NOTE TO THE READER: The following document was originally prepared and presented by Haydn K. Piper, for a Debate at the Beaverton, Oregon, SDA Church, in March of 1988.
This is the conclusion of this presentation.
* GOD'S ANGER AND WRATH (W/MERCY) *
Now let us look at a few of the places where Paul got some of his evidence for Romans 1, 4, 8, and Ephesians 2.
"Woe betide them for straying away from Me! Death to them for rebelling against Me! Why should I redeem them When they tells lies about Me? They have never called for Me from their hearts. They howl by their altars for food and wine. They gash themselves like pagans and rebel against Me. Although it was I who trained them to be strong. While they made evil plans against Me."
"Your sins, Israel, all began at Gibeah And there you remain defiant still. Why should not war overtake them, there in Gibeah? In My wrath I will punish them. I will gather nations against them. To chastise them for their double sin." "You have ploughed evil And you have reaped disaster: You have had to eat the harvest of your lying. Because you have trusted in your chariots, And in the number of your armed men, The din of war will arise among your people ... This will be your fate at My hands, Israel, Because of the grossness of your evil."
"When Israel was young I came to love him. And I called him out of Egypt to be My son. But the more I called them The further they went from Me. They made sacrifices to the Baals And burnt incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephriam to walk, Picking them up in My arms." "Yet they never knew it was I who healed their bruises. I led them with gentle encouragement. Their harness was a harness of love. I treated them like the man Who eases the yoke to free the jaws - Yes, I bent down to them and gave them food." "They must return to the land of Egypt Or Assyria must be their king. Because they have refused to turn to Me The sword" shall swirl around their cities, Break the defens of their gates, And destroy them within their fortresses. My people are bent on turning away from Me; The yoke is all they are good for - I can love them no more." "How, oh how, can I give you up, Ephriam? How, oh how, can I hand you over, Israel? How can I turn you into a Sodom? How can I treat you like a Gomorrah? My heart recoils within Me. All My compassion is kindled. I will not give vent to My fierce anger - I will not destroy Ephriam again. For I am God and not man, I am the Holy One in your midst And I have not come to destroy!"
"It was I who spoke through the prophets. It was I who gave vision after vision. And through the prophets gave you parables. If there is evil in Gilgal They shall surely be destroyed. If they scarifice oxen there, Their altars shall become like heaps of stones In the forrows of the field." It was by a prophet that the Lord Brought Israel up from Egypt. And by a prophet was he kept safe. Ephriam has given bitter provocation. And so the Lord will leave him alone with his guilt And fling his reproaches back at him."
Listen to the awefullness of the language there. How can that come from a loving God? Yet all along the way God also seems to be saying to Himself, to Israel of old, and to us today; How, O how can I do this? How can I say this? How can I even think this? God is trying to impress them, and us, with the terrible consequences of rebellion. What good parent doesn't correct the erring child? However, God IS limited in what He can do because He will not abridge freedom to get His way. How can we not trust a person with that kind of integrity? There is always a danger when studying any subject to stop reading when the point you want to make is made. If ever there were a witness against "key texts" (alone), a study of the "Wrath of God" speaks most effectively.
"... Thou hast rejected us and brought us to dishonor. And dsot not go out with our armies. Thou dost cause us to turn back from the adversary; and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. Thou dost give us as sheep to be eaten, and hast scattered us among the nations." "Arouse thyself; why dost Thou sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us foreve. Why dost Thou hide Thy face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?"
"Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also mounted against Israel; Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation. Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of Heaven; and He rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them food from heaven. ... Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings. So they ate and were filled; and their desire He gave to them."
"He gave also their crops to the grasshopper. ... He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones. ... He sent upon them His burning anger, fury, and indignation, and trouble, a band of destroying angels."
We assume who these angels are, but it doesn't say they are God's angels!
"Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies, but turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned aside like a treacherous bow. For they provoked Him with their high places, and aroused His jealousy with their graven images. When God heard, He was filled with wrath, and greatly abhorred Israel; So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, the tent which He had pitched among men, and gave up His strength to captivity, and His glory into the hand of the adversary. He also delivered His people to the sword, and was filled with wrath at His inheritance."
"How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou be angry forever? Will Thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations which do not know Thee."
"But My people did not listen to My voice; and Israel did not obey Me. So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices. Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries."
"They quickly forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but craved intensly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. So He gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them." "Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people, and He abhorred His inheritance. Then He gave them into the hand of the nations."
If, in the destruction at the flood; Sodom and Gomorrah; the
tenth Plague in Egypt; Hophnie and Phinehaus; Korah, Dathum,
and Abiram; David's numbering of Israel; the 185,000 Asyrians;
Ananias and Saphphira; and possibly a hundered other places in
both the old and new testaments and in history since, we look
beyond the surface and examine the circumstances and the
alternative consequences of God not taking such drastic actions
we have to come up with a different answer than God's "anger" in
a human fashion.
Without such drastic actions taken by God, out of love and
compassion for His children, those children would have been
led into even greater sin and greater damage, and even more of
His children would have been lost.
The question is; "How can a loving God justify doing such aweful
things to people?" I am convinced, as I look at this problem of
BAD sin is and understand less the full resultant consequences
of sin, even in nature; how about earthquakes, volcanoes,
huricanes?
The answer to the question is in the demonstration of Christ's
life. God did no more to His rebellious children, throughout
history, than He did to His Son on the cross.
* GOD'S FINAL EXHIBITION OF WRATH *
As a group, we are really not clear when God's final exhibition of wrath is given. So, I would like to offer a scenario. In Revelation, the last time that the wrath of God is mentioned is in connection with the Seven Last Plagues:
"And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished."
"... Babylon the great city was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath."
This is the last time that wrath is mentioned. When we come to the final destruction of the wicked and Satan in Revelation 20, wrath isn't mentioned.
* FINAL DESTRUCTION OF THE WICKED *
"And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever."
"And death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
And that is it! No wrath. The wicked do die, they and rebellion are destroyed forever and ever, but my understanding is that it is clearly not something that God does in anger.
* BIBLICAL MEANING OF GOD'S WRATH *
Again I would like us to return to Romans 1:24, 26, 28. God's wrath is what happens to the sinner when he finally rejects God and places himself outside of the protection that God offers us from Satan. This is what Peter is saying about the devil; that "he goes about roaring like a Lion, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8. It is only as God protects His people that Satan cannot destroy us. The comment often made then is this: "If that is all that happens then it cann't be very serious, can it?"
* SERIOUS BUSINESS *"SIN IS NOT OF A QUALITY THAT GOD HAS TO ADD SOMETHING TO IT, TO MAKE IT WORSE."
There is nothing that can be added to sin to make it worse; all God has to do is let it go to seed, let it be seen for what it is. The worst thing that God could do is to step aside, and no longer restrain the wicked in their wickedness and let sin go to seed; "let them alone," He says. And in the last fires of cleansing, all those who are not able to stand in God's presence will be consumed. Again, how terrible that is was demonstrated on the cross.
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