The Doctrine of Hell does more to Move people to Ethical Behaviour than many think

We've heard a lot that as we tell people how forgiving, sweet and loving God is, people will just want to change. I think its only partly true. The Bible is usually wiser than men. The things we LEAVE out in our preaching and teaching are usually very important for us and for our lives. Things like the awful doctrine of HELL.

Honestly, when people believe there are real chances for HORRIBLE consequences to wrong, inappropriate or dishonest behavior, they are FAR LESS LIKELY to actually do those wrong things.

Recent experiments from a lab showed that students who believe in a forgiving God tended to cheat more in an academic task than students believing in a punitive God. Another (still unpublished) study is reported to show that people who were given the opportunity to commit a petty theft took significantly more money when they were primed on God’s forgiving nature, compared to people being primed on God’s punitive nature.

http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/06/lets-get-rid-of-heaven-hell-is-what-we-need-3/