When someone sets out to be controversial or provocative or shocking as an end in itself, I don't think that's a noble goal.
My experience as a pastor is lots of people have really toxic, dangerous, psychologically devastating images of God in their head, images of a God who's not good.
I like to say that I practice militant mysticism. I'm really absolutely sure of some things that I don't quite know.
A lot of Christians have been taught a story that begins in chapter 3 of Genesis, instead of chapter 1. If your story doesn't begin in the beginning, but begins in chapter 3, then it starts with sin, and so the story becomes about dealing with the sin problem. So Jesus is seen as primarily dealing with our sins.
Swords appear strong, but they're actually quite weak. Jesus appears weak, but he's actually quite strong.
When we get to what happens when we die, we don't have any video footage. So let's at least be honest that we are speculating, because we are.
For a lot of people in our world today, God has become about believing the right stuff so you don't get in trouble.