re if there were no hell ofm comments the only problem with this is that jesus does use hell as a threat he doesn t sound like some of the more extreme fire and brimstone preachers and i don t think he wants people to live in abject fear but he talks a lot about people being found unworthy and mentions hell a number of times i agree that it might be more pleasant to think that it doesn t exist i certainly don t agree that god is some sort of sadist who tortures people forever but i am very much afraid that there really is a life and death spiritual struggle going on and that it is possible for people to lose in a serious way clh no disagreement at all that there is a very serious struggle going on but jesus more typically uses consequences as a threat that s quite different from hell classic tm jesus doesn t sound like the usual hell fire type of preacher he attracts people through what he does and the stongest example in jesus preaching is in the parable of lazarus and dives which is a parable in any case my point is that a fear based response to christ is not a freeing life affirming choice and isn t good news in a meaningful sense there are plenty of good reasons to follow jesus that have nothing to do with fear or a literal hell that still pertain to overcoming in the present struggle between god and the disloyal opposition a faith based in fear is not built on rock as we should found our faith but on ice if the fear were removed there would be no foundation that s basically why it matters to me i think we have many christians that don t have a solid basis for relating to the living incarnate god i cannot be fully open to the working of god in and through my life if my response to god is motivated on fear larry overacker llo shell com lawrence overacker shell oil company information center houston tx llo shell com
