I thought Christianity was supposed to be about love, but after reading some of the Bible and going to church, it seems to be largely fear based.
This makes me wonder what parts of the Bible you're reading and what church you're going to.
I will say this, how one approaches the Bible when reading it makes a big difference. The big fancy word here is hermeneutics. Simply it refers to the methods, approaches, and general framework of interpreting, and understanding a text. For example, a hermeneutical approach that sees God as terrible and frightening is going to drastically change how one reads and digests the Bible compared to one that sees God as kind, compassionate, and loving.
And depending on the particular church and theological traditions one is coming from is going to have a huge impact on one's hermeneutical approach. A church that preaches fear-mongering will inevitably lead to seeing that in the Bible.
At this point maybe it is helpful if I describe the methodology and hermeneutical approaches of my own tradition, which is Lutheranism.
For some important historical context, Lutheranism as a theological movement within Western Christianity traces itself back to the Reformation that began with Martin Luther. Luther was a German monk in the Augustianian Order (one of a number of monastic orders that originated in the middle ages in the West), he also studied theology at the University of Erfurt where he received his doctorate in theology, received ordination as a priest, and was eventually sent by his superior in the Augustinian Order, Johan Staupitz to Wittenburg to be a faculty member at the University there in Wittenburg. In Wittenburg he served as a parish priest, was able to devote his time to studying and teaching theology, and the Scriptures.
It was at this time that the new pope in Rome, Pope Leo X, decided to establish a new basilica dedicated to St. Peter (St. Peter's Basilica). The project required funding, as the previous pope, Julius II had effectively left the Vatican's monetary reserves bone dry. Bishops across Europe were to raise money through donations and the like, and the way that money was raised wasn't completely and in every way particularly ethical. Which led to certain priests, such as Johan Tetzel of Saxony, to engage in the practice of selling indulgences. An indulgence was, effectively, a certificate of forgiveness that could be acquired for either oneself or for one's relatives; so you could acquire an indulgence for your deceased grandparents to relieve them from some of the time they had to spend in Purgatory for example. While the selling of these indulgences was technically against official Catholic teaching and practice, money was needed for that basilica back in Rome. Tetzel as he traveled from town to town would put on elaborate theatrics, and would famously say things like, "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs".
Luther, who had himself struggled immensely with deep spiritual woes and crises of faith, living a life terrified of God's judgment, terrified of Purgatory, or worse, Hell caught wind of these things and was utterly mortified by them. How could someone tasked with the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ do something like this? So he did two things: 1) He decided to open up an academic debate at the University in Wittenburg over the matter of the selling of indulgences by posting 95 Theses against the selling of indulgences as points for that debate (which he nailed to the church door, which served as the town's bulletin board), and 2) sent a copy of the 95 Theses along with a letter to his bishop, Prince Albert the Archbishop of Mainz (he was both bishop and an elector-prince of the Holy Roman Empire). Luther saw himself as defending the honor of the Pope which he saw as being dragged through the mud by men like Tetzel claiming to be acting by the Pope's authority, and in his letter to Albert was trying to warn the bishop of men like Tetzel and what they were saying and doing.
The problem, however, is that the corruption went a lot higher than Luther realized. And as Luther continued preaching and teaching in Wittenburg, he began challenging major assumptions of the time, condemning abusive practices, and this started to get him in trouble with people in high places. Ultimately he was sent a Papal Bull of excommunication, and summoned to an imperial diet in the city of Worms, where the Holy Roman Emperor and many of the German princes gathered, and was told he must recant as he was now being charged with heresy. He refused, and became a wanted man. The patron of the University of Wittenburg, Prince Frederick of Saxony, who had taken a liking to Luther, took him to a castle in hiding so Luther would not be captured and put to death. While there he worked on a new translation of the Bible into German. In his absence Wittenburg became overrun by revolutionary zealots, including one of Luther's own friends and colleagues from the university, Andreas Karlstadt, who helped foment violent rebellion leading to churches and priests being attacked, and people killed. Luther returned, pleaded with the German princes to do something about the rebellion, which then became a massacre of the peasants--Luther's guilt and feeling responsible for the massacre haunted him for the rest of his days. And the flames of rebellion and revolution began spreading not only throughout the Holy Roman Empire, but other parts of Europe. Others began to take up the "cause of the Reformation" but did things their own way. The most radical of these began dramatically changing and undermining historic Christian teaching and practice, believing themselves harbingers of the end of the world. Others turned to various sorts of heresy. Others were less radical in some regards, but still radical in others.
As such, the Evangelical Reformers (aka "Lutherans", though they did not call themselves that) found themselves ultimately not only trying to address and correct abuses which they saw coming from Rome; but also arguing with new "Protestants" (a term that originated when certain German Princes protested an imperial decree made at Speyer saying they had to follow Roman practice). These new Protestant groups were varied in beliefs and practices, and were in some ways considered more problematic than even what Rome itself was saying and doing. Rome, for its part, effectively put all blame on Luther for all of it, and while the Lutherans never saw themselves as having left the Catholic Church, Rome would come to regard them as apostates who had turned away from the Catholic Church, formally declaring so at the Council of Trent after Luther's death.
