Is Christianity a Religion of Fear?

I was recently doing some research for my book, and as I was searching online for Author Bill Wiese, I came across an automatic search labeled, “Bill Wiese Fraud.” Curious, I clicked on the link, and came to "the Great Realization" blog. This blog is for the American Atheist movement, and is written by MagiKent. In the article above, MagiKent blasts Wiese as a fraud, calling his vision of 23 minutes in hell nothing more than a nightmare. MagiKent notes that Wiese uses his story as a way to get people to become Christians through fear.

MagiKent states:

Christianity’s motivation for morality is fear. There is no better example than Bill Wiese. Christians want to be good because they fear that if they don’t they will be put into a burning place to work for eternity. They define what ‘hell’ would be like in Earthly terms – fire, etc. Yet to describe what ‘heaven’ would be like is supposedly beyond what we can comprehend. What a load of garbage. Your religion is based on fear. That’s weak.

I wonder if MagiKent even bothered to read Mr. Wiese’s book or his follow-up “Hell.” Bill Wiese’s reason for writing the book was not to scare people into becoming Christians. He wrote it to remind us of the consequences of our sin, but also that the price was already paid. Mr. Wiese’s testimony gave authenticity to the Cross and the fact that there really is a spiritual world, both good and evil. Both books by Mr. Wiese use a tremendous amount of scriptural support and he expounds on that in his second book. If Mr. Wiese was a fraud, he wouldn’t have been able to use scripture to back up all the points he made, but yet he did. Many non-Christians like to define Christians as gullible, believing that they have been deceived. MagiKent instantly disregards Wiese as a fraud and assumes he had nothing more than a nightmare. However, what if MagiKent has been deceived? What if God really allowed Wiese to have this view of hell in order to be a witness to others?

What MagiKent does not understand is that my motivation for morality is not fear. I certainly fear and respect the Lord and His holiness, but I’m not a Christian because I fear hell. I am a Christian because I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and that the God of the universe loves me and knows me by name. I am a Christian not for religion, but for relationship, and even in moments where I struggle with the Lord, I know that He loves me. To be close to Christ is life-changing. It alters all reality. There is nothing weak about that. Any Christian worth their salt is not motivated to live a moral life by fear of hell, but by a desire to love their wonderful and holy God. True Christianity is not a religion of fear, but of love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23