God of Anger or God of Love?
April 7th 2008 05:30
One of the many questions people have about God is how God can be so angry and so loving at the same time. I have heard someone say that one of the things that keeps her from the Christian faith is this inability to reconcile the God of anger of the Old Testament with the God of love in the New Testament. Even Christians can have trouble with the concept. It can be tempting to favour one over the other. Some point their fingers in judgment at the world, quoting the God of angers. Other prefer to focus only of the God of love.
I admit I favour the God of love myself. But God doesn’t exist to fit my preconceived ideas of who he should be. Yes, he cares for every hair of my head. But he also gets angry enough to destroy entire towns. My dislike of certain parts of scripture doesn’t make them any less true.
So how does one reconcile God’s anger and love? First of all, it’s important to recognise that these two things are not mutually exclusive. I get angry with my children all the time. Does this mean I don’t love them? Not at all. It’s because I love them that I get angry. I’m not nearly as likely to get as angry with the other kids at their school – unless, of course, they are hurting my kids. Why? Because I don’t love them in the same way.
But t say I get angry because I love them doesn’t really tell the whole story. I love them so I want what’s best for them. I love them so I want them to become the good men I know they can be. I love them so I want to keep them safe. I give them rules to help this happen. When they break them, I get angry. Not just because I’m annoyed they disobeyed me. But because disobeying me creates a situation that is not in their best interests.
God’s anger, I beieve, has to been in the same light. He doesn’t get angry just for the sake of it. He gets angry out of love. He gets angry because we choose to do what isn’t good for us.
Every so often, some natural disaster will occur and there will be at least one Christian claiming that id was done by God because he is angry at our sins. I believe that this quite often ignores the fact that God’s anger comes from love. He doesn’t punish just for the sake of it. He doesn’t send tsunamis and hurricanes just to show us who’s boss. He’s not some petty tyrant in the sky saying “I thought I told you not to disobey me”. He punishes us as a father punishes his child, to bring about that child’s greater good.
We should stop separating God’s anger and love and start seeing them as two different expressions of the same thing. We should also stop seeing God’s anger in events that are simply just terrible events. If we truly do think that God is punishing the world, then let’s look for the love behind the punishment. It it really does come from God, then his love will also be there. God’s anger can’t exist without it.
I admit I favour the God of love myself. But God doesn’t exist to fit my preconceived ideas of who he should be. Yes, he cares for every hair of my head. But he also gets angry enough to destroy entire towns. My dislike of certain parts of scripture doesn’t make them any less true.
So how does one reconcile God’s anger and love? First of all, it’s important to recognise that these two things are not mutually exclusive. I get angry with my children all the time. Does this mean I don’t love them? Not at all. It’s because I love them that I get angry. I’m not nearly as likely to get as angry with the other kids at their school – unless, of course, they are hurting my kids. Why? Because I don’t love them in the same way.
But t say I get angry because I love them doesn’t really tell the whole story. I love them so I want what’s best for them. I love them so I want them to become the good men I know they can be. I love them so I want to keep them safe. I give them rules to help this happen. When they break them, I get angry. Not just because I’m annoyed they disobeyed me. But because disobeying me creates a situation that is not in their best interests.
God’s anger, I beieve, has to been in the same light. He doesn’t get angry just for the sake of it. He gets angry out of love. He gets angry because we choose to do what isn’t good for us.
Every so often, some natural disaster will occur and there will be at least one Christian claiming that id was done by God because he is angry at our sins. I believe that this quite often ignores the fact that God’s anger comes from love. He doesn’t punish just for the sake of it. He doesn’t send tsunamis and hurricanes just to show us who’s boss. He’s not some petty tyrant in the sky saying “I thought I told you not to disobey me”. He punishes us as a father punishes his child, to bring about that child’s greater good.
We should stop separating God’s anger and love and start seeing them as two different expressions of the same thing. We should also stop seeing God’s anger in events that are simply just terrible events. If we truly do think that God is punishing the world, then let’s look for the love behind the punishment. It it really does come from God, then his love will also be there. God’s anger can’t exist without it.
| 102 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by S. L. Bradish
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
You say God acts out of love, just as a parent does, but surely you will agree that the sheer scale of God's destruction in the Old Testament is perhaps a little severe?
Would you allow your child to suffer rape? Would you kill your child? Would you stand by and watch as they die a painful death?
These are not angry words, as I really do have difficulty understanding this aspect of religious belief.
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
A Global Citizen
Paranormal Paranormal
Is Why
Alaska Chronicle
God is neutral, the energy or spirit of god resonates within us all. That being so, why would god profane himself?
God isn't permitting mankind the right to murder, rape, main, steal ad nauseam, it's the choice and responsibility of mankind to restrain itself.
Raven
Comment by samaritan
Fringe Faith
I wish I had a brilliant way to answer your question. But I don't. And I'm not going to insult your intelligence by giving you some well-worn response to this question that really doesn't answer anything.
I struggle with the concept of anger in the Old Testament. I do. And to be honest, there are parts of it I just don't understand. I'm sure if most Christians are honest they would say the same thing.
But what I do know is that God acts out of love. I also know that there are things we are just never going to understand until we get to heaven. I also do believe that he has given us free will - and we often use that free will badly.
And that sounds like exactly what I wasn't going to give you - some meaningless blabber that doesn't really answer your question. I'm sorry. I wish I could do better.
Samaritan
www.fringefaith.com
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
Comment by samaritan
Fringe Faith
First of all, when I say I know God acts out of love, I suppose I am speaking in terms of I believe, rather than know. Which to a certain extent, is true of all types of love. I believe certain people love me. But I don't know it, in the sense that I have proof. However, I still know they love me. If that makes sense.
Secondly, I believe in Jesus. And one of the things that makes me believe in him is I just don't think it's possible for man to have the kind of love that he did. When I read the gospels, I read the story of a man who modelled the perfect life of love and compassion. I believe that love came from God. He could love like that because God loves like that.
Thirdly, God's love is such a major theme of the bible. And this is pretty unique. I can understand people creating their own version of a God of anger. Most Gods in those days were attempts by people to find reasons for natural calamities. But God's love is something different. I believe the reason why the concept of God's love comes through is because God really loves us and he has conveyed that to us.
So that really only addresses why I think God loves us. How do I know he acts out of love? Because anyone who loves people in this way has to act out of love. You can't love someone and then just push that love aside when you want to punish them. Love isn't a switch that you turn on and off.
But I want to make it very clear that I am not suggesting that all horrible events happen because God loves us. When God acts, he acts out of love. But some people see God's hand behind events that really don't come from God at all. That brings up a whole different set of questions about how much God intervenes in our lives, which I don't have time to go into. But I think that even some of the events of the bible could have been interpreted as God's anger, when they were just terrible events. I think for much of the Old Testatment, people just didn't have a good understanding of the love of God and how he works in our lives. Matter of fact, we still don't.
As I said, I find this a difficult topic and not at all easy to answer. But to sum up, I know God loves us because of what of faith, Jesus and the bible. I know God acts out of love because it's impossible to love in this way and not act out of love.
Now for your next question, do you think you could ask me something slightly easier - like what's the first verse in the bible?
Samaritan
www.fringefaith.com
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
It was one of the issues that led to my becoming an atheist...