The Holy Wrath of God

For most God is simply characterized as just simply loving. In the world today it has become evermore apparent that God is no longer considered a wrathful God or an angry God. He has been turned into a laid back, tame, all-loving God with no anger against unrighteousness.

Many songs sung in the contemporary church today have lost that aspect of God's wrath and judgment against unrighteousness. I have been very blessed in a church that I have found here in Stillwater. One of the beliefs of the reformed presbyterian church is that of exclusive psalm singing with no instruments, which I have really come to appreciate. At first it seemed like a big change to me, since I was used to the instruments and singing more contemporary pop christian songs.

But one thing that the psalters emphasize (just as the psalms themself do) is the wrath and holy righteous judgment of God upon sinners and unrighteousness. Many songs I believe these days have completely neglected that aspect of God. (Psalms 2, 76, 78, 90)



Psalm 45
7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness...

Romans 1
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Isaiah 9
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.

To take a great verse from my roommate, who has it written on his closet mirror door thingy:

Exodus 34
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forg iving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."

Despite common belief the God of the old testament is the same God in the new. He was not a wrathful God in the old and is now only a loving God in the new. It seems in that view, that in the old testament God only had one characteristic and in the new He only has one as well.

Reading from John MacArthur's Commentary on Romans he says:

"Some years ago, an article in The Times of London reported that fourteen church study groups in Woodford looked at the Old Testament psalms and concluded that eighty-four of them were "not fit for Christians to sing". They reasoned that the wrath and vengeance reflected in those psalms was not compatible with the Christian gospel of love and grace." (MacArthur)

To me this is shocking, but really it isn't a very uncommon belief. I have had students in my classes arguing against capital punishment and war and other topics such as the sending of sinners to hell, with the statement of, "I thought that God was a God of love." Good point...
He is indeed a God of perfect love, He also is a God of perfect anger and wrath. A God of perfect salvation and a God of perfect judgment.

The new testament did not all of a sudden change God's person and cause Him to suddenly change His mind of how He viewed sin. In fact the new testament is filled with mentions to God's wrath. And I am not sure that anyone spoke more of hell and judgment than Christ Himself.

Keeping it strictly New Testament here:

John the Baptist to a group of Pharisees and Sadducees, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7-8) And a few verses later he says of Jesus "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (vv.11-12).

The sermon on the mount is full of references for the judgment to come for sinners.

"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire." (Matthew 5:22). (See also Matthew 5:29-30 and Matthew 8:12).

To the twelve disciples:
"And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town." (Matthew 10:14-15 also vv.28)

"I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37 and see also 13:40, 49; 16:26; 18:34-35; 22:12; 23:33)

Here is where the problem lies though, many will not characterize God as wrathful or burning with anger against the sinful, because they compare it with the jealous, hateful, and sinful anger of humans. Of course to base God on the standards of man would be absurd, considering our rage and anger is a sinful one and God's is a holy one.
God's anger is not an out of control, emotional, uncontrolled anger it is a "settled, determined indignation."

"Unrighteousness encompasses the idea of ungodliness but focuses on its result. Sin first attacks God's majesty and then His law. Men do not act righteously because they are not rightly related to God, who is the only measure and source of righteousness. Ungodliness unavoidably leads to unrighteousness. Because men's relation to God is wrong, their realtion to their fellow men is wrong. Men treat other men the way they do because they treat God the way they do. Man's enmity with his fellow man originates with his being at enmity with God.
Sin is the only thing God hates, He does not hate poor people or rich people, dumb people or smart people, untalented people or highly skilled people. He only hates the sin that those people, and all others, naturally practice, and inevitably brings His wrath." (MacArthur)

God is perfectly holy and loving because of His perfect hate of sin. And the sinful man is God's enemy before they are found in Christ (Romans 5:10) and are children of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3). So God will indeed bring His anger upon them. And He will be blameless on the day of judgment. (Psalm 51:4).

If you take out God's judgment and wrath then evangelism is meaningless to you. There is no desire to share the Gospel with a dying world. Many believe in universalism where everyone is going to be saved, and others believe that unbelievers will go into an extended state of unconciousness. But the reality is that they will be sent to the lake of fire for eternity. The wrath of God is real, but the salvation found in Christ is the hope for the lost. God is indeed all-loving and He is righteous and full of grace, but to the unbelieving sinner on the day of judgment his wrath and anger will show. And He will blameless and righteous when He judges us.

Citation:
*The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Romans 1-8
*ESV Bible