at all...
No
darkness
at all...
What is the wrath of God?
A. We know what the wrath of God is not. The wrath of God is not at all like the wrath of man.
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Jas. 1:20. Jesus never used the term “the wrath of God,” and in fact only used the word “wrath” one time to refer to the forthcoming sack of Jerusalem by the Romans. (Lk. 21:23). Nor is the term “the wrath of God” ever used in the book of Acts where the foundations of the church were laid by the apostles in their many recorded sermons and discourses. Jesus taught that human wrath is evil and must be overcome by love and forgiveness. (Matt. 5:38-48; Mk. 11:25). If the wrath of God is a somewhat rare topic in the New Testament, not so the wrath of man. We overcome evil with good - - and
only God is good. (Rom. 12:21; Matt. 19:17). God overcomes evil with good and so must we. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (Jas. 2:13). God’s current wrath against sin is to overcome it with His goodness so that men everywhere will repent. (Rom. 2:4). God hates sin, not sinners.
B. The wrath of God is the reluctant but forced withdrawal of God’s protective presence from any situation where God’s will has been continually rejected, neglected or unselected. We must see that the Holy Spirit, as God’s protective presence in this world, may be “grieved” or “quenched” by our faithless living. (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thes. 5:19). This results in God’s reluctant but forced withdrawal from the situation. God’s absence in any situation produces the presence of wrath. Wrath is a state of torment where we are given over to our own lustful desires and to the power of Satan. “In the New Testament, the Greek words for wrath, org. and thymos, are basically interchangeable.” I believe that Paul understands the wrath of God not as “emotional in nature (affective),” but as “the necessary consequence of a holy God encountering sin (effective). Any solution . . . must exclude any notion of malicious or capricious anger on the part of God. C. H. Dodd, noting that, ‘Paul never uses the verb, ‘to be angry,’ with God as a subject and that wrath when used of God is ‘curiously impersonal,’ propounded the influential view that wrath is not a certain feeling or attitude of God toward us, but some process or effect in the objective realm of facts.’ In other words, wrath is the inevitable result, or consequence, of human sin in a moral universe - - a calculable effect of certain behaviors or attitudes - - and not the activity of God against sinners. [i.e. sowing and reaping] . . . . Paul’s argument is that no one remains untouched by sin (Rom. 3:23) and therefore whether it is a matter of Jew or Greek, none is righteous (Rom. 3:9-10) and thus all are liable to the wrath of God [i.e. the law of sowing and reaping]. Indeed in Ephesians the readers in their pre-Christian state were ‘disobedient’ and ‘by nature children of wrath,’ a Hebraic way of indicating a class of people doomed to suffer God’s wrath” [i.e. sowing sin and reaping the cursings of the law listed in Dt. 28]. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, edited by Gerald Hawthorne, Ralph Martin and Daniel Reid, I.V.P., pp. 991- 992 (1993). [Note: C. H. Dodd was one of the most influential theologians of the last century. He was an Oxford professor and headed the committee which translated the New English Bible.]
For Paul, divine wrath was the “giving over” of the unrepentant sinners to the following: “the lusts of their own hearts” (Rom. 1:24); their own “vile affections” Rom. 1:26); their own “reprobate mind” (Rom. 1:28); and to “Satan for the destruction of the flesh” (1 Cor. 5:5; also see 1 Tim. 1:20; Lk. 22:31-32; 1 Pet. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:24-26).
Not only has humanity turned to idolatry, but also to sexual infidelity and perversion. The clause ‘gave them over’ (Gk. paredwken) does not mean that God compelled people to sin. Although this clause has caused considerable debate, the most common interpretation, which has prevailed since the time of Origen and Chrysostom, views paredwken in a permissive sense. This means that God passively permitted men to fall into the retributive consequences of their infidelity and apostasy. . . . Note also that this term was used to describe God’s dealing with Israel in handing them over to other nations as punishment for their disobedience. It is not as if God actively caused the Israelites to be defeated or that he forced enemy armies to attack and destroy them. Rather, in response to Israel’s
rebellion and rejection of Him as their God, God obliged by actively withdrawing His protection, and therefore, passively allowing Israel’s enemies to destroy and plunder them.
C. H. Dodd writes: the disastrous progress of evil in society is presented as a natural process of cause and effect, and not as the direct act of God. . . The act of God is no more than an abstention from interference with their free choice and its consequences.
