The idea that you have to tell people the scariest most horrifying thing ever ("eternal Hell") in order to present the "good news" of a formula to be saved from it is the absurdity of all absurdities.
I've had people tell me "That's what makes the good news so good! You can't have good news without the bad news!" It’s as if these people have forgotten that the world is full of suffering, disease, fear, violence, war, heartbreak, injustice, poverty, and finally death. The state of this world is the bad news, and everyone lives it.
The good news is not that if we happen to get the right beliefs then God might not torture us forever after this short life in which we all experience suffering. The good news is that God has come to this world to make things right!
The idea that the good news actually means “avoiding some eternal afterlife horror” is nothing more than using the fear of death to propagate worse news than we ever imagined, that the world is worse than we thought!
Eternal torment infinitely eclipses any sort of good news. Eternal torment is a dark shadow overcasting the contemporary understanding and articulation of gospel, and it needs to be removed.
The truth is, the good news is that God has come to restore this shattered world and mercifully bring it to justice, eradicate suffering, and vindicate human meaning within the cosmos. It's as simple as that. The kingdom come. It's what the prophets have declared from the beginning of the world.
