HOW CAN WE SINCERELY LOVE THE "GOD" OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT?
--Charles Slagle
Let's see what challenges confront us in this effort, okay? Jesus says that God's greatest command is--
You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Now let's repeat it again in abbreviated form, listing a fair number of challenges we'll have to confront in fulfilling this command, okay? So here we go--
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*While bearing in mind that He will punish you forever in hell if you don't.
So again:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while bearing in mind that His MEANINGFUL love for you is conditional on the choices you're making at the time of your death.
And again:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while bearing in mind that He commands you to love and forgive others unconditionally but His love and forgiveness toward His little neighbors is conditional on their behavior at the time of their death.
And again:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while bearing in mind that He commands you to love your enemies and treat them kindly even though He burns alive His enemies (or those He deems as His enemies) forever and ever.
And again:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while bearing in mind that He expects you to love Him unconditionally, even though His love for you is conditional on your performance in this lifetime.
And again, if God is a Calvinist:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while He shows favoritism yet commands you NOT to show favoritism AND He reserves the right to save you and trash and burn your friends and family forevermore.
And again, if God is an Arminian:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while bearing in mind that only those who are smart enough and strong enough to find Him and choose Him (rightly!) in this lifetime will escape His endless fiery fury.
And again:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart--
*while bearing in mind that He requires you to love Him more than He loves you, and to be more merciful, loving and kind toward your neighbors than He is!
This list of challenges can go much further on, but for now, I'll end it here, okay? I'm not a great teacher or theologian, but I do have a mind and heart that logically tell me that it is IMPOSSIBLE to love MORE than God loves. And it's impossible to be more kind, gracious, patient, and compassionate than our Heavenly Father is.
THEREFORE, the cruel, manipulative, fear-mongering dogma of ENDLESS punishment HAS to be not only wrong, but satanic in origin. And that's simply because it blocks us from even taking the first tiny, faltering steps forward in obeying the GREATEST COMMANDMENT.
Think about it!
Pray about it!
And visit tentmaker.org and hopeforallfellowship.com to learn more about the TRUE glad tidings of great joy which shall be to ALL PEOPLE. (Lk. 2:10)
May our Heavenly Father from whom EVERY family in heaven and earth is named cause you to know the height, depth, width and length of His never-failing love! (Eph. 3:14-21)