Got to get up early tomorrow to start the bird, so I'll keep it short. I don't get this aversion to the idea that God is capable of hate. Did God have hate in Him? That sounds like a trick question to begin with because it implies that there is something wrong with hate. That it is a sin to have. Maybe for us, it is, when it is directed at people whom we cannot see into their hearts. But God can, so he is entitled, no, obligated to hate that which is wrong/evil. Don't you see that is all I'm trying to say here? Scripture says God says he hates certain behaviors. I do not think it is wrong for him to and I do not think it compromises his eternal nature of goodness, holiness, justice and purity. God says he loves certain things us especially, thank God, but also certain behaviors. Because he loves those behaviors it is logical that he would abhor or hate their converse.
Instead of us going back and forth over what I think is not all that big of a deal, why don't you explain to me why you think the Bible would say God hates certain things if he doesn't?
But there is a problem with that, even if it "feels right" that God should hate evil. If God pre-existed creation than he pre-existed the evil. But when evil appeared in his created beings (angles and men) as a result of their free will, he somehow became obligated to hate sin? If God is "obligated" then he is not perfect. If God didn't have hate in him but acquired it as a consequence of his own creation, then he is not unchanging. And if God knew evil before evil came into the world, then he is the author of evil.
BB-””I don’t get this aversion to the idea that God is capable of hate. Did God have hate in Him?””
God wills all things love,bb,because His essence is love, and willing anything other than love would change and move God
From Saint Thomas Aquinas...
The will of God is directed to things other than Himself, in so far as, by willing and loving His own being and His own goodness, God wills it to be diffused as much as possible through the communication of likeness. This, then, is what God wills in other things, that there be in them the likeness of His goodness. But this is the good of each thing, namely, to participate in the likeness of God; for every other goodness is nothing other than a certain likeness of the first goodness. Therefore, God wills good to each thing. Hence, He hates nothing.-Saint Thomas Aquinas
Our sin is OUR hatred of His love where WE freely move away from that love. This does not effect God and cause Him to hate since God is NOT moved from the Love He wills
BB-””why don’t you explain to me why you think the Bible would say God hates certain things if he doesn’t?””
Here is your answer from Saint Thomas Aquinas...
[7] However, God is said by similitude to hate some things, and this in a twofold way. In the first way, because God, in loving things and by willing the existence of their good, wills the non-existence of the contrary evil. Hence, He is said to have a hatred of evils, for we are said to hate what we will not to exist. In the words of Zechariah (8:17): “And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his friend and love not a false oath. For all these are the things that I hate, saith the Lord.” These, however, are not effects in the manner of subsisting things, to which properly love and hate refer.
[8] The second way arises from the fact that God wills some greater good that cannot be without the loss of some lesser good. And thus He is said to hate, although this is rather to love. For thus, inasmuch as He wills the good of justice or of the order of the universe, which cannot exist without the punishment or corruption of some things, God is said to hate the things whose punishment or corruption He wills. In the words of Malachi (1:3): “I have hated Esau”; and the Psalms (5:7): “You hate all workers of iniquity: You destroy all who speak a lie. The bloody and the deceitful man the Lord will abhor.”Saint Thomas Aquinas
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Hate is a strong word (VERY).
Not knowing Hebrew, Arabic, or Greek we are essentially at the mercy of interpreters. There are other words loath, despise, etc. So what we have is the Scriptures in the best translations available. The Rabbi's do say we misunderstand the Hebrew culture of the day, so we impose our idea of what the verse means, rather than understanding of what it meant to the hearers at the time it was spoken.
That said. It has been a bit of a puzzle to me for the Bible to say, ‘Jacob I loved and Esau I hated’ before they were born.’ Then it says, Esau hated or despised his birthright. Joseph's brothers hated Joseph.
‘Hate’ has numerous references in the bible. So since everything that is exists within the presence of God ...???
It describes an unwanted emotion, like sin is an unwanted action. God's thoughts are beyond our thoughts, His ways are above our ways. Trust God. Do what He instructs and all will be well.
God help us in our day, in Jesus name, amen