Incongruity in Christianity

This is going to all sound very obvious because, well, it is; but it's not something I've ever realized in quite this form until today (when it hit while reading Marmeladov's opening speech in Crime and Punishment -- great stuff, by the way).

Basically, what I've realized is that there's a fundamental incongruity in Christian doctrine. There's the Old Testament-inspired fire-and-brimstone stuff about hell and damnation and eternal punishment, which, no matter how many times Christians say is overriden by Jesus' words later, is still a major part of the Christian faith; and then there's the New Testament-inspired God-is-love and infinite-forgiveness stuff (the stuff that I like about Christianity).

The problem is that these two things cannot work together. You can't have infinite mercy and still condemn people to eternal damnation. God can't be love and still force people to suffer after death.

Jesus tried to get this across, I think, but the problem is that if all is forgiven no matter what, if God accepts you know matter what you do (which I realize is not the actual import of the Scriptures or almost any Christian teachings), then there's no reason to be a good person besides your own moral scruples. Religion has always been used (among other things) as a tool for control. People acted morally because they were afraid of going to hell -- ask the Puritans.

I would say that if you're not acting moral because you believe it's right, but out of fear or hope or greed or custom or anything other than your own moral code, then you've already lost. I would say that the motivation is as important, if not more, then the action -- though of course since motivation is really only known to yourself, the action is all we can legitimately judge and remains very important.

Now, I know the Christian teaching is basically that as long as accept Christ as your savior and genuinely wish to repent, then you can get a free ticket for salvation, leaving hell to those mainly who don't accept Christ. Which is kind of stupid, since there's a lot of good people who aren't Christians. Then there's other Christian groups who say that only the repent part is necessary, that as long as you try to do the right thing and seek to rectify your mistakes then you're good, regardless of Christianity or not. Those are the kind of groups I like, even if I think they're still a little naive with the whole God thing. (I'm naive about a lot of things, though, so it's not a big deal.)

I'd go farther, though, and say that everyone gets forgiven, regardless of whether they deserve it (however you define that) or not. Mercy for everybody, and also faith and understanding: love (agape, as opposted to philia or eros, I suppose I should say).

Judge not, the Christians say. Good. But then: because God will judge them. We won't hurt you, they say, because God will make sure you suffer more than we could ever do. Motivations and actions again. Whatever happened to leading by example?