Again, it appears that God apparently removes His active restraining influence and allows people to do exactly as they please. This is a form of punishment in the sense that being left to please one’s self in choosing evil brings its own penalty (v. 27). For example, infidelity leads to mistrust and marriage break-down, promiscuity often results in unwanted pregnancy, or the contraction of venereal diseases, or even AIDS. Indeed, Harvard sociologist, Pitirim Sorokin, in his book The Crisis of Our Age, warned that increases in crime, suicides, mental breakdowns, revolutions, and war are the symptoms of a dying civilization. In another article on homosexuals in Time magazine he wrote, ‘At their fullest flowering, the Persion Greek, Roman and Moslem civilizations permitted a measure of homosexuality; as they decayed, it became more prevalent.’ In another book, The American Sex Revolution, he pointed out that sex anarchy has lead to
mental breakdowns, rather than the other way around, as the Freudian psychologists have taught. He also pointed out that increasing sexual license leads to decreasing creativity and productivity in the intellectual, artistic, and economic spheres of life. [Frances] Schaeffer adds: . . . ‘man has separated his sexual life from its original high purpose as a vehicle of communication of person to person. Sexuality loses its personal dimension; men and women treat each other as things to be exploited’. The Consequences of the Fall and the Depravity of Man According to the Letter to the Romans, Andrew S. Kulikovsky, August 25, 1999.
Seen in this light, God’s wrath is a reluctant but forced divine withdrawal.
So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Heb. 3:11-12. These verses clearly equate God’s “wrath” with men “departing from the living God” and not being able to “enter into [God’s] rest.” Wrath resides where God’s presence is not. God’s presence progressively withdraws as it
is continually rejected, neglected or unselected. God’s forced withdrawal leaves a spiritual vacuum Satan rushes to fill with his destructions. It is interesting to note that Jesus spoke of ultimate separation from God as a kind of “holy deportation” from God’s presence. Jesus will tell those who never “knew” Him to, “depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:23. Jesus again refers to the unprofitable servant being “cast . . . into outer darkness.” Matt. 25:30. In other words, the ultimate result of God’s wrath (negative sowing and reaping) is complete separation and alienation from the person of God. The absence of God is self-generated darkness. The
protective presence of God is “pressured away” by the sinner’s hardened heart. This “holy recoil” of God’s protective presence results in the sinner getting their way. They become their sinful choices. They reap the full harvest of their evil sowing. They create and progressively inhabit their own Hell. They make their own bed in which they are now allowed to fully lie. Satan now has full access to destroy their lives with the curses of Dt. 28.
Remember, God can’t save us from ourselves without our consent, invitation and cooperation. God’s only part in this process is the mandatory withdrawal of His protective presence when the sinner’s heart hardens past a certain point. Were God not to withdraw when the human heart hardens without repentance, then God would violate His own law of freewill and sowing and reaping. In other words, if God continues to fully protect sinners regardless of their continual evil sowing, then God is robbing them of their consequence of their choice. Choice without consequence is not a true choice. God shows us as much mercy as possible without violating
our freewill. But if we don’t utilize our space to repent, then our selfcreated wrath will be progressively harvested.
C. God’s wrath is the law of negative sowing and reaping. Just as gravity is a law of God which permeates the physical universe, God’s wrath (negative sowing and reaping) is a law of God which permeates the spiritual universe. These laws are self-executing and are triggered automatically in response to certain behaviors.
In the physical, if I walk off a rooftop, the law of gravity automatically selfexecutes its power upon me and I am driven to the ground. In the spiritual, if I commit sin (faithless living), then the law of sowing and reaping automatically self-executes its power upon me by diminishing God’s protective presence which then enables demonic pressure closer access to oppress me with the curses of Dt. 28.
These processes are automatic. God does not decide on an ongoing basis which apple will fall to the ground each and every moment of each and every day. Similarly, God does not decide on an ongoing basis how He is going to specifically punish every sin committed each and every moment of each and every day. Such consequences are automatic in this moral universe just likegravity is automatic in this physical universe.
God permeated the physical universe with the self-executing law of gravity. Man can use the law of gravity to his benefit when, for example, he safely lands a plane, shakes an apple out of a tree, hand-glides, parachutes safely down to the earth, etc. However, man can also misuse the law of gravity when, for example, he walks off a roof, makes too daring a leap, climbs a mountain without safety equipment, etc.
