The Wrath of God
By Rand York+
The setting for the movie plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark involves two
U.S. government agents soliciting help from Indiana Jones and his friend
Malcolm in interpreting a Nazi cable that mentions the lost Egyptian city of
Tanis. As in the movie, Tanis was indeed discovered by a French archeologist
immediately prior to World War II.[1]
But the movie adds an additional twist: Indiana and Malcolm explain that Tanis
was a place where, according to legend, the lost Ark of the Covenant was taken
and kept, after being stolen from the Israelites. After its arrival in Tanis,
the city was buried in a sandstorm lasting a whole year, “…wiped clean by the
wrath of God.”
Just what is the wrath of God? One
common understanding is that the wrath of God indicates anger, rejection and
punishment, as a thing different from and even disassociated with the love of
God. Here, wrath is rooted in hatred, specifically God’s hatred of sin, a
hatred which then rests upon the unrepentant. Reformed theologians note that
this is cause for praise and thanksgiving, since it proves God to be, “worthy
of our worship.” Wayne Grudem says
that, “…it is helpful for us to ask what God would be like if he were a God
that did not hate sin. He would then be a God who either delighted in sin or at
least was not troubled by it.”[2]
It is important to note at the outset
that God’s wrath applies in two contexts: 1) our life on earth both as we live
it and at our death, and 2) at the final judgment. The Eastern Orthodox have long taught the existence of two judgments: a
“partial judgment” at the end of each individual’s life, and a “general
judgment” at the end of all things.[3]
The first of these two is the culmination of a lifetime of judgment and “wrath”
which have been designed to change us into his likeness (without losing our own
identity). It is this “wrath” of which the Father speaks in reference to our
molding, shaping, sanctifying and training. St. Maximos the Confessor says, “The wrath of God is the painful
sensation we experience when we are being trained by Him.” Not everyone will
respond well to this gentle “wrath,” and will instead recognize God’s blessings
in their lives as achievements of their own. For them, the wrath of God will
then include, “the suspension of gifts of grace… [leaving] him destitute of the
power that until then had protected him.” St. Maximos concludes by saying,
“When wrath takes the form of God allowing the demons to attack an arrogant
intellect through the passions, it is a means of deliverance.”[4]
It is not, however, enough for God to
judge and apply his wrath (as a surgeon would apply his scalpel) to our lives
individually, as lived. The full story is not known until all things are known.
The (Roman) Catholic Catechism explains:
“Unkindness does
not stop with an act of impatience or spite; its effects continue in a
never-ending spiral long after the sin was committed. Charity does not cease
with the love-inspired word of encouragement or the selfless sharing of pain;
it starts a chain reaction of generosity that goes on for centuries after the
one who began the reaction has died…Only on the last day, when everything we
have done will have reached its end result, can a truly final judgment be made.”[5]
While the Roman Catholic explanation quoted above makes sense with regard to
the existence and timing of a final judgment at the end of all things, it does
not appear to be helpful with regard to diagnosis and treatment of the soul
thus examined. It has, rather, an echo about it of a works-oriented salvation
in which you “pay for your sins,” a decidedly western and legalistic
orientation that the Reformers rejected so completely that they threw the baby of healing
out with the bathwater of punitive purgatory (terminology and emphasis
mine).
As seen in Romans 3:25,
Hebrews 2:17, I John 2:2 and 4:10, is the death of Jesus a propitiation (that which turns away the wrath of God) or an expiation (that which cleanses from
sin)? The Greek word hilasmos can be
translated either way, and has been, in various versions of the Bible.[6] Anglican
Archbishop Peter Jensen expresses
the common current assumption that God’s wrath is that thing from which
salvation through Christ ensures our escape: “We have no reason whatever to
deny that the Bible’s central message is about salvation from the wrath to
come, through the death of Jesus.”[7]
But, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and it is from death that Christ saves us, not God’s wrath (notwithstanding Paul’s comment in
Romans 5:9). Those who are being saved experience the fire of God’s heart just
as surely as do those who are lost, but for the saved that fire is what Rich Mullins refers to as, “the
reckless, raging fury that they call the love of God.”[8] This
fire may be experienced at any time of our existence, both before and after
death. And so, his holy fire burns in us, changing us more and more into his
likeness. For many years, Clay McLean’s
Burn Holy Fire was sung at PCM
conferences worldwide as a worship song targeting this very truth.
