Revelation Day 19 - Is God Angry?

Is God angry? 

That question sounds like nonsense. God's love is everywhere on display throughout the Bible (yes, even the Old Testament, dear Christian). 1 John affirms that God is love. And we all know John 3:16 which famously says, "For God so loved the world… "

The Revelation 6 talks about the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. To make sure that this is not an isolated incident in the bible, Ephesians 2 talks about every sinner deserving wrath. 

Believe it or not, God's wrath is deeply connected to God's love. Understanding their connection explains how God ultimately ends human suffering. We'll talk about this connection today and tomorrow, but today we delve down into wrath.

 

God's wrath is first mentioned in Rev 6:16. God’s wrath is mentioned 10x in Revelation. Why is God angry? God is angry at sin and suffering. Modern people don’t want wrath in their religion. Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr once said some believe, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” 

But you can’t have love without wrath. Love hates. Real love hates evil and it most hates evil in its beloved. You don't want to see your kids, your grandkids, your parents, your company, your country, your church, your clergy, corrupted. Nothing gets under your skin like that! The bumper sticker gets it right: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” 

God is perfectly angry at sin and suffering. But to end suffering, God has to end evil. To end evil, God has to hold evildoers accountable. God has to satisfy that anger.

Notice at the end of Rev 6 all the people now facing the wrath of God crying out, “Who can stand?” It’s not just warlords and dictators. John says “everyone” cried out. They're terrified because when they ask, “Who can stand?” the answer is, “No one!” Nobody on their own can survive being held accountable. Paul the Apostle says, “For all of sin and fall short of God's glory, and the wages of sin is death.”

For the moment, this sounds like bad news for all of us! There's plenty of good news tomorrow, but there's even a silver lining today. God doesn't turn on blind eye to evil and justice. God cares deeply about making things right, even more than we do.

What's your gut level over response to the idea of God's wrath? Why might that be your response?

Lord, I don't understand everything. But I trust that you hate evil and suffering even more than I do. Help me to better understand your ways. Help me to be ever more uncomfortable with evil, and justice sin, and suffering. Amen.