Someone has said that Jesus spoke more about eternal damnation than any other topic. Although it seemed correct to me, I wanted to confirm it to be certain.
So I decided to search out the matter for myself in Scripture, in order to see what topics Jesus mostly spoke about. First I manually searched the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation, and developed a list of words and phrases representing 130 major and minor topics Jesus spoke about.
Then using
e-Sword, an electronic Bible software program, I counted the verses in those six books of the Bible in the New American Standard Bible (NASB), where Jesus used those words or phrases (all counts are estimates). The results of my analysis are in the table below (with the total verse-counts for the top ten topics bolded in the right-hand column), followed by my comments and conclusions at the end of the article.
| Topic |
Total Number of Verses Where Jesus Mentioned Topic |
| God (166) verses spoken by Jesus containing the word "God." [Please
note: These were not necessarily teachings about God. However, if you
add to these verses all the instances where Jesus spoke about the Father
(61), Himself (117), and the Holy Spirit (32), that adds an additional
210 verses, which would bring the total to 376 verses altogether.] |
376 |
| Heaven (66), the temple of My God, the city of My God, the new
Jerusalem, Kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, kingdom (101), Paradise
(2), My Father’s house (1), throne or thrones (6), Life (70), that age (1), the age to come, eternal
life (23), find it (3). |
273 |
| Hell (12), destruction (1), pit (3), Judgment (21), weeping and gnashing of teeth (7), on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust (2), cut it down (2), perish (10), slay them in my presence (1), thrown out, thrown away, thrown into the fire, thrown into the furnace, or thrown into prison (10), outside (1), outer darkness (3), burned (3), fire, eternal fire, unquenchable fire (13), fiery (2), furnace (4), worm (3), I will also deny him (1), denies (2), lose (10), woe (27), torturers (1), taken away (11), depart (3), I do not know you (1), depart from me (3), eternal punishment (1), condemned (3), condemn (4), condemnation (3), ashamed (2), your soul is required of you (1). |
171 |
| Make disciples (1), be My witnesses (1), until you leave that town (1), whatever city or village you enter (1), sent (76), send out (2), lost (13), sheep (29), preach, preaching, preached (14), going through the cities of Israel (1), sowing seed (1). |
140 |
| Son of Man (80), Son of David (1), King of the Jews (3), Christ (11), Lord said to my Lord (3), Shepherd (9), God’s Son (4), the Way (1), I am the Alpha and the Omega (1), the first and the last (3), the beginning and the end (1), the root and the descendant of David (1), the bright Morning Star (1). |
117 |
| Prayer, pray, and praying (33), ask and asking (30), seek and seeking (36), knock, knocks, and knocking (6), watch (11). |
116 |
| Faith (30), believe (74). |
104 |
| Love (57), compassion (8). |
65 |
| My Father (48), Your Father (3), heavenly Father (7), O Father (1), righteous Father (1), the Father (1). |
61 |
| Deeds (25); work, works (21), workers (2), does the will of God (3), and acts on them (2), obey, observe, keep My word (2), kept the word (1), kept My Word (1), keep the commandments (1), keep My commandments (2), that slave whom his Master finds doing so when He comes (1) |
61 |
| Hear (53), hearing (6). |
59 |
| Coming of the Son of man (3), the Son of Man coming (4), which day your Lord is coming (1), that day and hour no one knows (2), the master of that slave will come on a day (2), the master of the house is coming (1), He comes (9), He should come (1), kingdom come (2), coming on the clouds (1), the day that the Son of Man is revealed (1), the days of the Son of Man (2), when the Son of Man comes (2), will the Son of Man be in His day (1), I will come (2), I am coming (7), until I come (4), come on you suddenly (1), one will be taken (5). |
