If You’ve Been Taught to Fear Jesus

by Rev. Sheri Spiritual teacher, writer, and founder of Angel Messenger

There is something weighing heavily on my heart.

Over the years, I have watched people become afraid of their own spirituality because someone told them that Jesus would reject them for it.

I’ve watched people become afraid to ask questions.

Afraid of their intuition.

Afraid of experiences they once considered beautiful or sacred.

Afraid of people who worship differently.

Afraid that something they don’t understand might be evil.

Afraid that if they don’t believe exactly the right things, practice their faith exactly the right way, or fit within someone else’s definition of Christianity, they may somehow lose Christ.

And increasingly, I see Christianity presented through fear—fear of other religions, fear of people who are different, fear of changing culture, fear of spiritual experiences, fear of questions, fear of being deceived, fear of punishment, and sometimes even fear of Jesus Himself.

That breaks my heart.

Because if Christianity has taught you to be afraid of Jesus, I want to invite you to meet Him again.

I Am a Christian, and I Am Still Asking Questions

I am an ordained minister. I am also a Christian mystic.

I believe in Christ.

I pray.

I believe in angels.

I believe the Divine can reach us in ways that are sometimes difficult to explain.

I also believe in discernment, reason, questions, learning, and respecting people whose understanding of the Divine differs from mine.

Those things do not feel contradictory to me.

My faith has changed throughout my life, and I expect it will continue to deepen and grow.

I don’t believe faith requires me to pretend that I know everything.

In fact, I think there is humility in being able to say:

I don’t know.

I’m still learning.

I need to pray about that.

I used to believe something differently.

I respect that you understand this differently than I do.

Faith does not have to be certainty about absolutely everything.

And another person’s certainty doesn’t have to become your fear.

You Don’t Have to Inherit Someone Else’s Fear

Sometimes people go through profound spiritual changes.

Something happens in their lives and they reinterpret what they once believed.

They may decide that practices they once embraced are no longer right for them.

They may change churches.

Change beliefs.

Change spiritual paths.

Renounce things that once mattered deeply to them.

They have the right to do that.

But their spiritual transformation does not automatically have to become yours.

If someone decides that something they once practiced was wrong for them, you are allowed to listen to their experience without assuming their conclusion must become your conclusion.

You are allowed to pray.

You are allowed to think.

You are allowed to ask questions.

You are allowed to discern.

You are allowed to look at your own relationship with the Divine.

And you are allowed to take your time.

You do not have to become frightened simply because someone else became afraid.

Discernment Is Not the Same Thing as Fear

I believe discernment matters.

Not every spiritual claim is true.

Not every thought that enters our minds is Divine guidance.

Not every coincidence is a message.

Not every person claiming spiritual authority deserves our trust.

And not every experience we don’t understand should automatically be labeled spiritual.

We should ask questions.

We should use wisdom.

We should pay attention to our physical and mental health.

We should seek reliable information.

We should pray.

We should remain willing to reconsider our beliefs.

But discernment is very different from paranoia.

Discernment asks:

What is this?

What does it produce?

Is this loving?

Is this truthful?

Is this healthy?

Is this consistent with what I understand of the Divine?

Could there be another explanation?

Fear says:

I don’t understand this, therefore it must be evil.

Those are not the same thing.

What Fruit Does It Bear?

Jesus gave us a beautiful image in Matthew 7 when He spoke about recognizing something by its fruit.

I return to that idea often.

What is something producing?

Does your spiritual life make you more compassionate?

More loving?

More willing to serve?

More humble?

More patient?

More willing to recognize the humanity of someone who is different from you?

Does it help you care about suffering?

Does it encourage you to tell the truth?

Does it help you establish healthy boundaries?

Does it deepen your relationship with the Divine?

Those are meaningful questions.

But I think we should also be willing to ask the opposite questions.

Is my faith making me increasingly frightened?

Is it teaching me to see enemies everywhere?

Is it making me suspicious of everyone who believes differently?

Is it convincing me that I am spiritually superior to other people?

Is it encouraging me to humiliate, condemn, or dehumanize others?

Is it making me afraid to think?

Afraid to ask questions?

Afraid to be honest about who I am?

Those questions matter too.

Christianity Does Not Belong to the Loudest Christians

We are living through a time when Christianity is frequently intertwined with politics, nationalism, culture wars, and arguments about who properly belongs.

Christian nationalism is one expression of that, and it should not be confused with Christianity itself.

No political movement owns Jesus.

No political party owns Jesus.

No nation owns Jesus.

And no individual Christian gets to stand at the doorway to Christ and decide who is worthy of entering.

Christians have disagreed with one another about theology almost from the beginning.

We still do.

There are Christians who will disagree profoundly with things I believe.

I can live with that.

I don’t need everyone to practice Christianity exactly as I do in order to respect their relationship with the Divine.

And they don’t get to define mine.

Come Back to What Jesus Actually Said

When Jesus was asked which commandment was greatest, His answer centered love.

Love the Divine.

