huckleberry
The idea that all people who do not believe and join Christianity will be eternally punished is such a repulsive chaotic idea that I found it a serious barrier. I have given the matter enough consideration that not only do I not believe the idea because it is destructive of human respect and love but it poorly fits the general structure of Christian beliefs.
And yet Jesus himself preaches deferred violence, and quite gross violence for some rather blase "offences" done in life in Matthew 25. He says to those on the left, you didn't feed me, clothe me, or visit me, and for that you gonna burn forever! And with "eternal punishment." As Hector Avalos notes (
The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015, pp. 102-104, using Matthew 25:31-46 as his text)
As does Christ in Matthew 25, Yahweh in Deuteronomy 32 promises to avenge his servants, As gruesome and violent as Deuteronomy 32 is, Christ goes much further. Christ does not only wish to kill those who harmed his servants. Christ wants to torture them eternally with fire, one of the most horrific ways to destroy a body... it is Jesus who emphasizes, more than anyone else before him, the idea that those who displease him should suffer an eternal torture. So the quality of the violence (burning) and the eternal duration of the violence are infinitely greater than almost any precedent I know.