Here are some responses to an old acquaintance, asking about my views as a Christian and a pastor. Some of it might not make sense, as it's just my side of the conversation...
Compassion, judgment
It's difficult to contrast compassion and judgment when it comes to Jesus, because these are two of His most prevalent teachings in the Gospels! People like to ignore the judgment parts, and Jesus certainly had compassion on the crowds and healed many. But a quick reading of Mark 9 or Matthew 23 will show that Jesus had the most to say about hell of anyone in the New Testament, and that He was hardest on those who thought they had it all together and thought they were OK in God's sight because of how good they were.
Jesus: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched - where 'Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched' (Isaiah 66:24)" (Mark 9:43-44). He repeats this 2 more times in the next 4 verses, the modern equivalent of bolding, underlining, and making the font size bigger, to emphasize it.
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