Love your neighbor.

Everything else, He said, hangs upon these.

That doesn’t mean Jesus never challenged anyone.

He did.

Love isn’t the same thing as telling everyone that every decision they make is wonderful.

Sometimes love calls us to change.

Sometimes love asks us to repent.

Sometimes love tells the truth we would rather not hear.

But challenge is not the same thing as rejection.

Conviction is not humiliation.

Discernment is not hatred.

And faith is not supposed to require us to strip another human being of dignity.

Angels Do Not Replace the Divine

Because this is Angel Messenger, I want to address something else directly.

I believe in angels.

I do not worship angels.

Angels are not gods.

They do not replace the Divine.

They do not replace Christ.

For me, angels are servants and messengers of Heaven.

When I ask the angels for help, I am not asking them to become my Divine.

I am asking those I believe serve Heaven to help guide, protect, comfort, or support me according to Divine will.

Other Christians may understand angels differently.

That’s okay.

But someone else’s interpretation of my spiritual practice does not define my intention.

And if you’ve ever been frightened because someone told you that your love of angels means you cannot love Christ, I want you to know that there are Christians who do not see those things as incompatible.

You are not alone.

You Are Allowed to Be a Seeker

Maybe you aren’t certain what you believe.

Maybe you’ve been wounded by a church.

Maybe you love Jesus but struggle with Christianity.

Maybe you feel at home in Christianity but don’t fit neatly into one denomination.

Maybe you have had spiritual experiences you cannot explain.

Maybe you believe in angels.

Maybe you meditate.

Maybe you have questions about Scripture.

Maybe you’re still figuring everything out.

Or perhaps you’ve been told that something about you makes you unacceptable to Christ.

Please hear me:

You are allowed to seek.

You are allowed to question.

You are allowed to pray while you’re confused.

You are allowed to approach the Divine without having your theology completely figured out.

You are allowed to walk toward Christ without first becoming a copy of someone else.

When Faith Becomes Fear

There is a kind of religious fear that can make the entire world seem dangerous.

Suddenly everything unfamiliar becomes a threat.

A book.

A meditation.

Another religion.

A spiritual experience.

A symbol.

A question.

A person.

A different interpretation of Scripture.

And eventually a person may spend more time trying to identify evil than actually living in love.

That concerns me deeply.

Because fear can become its own kind of prison.

And I don’t believe Christ is asking us to spend our lives terrified that we will accidentally step outside His love.

If You’ve Been Made to Believe Jesus Would Reject You

This is really who I am writing to.

Maybe someone used Christianity to shame you.

Maybe someone told you that Jesus couldn’t possibly love someone like you.

Maybe you’ve been told that your questions are dangerous.

Maybe you’ve been told your spiritual experiences make you unacceptable.

Maybe you’ve watched Christians speak with so much anger, condemnation, and fear that you decided you wanted nothing to do with their Jesus.

If so, I am sorry that this is the Jesus you were shown.

I cannot answer every theological question for you.

I cannot promise that every belief you’ve ever held is correct. I can’t say that about myself either.

But I can tell you this:

You are allowed to seek Christ without being frightened into someone else’s theology.

You are allowed to pray:

Jesus, show me who You are.

And then begin there.

Let Love Be Stronger Than Fear

I don’t want a faith that requires me to be terrified of everyone who is different from me.

I don’t want a Christianity that needs enemies in order to survive.

I don’t want to spend my life searching for demons behind everything I don’t understand.

I want a faith strong enough to ask questions.

Strong enough to practice discernment.

Strong enough to admit when I am wrong.

Strong enough to stand beside people who have been rejected.

Strong enough to love people who believe differently.

Strong enough to oppose cruelty without becoming cruel.

Strong enough to choose compassion without abandoning wisdom.

And strong enough to trust that Christ is bigger than my imperfect understanding of Him.

If you’ve been taught to fear Jesus, perhaps you don’t need to walk farther away from Him.

Perhaps you need to meet Him again without all the people standing between you and Him.

Ask questions.

Read the Gospels.

Pray.

Pay attention to the fruit.

Seek truth.

Seek wisdom.

Seek love.

And remember that another person’s fear does not have to become your faith.

You are allowed to walk toward Christ in love.

Peace, love and grace,

Rev. Sheri

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Learning to Trust Your Guidance Without Letting Fear Lead

If part of your spiritual journey involves learning how to understand your intuition and discern what you are feeling, my Understanding Intuitive Guidance Toolkit may be helpful.

One of the hardest things about spiritual guidance is learning the difference between intuition, fear, anxiety, our own thoughts, and the things we simply don’t yet understand. Discernment doesn’t require us to be afraid of every feeling or spiritual experience. It asks us to slow down, listen, question, pray, and learn to recognize how guidance speaks to us.

The Understanding Intuitive Guidance Toolkit was created to help you explore that process with greater confidence and discernment while continuing to use your own wisdom, reason, and connection with the Divine.

👉 Learn more about the Understanding Intuitive Guidance Toolkit