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God Is Love 19


The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, (Romans 1:18)

          A loving God would never condemn anyone to hell, or call for the destruction of an entire people. That’s what we’re told. In the past several weeks, people have been very angry with a government that separates kids from parents. This is not an invitation to discuss that particular issue here. If it is unacceptable to remove children from their parents, how much more heinous would it be for parents to cook their children alive? 
          "But God could have revealed Himself to them, taught them that it was wrong."
          Very true, what makes you think He didn’t? 
         "It doesn’t say He did in Scripture." 
          It also doesn’t say He didn’t. In fact, it talks of four hundred years in which the people of Palestine were permitted to sin. Scripture tells us what God did, but nowhere in Scripture does it tell us that what God did as recorded in Scripture is all of what God did.
          "But wrath is incompatible with love. If God is wrathful, He can’t be loving!"
          Can’t He? That brings us nicely to today’s issue. If God is love, and God is wrathful, then can love be wrathful? The first thing we must do is define “wrath.” Wrath is extreme anger. Our minds tend to automatically go to an image of someone out of control: road rage squared. Of course, when they think about their own wrath, they either claim it doesn’t exist (Ha!) or that their level of anger is completely justified and rational, and their control complete (well, most of the time.) It’s only other people who get wrathful, psychopaths (who, incidentally don’t tend to be wrathful), those of the other group (whatever group that maybe) and insane gods.
         Let’s return to the problem on our border. There are lost of people who are wrathful about children being separated from adults who claim to be their parents. Granted, they are wrathful at someone they hate, but they claim they are wrathful because they have compassion (a form of love) for the oppressed. (I think there’s a whole lot more going on, but for now, we’ll keep it simple.) Love causes the lover to be wrathful when the beloved is being harmed. Love can even require that the lover be wrathful with the beloved when the beloved is doing something harmful to himself or to someone else. So yes, God is wrathful. God is love, and love is wrathful when wrath is the good response.

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