terrifying, and unprovable. It was supported by an unquestioned religious tradition. It was also supported by the conservative instinct of society, and by a history and a metaphysic both constructed expressly for that purpose. Moreover, to dissent was death.
On the whole, the Gospel of love was turned into a Gospel of fear. The Christian world was composed of terrified populations.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” says the Proverb (i.7). Yet this is an odd saying, if it be true that “God is love.”
“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”; says Paul.
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” (II Thessalonians i. 8, 9.)