51 |
| My Name (28), Your Name (9), the Name of the Lord (2), the Name of the only begotten Son of God (1), My Father’s Name (2), the Name of My God (1), His Name (1), My New Name (1), the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit (1). |
45 |
| Devil (5), Beelzebul (4), satan (16), evil spirit (2), unclean spirit (4), driving out demons, drive out demons, casting out (10). |
41 |
| Heart (40), hearts (1). |
41 |
| Money (11), wealth and wealthy (8), riches, rich man, rich (18). |
37 |
| Command, commanded, commandment (35) |
35 |
| Light (34) |
34 |
| Prophets (33) |
33 |
| Seed (33) |
33 |
| Holy Spirit (12), Spirit of the Lord (1), Spirit of truth (3), Spirit of God (1), Spirit of your Father (1), the Spirit (13). the promise of My Father (1). |
32 |
| Sin (14), sinned (3), sinner(s) (14), sinful (1) |
32 |
| Glory (22), glorify (7), glorious (2) |
31 |
| Clean, unclean, uncleanness (24), defile (7). |
31 |
| Fruit (30) |
30 |
| Forgiveness, forgiven, and forgiving (30) |
30 |
| His own crucifixion, crucify (2), death (2), rejected (5), killed (8), suffer (7), condemn (1), lifted heel (1), betray me (4). |
30 |
| Abraham (17), Isaac (5), Jacob (5). |
27 |
| Children and child (27) |
27 |
| Persecution, persecutions, and persecute (3), persecuting Me (6), brought before governors (1), flog (1), synagogue (with reference to persecution - 6), arrest (3), hate you (3), kills you (1), kill you (1). |
25 |
| Hypocrites and hypocrisy (20), leaven of the Pharisees (4). |
24 |
| Judging (24) |
24 |
| Words (24) |
24 |
| Authority (21) |
21 |
| Follow Me (21) |
21 |
| Reward (15), treasure in heaven (4), treasures in heaven (1), I will give (5), you will be repaid (1). |
21 |
| Repent, repents, repented, and repentance (21) |
21 |
| Word of God (7), Scripture (13). |
20 |
| Church (20) |
20 |
| Blind (18), hidden from your eyes (1), you did not recognize (1) |
20 |
| Overcome, overcame, overcomes (8), perseverance (5), endure, endures, endured, endurance (6) |
19 |
| Moses (19) |
19 |
| Truth (19) |
19 |
| Vine (19) |
19 |
| Law (18) |
18 |
| Peace (17) |
17 |
| Saved (11), save (6) |
17 |
| Worrying, worries, and those who worry (17) |
17 |
| Sabbath (17) |
17 |
| Sign, signs (16) |
16 |
| Adultery (11), fornications (2), immorality (3) |
16 |
| Door (15) |
15 |
| Temple (15) |
15 |
| John the Baptist (3), of John (3), messenger (2), Elijah (7) |
15 |
| Rejoice (13) and rejoicing (1) |
14 |
| David |
14 |
| End of the age (4), tribulation (7), distress (1), that hour which is about to come upon the whole world (1) |
13 |
| Disciple (13) |
13 |
| Heal, healed (11), cures (1), sickness (1) |
13 |
| Servant (7), serving (1), greatest (3), slave of all (1), service (1) |
13 |
| Gospel (12) |
12 |
| Giving (1), gave, give to charity (1), put in more than all the contributors to the treasury (1), out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on (1), offering (8) |
12 |
| Chose, chosen, elect (12) |
12 |
| Baptized, baptizing (5), baptism (6) |
11 |
| Harvest (10) |
10 |
| Angel (8), angels (2) |
10 |
| Fasting (10) |
10 |
| Murder (10) |
10 |
| Righteousness (9) |
9 |
| Deny Me, denies Me, denied My name, or deny My faith (9) |
9 |
| Mercy (6) and being merciful (3) |
9 |
| Worship (8) |
8 |
| Taxes, “drachma” (2), Caesar (5) |
7 |
| His own blood (7) |
7 |
| Jonah (7) |
7 |
| Few who find it (1), laborers are few (1), workers are few (1), few are chosen (4) |
7 |
| Divorce, divorces (7) |
7 |
| False prophets, prophetess (6) |
6 |
| Cross (6) |
6 |
| Poor (3), poverty (3) |
6 |
| Wisdom (6) |
6 |
| Last shall be first (1), first will be last (5) |
6 |
| Thefts (2), steal (4) |
6 |
| Lame (5) |
5 |
| Resurrection of the righteous (5) |
5 |
| Humble, humbles (5) |
5 |
| Reconciled (1), your brother sins (4) |
5 |
| Passover |
5 |
| Crippled (4) |
4 |
| Praise (4) |
4 |
| Salt (4) |
4 |
| Guilt (4) |
4 |
| Key, keys (4) |
4 |
| Worth more than sparrows (4) |
4 |
| Life (4) |
4 |
| Water + life (1), drink + water (1), living water (2) |
4 |
| Solomon (4) |
4 |
| False witness (3) |
3 |
| Deaf (3) |
3 |
| Fall away (2), fallen (1) |
3 |
| Unity (1), one flesh (1), that they may all be one (1) |
3 |
| Vows (1) and swear (2) |
3 |
| Tithe, tithese (3) |
3 |
| Fear God (2), fear the One (1) |
3 |
| Confess (3) |
3 |
| Covenant (3) |
3 |
| Evil thoughts (2), thinking evil (1) |
3 |
| Sons of God (2), sons of your Father who is in heaven (1) |
3 |
| Born again (2) |
2 |
| Narrow gate (1), narrow door (1) |
2 |
| (Holy) fire(2) |
2 |
| Resist or resisting evil people (2) |
2 |
| No home, nowhere to lay His head (2) |
2 |
| His own resurrection, Raised up (2) |
2 |
| Two or three (2) |
2 |
| Wash his feet (1), wash one another’s feet (1) |
2 |
| Idols (2) |
2 |
| One thing necessary (1) |
1 |
| Pure (1) |
1 |
| Going the extra mile (1) |
1 |
| Being perfect (1) |
1 |
| Giving dogs what is sacred and pearls to pigs (1) |
1 |
| Multiplication, increased (1) |
1 |
| Greed (1) |
1 |
| Lust (1) |
1 |
| Slanders (1) |
1 |
| Dissipation (1) |
1 |
| Drunkenness (1) |
1 |
| Saul of Tarsus (1) |
1 |
| Grace (0) |
0* |
Counting Method
I understand that some verses recorded in more than one of the
Gospels refer to the same incident, and someone may say this is double
counting. But the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture, and
even these redundancies were inspired. Repetition is a proven method of
teaching, and not all topics are repeated in the synoptic Gospels,
which proves that there was a reason why some were repeated. Moreover,
since I applied the same standard or method of counting to all topics,
it is an equitable method of estimating. This method may not give us
the precise number of times our Lord spoke or taught on each topic, but
it does give us an estimate – an order of magnitude, which allows us to
rank each topic in relation to one another.
Furthermore, I
did not merely accept the total number of results for a word or phrase
in each computerized Bible search. I visually scanned the search
results to try and get an accurate estimate of the number of verses
spoken only by Jesus. Then I did not even count all the verses in which
Jesus spoke that particular word or phrase, but often filtered out
results that were not relevant to the topic. For
example, when I searched for the word "condemn," I did not count every
verse
where Jesus used this word. I did not count the instances where He
said that the scribes and Pharisees
would condemn Him to death. This same method of counting was used for
all topics, in order to avoid any artificial inflation of the totals
for each one.
Also
in Revelation, only the words that Jesus spoke were counted.
These are primarily in the first three chapters and the last chapter.
However, technically the entire book of Revelation is “the revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon
take place.” (Rev 1:1a). You see, the opening verse of that book says, "He sent and communicated
it by His angel to His bond-servant John" (Rev 1:1b). So although the
Lord sent His angel to communicate these words, they were His words, and
it was all His revelation that God gave to Him. That means all topics covered in Revelation
were from Jesus, although they were not all spoken directly by Him.
There are many verses about God, heaven, hell, the lake of fire, the
pit, worship, end times, the Great Tribulation, plagues, judgments,
wrath, woes, the Lord Jesus Christ and His soon return, witnesses, the
kingdom of God, the harvest, the devil, false prophets, righteousness,
deeds, and eternal judgment. These would increase the total number of
verses we would need to count for those topics in this analysis, and
would help to further prove my point about their frequency. However,
none of these verses that are part of the revelation of Jesus Christ were counted, unless they were spoken by Jesus.
