Introduction —

What follows is a "building block" style of logic that forms a tremendously strong foundation for understanding who and what God is. These next chapters will help us understand why God gives us so much freedom, as described in the earlier chapters.

If you come from a traditional Christian back­ground, the next two chapters will cause you to reflect upon your Christian beliefs. The "building block" style of presenting this material provides a simple clarity about who and what God really is that you may not have thought of before. The simple conclusions that are built upon this strong foundation are probably very different from the ones you were taught in your traditional Christian church.

The theology developed in Chapter 6 is not new. That may seem rather startling to readers because, if it is not new, why write a book about this Loving-God Theology? The answer is that although theologians for centuries have known that only a God with a singular loving nature could create and sustain an eternal universe, the consequences of that Truth have not been shared with the believers who sit in the pews of Christian churches.

I suspect the reason it has not been shared with church members is that doing so would be like removing one can from a stack of cans in a grocery store display —removing one can would cause the whole stack to fall apart. What follows removes that first "can." As you read the remainder of the chapter, you will see how the "stack" of the Pauline doctrines falls apart. And that is what may eventually happen to traditional Pauline Christian theology. Some truths and concepts that spin out of this basic Truth may be at odds with traditional beliefs and make some readers uncomfortable. However, most readers will find the simplicity of these new beliefs intriguing enough to examine the validity of their older beliefs.

This new Truth about God provides a new paradigm for our relationship with God. Though the Loving-God Theology may become a contentious issue for church organizations that embrace traditional Pauline Christianity, it could be an answer for individual church members who want to renew a passionate commitment to a personal, even intimate, loving relationship with God. Perhaps it could help Christian believers interpret their lives in terms of this loving relationship and rediscover why they call themselves Christians.

I do know, for you individually, if you ask God or Jesus for clarity of belief, it will be revealed to you by the Spirit of Truth, for that is its function in every awakening era of belief on this planet.