I have replaced the quote in my blog title with a more subject-appropriate passage from Isaiah. The previous quote was one likely used in speeches and homilies bearing a message that is likely lost on most people. The quote is this:
A woman saw an angel rushing towards her carrying a torch and a bucket of water. "Where are you going with that torch and that water," she asked, "what will you do with them?"
"With the water," the angel answered, "I will put out the fires of hell, and with the torch I will burn down the mansions of heaven; then we will see who really loves God."
Take away the reward and the punishment and who will love God for God-so-loved-the world's sake? You hear about damnation and salvation but let's call a spade a spade: the fear of hell and the (dare I say selfish) quest for eternal bliss. People use these as either reasons to believe or as tools to scare a person into belief. The misconception is that the Kingdom of God is a magical land of gold buildings and all-you-can-eat chocolate buffets and that hell is a sea of fire with winged red devils with horns and pitchforks flying around and cackling.
I think that those who love without incentive of risk or reward truly have the ability to touch upon the Kingdom of God. Everyone who cannot do this has an agenda. If it happens that Heaven is a place where all one's wildest dreams come true, well, that should just be the cherry on the cake, not the cake itself.
(Pharisees are asking when the Kingdom of God will come..) "Neither shall they say, lo here or lo there for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."
--Luke 17:21
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