"God gave you free will - you're free to leave the church whenever you want. But if you do, God will punish you severely."


Actually, that's the sort of thing I used to hear a lot...stuff based on mixed messages...."God's given you free will, but He's Lord of all"..."God loves you but will not always be patient with you"....'God's going to break you but only because he loves you, only because he wants to make you more like this son"...

No wonder I'm having some real struggles in my faith at the moment.