In the spiritual, man can use the law of sowing and reaping to his benefit, when, for example, he sows seeds of faith, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness and temperance. (Gal. 5:22-23). His reaping here will be ever-increasing intimacy and knowledge of God. However, man can also misuse the law of sowing and reaping when he, for example, sows seeds of unbelief, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, wrath, strife and lasciviousness. (Gal. 5:19-21). Man’s reaping here will produce ever increasing separation from Gods protective presence.
As God’s protective presence is pushed away by our sinful sowing, demons move in like maggots on a rotting corpse to inflict pain, sickness, suffering, depression, deception, fear, torment, failure and ultimately death. Short of death, God’s protective presence can re-establish itself to offer greater levels of protection and heal all wounds caused by the enemy. Sometimes, even after death God’s presence can invade and drive out the enemy and resurrectman’s spirit, soul and body.
Also consider that our sinful sowing can potentially harm others. Jesus said, And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. Jn. 4:37.
Secondhand sowing is likened to a man who misuses the law of gravity. If that man walks off a roof when somebody is walking by on the street underneath him, then his misuse of gravity (walking off the roof) will produce secondhand harm when he lands on the innocent victim below. Likewise, when any man or group of men (family, club, association, city, state, nation) sows sin, then many innocent victims will be impacted unless the victims themselves are girded up fully in the protective promises of God. Any man walking in Psalm 91 protection (a/k/a “Job’s hedge” and “the full armour of God”) will not be subject to secondhand sowing. In these cases, God’s protective presence will not allow the righteous to be harmed. But to walk in this protection, the man must confess, believe and act upon the spiritrevealed word of God each and every day of his life. (Jsh. 1:8; Lk. 10:19).
D. God will never violate our freewill. He seeks to influence it, attract it, inform it, strengthen it and gradually join with it as we voluntarily hear and invite Jesus into every situation of our lives. But, God will not violate our will by raping it with His will. Rev. 3:20. God had the power to prevent Adam and Eve’s evil choice, Cain’s evil choice and Pharaoh’s evil choices, yet He never violated their freewills. God’s limits are all self-imposed limits. He will never violate the freewill of man. Even though God has the power to violate freewill, He will not because He has given His word that men have the dominion to freely choose to co-create their destiny in this earth. If God violates man’s freewill, then man is spiritually aborted and can never becomea true son. God created the world to develop sons who freely and progressively choose to walk in faith, love, spirit and obedience.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and toJacob, to give them. Dt. 30:19-20.
Yet, the law of freewill means that there is a door of God-rejection which man can freely choose in any situation. Behind this door is the wrath that comes from a life alienated from God’s presence. Deuteronomy 28 describes the fruit of this existence: worry, fear, oppression, depression, poverty, lack, sickness, strife, failed relationships, failed parenting, failed marriages, failed work and failed ministry. It is not that God created the wrath, but He did create the opportunity for it to be chosen and co-created by the freewill of
men and angels.
The Greek scholar William Barclay taught that to better understand what a given word means, look at the other words that usually accompany it. Consider this group of words that frequently appear together in the New Testament: wrath, law, death, sin, curse, condemnation, fear, bondage and Satan. These words all reflect the misuse of the freewill God gave man. Man’s immoral exercise of freewill enthrones Satan and empowers these terms as the governing dynamics of wrath.
Because the law worketh wrath . . . . Rom. 4:15.
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 1 Cor.15:56.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Heb. 12:14-15.
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spiritthrough faith. Gal. 3:11-14.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Rom. 8:1-2.
God created a moral universe with a moral law underpinning it - - the law of sowing and reaping.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Gal. 6:7-8.
The “wrath of God” is really the law of negative sowing and reaping. God created a universe where evil will not ultimately prosper. God created a universe where good will ultimately prosper. The wrath of God (negative sowing and reaping) is revealed against all unrighteousness and unbelief (Rom. 1:18).
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God. Rom. 2:4-11.
