Hercules or Lazarus?

Hercules at the Crossroads has been painted many times. It’s a classic depiction of choice.

At a fork in the road, the mythic hero must decide which path to take. There is a scantily clad woman enticing him to go the way of vice. Another woman, matronly and scolding, urges him along the much harder path of virtue. What will he do? Well he’s Hercules. He will choose the difficult path of virtue, obviously. That’s what heroes do. And the moral of the story is: Be like Hercules.

There is such a thing as Herculean evangelism. It treats those outside of Christ as, essentially, the hero who must decide. There are two paths ahead and the evangelist’s role is to press on the non-Christian the costs and benefits of each option. With this paradigm in place, different evangelists will approach their task in different ways. Some will entice their hearer with the carrots of kingdom blessings. Some will warn them with the sticks of judgment. Some will emphasise the present benefits of life in Christ. Some will focus on the future destinations: either heaven or hell.