The Wrath of God
Whenever we read the Bible, we must be diligent to read what it actually says and not what we wish it would say. Likewise, when we contemplate the nature of our God, we must be diligent to see Him as He really is, with all of his known attributes in proper balance as they are revealed to us through the pages of the Bible.
If we dwell on those things about God that we like, such as his love, while skating over those things about Him that we find unsettling, such as his wrath, we distort the true picture of who God is. If we carry this to an extreme, we run the risk of creating our own god, a god who doesn’t really exist, a god who is not the God the Bible.
God does not change. He is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. If we find more examples of God’s anger in the Old Testament than we do in the New Testament, we must remind ourselves that it is the same unchangeable God that we encounter throughout the entire Bible. The God of love and the God of wrath are one and the same.
We may prefer to dwell upon those attributes of God that are pleasing to us, such as His generosity, His kindness, His love, His patience and so forth. While an appreciation of those things is right and good, we should not ignore those things about God that we find less appealing. Accordingly, we should not gloss over God’s wrath, which is a truly fearsome thing. Here is brief list of affirmations concerning the wrath of our most holy God:
- Many contemporary Christians focus on God’s love to the near exclusion of his righteous anger (the wrath of God).
- Just as an earthly father can love a son and still be provoked to anger against him, so also can our heavenly Father love us and still be provoked to anger against us.
- God hates sin and sin has kindled God’s wrath against mankind on numerous occasions.
- In ancient times, God struck people dead and destroyed entire cities because of sin that was particularly offensive to him.
- Rampant, worldwide sin prompted God to flood the whole earth, killing all life on dry land except for seven people and the animals God entrusted to their care.
- The wrath of God is a terrible and fearsome thing.
- It is foolhardy to tempt God’s fury.
- God loves mankind, but God does not love (have affection for) all men.
- Some Christians do not believe that there are men not loved by God.
- There are those whom God loved since before the foundation of the earth.
- There are those whom God hated since before the foundation of the earth.
- God is gracious, but God does not owe us anything.
- God’s ways are not our ways.
- We cannot know all that motivates God.
- We are God’s creatures, made by his hand.
- God owes us no explanations, though he has graciously condescended to explain himself to us about some things.
- Jesus endured the wrath of God the Father on the cross.
- Jesus endured the wrath of God on the cross to pay for sin on behalf of those men elected by God to salvation.
- At The End Of Time, Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead.
- At The Final Judgment, Jesus will unleash the fury of God’s wrath against all those who have remained unrepentant and consequently unsaved to the end.