Fred Phelps's Death and the Gospel Proclamation of God's Unlimited Love

"The heart that breaks open contains the whole universe" ~ Joanna Macey.

Fred Phelps has died.

I believe that everyone--everyone, without exception--passes from life through death into the all-merciful heart of a God who washes away our impurities, heals our many wounds, and loves us into new life.

Everyone. 

Without exception.

I believe that the gospel proclaimed in the name of Christ makes no sense if we make exceptions to this eschatological vision of an entire cosmos drawn into the heart of God through Christ.

I also believe that, as we are folded into the heart of God following this life, we find ourselves unexpectedly and uncomfortably connected to many others whom we avoided, scorned, hated in life.

And we find that our life and salvation depend on the embrace of those scorned and hated others, to whom we were always connected in life, though we refused to see or acknowledge this.

I believe that our broken lives are refashioned in God's heart at the end of life through our confrontation with those others we scorned and hated, but on whom our lives and salvations depend.

I believe these things because I believe the gospel.

The graphic and quotation are from the Facebook page of Prayer of the Heart.