Wrath of God
By Timothy Glover
Much confusion exists on this subject. Either Yahweh is portrayed as some unreasonable, insecure god who punishes when the impulse to do so is great or he is a God of love and kindness. Many religious people espouse the later view. They have conditioned themselves to never raise the matter. This article will merely remind the reader of what the Bible claims about the wrath of God.
Nahum the prophet writes, “The Lord is a jealous God and avengeth; the Lord avengeth and is full of wrath; the Lord taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty... Who can stand before His indignation? And who can abide the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that put their trust in him. But... He will pursue His enemies into darkness” (1:2-8 RV). The New Testament reveals that he will come in blazing fire to punish those “who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess.1:7-9). The Bible is full of similar statements (Rom. 1:18; 2:5; 5:9; 12:19; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2:16; 5:9; Luke 21:22-24).
For some, wrath suggests a loss of self-control and irrationality. Others associate it with wounded pride or conscious impotence. Yet, it is important to know that the Bible uses anthropomorphic language so that humans can relate to it. Human personality is more like the being of God than anything we know. While God’s anger is not like man’s, with us there is such a thing as “righteous indignation”. A just cause exists for God’s anger, also. Seeing that he cannot take pleasure in evil, he must react adversely toward it.
The Bible claims that God is the administer of justice and that his wrath is poured out to those who opt to forsake his guidance. John records, “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (3:18-19). In other words, the act of judgment is the judgment that which people transfer upon themselves by rejecting the light. These are not arbitrary inflictions but represent God’s readiness to respect human choice. This is just!
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