When Jesus encounters thieves and money-changers defiling the temple of God, Jesus flips over tables, makes a whip of cords, and uses that to drive the people out of the temple ( John 2:13-17). Doesn’t the Bible call him the Prince of Peace?” Their actions result in God striking both of them dead. We do see God’s wrath in the New Testament.įor instance, when Ananias and Sapphira, guided by the Holy Spirit, sell their property to receive more money, they decide to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep the money for themselves ( Acts 5:1-11). This assumption overlooks two considerations:ġ. Some have gone as far as to say there are two distinct gods, or that the Old Testament god was a young god that operated like the pagan gods (angry and smiting people who so much as looked at him the wrong way) and that the New Testament god had matured and seen the light in a sense-an obviously heretical idea.
The Old Testament God is wrathful and kills people, and the New Testament God talks about loving your neighbor.” Some have said, “I like the New Testament God better than the Old Testament God. Some people can often create a false dichotomy of the Old Testament and New Testament. Is God’s Wrath Only in the Old Testament? He gives people a window to repent and turn away from the sin that has caused them to turn away from Him ( Jonah 3). The Bible describes him as slow to anger ( Psalm 103:8). We also have to keep in mind God doesn’t immediately pour out his wrath upon creation. It seeks to destroy the disease that has rotted humans from the inside out ( Genesis 6). As our Creator who loves truth, justice, and peace, He intervenes to prevent the corruption from wiping out all the inhabitants of the earth ( Matthew 24:22). Indignant in nature (righteous anger), God’s wrath bubbles out of a reaction to heinous acts that have corrupted human souls and the very world in which we live.Ī holy God sees that sin perverts the creation in which he loves. God’s wrath forms as a response to the evil and sin in this world. God never wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. Someone may simply “Wake up on the wrong side of the bed” that morning and lash out at coworkers, family members, and friends. Human anger can often lead to actions that can range from petty to explosive. God’s anger and human anger have a vast number of differences.
How can we equate the two?Īlthough we may not understand God’s wrath, without it, we cannot have God’s love. The idea that God’s wrath and love are intertwined seems to strike our minds with dissonance. Whenever someone brings it up in conversation, Christians often will change the subject or prefer to talk about “happier” subjects, such as God’s love. We don’t often talk about God’s wrath in church.
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