A Gospel of Love
Why fire and brimstone is unbiblical
Christianity has always had fire and brimstone preachers. People are told that they must believe or else they are condemned to hell eternally. Preachers are putting fear in people’s hearts to impose their beliefs on them. This paralyzes people into “believing” to avoid eternal punishment. You can’t just say that you believe because you’re scared of punishment. That’s not actually faith. It’s like saying “I’m sorry” when your parents force you to when you don’t mean it. The pews of the church are lined with people who say they believe in God hoping it will be a get out of jail free card. However, this is completely out of line with the Christian message of love. Christianity is not about belief in God, it’s about truly following the God revealed in Jesus Christ (see James 2). We should not be preaching a message of condemnation, but one of love and reconciliation. Christianity is not about how God hates us so much that He is going to burn us all. It is about how much God loves us, that He personally took it upon Himself to address the injustice in the world (see Isaiah 59), pronounces woes against them (see Habakkuk 2), and reconciles all things to Himself by His blood (see Colossians 1). Jesus Christ came to die to free us from the fear of death (see Hebrews 2). His death reveals the Father’s love to us, and His perfect love casts out all fear(see 1 John 4). Christ’s death reconciles us with God and confirms that there is no condemnation after death (see Romans 5, 8). I am not denying the doctrine of hell in this, but it cannot be the centrepiece of our gospel. The gospel the apostles preached was not fire and brimstone (see the sermons in Acts), they were declarations of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, the wrath of God is upon those who reject Him, but this must always be contextualized in His love. God’s wrath is against all sin, death, and destruction because of how horrible it is. He invites us all to join Him by the power of resurrection to join in the renewed creation He is bringing (see Romans 8). Rather than telling people they will burn forever if they disagree with us, we should be inviting them to join in the renewed creation project. The wage of sin is death (see Romans 6), and the power of resurrection is life renewed and eternal (see 1 John 1). The gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who came to bring us life and life abundantly (see John 10). Our gospel should not be one of death and punishment, but one of life and grace.
