Spiritual Bouquet
A different meditation each time you click.
| Meditations by Padre Pio |
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God loves man with an infinite love and when He punishes He does so with reverence, almost fearing to hurt. |
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Posted on 09/22/2010 11:41:37 AM PDT by RnMomof7
It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight, they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. .... Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.
Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him. His own challenge is, "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live forever, If I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to Mine enemies, and will reward them that hate Me" (Deut. 32:39-41).
(Excerpt) Read more at pbministries.org ...
One of the ways God visits his wrath on a people is to “give them over” to the extremes of their sinful natures by removing his common grace. (Romans 1:18, 24,26,28) Thus, he does the harshest thing possible - he gives us what we want. We see that happening right now in America.
I agree.. I think we see that around us .
I think some of us fear that we may be on the wrong end of His wrath when Armaggedon arrives.
I think some need to be fearful..
If we do not understand how God hates sin, we can not appreciate how the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus at the cross.. we can not appreciate His work or our salvation
And we don't have to all we have to is believe The Gospel and be saved.
I don't take delight in God's wrath. It is just that--His wrath. He is not taking delight in it, so why should I?
I don't apologize for it either.
I think we are to hate sin as much as God hates it, I believe it is scriptural to delight in His judgement and righteousness against all that oppose Him
¶ And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. Rev 6:9 ¶ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
Rev 6:11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they [were], should be fulfilled.
Rev 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
Rev 16:6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Rev 16:7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous [are] thy judgments.
I have no problem seeing wrath as part of God’s character. My problem is with folks who are so sure someone else is going to be the recipient of that wrath. I prefer to let God decide upon whom His wrath shall descend.
And He will. For those that have trusted in Christ the wrath was taken by Him.
First I should admit that I have often offered my services to God for at least preliminary hearings on the Last Day. I have a short list here — well, shorter than War and Peace anyway — of people He should punish, and I would hate for Him to miss them somehow.
Seriously, ONE problem is that we, or at least our culture, do not have a reasonable view of wrath or the habit of distinguishing between the “irascible appetites” (which are morally neutral) and all the ball of sin, hatred, judgment, mercilessness that is wrapped up in what we carelessly call ‘wrath’ or anger.
We see or think of getting “drunk with rage” and call that ‘wrath’. And if that were what wrath is, it would be wrong to attribute that loss of reason and virtue to God.
If we see, however, that God does not have parts, and that therefore His wrath cannot be conceptually different from His love, problem solved!
The problem is as much bad anthropology as bad theology, IMHO.
Interesting topic. Thanks for raising it.
I would say His wrath is a part of His Holiness, His Justice, His love, and His mercy
If there was no wrath then mercy has no meaning
Too often men think God created them because He was lonely. We are created for His glory... Creation is about God and not us.. but our egos do not like to hear that :)
So God is as glorified in His wrath as He is in His love or His mercy....His wrath reveals to us His holiness and justice. I like this definition which agrees with you :)
WRATH OR ANGER Wrath is "the personal manifestation of God’s holy, moral character in judgment against sin. Wrath is neither an impersonal process nor irrational and fitful like anger. It is in no way vindictive or malicious. It is holy indignation—God’s anger directed against sin. God’s wrath is an expression of His holy love. If God is not a God of wrath, His love is no more than frail, worthless sentimentality; the concept of mercy is meaningless; and the Cross was a cruel and unnecessary experience for His Son." (Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Nashville: T. Nelson) (See also Holman Bible Dictionary)
Spiritual Bouquet
A different meditation each time you click.
| Meditations by Padre Pio |
||
|
God loves man with an infinite love and when He punishes He does so with reverence, almost fearing to hurt. |
||
1Thess 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 1:10 to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Jas 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
There is no wrath from God to those who are saved through His Son Jesus Christ. How anyone can write such a thing specifically on the wrath of God and not focus on God’s wrath having all been poured out of Christ on the cross and that that is no wrath for those in Christ is very sad.
We agree.. but this is a study on the attributes of God and so it focuses on that
I guess I think of the wrath of God as basically applying justice where mercy was available and not availed of by the sinner.
Christ and the cross of Christ is our focus in all matters. There is no glory to God or benefit to either believer or unbeliever in delivering a teaching on God's wrath and leaving out His gift of salvation which includes no wrath, it is finished. We are to preach the good news and a teaching such as this is offensive to God in my opinion.
Scripture says they will be without excuse ...so I agree
There is no Good News Unless we know the bad news first.. and that bad news is without repenting of our sin and coming to Christ, Gods wrath will fall on us
Unless one understands the holiness of God and His righteous wrath the cross means very little. I believe God is glorified in His righteous anger/wrath just as He is in His Mercy for those of us that deserve His wrath.. Either we believe in the God of the Bible or we make our own god to our liking..
That is about the silliest non scriptural thing I have ever read
Tell that to the men, and women and children that God drown in the flood, tell that to the Egyptians that had their babies slaughtered by an angel of God, tell that to the Egyptian men God drown in the nile river ,and the men, women and children that God eliminated in Sodom, read the prophets . God is long suffering.. But His wrath is Holy and just, He does not repent of it
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