But the heart and soul of Luther's reform movement was actually very simple: To reaffirm the Gospel of Jesus within the Catholic Church, and allowing the Gospel and the Scriptures to cleanse the Church from the inside of abuses, and problematic ideas which allowed for those abuses in the first place. Not to start a new church, not even to leave Rome, we never wanted to leave Rome, the goal was reform not schism, reform, not rebellion, reform, not revolution.
And so, in the spirit of that, the Lutheran identity has always been that the Church must be always grounded in Jesus and His Gospel, and the way we do that is by continually coming back to the Scriptures. Coming back to the Scriptures, because Christ is in the Scriptures. So the entire Lutheran way of reading and approaching the Bible is a Jesus first approach. Anytime we read the Bible, it is Jesus-centered. The Bible, therefore, declares two kinds of words or messages: God's commandments, and God's promises. God's commandments are called Law and God's promises are called Gospel.
The Law addresses the matter of justice and righteousness, and consequently the harsh reality of human sin. That is, to quote Luther, "The Law says 'Do this' and it is never done." If we try to approach God by trying to be righteous according to God's commandments, we will always fail; and in fact, we will always find God terrifying and full of wrath and judgment. We will not find a loving, kind, merciful God this way, because He remains aloof, hidden, behind a dark veil of His own terrifying holiness. And, in truth, we will always find ourselves staring at a mirror, a mirror that reflects back to us our own sin and unrighteousness. That's why to behold God through the Law, apart from faith, one sees God as angry, wrathful, there is terror and judgment because He is holy and we are sinful. God is hidden, and we are exposed as naked, and we are filled with guilt and shame.
The Gospel also addresses these things, but rather it reveals what God has already done for us in Jesus. Here in the Gospel is God clothed in the weakness and suffering of Jesus Christ, of His cross. Quoting Luther again, "[The Gospel] says, 'Trust this' it is already done." That there is a righteousness apart from the Law, a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ, a righteousness that is from God as a gift, pure gift--grace. It is Christ's righteousness, who by His obedience and by His suffering and death has accomplished what we could not. God Himself has, on our behalf, satisfied the harsh demands of the Law, and out of His merciful love for us sinners, declared us just on account of Jesus. Through the Gospel we hear the powerful and life-giving word of God, that our sins are forgiven, Jesus paid it all, the work is finished--believe this, trust this. Don't carry the burden of your shame and guilt, Christ has taken your shame and guilt and has nailed it to His cross, saying to us, "Come to Me all you who are overburdened and weary, I will give you rest" That at the feet of Jesus, at the foot of His cross, where His innocent blood was spilled, here is God now come down, meeting us in our lowliness, in our mortality, in our weakness, in our shame and guilt, and putting a clean garment over us and saying, "I forgive you, come sit at My table, I shall be a Father to you and you shall be My child."
In Christ the judgment and wrath and condemnation of the Law is put to death, and there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. For those who are in Christ, who look to Christ find God, He says, "If you have known Me you have known the Father also" and "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father also" and "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life no one approaches the Father except by Me". It's good news--Gospel--because God loves us, though we are guilty of sin, God says "I forgive you" and calls us children by His grace.
If one, therefore, reads the Bible and sees a lot of fear, sees an angry God, sees wrath, sees judgment--that is the Law speaking, and that is the Law doing its job. Apart from the Gospel, apart from faith, all there is is the Law condemning.
And the whole point of the Reformation, of what Luther was doing seeking to reform the Christian Church with the Gospel, was so that the Church would actually get back to her first love, to abide in the One she calls Lord and Savior, and to therefore preach that Gospel also to the whole world.
A church, therefore, that is not faithfully preaching the Gospel is going to be a church that preaches a lot of Law, a lot of judgment, and thus be a place where people are not finding peace, forgiveness, or grace--but a lot of condemnation. Even churches which may seem incredibly friendly and "seeker sensitive" if they aren't preaching the Gospel are simply preaching Law and nothing else, and that will always produce fear, despair, or else arrogance and pride. For one will either recognize themselves as being sinful, but without the forgiveness and grace of the Gospel, despair in hopelessness; or else lie to themselves and start to believe themselves righteous and holy and become the most obnoxious religious hypocritical braggarts you can imagine--white washed sepulchers Jesus calls such people.
And tragically, that is the condition of a lot of contemporary Christianity and the state of many churches in the modern West. There is no Gospel, just a lot of pious sounding words to either make people feel ashamed or to make others feel really good about themselves. But there's no forgiveness, and there's no repentance. No honesty about ourselves, and no confidence in the love, comfort, and grace of God in Jesus.
-CryptoLutheran
