The issue may not be selling but it is one of persuaion. In the NT we see the element of persuasion. I suspect today that the majority of Christians do not understand what they are saved from and to. They have little passion because they do not understand who God is and what salvation means. If we really understood what hell is like we wouldn't want our worse enemy there. I think too many pastors have bought into the idea that people don't want to hear about hell. It is a known fact if one tells only good things the people will like you better. But we are not here to please people, but God. We are to humble ourselves under God and that may mean not under man. In fact that may mean we stand against another man to serve God. Our ultimate accountability is to God not man. God is our judge. It is not a popularity contest but humility under God.
We need to remember Isaiah 6:8-13, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go, and tell this people: `Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed." Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastated [and] without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate, "The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. "Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump."