The above passage clearly says that each man reaps what he sows and that God’s wrath (the law of negative sowing and reaping), “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:6). Thus, it is man and Satan who cocreate the wrath we face now and the wrath to come at judgment day. The use of the term the “wrath of God” is no different than calling the law of gravity “the gravity of God.” God ordained gravity, but God did not ordain our misuse of the law of gravity. Suppose a man is warned by his teacher to avoid the misuse of gravity and not to jump from great heights. The man ignores the teacher’s advice, jumps off a roof and breaks his leg. It is accurate to say that but for “the gravity of God,” the man would not have been injured. God did permeate the physical world with this law. It is his
creation and he ordained that at the beginning it should be so. Yet, it is unfair to say God is morally responsible for the broken leg. The man freely chose to walk off a roof and disregard the natural law of God. God created the law of freewill just as He created the laws of gravity and sowing and reaping.
Even though Satan, in a sense, executes the curses of the wrath from Deuteronomy 28, it is wrong to call it the wrath “of Satan.” Satan did not create freewill sowing and reaping. God did. To call it the wrath “of Satan” is to give Satan too much power. God is the author of all creation, including the laws of gravity and sowing and reaping. Wrath comes on us from Satan as a result of our misuse of God’s governing dynamics. Satan may be the executor of the curses of wrath, but man’s moral misuse of God’s spiritual laws is the true cause. This cause comes from a moral God creating a moral universe with moral laws of cause and effect. We choose to co-create wrath with Satan rather than choose to co-create blessing with God. God’s only relation to wrath is in creating man with an ability to create wrath in a freeuniverse where morality demands consequences for sin.
It is the wrath “of God” only in the sense that the law of sowing and reaping is “of God.” In terms of what evil is actually sown, that is the freewill choice of man combined with the freewill temptations of Satan. What is eventually reaped is not the actual construct of God, but rather is the actual construct of what man and Satan have co-created (i.e. sown) with their freewills.
God will never send anybody to hell. If man goes to hell, he goes by his own free choice. Hell was created for the devil and his angels, not for man. God never meant that man should go there.
William Franklin (Billy) Graham, p. 166, The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, Westminster John Knox Press, (2001).
The love of God, with arms extended on a cross, bars the way to hell. But if that love is ignored, rejected, and finally refused, there comes a time when love can only weep while man pushes past into the self-chosen alienation which Christ went to the cross to avert.
Michael Green, p. 166, The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, Westminster John Knox Press, (2001).
Men are not in hell because God is angry with them; they are in wrath and darkness because they have done to the light, which infinitely flows forth from God, as that man does to the light of the sun who puts out his own eyes.
William Law, pp 166-167, The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, Westminster John Knox Press, (2001).
The wrath of God is simply the rule of the universe that a man will reap what he sows, and that no one ever escapes the consequences of his sin. The wrath of God and the moral order of the universe are one and the same thing.
William Barclay, pp 126-127, The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, Westminster John Knox Press, (2001).
Thus, we make our own hell; we create our own destiny; we reap the wrath we have stored up by our evil sowing. As George MacDonald said, “The one principle of hell is ‘I am my own.’” God’s only role at this point is in withdrawing His protective presence and allowing our evil harvest to now be partially reaped (or at judgment day to be fully reaped).
Let’s look at a couple of examples. First, consider these verses:
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Heb. 3:7-12.
These verses establish that when men “tempted” (literally “pressured away”) the Lord through continual unbelief, then God’s wrath in withdrawing His protective presence kept these men from entering into God’s rest. The ultimate responsibility for this failure was assigned to the men because of their hard heart of unbelief, “in departing from the living God.” Thus, again we see that God’s wrath is the reluctant but forced withdrawal of His presence in response to men who first harden their own hearts in departing from the living God. In other words, men’s hardened hearts “grieve” and “quench” away the Holy Spirit’s protective presence. (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thes.
5:19). Consider these verses in further explanation:
Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.1 Cor. 10:9-10.
I have heard these verses cited for the proposition that we better not tempt Jesus or He will send snakes to kill us. Wrong! According to interlinear translations, these verses literally warn us, “not to pressure out the Christ, just as some of them (the Israelites) pressured and by the snakes were destroyed.” The picture becomes clearer and clearer. Man pushes God’s protective presence away by his sin, grumbling and unbelief. Demonic forces (snakes) move in the vacuum created and afflict man with all forms of satanic oppression. Wrath then is man-generated, man-perpetuated, God-evacuated and Satan-dominated.
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shallthe covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. Is. 54:8-10. These verses confirm God’s wrath is God’s face turning away from a situation, not toward it. God also promises in these verses that He is not the source of wrath, but only kindness, peace and mercy.
