"And these will go away into eternal punishment,
but the righteous into eternal life" (Matt. 25:46).

Jesus actually talks more about the judgement of
God against evildoers than about heavenly
reward and God's love. I think a fair reading of the
Bible shows both some heavy metaphysics,
including a lot of talk about life after death and the
end of the world, as well as admonitions about
how to behave now. To ignore one at the
expense of the other offers a lopsided view of the
Bible.

I believe that Gabe's view is in the minority, as
mainline "social gospel" churches which embrace
the viewpoint he espouses are generally smaller
and waning in membership (with most members
being born into the faith and a greying
demographic) compared to fundamental or
evangelical churches which are growing by leaps
and bounds. George Barna done some
interesting polling on the religious beliefs of
Americans http://www.barna.org/

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu