Here are three of many examples when He did just that in this life.
OT: Sodom & Gomorrah; The Flood
NT: Annanias and Sapphira
Our deeds matter, and God is watching. You are right that God provides for the evil and the good alike and that He is longsuffering, waiting for all who will to repent. But He does now, and will more so on Judgment Day, discriminate between good and evil deeds -- and punish the people who do the evil acts. The acts themselves are merely free will expressions of the heart of the individual that acts. There is really no separating the individual from responsibity for how he acts. The person and his deeds are one in the same.
The when of God's judgment is beside the point. All I was saying is that all we do/say/think will fall under His judgment. That means God discriminates between good and evil acts (which are not separate entities different from the people who do them). There is forgiveness for those who repent and have faith, but without the blood of the Lamb covering ones sins, God will punish the doers of evil.
Jesus came to free us from sin, not to excuse us of sin. These people are distorting the gospel and God will have no problem discriminating between them and His true followers on Judgment Day.
"God is good, dispassionate, and immutable. Now someone who thinks it reasonable and true to affirm that God does not change, may well ask how, in that case, it is possible to speak of God as rejoicing over those who are good and showing mercy to those who honor Him, and as turning away from the wicked and being angry with sinners. To this it must be answered that God neither rejoices nor grows angry, for to rejoice and to be offended are passions; nor is He won over by the gifts of those who honor Him, for that would mean He is swayed by pleasure. It is not right that the Divinity feel pleasure or displeasure from human conditions. He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him, but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us and expose us to demons who torture us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him to change, but that through our actions and our turning to the Divinity, we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God's goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind." The Philokalia, Chap. 150.
"Here are three of many examples when He did just that in this life. OT: Sodom & Gomorrah; The Flood NT: Annanias and Sapphira"
The examples you cite are instances of what the Fathers called pedagogical punishment and were imposed to stop the spread of evil and not to "punish" those who died. or so the Fathers taught. St Isaac the Syrian in his Homily 73 said:
"He who applies pedagogical punishments in order to give health, is punishing with love, but he who is looking for vengeance, is devoid of love. God punishes with love, not defending Himself — far be it — but He wants to heal His image, and He does not keep His wrath for long. This way of love is the way of uprightness, and it does not change with passion to a defense. A man who is just and wise is like God because he never chastises a man in revenge for wickedness, but only in order to correct him or that others be afraid."
I understand where your beliefs come from. I am not condemning them, but you should understand that they are particularly Western. I suspect the Fathers would declare the ECUSA heretics anathema and remove them from the Church for the good of the Church and the heretics themselves, but they would pray for their repentance unceasingly.
Actaully deeds do not matter. The bible clearly states this fact. However, as a Christian we are called to be Christ-like and in that there is the foregone conclusion that we will not commit evil deeds. Not that any of us will be perfect at it, but the Lord knows our hearts.
Christians by their nature do "good" deeds, because that is Christ-like and non-Christians do both good and bad deeds. If a Christian willfully performs a bad deed without remorse, then they are not a Christian. Many good deed doing people will be incredibly disappointed on the day of their judgement because they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, which is unrefutabley the only way to enter the gates of Heaven.