Pastor's blog

When I was a student at Hope College there was a guy who would visit our campus. He would hold a big sign that condemned us all to hell for our drunken and promiscuous behavior.

When I was an intern in Seminary I worked as youth leader in Zeeland. I listened to students give their profession of faith (from another church) and all of them concluded with the same thought. It basically went like this: Since I don't want to go to hell, I decided to give my life to Jesus. Is that where God really wants us?

No doubt the Bible talks about God's wrath. The question is, what form does it take? Here's what Deuteronomy 31:17 says, "I will hide my face from them and they will become easy prey." Ezekiel 7:22 says something similar. In these verses, God's wrath takes the form of God hiding his face or removing protection. In other verses, we find different descriptions of the adage, "You reap what you sow."

Proverbs 1:28-33 says, "They shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices." Psalm 5:10 and Psalm 7:15-16 say something similar. Galatians 6:7-8 comes right out and says it. So, God wrath takes the form of allowing us to experience the consequences of our own actions. In neither case, does God actually do anything menacing.

The longest description of this idea comes from Romans 1:18-32. The passage starts out by saying that God's wrath is revealed. The question is how does God reveal his wrath to people. In verses 24, 26, and 28, we find that God "gave them up." In other words, those who choose to ignore God are given up to experience the fruit of their own ways. I think we can all agree that that's often "hell" enough for most people.

The Bible advises us that, in our anger, we shouldn't sin. I'm quite sure that God follows his own advice. No doubt God is angered by our sin, but God sent his Son to save the world, not condemn it. If God is waiting to destroy us, then God is trying to save us from himself. That doesn't make sense. If God is waiting to destroy us because of some obligation to keep the law, then God seems to be a servant of the law. That doesn't make sense either.

It makes much more sense to say that God wants to save us from ourselves, from the violence we do to one another, to ourselves. God has gone to great lengths to show us that there is another way, a way that is secure and easy and light. God is angry and jealous when we choose our own way, but it doesn't seem he wants to destroy us for it. He'll let us take care of that ourselves (but not without a fight).

It seems best to think of God's wrath as God's feelings of disgust and anger rather than any outpouring of punishment. I'll leave you with some words from Hosea, "My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger."

Thoughts?