The book, Spiritual Terrorism: Spiritual Abuse from the Womb to the Tomb, is a totally-loving conception of God and is dedicated to the victims of The Spiritual Holocaust. These are the innumerable religious believers, especially Biblical-literalists Christians, who have lived their whole lives and died in morbid fear of God. Is such fear-based religion something which has only happened in centuries past but is no longer a problem today? No, it is still a significant problem even in the 21st Century!
In 2006 Bill Wiese wrote the extremely popular book, 23 Minutes in Hell, which became a New York Times best seller. This book is Wiese’s reported experience of God having given him a “show and tell”—actually being in hell for 23 minutes—to let him know first hand how horrible hell really is so he could go back and spread the word in order to save as many people as possible from eternal damnation in literal [or worse] hell fire. Wiese, in 2008 wrote his sequel, Hell, which is a proof-text study of the Bible to find verses to substantiate his perceived experience of hell. Based on his literal interpretation of the Bible, not surprisingly, he found such verses. Wiese stated that just as the physical descriptions of heaven, such as the pearly gates and streets of gold, are literal so, likewise, the physical descriptions of the fire of hell must also be literal. The truth is that neither the physical descriptions of heaven nor hell are literal. It is all symbolic language to describe realities in the spiritual world of which words are inadequate to express. Jesus’ symbolic words, “salted with fire” (Mk. 9:49), which are IMPOSSIBLE to be literal, prove eternal/literal hell fire to be false and Christian Universalism to be true with no doubt!
Ironically, in a perverse way, Wiese argues for metaphorical fire in that he contends that hell is deep in the earth (core 12,000 degrees) and God will intensify this heat of literal fire in order to make hell even more torturous for the vast majority of the world who will be condemned to the eternal fire. This even includes the billions of people (including infants, all of whom are guilty of original sin, per the late John Gerstner in his book, Repent or Perish [Wiese referenced in support]) who died without ever having heard about salvation in Christ who is the only way to heaven. But, according to Wiese, God is very saddened by having to condemn so many people to eternal torture even though He loves them. This “reasoning” is a good example of spiritual schizophrenia. Kirby Godsey wrote an excellent book in favor of Christian Universalism, When We Talk About God…Let’s Be Honest. So let’s be honest in talking about God. To say that sinners make God torture them forever in fire which is even hotter than literal fire, is a pathetic excuse for God doing something so unbelievably sadistic! That would be The Ultimate Holocaust! The late, great Christian writer, George MacDonald, the “master” of C.S. Lewis, who believed in Christian Universalism, said that if people of the world believed in eternal damnation, in literal hell fire, half of the world would be insane and the other half would be atheists!
Of Biblical-literalists’ belief in eternal/literal hell fire, it can be said with certainty that this version of Christianity is spiritual insanity, and God is criminally insane! Those who believe it are at risk of mental as well as spiritual insanity. It is child abuse and is often the basis of (no divorce at all or only for adultery) spousal abuse. For Christianity without insanity, read Purcell’s Spiritual Terrorism. This totally positive conception of God elicits love of God, enhances worship of God, and promotes altruistic service for God in addition to optimizing mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical health.