Major Topics That Jesus Spoke About
I mentioned in my opening of this article that I wanted to confirm
whether Jesus spoke more about eternal damnation than any other topic.
Through this exhaustive study, I confirmed that my thesis was a fairly
close approximation. However, it is more accurate to say that
there are more
verses in the Bible that record Jesus speaking about eternal damnation
than on any other single topic, except God and heaven.
God and Heaven
Without
any question, He mentioned and taught about God more than any other
topic. It should be no surprise that God’s Son came to earth and mostly
instructed us about God. After this, He spoke about the glorious place
where God lives with His holy angels, and all His saints, those holy
ones, who love Him and have been made perfect. He used expressions to
describe this place like “heaven,” “the temple of My God,” “the city of
My God,” “the new Jerusalem,” “kingdom of heaven,” “kingdom of God,” or
simply “kingdom,” as well as “Paradise,” “My Father’s house,” “throne,”
“thrones,” “life,” “eternal life,” “find it,” “that age,” and “the age
to come.” This is the beautiful place He invited us to go and spend
eternity with Him, where all the saints will worship Him and God, His
Father, forevermore.
Eternal Damnation
However, He spoke almost as much about
eternal damnation. Besides using the word “hell” itself (Greek,
gehenna), He used many other expressions like “destruction,” “pit,”
“judgment,” the place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” “on whomever
it falls,” “it will scatter him like dust,” “cut it down,” “perish,”
“slay them in my presence,” “thrown out,” “thrown away,” “thrown into
the fire,” “thrown into the furnace,” “thrown into prison,” “outside,”
“outer darkness,” “burned,” “fire,” “eternal fire,” “unquenchable fire,”
“fiery,” “furnace,” “worm,” “I will also deny him,” “lose,” “woe,”
“torturers,” “taken away,” “depart,” “I do not know you,” “depart from
me,” “condemned,” “condemn,” “condemnation,” “ashamed,” “your soul is
required of you,” “erase his name from the book of life,” and “eternal
punishment.” These expressions all represent the eternal wrath of the
Holy One against wickedness and lawlessness (sin). They all express the
perfect holiness of God, Who in His great love for mankind is warning
us not to go to that terrible place.
Evangelism, His Divine Identity, Prayer, Faith, Love, the Father, and Good Deeds
After these top three topics (God, heaven, and eternal damnation), then he spoke about
preaching the gospel (i.e., evangelism) and making disciples. The next major topic He spoke about was
His own divine identity, which He disclosed using various titles. After that the next major topic was
prayer. After that one,
faith was a major topic.
Love was one of His top ten themes, along with mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.
The heavenly Father was often upon His lips, in part because of His
great love for the Father, and His total dependence upon Him.
He spoke a lot about
doing deeds and works, using expressions like "does the will of God," "acts on them," "obey," "observe all that I commanded you,"
"keep My word," "kept the word," "kept My Word," "keep the
commandments," "keep My commandments," and "that slave whom his Master
finds doing so when He comes." He taught that “…those who have done
what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil
will rise to be condemned.”
Hearing
After these top ten topics, then came His constant emphasis on
hearing His Word, which ranked eleventh without combining it with other expressions.
The Return of Jesus Christ
His Second Coming was the next major topic, ranking twelfth on the list!
He spoke about it quite often, using
various expressions like "the coming of the Son of man," "the Son of
Man
coming," "which day your Lord is coming," "that day and hour no one
knows," "the Master of that slave will
come on a day," "the Master of the house is coming," "He comes,"
"kingdom
come," "coming on the clouds," "the day that the Son of Man is
revealed," "the days of the Son of Man," "when the Son of Man comes,"
"will the Son of Man be in His day," "I will come," "I am coming,"
"until I come," "come on you suddenly," and specifically referred to the
rapture saying, "one
will be taken." And when He spoke about it, He often said it would
happen suddenly, unexpectedly, quickly, soon, and without delay. He
emphasized the need to be ready for it. Yet so few today ever preach or
teach about His soon return.