This process is exactly analogous to our law of gravity example. The “gravity of God” demands that a man who walks off the roof will fall and be struck in proportion to the height he fell. The “sowing and reaping (wrath) of God” demands that a man progressively and ultimately harvests the evil in exact ratio to the sins sown. The only law “of God” which seeks to delay, hamper and prevent our evil harvests from being fully reaped in our lives is the law of mercy (Jas. 2:13). This is where God’s active presence is right now. He seeks to protect our freewill by ministering love and hope to our hearts. He delays the harvests of our past sowing by giving us space to repent. When we do repent, God works His divine power through the blood of Jesus towash away our prior evil sowing so that we will not harvest destruction in our life (1 Jn. 1:7; Gal. 3:13-14). Now we are set free to sow to the spirit and reap new and bountiful life every day.
E. It is important to distinguish two types of negative sowing and reaping. Before I was saved, I was a whoremonger addicted to lust, alcohol and pornography. I was sowing sexual sin after sexual sin, but God gave me incredible space to repent before I reaped the oncoming harvest of divorce, sickness, depravity and hardness of heart. Yet, in all this sowing, I was never near anyone who was walking in Psalm 91 protection (a/k/a “Job’s hedge” and “the full armour of God”). Only after I was saved and baptized
in the Holy Ghost did I start to fellowship with people who walked in divine protection. I began to observe that such people could not be harmed by the attacks of men or devils. In fact, when these people were attacked one way by the enemy, the enemy would soon flee before them seven ways (Dt. 28:7).
In all of this, I saw two kinds of negative sowing and reaping. The first was the general sowing of sin which produces a gradual harvest of a ruined life. However, the second kind of negative sowing and reaping is even more lethal. This occurs when we attack, by word or action, someone or something under the divine protection of the Holy Ghost. This is why Jesus considered blasphemy of the Holy Ghost the most serious sin. (Mk. 3:22- 30). This is why we are warned not to “grieve” or “quench” the Holy Spirit in any way. (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 5:19). This is why we are warned not to pray for someone who has committed the sin unto death - - blaspheming the Holy Spirit. (1 Jn. 5:16).
Attacking someone or something which is girded up with divine protection is akin to: playing chicken with a brick wall while driving a car at 120 MPH; shooting a bulletproof shield at point blank range ensuring that the ricochet will deflect directly back at the shooter; hiking head-first into a low-lying tree branch; absent-mindedly strolling and falling into an open manhole. In all these scenarios, the cause of the wrath reaped is not the action of the brick wall, bulletproof shield, tree branch or manhole. No, the cause of the wrath reaped was the arrogance of the driver, the foolhardiness of the shooter, the inattentiveness of the hiker and the carelessness of the pedestrian. Their own attitudes, disrespect and misuse of their environment caused them to suffer a wrath of their own making.
So it is also when the protective spirit of the Lord is arrogantly, foolishly or carelessly attacked. It is not God’s wrathful fist being swung at us. No, it is us suffering the wrath of our own making by running into His rock-hard fist which is firmly and protectively clenched around the righteous. It is our momentum and actions which reap the wrath, not God’s momentum or actions. God will not retreat from the Psalm 91 line of righteous protection.If we foolishly cross the Psalm 91 line against the Holy Spirit, we will suffer a collision, possibly a fatal collision.
Consider the following examples:
Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). This couple lied to the Holy Spirit in the midst of a fellowship in full Psalm 91 protection. Peter asked Sapphira in the literal Greek of verse 9, Why did the two of you agree “to pressure the Spirit of Master?” (Word Study Greek-English New Testament, Paul R. McReynolds, Tyndall, pp. 441 (1999)). In other words, why did you two “push away” the protective presence of God? This fellowship was so close to God’s holy presence, that the sin of lying to the Holy Spirit was just like
shooting a bullet of sin point blank into a bulletproof shield of holiness. The direct ricochet killed both Ananias and Sapphira. Satan had tempted them both to sin against the Spirit (5:3). They conceived the sin with Satan. They sowed the sin with their lips and actions. God’s Spirit recoiled at their sin, leaving them unprotected and vulnerable to reap the wrath of immediatedestruction of the flesh by Satan. They crossed the Psalm 91 line with fatal results of their own making.
