all of this into consideration, I’ve found it best to just build relationships with people. Therefore, people do not put their trust in a false gospel based upon fearing judgment as opposed to fearing and loving God.
I was saved at a Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames event.
It was November 23rd, 2003. In the play, there was a girl whose parents always made her go to church but she never became saved, but she said she did just to make them happy. She went to Hell because she never established her own relationship with him, never actually accepted him as her Lord and Savior. Even though she had grown up in church and her parents went to church and lived what they believed and constantly preached to her, just like mine did, she was not saved because that was their relationship with Him, not hers.
It was like they were speaking directly to me and I was saved right then and there and have ever since pursued a real relationship with Him.
The event that I went to focused on the importance of a real relationship with Jesus Christ, and then showed the consequences as a result of that lack of relationship. I don’t remember any Halloween masks.
Maybe you should do your research before you speak out about something that you clearly do not understand. I truly believe these kinds of events are helping, and if they are not helping, does that mean they are hurting? I don’t think so.
Every event that I have gone to preached about the importance of growing in your relationship and attending church after the event was over. You make it sound like drive thru religion.
@Whitni, I don’t believe Dr. Moore discredited the hand of God being present. He simply stated that there are ten things wrong with judgement houses. You felt the hand of God drawing you. Awesome! But I have seen many hear a small presentation that was a poor gospel at best and leave having prayed a prayer and saved from flames. Of course, the next week they continued their sinful lives still retaining their get out of jail free cards.
JH seemed to be started by the seeker sensitive movement. And they were certainly never implemented by the church 100 years ago. Remember what he said about the Stryper band salvation? It is possible for God to draw you anywhere you are, hence Him being God. But it is through the preaching of the word that people are drawn.
I encourage you all to look harder at the Gospel before condoning JHs as though they are adequate relatings of the Gospel. Sometimes they are, but most are not. Paul mentioned that some preached from pretense while others preached from truth. He also said it was wrong to preach from pretense but that he was glad it was at least being preached. When it comes to JHs, there isn’t a whole lot of Jesus’ Gospel. It doesn’t ever come across to me as being the same Gospel that Paul preached. So, I tend to discourage them.
They also are a haven from the thrill seeker not the repentant. I remember these kind of statements every year as a student pastor: I heard the JH over here was really good (they are saying realistic and scary). No, no, they have a better one over there.
JHs get the redeemed and lost thrill seeker to focus on the effects of having scary nights, just like many students go “enjoy” the unGodly, torturous Saw movies for scary and thrilling entertainment. The difference is a gospel presentation is added to the end of a scene when someone was damned to Hell. The Gospel + worldly practice doesn’t equal righteous practice.
On another note, I’m sure the Dr. Thoroughly thought this through before writing.
I hope that I have not seemed to harsh as that is not my aim. Just helping out brothers and sisters. I’m personally thrilled to see someone actually be reached at a JH and remain true for 7 years. That’s redemption for ya! Praise be to God because of you sister!
Grace and Peace
@Whitni,
He’s “Dr.” Moore. Titles don’t mean much, but he’s earned his and I think he’s done his research.
Thanks for your helpful thoughts. I’ve posted (and linked) them on my own blog today. db
What about Mark 16:15-16? Acts 2:37-38? Rom. 6? Gal. 3? 1 Peter 3:21? James 2? There is a contradiction between what you say and what the Bible says in regards to salvation.
@Lee, Theological trolling. Now I’ve seen it all.