Religion is one of those funny things. there's never a point people will stop arguing about theirs being correct.
@Heric
You tell us that you don't deny the truth of "Join us or suffer eternal torment."
Right after the end of that sentence, you say "The message the bible contains is that God loves you."
....
That's some odd love, I'll say.
Now, I'm no pastor. I'm no Bible Genius. But I know how to answer this, it's simple.
God's nature is loving, merciful, just, good. He would love to take everyone to Heaven, to His kingdom. But He is also a just God. After Adam and Eve commited the first sin, man was seperated from God, because God cannot allow sin. Knowing this, He provided a sacrifice for us; one who was born of God, so he hadn't inherited the Sin of Adam, but born as man, walking among them. He took the punishment that He had not earned, but we deserved, so that our sin could be forgiven so we could go to His kingdom. He provided Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, spilling his blood and suffering torment, going through death, so that He could save us. He forgives our sin, and God won't judge us for it, for our sin is forgiven. All it takes is to accept the sacrifice, that Jesus is our Messiah, our Savior.
If we don't, though, we can't enter God's perfect kingdom, for we have not been forgiven of our sin. After that, there is only one place to go in death, run by the one who wanted us to suffer this torment.
Think of it like this: You are a king, and you run your kingdom. Now, you are a loving king, and the people love you. But there are these people whom are breaking the law, refusing to accept your place in royalty, and doing nasty things to the law-abiding citizens. How would you think?
Probably a better example: say you have 7 children. 5 of them are good children. 2 of them, however, do nasty things, are ill-behaved, break the law, and don't even call you father/mother. You'd still love them, but you wouldn't put up with their behaviour, right? In the same way, God still loves us, but unless we accept our Savior, the one cleansing us of our sin, God can't put up with the nasty sin all over us, both inherited, and the stuff we've done.
And like I said, if we can't enter the kingdom of Heaven, there is only one place to go. It's a sad fate, indeed, and I could never wish that fate on anyone. Sadly, being an imperfect human, I often push people away from God, more than I bring them to Him.