Herod (Acts 12:1-25). Some believe that this passage says that the angel of the Lord killed Herod, the political king of the Jews, in cold blood. In reality however, this episode is perhaps the clearest example of what it means to run into the Psalm 91 brick wall of divine protection at breakneck speed. The first verse in the chapter is the key:
Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Acts 12:1-4.
Bad idea. Bad sowing. Even worse reaping to come. As if this weren’t enough, Herod allowed himself to be worshiped as a God by pagans. (Acts 12:20-23). Herod was a runaway train that smashed headlong into the Rock of Ages. Sowing evil against the body of Christ reaped Herod an encounter with the angel of the Lord. The scripture doesn’t say that the angel actually killed Herod, only that the angel “smote” Herod. The angel also “smote” Peter in verse seven of the same chapter in order to wake him up. The Greek word for “smote” can mean to “knock or tap in order to get someone’s attention.” Thus, its entirely possible that the angel knocked on Herod’s soul to get his attention by showing Herod the gravity of his sins in the Lord’s eyes. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Herod, after the angel smote him, “He fell into the deepest sorrow; a severe pain also arose in his bowels, and he died after five days of illness” (Josephus, book 19, ch. 8,2). Acts 12:23 says that after the angel smote Herod, “he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost.” This Greek word for “worms” is only used one other place in the New Testament, Mark 9:44-48, where it’s used to describe nonstop hellish torment. This torment eventually resulted in Herod “giving up the ghost,” a term used elsewhere only in the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, two other unfortunates who beheld the gravity of their sin to the extent that they surrendered their souls to death. This unique expression, “giving up the ghost,” describes the dead end of despair that awaits thosewho cross the line and sow against the white hot anointing of God. For such unfortunate men, when they see the full gravity of their sin, they essentially surrender their lives in despair and worm-infested torment. The only role of an angel in this process is to smite these sinners into self-awareness by splashing the water of conviction in their horrified faces. These sinners’ selfdestructive shame take them the rest of the suicidal way. Remember, God doesn’t operate in death. Satan operates in death. (Jn. 10:10; Heb. 2:14). God only operates in life. Death floods in to fill the vacuum of God’s absence after He withdraws His protective presence.
Zacharias and Elymas (Lk. 1:5-65; Acts 13:6-13). Both men crossed the Psalm 91 line with less fatal results than Ananias, Sapphira and Herod.Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father, started to spew words of unbelief at the angel Gabriel about the impossibility of John’sbirth and prophetic calling. (1:19-20). God’s divine protection was completely surrounding this whole event and words of unbelief could not penetrate the hedge and pollute the atmosphere. Zacharias crossed the Psalm 91 line and reaped the temporary loss of his vocal cords. He ran head-long into a brick wall and suffered temporary vocal damage. Likewise, when Elymas the Sorcerer dared to try
to turn one of Paul’s converts away from the faith, he ran into a Psalm 91 brick wall and suffered temporary eye damage. (13:8-11). Elymas had sown much evil previously, but in this case crossing the Psalm 91 line caused immediate results of his self-made wrath. It was God’s mercy that the blindness was just for a season.
When we confess, believe and act on the spirit-revealed word of god, we are fully girded for war. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. Is. 54:17. Whatever man or devil attacks us risks complete annihilation, not at our hand but at their own. Like the mythological snake that eats its own tail until its whole body disappears, so does evil consume itself into oblivion.
Like Jesus and Step hen, we must pray that other men’s sins against us notbe held against them. (Lk. 23:34; Acts 7:60). But, when the enemies of God attack a person, group or event under the protective presence of the Holy Spirit, then such a foolhardy attack will bring its own destructive wrath back upon the enemies’ heads. Consider well the famous advice of Gamaliel when he advised the council of Pharisees to leave the apostles alone: And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. Acts. 5:38-39.
[Warning: beware of using verses in the book of Revelation in a strict literal sense. This book is what theologians call “Apocalyptic.” The language is highly figurative and symbolic. For instance, when Jesus says He will “kill” the children of Jezebel, He obviously is not referring to literal children (Rev. 2:23). Jesus says that children are to be allowed to come to Him for blessing. (Matt. 19:13-15). Jesus never says that children are to come to Him so He can kill them. No, these verses in Revelation are not referring to literal children, but to figurative children. The children of Jezebel are the offspring of the union between the Jezebel spirit and the servants of God she has seduced into committing spiritual adultery, which is idolatry. (Rev. 2:20). These are the children (offspring) of Jezebel: sinful idolatry, fleshly works and false worship. Jezebel’s children are the works of the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal. 5:19-21. Jesus’ rebuke to Thyatira was to not allow the Jezebel spirit, which works through the flesh of false prophets (Rev. 2:20), to seduce true servants of God into false ministry. If they failed to purge out this evil, then the spiritual fruit (children) that flowed from the idolatry would be destroyed by the Psalm 91 line which God draws to protect His true churches. In other words, their false ministries would be destroyed. God does and will continue to destroy Jezebels’ offspring when they come against the Psalm 91 protection God gives His true body.]
F. The view that all men are just “sinners in the hands of an angryGod” is spiritual poison we must not drink.
The God that holds you over a pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath toward you burns like fire; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in His eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended Himinfinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment . . . . O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in. Jonathan Edwards, July 8, 1741.
Edwards said many wonderful things, but this sermon excerpt was not one of them. Such a view cripples our faith because it misrepresents the character of God. Oswald Chambers said, “The origin of all sin is found in the mistrust of God’s character.” The Lord has repeatedly stressed to me that the following passage is key to understanding how the character of God has been largely misrepresented over thousands of years.
Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD! And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Nu. 20:1-12.
Moses’ sin of striking the rock is simply this - - it misrepresented the character of God. God told Moses to speak to the rock so that the people could see the love God had for them in miraculously producing water froma dry, hard place. Rather than minister this love of God to the people, Moses ministered wrath to the people making it appear that God was “angry” with them. Moses projected his own wrath onto God’s word. The result - - the false appearance of an angry God thoroughly disgusted with the people. The sin - - Moses misrepresented the power of God as coming from a spirit of coercion rather than a spirit of invitation. God wanted to lovingly draw the
people to Him, not scare and condemn them away. So serious was this sin that it disqualified Moses from entering the promised land.
I believe that this sin of “striking the rock” was not just one occurrence in Moses’ life. Much of what Moses wrote in the law (Genesis - Deuteronomy) reflects true words from God that are tainted by a spirit of wrath Moses struggled with during his life. Moses was a righteous man faithful in all his house, but he lacked the indwelling righteousness of Jesus needed to fulfill the law. What God sent in love, Moses conveyed in wrath. What God sent to bless, Moses used to condemn. What God sent to transform man, Moses misused to deform man. That Moses had an anger problem is well-proven both by the above passage as well as his killing of an Egyptian (Nu. 20: 1-2; Ex. 2:11-14).
It is not that God did not speak through Moses, for He certainly did. But what Moses ministered was often twisted or tainted with the result that God’s character of love was not fully or accurately revealed. Nonetheless, God did not dessert His people even though they mischaracterized His heart. For instance, the rock did miraculously spout water to save the people. God didn’t withdraw the miracle because of Moses’ misrepresentation of His character. The Israelites saw a pure version of God’s power from Moses law, but they did not see a pure version of God’s heart. They all projected their own fear, anger and wrath onto their image of God. The result was a
perverted and misleading picture of God. Nonetheless, God used these misrepresentations of His character to achieve His goals. Consider these quotes from scholar Walter Wink:
The violence of the Old Testament has always been a scandal of Christianity. The church has usually ducked the issue, either by allegorizing the Old Testament or by rejecting it. Biblical scholar Raymund Schwager points out that there are six hundred passages of explicit violence in the Hebrew bible, one thousand verses where God’s own violent actions of punishment are described, a hundred passages where Yahweh expressly commands others to kill people, and several stories where God irrationally kills or tries to kill for no apparent reason (for example, Ex. 4:24-26.). Violence, Schwager concludes, is easily the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible. . . . In the Hebrew Bible, God’s alleged punishmentsare usually carried out by human beings attacking each other. This indicates, says Schwager, that the actual initiative for killing does not originate with God, but is projected onto God by those who desire revenge. . . .
The God whom Jesus reveals refrains from all forms of reprisal. God does not endorse holy wars or just wars. God does not sanction religions of violence. . . . To be true God’s offspring requires the unconditional renunciation of violence. The reign of God means the elimination of every form of violence between individuals and nations. This is a realm and a possibility of which those imprisoned by their trust in violence cannot even conceive. . . .
