Fear vs. Love

 Hello All,

Why should the Church teach the concept of post-mortem Eternal Conscious Torment (ETC)?  Quite simply put, it is a teaching that leads most quickly and most effectively to moral behavior. Fear of punishment is a powerful motivator.  Even some of the early Church fathers who did not believe in ETC realized this and went the easy route to modify the behaviors of others, while they themselves knew better. In the following paragraph, historian George Marsden quotes from a more recent preacher, Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), and reveals Beecher's thoughts on this topic, which I find very honest.

The idea of eternal punishment for all who do not know Christ, accordingly, makes us "shiver and tremble with sensibility." Such sensibilities accounted for the move away from the "medieval literalization" of the doctrine. Nevertheless, Beecher did not shock his audience and deny this doctrine. "I must preach it," he says with apparent sincerity, even though "it makes me sick." It is a "great element of moral government." No one else, however, he hastens to add, need accept this view. "We are to be utterly tolerant of those who have adopted other theories; . . . we are neither to disown them as Christians, nor to discipline them for believing as they do—the day has gone by when a man is to be disciplined for his honest belief. . . ."

Beecher and I may not agree on every point in other areas of his doctrine, and he may not have lived the most exemplary life, but his point is solid.  Again, fear of punishment is a powerful motivator and as others have said, has been seen as necessary to produce a society that is moral in both civil- and self-governance. Fair enough. But to see that as an *absolute* necessity is short-sighted. Fear is a powerful motivator, but Love is more so by far. What would happen if Christians unanimously demonstrated love toward those who are not Christians, and, of course, even to their own? The world would change within one generation. Love seeks to build bridges (which is what the Pharisees were *supposed* to do). Fear, instead, creates unhealthy and destructive borders.

May Holy Spirit convince your heart that you are loved so that you can be love to another person.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy