As I said in an earlier post that is worth sayingagain...Our children are not born with the ability to manifest mature love. This comes with maturity. So children are taught to respect authority. The underlying motive is fear, without which, they will not obey. But it would be counterproductive to threaten a toddler with eternal torment if he knocks over the flower vase. That is overkill, and a child really has no conception of punishment beyond what he has already experienced. For a child that age, a simple "no" will do, along with a slap on the hand.It is the same with our heavenly Father. He does have divine judgments and will hold all unbelievers accountable for their deeds (Rev. 20:12, 13). This is the judicial side of God's love. This is how He corrects mankind in order to bring them to maturity in love. The "lake of fire" is not a torture pit, but is a symbol of the divine law (Deut. 33:2; Jer. 23:29), which is also a revelation of His righteous character (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). All men will be made to conform to His righteous standard--by force, if necessary, even as a parent forces or coerces his child to be good.God will judge unbelievers by His own righteous law--not by the laws of men. His law never requires torture, much less eternal torture. If men must be coerced by the threat of endless torture, then it is obvious that God has not yet opened their eyes to receive the truth (Ex. 29:4; 2 Tim. 2:25). Men tend to get ahead of God and try to force people by fear into accepting Christ before the Holy Spirit has had opportunity to work from within their hearts.If eternal torture were the just penalty for sin, then Jesus would yet be in hell paying for your sin by eternal torture. The fact that He was able to pay for the sin of the whole world by merely being dead until the third day should be sufficient to correct our theology. God is not so unjust as to torture men eternally even if they had committed just one sin in their life time. In God's law, the judgment always fits the crime. That is the meaning of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." If God had said, "burn him at the stake for an eye, burn him at the stake for a tooth," then we might have some reason to suspect that God's retribution does not fit the crime.So why should we serve a God that will not eternally torture us for NOT believing? First of all, to know Him is to love Him. The goal is a love relationship with God. But I recognize that no one starts out with such a love relationship. And so, it may be good to point out that all men will one day stand before God's throne, and they will be judged according to their deeds (Rev. 20:12). They may avoid this judgment by accepting Jesus Christ's death on the cross by faith.Essentially, to be saved NOW is to avoid a lengthy process of correction LATER. One way or another, all men will be saved, for that is God's promise (Heb. 8:10, 11) and His will (1 Tim. 2:4). Paul says in 1 Tim. 4:10 that the living God is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. He will save all, but there is a special reward for those that believe.God has both a carrot and a stick. The carrot is the reward for serving Him now. The stick is in the judgment that is to come, along with the fact that unbelievers will be put under the authority of believers until the Creation Jubilee sets them free into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. (Rom. 8:21)Why should we serve God now if all will be saved in the end? There is a special salvation for those who do, and if they do not, they will be held accountable for the deeds done in their life time. Those who accept Him can have opportunity to mature from fear to love, and such people can enjoy a personal relationship with God that is very enjoyable and satisfying.Why should we evangelize others? Because we know by experience the joy of this personal relationship with God. We see His leading day by day. We see evidence of His love for us. And we want everyone to have what we have.Logabe