It is important that we assert worshiping a loving and benevolent God because the image we maintain of God creates us.
Our mistaken images of God keep us from receiving grace. People who are raised in an atmosphere of threats of punishment and promises of reward are programmed to live with this poor image of God. Unfortunately, mainline Christian institutions organized people around fear than around love.
Much of Christian history has manifested a very different god than the infinitely loving God and Father that Jesus revealed and represented. The mystical, transformative journey cannot take place until that inaccurate image is undone.
In Matthew 25:40 Jesus made strong contrasting statements about issues of ultimate significance, calling the listener to a decision towards universal compassion: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers [and sisters] of mine, you did for me” As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, in the end “God will be all in all” (15:28).
The idea of our most common view of hell came much more from Dante’s Divine Comedy than the Bible. In his book, Introduction to Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI explained the curious phrase in the Apostles’ Creed: “[Jesus] descended into hell.” Benedict said that if Jesus went to hell, that means there is no hell—because Jesus and hell cannot coexist. Once Jesus got there, the whole game of punishment was over.
Romans 5:6-8 “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
