Windy here....really windy...please know that I do not respond to argue
or debate, but simply to convey what I personnaly believe.
Matthew 4:17 From that time on, Jesus began to preach,"repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Crystal clear to me on repentance. It is mentioned many times in Scripture. As I see it, hell and condemnation should not be preached to folks with a "fire- and-brimstone" attitude....BUT...people do need to be reminded gently,
(as Jesus did), that sin exists, we are all sinners. Jesus did do that.
He did speak warnings such as Matthew 5:21(the last sentence), "But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. John 5:28
"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their
graves will hear his voice and come out..those who have done good will rise
to live and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned." Does that
mean by our own good works we earn it? No. It means to me that if we choose the right path (moving towards God) by loving God and neighbor using
the 10 commandments, (I prefer to call them the natural law of life or the best way to conquer sinful nature), we will be "doing good". We have a sinful nature. We should never be presumptive and deem ourselves worthy of
God or "good enough" for him. Long ago, in my youth, I spent five seemingly eternal years in agony of feeling "unworthy" of God, my answer
finally came from Him as clear as could be! You are not worthy of me,
nor are you good enough for me, that is why in my infinite mercy, and because I love you, that I sent my son to die for your sin debt. And a
small aside: I once heard that probably one of the worst sins we can commit, is to refuse to forgive ourselves after repentance, since God has forgiven and has promised to wipe it out of his memory. People need to learn to forgive themselves as well as others.
As for the path to God, Although I believe that each person's walk to that path has a unique journey, I believe there is only one path and it is
narrow and it is through Christ only. "No one comes to the Father except through me".(sorry I cannot quickly find Chapter and verse on the last quote).