Chalke Talk 81: A God of Love, or Megalomaniac?

It means someone who had an obsessive desire for power, many times, at all costs. And unfortunately, that's often how God has been understood. Love is an afterthought to a legalistic God who's otherwise concerned with his people subjecting to and honouring him.

That couldn't be further from the truth, but as Steve explores in this episode, the Apostle Paul's words have been misinterpreted to suggest God is indeed a megalomaniac. 

Steve adds, "Tragically, in my view, much of the church still teaches that the Christian God is a God of conditional love rather than undeserved grace; a God whose strap-line is something like ‘Turn from your sin and place your faith in Christ who died in your place on the cross, or you’ll pay for it forever.’ The result; countless people, including Christians, are left struggling with a deeply embedded sense of an angry, vindictive, violent God. And it has left too many of them profoundly damaged."

But what do you think? Is this true or not? Does ‘never’ mean 'never' or 'not'? Did Paul just get carried away with himself in a rash and flowery flourish which he later regretted, or were his words deliberately and carefully chosen?