One of the deepest, intelligent books I've ever read, Dale Allison's Night Comes, is reviewed by Robert Cornwall. In Night Comes, Allison writes about the Japanese converts whose lives were ironed by sadness at the thought that their dead relatives were wailing in eternal hell. They were inconsolable. The missionaries told the new converts there was no hope for their dead relatives. This is the joy the missionaries sent forth into the world, the "good news." And here lies my hate, not just at this supposed spreading of "joy" but my own wimpiness that makes me fear it.
I need to write a thematic summary of Allison's book, especially the problems posed by the doctrine of eternal hell.
Writer Morgan Guyton has a book, How Jesus Saves the World from Us, which also tackles the doctrine of eternal hell and our need to come to God based on love and not fear. I'm about a third done with the book. Guyton aims to paint the Christian God as loving and not the grouchy middle school gym teacher (an analogy he uses), but he seems very selective, cherry-picking passages to come up with a loving God, and avoiding Jesus' hell statements to do the same.
Here lies my problem with Christianity. The Orthodox Christians like Peter Kreeft and Rod Dreher seem more honest. They give you full-throttle hell doctrine, which seems like a more accurate interpretation of the Bible.
Liberal Christians like Morgan Guyton side step or back pedal hell, but seem more like cherry pickers.
Then an atheist and former Christian Dan Barker emphasizes the worst qualities you could attribute to God from a reading of the Old and New Testaments and this results in his atheism.
My struggle continues.
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