Thank you so much for undertaking this series. It's something I'm struggling with right now, because on the one hand, the New Testament does talk about punishment in the hereafter, it does talk about certain categories of people not being allowed to enter the kingdom of God.
On the other, the most important commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul and strength. It is clear from such verses as I John 4:18 and I Corinthians 13:5 that if we are thinking in terms of reward and punishment, if those things are in any way playing into how we approach God, then we are not obeying this commandment. We are in fact worshiping ourselves and our little desires, thereby committing idolatry and blasphemy simultaneously. To put it delicately, that does not appear to be the fruit of repentance.
It appears that the minute they start talking about punishment or reward, about heaven or hell, in the Scriptures, they are thereby making it effectively impossible to obey this commandment, unless these passages mean something very different from what is commonly thought.
Thank you so much for undertaking this series. It's something I'm struggling with right now, because on the one hand, the New Testament does talk about punishment in the hereafter, it does talk about certain categories of people not being allowed to enter the kingdom of God.
On the other, the most important commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul and strength. It is clear from such verses as I John 4:18 and I Corinthians 13:5 that if we are thinking in terms of reward and punishment, if those things are in any way playing into how we approach God, then we are not obeying this commandment. We are in fact worshiping ourselves and our little desires, thereby committing idolatry and blasphemy simultaneously. To put it delicately, that does not appear to be the fruit of repentance.
It appears that the minute they start talking about punishment or reward, about heaven or hell, in the Scriptures, they are thereby making it effectively impossible to obey this commandment, unless these passages mean something very different from what is commonly thought.
I'm trying to figure out what to do with that.