Category Archives: God

Does God hate the wicked?

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You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil;
with you the wicked cannot dwell.
the arrogant cannot stand in your presence;
you hate all who do wrong.

(Psalm 5:5)

The Lord examines the righteous,
but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.

(Psalm 11:5)

Writing in Hard Sayings of the Bible, Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser comments:

‘Our problem with any description of God’s displeasure with sin, unrighteousness or wickedness is that we define all anger as Aristotle defined it: “the desire for retaliation.”…

16 bad atheist arguments

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I rather like how Jeremy Linn has captured some of the most popular atheist arguments against Christianity, and hinted at where some of its weaknesses might lie.

Moreover, says Linn, ‘for each of the arguments, we give an example question you can ask to better understand where the person who gave the argument is coming from. The goal is to listen and understand, rather than to dominate and tear down.’

1: Who created God?

This question is asked under the assumption that God needs a creator.…

Was ‘the wrath of God satisfied’ on the cross?

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‘In Christ alone’ (Stuart Townend and Keith Getty) is a fine Christian song.

But what about the words that stick in the throats of many:-

Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied.

Please don’t tell me you won’t sing these words because you unwilling to think or speak of God’s wrath, and wish to sing only of his love.  The song as a whole does a great job in exploring the various dimensions of Christ’s death and resurrection. …

Divine retribution in the New Testament

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It is often asserted that divine judgement is restorative, and not retributive.  But this is a false dichotomy, and one that flies in the face of the testimony of Scripture.

Andrew Atherstone notes that the concept of divine retribution (punishment administered by God in return for wrong that has been committed) is not frequently encountered in the New Testament, but that it is present nonetheless:-

‘For example, after Jesus healed an invalid at the Pool of Bethesda he warned the man, ‘Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you’ (John 5:14).…

Is divine wrath personal?

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For years, scholars have debated whether God’s wrath, as taught in the New Testament is personal or impersonal.  That is to say, whether ‘wrath’ is some that can be ascribed directly to God, describing something of his hostility towards sin, or that it merely describes the inevitable consequences of sin, the misery and self-destruction that it brings.

Writing in Aspects of the Atonement, I. Howard Marshall, finds the following points ‘decisive’:-

1. To allow that sinners bring calamity upon themselves does not exclude the idea that the calamity is not from God. …

The New Testament concept of future judgment

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In Aspects of the Atonement, I.H. Marshall discusses the NT terminology of judgment, wrath and punishment.

1. The language of punishment features occasionally (Matt. 24:43–51; Luke 12:45–48; Matt. 25:46; 2 Thess. 1:9; Heb. 10:29; 2 Pet. 2:9.

2. Vengeance, or revenge, occurs in Luke 18:1–8; Rom. 12:19 (citing Deut. 32:35); 1 Thessalonians 4:6; Luke 21:22; and 2 Thessalonians 1:8.

3. More frequent is the use of wrath or anger.  Orgē and related terms are found in Matt.…

The wrath of God in the New Testament

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It is often assumed that the picture of God in the Old Testament is that of a wrathful despot, while the God of the New Testament is nothing but love.

This is seriously mistaken.  Not only does the OT have much to say about God’s love (see, for example, Deuteronomy 7:7,8; and Hosea 3:1; 14:4), the NT has rather a lot to say about god’s wrath.  Let Roger D. Campbell summarise for us:-

First of all, in the New Testament there are a number of verses which make direct reference to “the wrath of God.”
…

Does God ‘hate the sin, but love the sinner’?

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It is a well-worn cliche to attempt to separate the sin from the sinner, and to say that God hates the former, but loves the latter.

As with most cliches, there is an important measure of truth here.  We can certainly say that God hates the sin, and yet loves them in the sense that he reaches out to the worst of sinners with the offer of grace and forgiveness.

But the cliche is still only a half-truth.  …

Ex 9:13-35 – Purpose, power, proclamation (sermon notes)

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[Notes of a sermon originally preached in 2003]

Text: Exodus 8:20-9:35, esp. 9:13-35.

We read it in the Bible, we recite it in our creed, we sing it in our songs and hymns, we say it in our prayers.  But do we really believe it?  Is God really powerful?

‘Allies meet for crisis summit’ – The leaders of the US, UK and Spain hold an emergency summit on Iraq as final preparations are made for war.…

‘A better story’ – 13

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Compared with the sensuous and graphic promises of Islam, the biblical vision of heaven seems positively chaste.  See, for example, Matthew 22:30.  But there is, perhaps, more to be said.

Sex as both a picture and a taster of divine love.  Although people will not marry each other in heaven, marriage itself will be by no means absent: there will be the one marriage between Christ and his church.  And this picture of heaven, although not the only one, is remarkable deep and powerful. …