It seems to me the church set itself up to be filled with hypocrites when it linked God with heaven and Satan with hell. Who wouldn’t at least pretend to love goodness if that is your ticket to a reward? Who wouldn’t at least pretend to hate evil if they knew it would be caught and punished? Such a religion is born of fear and leads not to love but only an enlarged and calculating selfishness.
Those who truly love would pay any cost for it. The true lovers of God would be those willing to go to hell if they knew that’s where love lived. I do not know about the afterlife, but in this world serving evil is much more likely to give you a golden mansion, and serving all God’s children is much more likely to put you through hell. The true lover of God chooses the punishments of love over the rewards of cruelty.
Every mystic is a one trick pony. If someone loves you, love them back. If someone hates you love them back. Thus and only thus is the world filled with love.
At one ment (sort of free association)
I remember thinking about something in Apostle’s Creed (“He descended into hell.”) and associating that idea with being like JesusChrist. It was an intense thing. Was I willing to descend into hell for those i wanted to share the Love of God with?
I know this comment is “off-track”, but …
@Chuck: I didn’t see anything off-track with your comment, rather I see a deep appreciation for the message Jim provided. Love is the answer, and it is sad that the creeds only imply it rather than saying it explicitly.
People will not die for dogma or argument nor for concepts. They will die for love. John McCain talks about his fellow prisoners and how they affected him during his captivity. It is love. It is a profoundly moving story.