If you are frightened into God, it is never the true God that you meet. If you are loved into God, you meet a God worthy of both Jesus and Christ. Most evangelicals will never admit it, but the USP that has produced growth is the frightening of people into God. They are my people so I know every trick in the book and every argument used to try and convince that we presented a God of love. With penal substitutionary atonement being the predominantly held view of the meaning of the cross, the inevitable conclusion is that violence is the highest form of love. In my view it takes unquestioning loyalty to what is, after all, a theory to deny that this model relies on the fear of judgement and Hell to produce the majority of its converts. The danger with a pure acceptance of love beyond human comprehension is its acceptance of all. Accepted, loved, forgiven, done! This position takes the power from the pastor and puts it with the people, takes control from institution and puts it back with the spirit, doubts the dogma of static doctrine and restores the daring of dynamic faith.
Anth Chapman
You can find Anth on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/qyorkanth
