Backwards..Again

Over the past couple of months this conversation has entered into my world.

If we serve a God of love/mercy/forgiveness/compassion, then how can He doom mankind to eternal punishment? Our sectarian heritage makes this a tough question to answer. We have spent a hundred years articulating all the requirements for a safe passage to heaven. And this list of requirements is not easily determined nor adhered to. We are quick with the five steps, quick with what our group should look like, and quick with the doctrinal distinctives that set us apart. We have even driven it down to non-scriptural settings like non-instrumental music, two prayers at communion (not just one big prayer), structure like elders and deacons (sorry, no deaconesses) even which Bible translation is appropriate. We have piled high the criteria, then wondered why no one would want to join us.

Then a couple of years ago I read from one of the spiritual formation guys that Hell is the default setting, not Heaven. His take was to set the bar at ground level. Do you believe? And I was taken aback by the lowering of the standards. Secretly I want a lot of covert stipulations because I tend to see the waiting line as a continuum, and the harder I can make it for someone else, the better for me. So if God is as we described above wouldn't it make sense that He would set the bar as low as possible? Instead of a judgement day taken up with listing all my sins, wouldn't it make sense to have Him laugh and say, "Close enough!" Wouldn't it make sense that if He was truly as we attest that He would look for any loophole to get us into His presence? If my son committed the most egregious offense against me, but somewhere in that offense I could still detect a sliver of Love, a moment of guilt, the slightest hint of remorse, that I would embrace him anyway?

Yet we approach the Creator as one who is looking for any reason to withhold His blessings. How can this give us confidence to live? or more importantly, to die with assurance?

We have this backwards..again. Not the first time and certainly not the last. But it is the Divine nature that allows us to reexamine what we believe and why.

Godspeed, I think we need to understand that He will give us a break at the slightest opportunity.
Don