"God is love."

It's the most basic definition of God in Scriptures, but so profound that it's often misunderstood. In this probing book, a brilliant Bible expositor brings us into the very heart of God by answering such questions as:

• If God is love, how could he send anyone to Hell?
• What's the difference between the loving God of the New Testament and the angry God of the Old Testament?
• If God is love, why did he require his son to die such a cruel death on the cross?
• How can God be both loving and jealous?

The author argues against the two polar views of God as a sentimental grandfather whose doting love could not bring him to punishment of the disobedient and God as an angry tyrant who would rule by threats. "Both extremes paint a distorted picture of God and further confuse the issue of understanding God's love," Dr. MacArthur writes. He insists that what God loves is actually defined by what he hates, and that neither his love nor his wrath can be understood in isolation from the other.

Although the author is clearly aware of the way great men have grappled with these issues in the history of the church, his doctrinal presentations arise more from the biblical text than from dogmatic theology. He examines in detail the way John - "the apostle of love" - treats love in his First Epistle, then fleshes out the doctrine of God's love in vivid representations of real people interacting with divine love.