Mike Parsons
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Unconditional love has really been the focus of my life for quite a number of years. The experiences I have had of unconditional love have completely changed my whole belief system—especially concerning who God is, and therefore the reach of His love towards all of creation.
Those experiences of unconditional love have challenged my view of God. They have challenged many things I used to believe: doctrines, traditions and various other ideas. God’s love is unconditional. If it is not unconditional, then it is not love. That, I believe, is the key. If you put a condition on love, it becomes something you have to earn by fulfilling a requirement—and God’s love is not like that. It is unconditional, and that means it cannot be earned. It is love, freely given.
It is unconditional for everyone and for everything. That love knows no boundaries, no limitations, no barriers. I believe God wants everybody to know His love.
But unconditional love has so deeply challenged some of the belief systems I used to hold. I now realise that some of the things I believed were nothing more than religious tradition or myth. Some of the doctrines I held actually kept me in bondage and prevented me from experiencing unconditional love.
Now, it is that same unconditional love which has set me free—as I have experienced it in my relationship with Jesus and the Father through the Spirit. I believe only the experience of unconditional love will bring freedom from the religious deception that most of us have encountered in various forms throughout our lives.
If you have never been brought up in any kind of wrong religious setting, then praise God. But for most of us, there are things we have struggled with, things we have misunderstood, or things we once believed that we now know are not actually true. That is certainly the case for me.
There are so many beliefs I now realise were conditioned into me—programmed into me—by my upbringing, by my religious experiences in church and in other contexts.
The thing that probably challenged me most—and was the most difficult—was what happened when I began to reflect on the power of love and the power of the resurrection, that love overcame death. And that brought me face to face with a huge question: what happens to people after they die?
I began to realise I had been programmed with a religious belief—something I now refer to as the hell myth. I say myth, because the English word “hell” is not actually a biblical word at all. Yet that myth held a lot of sway in my life, even though it was not really something I felt deeply convicted about. It was not something I had arrived at through study or prayer. It was more a kind of unspoken assumption: I suppose that is just how it is. I never liked it. But it seemed unavoidable.
Now, I believe that unconditional love is the very essence of who God is—His character and His nature. It reflects who He is. He does not change depending on the situation. He is not one version of Himself in the Old Testament and another in the New. He is Father, Son and Spirit—and God is love.
God is light.
God is spirit.
God is a consuming fire.
And because of that, there are no situational ethics with God. He is consistent. He is reliable. He does not change. Therefore, we can depend on Him. We do not need to be afraid of Him. He is not going to be pleased with us one day and then grumpy the next—like He got out of bed the wrong side, as it were. Of course, God does not sleep in a bed! But the point is: He does not change. He is the same—and that gives us a deep sense of security. We do not need to worry that He might change His mind about us, or that we might not have done well enough. God is the same yesterday, today and always will be—because He is I Am That I Am.
That is a declaration that He will never be anything other than who He is—and He is love.
A Slur on the Character and Nature of God
For most Christians, hell and eternal conscious torment are sacred cows—fixed, immutable doctrines. Many people simply cannot imagine there might be another way of understanding them. But I believe the world, in general, has rejected what is, in fact, a slur on the character and nature of God. God is unconditional love. And yet, much of the Church has accepted that slur—the idea that God would torment His children in fire forever. That He would give them a body that never wears out, so that they can be burned for all eternity.
Is that a loving God?
Not from my experience.
That is not what He is like at all.
So then, what does happen to people after they die? It is an important question, because many people are afraid of death—afraid of what comes next. If we know the answers, we can help them make the right choices now, before they die. And even after death, I believe it is not too late.
Is death more powerful than unconditional love? Absolutely not, because unconditional love has overcome death. My own experiences—encounters in which Jesus and the Father have shown me what happens after death—have convinced me completely that people go into the consuming fire of God’s presence, into the fire of His love. And because of that, I am absolutely confident that death is not the end of choice for anyone.
Unconditional love wins in the end—because God is patient. God is kind.
God will never give up. Love will never fail. Therefore, that love will win everyone in the end, so that they too can experience it for themselves.
I did not always believe this. I was conditioned—just like most people—to think that you had to choose Jesus before you died, because after that it would be too late and you would go to hell. But that is not what I now know to be true.
Into the Fire
Jesus and the Father took me into the fire. They showed me that you can preach to people in the fire, and that people in the fire can respond to that preaching. They can be reconciled back into a relationship with God. They can come into His love. They can become part of the cloud of witnesses. They can enter into their eternal destiny.
Now, I understand that many people struggle with this idea. But I have experienced it—over and over and over again. I have been into the consuming fire of God—both with Him, and on my own—many times. I have seen God’s love in action. And I have seen that the fire of God’s love is purifying and refining.
I have seen the power of that love first hand—the power to bring transformation into someone’s life when they accept and realise that God loves them. Even after death. Even after all the things they might have done in life to reject Jesus.
Love wins. The fire of God’s love never fails.
It never gives up. Love wins in the end.
The restoration of all things is founded on this truth:
God’s love will never fail, and He will never stop loving. Not until every person, every created being, comes into the relationship with Him they were made for—because we were created for relationship. He created all of creation for relationship.
Unconditional Love – new book out now
Mike Parsons’ new book, Unconditional Love, is out on 20 June 2025. Order it from your favourite local or online bookseller today, or get the ebook instantly from our website. More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books.
References to Gehenna misunderstood
Where does our idea of “hell” come from? In the early Hebrew scriptures, it is not mentioned at all. In the Hebrew context, the concept of hell really only began to appear after the Babylonian exile and was then further shaped by Greek influences.