BURN HOLY FIRE
©1987 by Clay McLean
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Burn Holy Fire.
Cleanse my desires.
Search me inside.
Let nothing hide.
Burn Holy Flame,
Until the same heart that's in You
Is burning in me.
Burn all that's dark,
Selfish or cold.
Soften my heart,
Possess my soul.
Burn Holy Flame,
Until the same heart that's in You
Is burning in me.
Like any parental
discipline, God’s wrath, as applied to those whom he loves, involves the need
for two-way communication. Our reactions need to give way to responses. John Gaden+ identifies seven reactions
to God’s wrath: anger, guilt, protest, numbness, plea for mercy, battling back,
and escapism.[9]
It is important to realize, however, that how you react depends on how you see
God. If your God is a monster, an angry response is natural and appropriate;
rejection of such a God is healthy, for a monster is not reflective of the one
true God. God’s wrath is not vindictive or vengeful. The warning, “This is
going to hurt,” when spoken by a doctor, is not an indication of the desire to harm,
but to heal. Daniel Migliore puts it
this way: “God is indeed a ‘consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:28-29), not a doting
grandfather. But the fire of God is the fire of a loving judgment and a judging
love that we know in the cross of Christ to be for our salvation rather than
our destruction.”[10]
When I was a small boy,
I went out in a rainstorm. I was on a mission to distribute flyers throughout
our neighborhood, despite the thunder and lightning. When I returned home, my
mother screamed, “Where have you been???”
She raised her fist to strike me, the first and only time I remember her ever
doing such a thing. I had frightened her badly because she loved me deeply.
Otherwise, she would not have cared. Her wrath came from her intense love, and
so does God’s. It is not something for us to be saved from, as if it were evil. Rather, we are called to be obedient,
making such interventions unnecessary. If we are disobedient, we should expect
God to intrude on our rebellion, for our own sakes. In any event, we need to respond,
not just react. Had I reacted to my mother in, for example, numbness or
escapism, an opportunity for connection would have been lost.
I have been contending here
that God’s wrath arises out of his love; indeed that his wrath is his love. Without him, we are lost in
our sin, and everything grows dark. God’s voice is not muted, but our hearing
is poor. How often did Jesus say, “He who has ears to hear…”? There are some
things God must do in sternness, much like George
MacDonald’s wise woman, who had a spoiled princess to deal with:
“Think of it – to kick at kindness,
and kneel from terror. But the sternness on the face of the wise woman came
from the same heart and the same feeling as the kindness that had shone from it
before. The only thing that could save the princess from her hatefulness, was
that she should be made to mind somebody else than her own miserable Somebody.”[11]
Bishop
Kallistos Ware demonstrates the belief among Eastern
Orthodox Christians that God knows and provides a way out of hell: “The lost in
hell are self-condemned, self-enslaved; it has been rightly said that the doors
of hell are locked on the inside. How
can a God of love accept that even a single one of the creatures whom he has
made should remain forever in hell?”[12]
Ware is joined by the Dutch Reformed and Calvinist theologian Jan Bonda in his belief that wrath and
hell may be eternal, but that they are not unending. Bonda sees a redemptive
purpose in God’s wrath, which, “will burn without ceasing until his purpose has been accomplished… Eternal life continues,
since it is God’s purpose for humanity. Eternal punishment, however, does not
forever continue, since that punishment itself is not its goal.”[13]
Hell and the wrath of
God do not imply separation from God. Only annihilation does that.[14] King David reminds us that, “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my
bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (Psalm 139:8). Rather, God’s wrath
and even hell itself is essentially to experience God’s love in a different
way. Stanley Grenz contends, “Just
as the righteous enjoy unending community with God, so also those who have set
themselves in opposition to God’s love experience his holy love eternally. For
them, however, this experience is hell.”[15] George MacDonald puts it another way:
“Every tempest is but an assault in the siege of love. The terror of God is but
the other side of his love.”[16]
These assertions are in
perfect alignment with the Anglican-Orthodox
joint understanding that, “God’s love is present everywhere and is offered to
everybody, but not everyone accepts it. According to some Fathers, even those
in hell are not deprived of the love of God but by their own free choice they
experience as torment what the saints experience as joy. The light of God’s
glory is also the fire of judgment. God’s wrath is no other than his love.”[17]
And so it is. God’s wrath
is no other than his love.
Bibliography
Anglican-Orthodox Dialogue: The Dublin
Agreed Statement 1984.
Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985.
Bonda,
Jan. The One Purpose of God. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Grenz,
Stanley J. Theology for the Community of
God. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
Grudem,
Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.
Handwerk,
Brian. “Lost City” of Tanis Found, but
Often Forgotten [article on-line]. National Geograpic, accessed 7 February
2011; available from http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/tanis-egypt/
Harakas,
Stanley+. The Orthodox Church: 455
Questions and Answers. Minneapolis: Light & Life, 1988.
Hardon,
John A.+, S.J. The Catholic Catechism.
New York: Doubleday, 1981.
Jensen,
++Peter. The Revelation of God.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002.
MacDonald,
George. Knowing the Heart of God.
Grand Rapids: Bethany House, 1990.
MacDonald,
George. The Wise Woman. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1980.
Migliore,
Daniel L. Faith Seeking Understanding.
Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2004.
Palmer,
G.E.H., Philip Sherrard, & +Kallistos Ware (eds.). The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Volume Two. London: Faber &
Faber, 1981.
Rowell,
+Geoffrey, +Kenneth Stevenson, & ++Rowan Williams (eds.). Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest
for Holiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Ware,
+Kallistos. The Orthodox Way.
Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986.
End Notes
[1] Brian Handwerk.
“Lost City” of Tanis Found, but Often
Forgotten [article on-line]. National Geographic, accessed 7 February 2011;
available from
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/tanis-egypt/
[2] Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology. (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2000) 206.
[3] Stanley
Harakas+. The Orthodox Church: 455
Questions and Answers. (Minneapolis: Light & Life, 1988) 177.
[4] G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard,
& +Kallistos Ware (eds.). The Philokalia:
The Complete Text, Volume Two. (London: Faber & Faber, 1981) 211, 213,
215.
[5]
John A.
Hardon+, S.J. The Catholic Catechism.
(New York: Doubleday, 1981) 260.
[6] Wayne Grudem. Op. Cit. 575. For example, the Revised
Standard Version steers clear of any connotation of appeasing God’s wrath by
using the word expiation.
[7] ++Peter Jensen.
The Revelation of God. (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002) 278.
[9]
+Geoffrey
Rowell, +Kenneth Stevenson, & ++Rowan Williams (eds.). Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness. (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001) 755-756.
[11]
George
MacDonald. The Wise Woman. (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980) 12-13.
[12] +Kallistos Ware. The
Orthodox Way. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986) 181.
Italics Ware’s.
[13]
Jan Bonda.
The One Purpose of God. (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1998) 214, 219. Bonda appeals to a lot of Scripture in support of his
arguments, much of it from Jeremiah, Isaiah and Psalms, and so much from Romans
that his book is a virtual commentary on that epistle.
[14] I say this in full recognition of
the contention that it takes two entities to be separated from each other, and
that a non-entity cannot therefore be separated from something. My point is
that God is with you unless you don't exist.
[17]
Anglican-Orthodox Dialogue: The Dublin Agreed
Statement 1984.
Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985. Agreement #71.
©2015 Rand York+