The Name of the Lord, Power, Authority, the Heart, Children, Sin, and Repentance
And
He spoke a lot about the Name of the Lord, which ranked as His thirteenth
most
frequent topic, including the Father’s Name, Jesus’ Name, and the
Name of
the Holy Spirit. Power and authority were not major themes, but they
did come up often, as did the matters of the heart, and children.
He preached a lot against sin, naming many sins specifically, and preached that men should repent, telling them not to sin any more.
Since
He Himself said, “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of,” we know
what His heart was full of, based on the things He said. And those
things He spoke about most of all were the things that His heart was
overflowing with the most.
Grace
He never once mentioned the word grace publicly, *but only once
privately in answer to the apostle Paul's prayer about his thorn (2 Co 12:9), and that was not about grace for salvation. Yet He was full of grace (
Jn 1:14), and both grace and truth were realized through Him (
Jn 1:17).
So while He may not have spoken publicly about it at all, He certainly demonstrated it. He welcomed sinners and ate with them. He also forgave them freely
when they repented, and told parables that depicted grace, such as The
Prodigal Son (
Lk 15:11-32) and The Lost Sheep (
Lk 15:1-7).
Peace and Unity
He did not speak very much about peace, in fact He said He did not come to bring peace to the earth (
Mt 10:34),
yet this is a major topic among those in the world, and many Christians
wear the peace symbol, which is satanic. Those of us who know Him have a peace within our hearts that He gives us (
Jn 14:27), and peace with God, but world peace will not come to the earth until after He returns to reign on the earth.
And one of the topics He
taught about the very least was unity, which he merely mentioned in
three verses, yet that is what the ecumenical church talks about the
most.
Prosperity
Money was certainly not a major topic of His,
coming up about as often as the heart, but almost everything he said
about riches, prosperity, and wealth was negative. Yet today the
prosperity preachers seem to mostly preach about wealth and prosperity, as if this is the central message of the Bible.
Putting it All Together
In summary, the top ten things Jesus Christ spoke about were
God, heaven, hell, making disciples, His own divine identity, prayer,
faith, love, His heavenly Father, and the importance of keeping His
Word by acting upon it.
I hope that this study has helped to show you what is important to Jesus, and helped to disprove some errors that we find in the Church today. There is so much deception now in the Church that we must be careful. Do not be deceived into hell! You should be careful when a preacher always preaches about grace, but never talks about hell or never preaches against specific sins that will take you there. When you hear preachers that are talking mostly about prosperity, peace, unity, or any of the other topics that Jesus seldom spoke about, or that He never spoke about, then beware! If they make any of these minor topics their main theme, to the exclusion of the major ones our Lord emphasized, then you know they are not teaching according to the pattern of Jesus. They are “majoring in the minors,” and that should be a big warning signal to you.
Let me be clear that if Jesus mentioned something one time, it is important. But we must preach the whole counsel of God, not just our favorite topics. The true messengers of God are preaching mostly on the same things that Jesus emphasized, because those are still the most important things on His ever-aching heart. His messengers are still preaching about
God,
heaven, and
eternal damnation, emphasizing
the need for faith,
prayer, and
making disciples. They are
preaching against sin, calling people to
repentance, so that they will not perish. They are still preaching
righteousness and truth,
teaching us to hear the
Word of God, keep it,
be doers of it, and
bear good fruit for God’s glory, living a life of love, compassion, and mercy. They are preaching about the
Name of the Lord, as well as
our Lord's soon return, and the need to
be ready for it.
Attribution notice: Most
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. "Top Ten" image courtesy of William Marler's
Top Food Safety Challenges for 2009.
Author's note: I also recommend
The Law of Christ and
Faith Works! You are invited to read or
listen to
more amazing testimonies of the supernatural like this below. You may access my
complete blog directory at "
Writing for the Master."
Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you
repent and believe in Jesus. Do you know what God's Word, the Bible
says?
“Jesus
came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in
the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15). He preached that we must repent and
believe.
Please see my explanation of this in my post called "
Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
_________________________________________________
Len Lacroix is the founder of
Doulos Missions International.
He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as
well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who
multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of
planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United
States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission.
www.dmiworld.org.