Jesus’ teaching has often been used to affirm the concept or theology of hell, but I believe that is an eschatological misunderstanding. The teaching Jesus gave about “the end” and what would happen was not referring to the end of time, with a future judgement and resurrection in which some would be punished. When Jesus spoke of the end, he was not referring to the end of the world. He was talking about the end of the old covenant age. There was fire and judgement associated with that, because the system itself was judged—and judged as having failed to produce righteousness.
Jesus used terms and language people would have understood, associated with fire and judgment. But these were generational issues. Jesus said all those things would take place within that generation. They have since been wrongly applied to the end of the world and have become associated with eternal conscious torment in the so-called fire of God’s judgment. In truth, it is not the fire of his judgment. It is the fire of his love.
These are not separate events—what happened at the end of the age and the references to people being thrown into Gehenna, the fiery rubbish dump outside Jerusalem. They refer to the same thing: the end-of-the-age judgment. Not the end of the world, as we have been led to believe. It is an eschatological issue.
If we understand that Jesus’ concept of “the end” was not the end of the world but the end of a particular age, then we can also see that Gehenna— often wrongly translated as “hell”—was not referring to some distant point in the future either. It was about that generation. Jesus’ teaching about the end of the old covenant age and the associated fiery judgment has been used to support an infernalist theology, but again, they refer to the same event. It is not about the end of the world, and it is not about eternal judgment.
In fact, the judgment has already taken place—and we have all been found innocent. That is absolutely essential for us to grasp. We have been judged innocent, not guilty—righteous, justified. There is no need for punishment.
All those Bible verses that have been used to affirm a belief in hell as penal retribution, or eternal conscious torment, are verses that have already been realised and fulfilled. They do not need to apply to anyone today—not to any of God’s children, not to anyone at all. That is really good news. It is not the fear-based, manipulative message that says people who do not know Jesus will go to hell. That is not good news. That is fear, used to control people into accepting Jesus. It is no different from the time of Christendom, when people were told to believe in Jesus or be put to the sword. This is the same idea, simply reworded: believe in Jesus, or go to hell.
When we are willing to look again, with fresh eyes and an open heart, I believe we will discover that death is not the end of choice. People can still accept what Jesus has done while in the refining fire of his loving presence, even after death. I would challenge anyone to produce a single Bible verse that actually states that death is the end of choice. There are none. The only one people sometimes use is the verse that says “after death, the judgment”. But that verse is not talking about physical death. It is not saying what we have been told it says—not in context, that is not what it means.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal this to you. Ask for the revelation of the Father’s heart towards what happens after death and for understanding of the concept of his fiery love.
I want everyone to know: you do not need to fear the future. You do not need to live in fear of torment or punishment. And we should never be using those kinds of ideas to scare people into accepting a God who is love. That is utterly inconsistent. God is love. He would not punish someone forever and ever just because they did not believe in him. He believes in you.
He believes in the world. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world. God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not counting anyone’s sins against them. Let us do the same. Let us have a ministry of reconciliation—a ministry of power—and let us be ambassadors of unconditional love to a world that so desperately needs it, that desperately needs to know God as love.
Only then can people be free from the destruction that comes from a lost or mistaken identity. God wants them to be whole. He wants all of us to come back into family, back into relationship, back into this amazing relationship with God, who is love.
I want to take us into a short activation. If there is any fear in your life—any doubt about your salvation, or about where you might end up, or even concerns for your loved ones—I invite you to let God, who is love, begin to remove that fear.
And if you have doubts about what I have taught today, you do not have to believe what I say. You have the right to believe whatever you choose. But I do ask you sincerely: ask God about it. Ask him to show you the reality of life, the power of unconditional love, the truth that nothing can separate anyone from it. Ask him to show you what that really means for people’s lives. Ask him to show you personally, so that you can have your own experience—something that affirms to you the truth of who he is: his unconditional love.
Activation: Safe and Secure
I encourage you now to close your eyes.
Begin to meditate.
Allow your breathing to slow down.
And begin to think about God as love.
Just be still.
Come to that place where you can be still and know.
Know that God is love.
Let his love surround you right now.
Let the power of his love flow over your physical body,
flow into your mind, into your heart and your emotions.
Let love, the power of love, overshadow you.
Father, I ask that you would reveal to everyone listening,
the power of your love.
Show anyone now if there is any fear in their lives—
fear of you, fear of punishment, fear of judgment, fear of the future…
Let your perfect love cast out fear.
Love on your children in such a way
that they are safe and secure in your arms of love.
You will never let them go.
You will never let them out of your hands of love.
You are keeping them safe and secure.
Just rest in that love.
Let his love touch you deep within your emotions.
Let it bring healing to anything in your past—
any fear or doubt you have
about where your loved ones are, if they have died physically.
Let the power of God’s love affirm to you
the truth of his consuming fire.
Father, I ask that you would show all who wish to see
what the refining, purifying fire of your love is.
Show them how death is not the end of choice.
Reveal yourself, reveal the truth.
Unveil the truth,
so that we may experience you.
Heaven is open.
Set the desires of your heart on engaging the Father.
Let the Father lead you.
Let him heal you, restore you,
fill you with the power of his love—
overwhelming love,
love that conquers death,
love that is stronger than the grave.
Rest in that love.
Rest in the power of that love.
Truly embrace it,
and for a few moments,
just wait there in the presence of God,
in his love.
Sons of Issachar 