The violence of the Bible is the necessary precondition for the gradual perception of the meaning of violence. . . . The violence of Scripture, so embarrassing to us today, became the means by which sacred violence was revealed for what it is: a lie perpetrated against the victims in the name of God. God was working through violence to expose violence for what it is and to reveal the divine nature as nonviolent.
The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium, by Walter Wink (New York: Galilee Doubleday, 1998), 84-86, 89.
It is not that the Israelites never experienced the love of God, for they frequently did. It is not that they never experienced God’s glory, for they occasionally did. It is not they never entered into true praise of God, for they certainly did from time to time. But, they never entered into the abiding goodness and continual nearness of God as Abba-Father. For them, God was a temperamental king full of both lovingkindness and explosive wrath. On the one hand He would bless them for obedience, but on the other cruel hand He would send famine, sickness, disaster, death and destruction on them (and their children) whenever they disobeyed Him. (Lev. 26:14-17, 21-
22; Dt. 28:15-68). The end result was that Israel was exiled from their promised land and perpetual victims to repeated oppressions from Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. They also lost the ark of the covenant, which represented the protective presence of the Lord being withdrawn from them. Their image of a wrathful God did not sustain them in their times of need. They suffered from a roller-coaster spirituality where God was a Jekyll and Hyde schizophrenic who might love them today but kill them tomorrow. No wonder they couldn’t abide in the presence of God. No wonder Moses could only see God’s goodness from behind at an angled distance (Nu.
33:13-23). Hallelujah, Jesus came to eliminate the roller-coaster ride by showing that God is good all the time and in Him is no darkness or cruelty at all. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Lk. 3:5-6.
Jesus came to fulfill the law by revealing the Father’s heart of pure love and goodwill toward men. Jesus came to show that God’s power is invitational, not coercive. Jesus came to show us what wrong spirit we are of and what right spirit we should be of:
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he [Jesus] should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and theywent, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did
not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. Lu. 9:51-56.
James and John struck the rock. They projected their wrath upon Jesus in the hopes of calling down fire upon those they resented. This is the exact same sin which kept Moses from the promised land. We can also project other negative emotions and attitudes upon our image of God: bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, malice and evil speaking. When we do this, we call down fire, strike the rock and misrepresent our God to ourselves and each other. Beloved, we must cease all wrong projection of our negative emotions onto
our image of God. We must sanctify our view of God by knowing and growing His goodness into the very fabric of our being. When we stop projecting our evil onto God, then we will see Him as He is and we will be transformed into the same image glory to glory. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor. 3:18.
This is the conclusion of the matter when it comes to the goodness of God: knowing the absolute goodness of God allows us to faithfully and accurately imitate His true character. If we have a schizophrenic image of God, then rest assured we ourselves will also be spiritually schizophrenic. This schizophrenic double-mindedness makes us unstable in all our ways and prevents us from receiving anything from the Lord.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Jas. 1:6-8.
Such a wrong image of God will cause us to call fire down on those we hate, strike the rock of condemnation against those to whom we minister, and inally, and most tragically, deceive ourselves into believing mean and unworthy things about our beloved Heavenly Father. If we are to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21), and only God is good (Matt. 19:17), then we must overcome all evil with the goodness of God. To do this, we must put away all wrath from our minds and hearts.
Neither give place to the devil. . . . Let no corrupt communication proceed out of yourmouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto thehearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself forus an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. Eph. 4:27,29-32; 5:1-2.
If I hate or despise any one man in the world, I hate something which God cannot hate, and despise that which he loves.
William Law, pp 160-161, The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations, Westminster John Knox Press, (2001).
Many people hate this teaching because they believe it blasphemes their wrathful image of an angry God. Isn’t it amazing that people get furious at the prospect that God doesn’t kill His children, doesn’t put sickness on them and doesn’t destroy them. Unbelievably, this very notion sends many Christians into a rage. God’s wrath, as described in this outline, is not like man’s wrath. We must not project our wrath onto God and then claim it is His wrath. The wrath of God is merely the law of negative sowing and reaping which man self-activates, self-imposes, and self-executes. God hasno malice toward sinners, just sin. Sin self-generates wrath. Wrath is not
found in the presence of God, but in the absence of God. The only thing found in the presence of God is love. This is a concept not too good to be true.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. 1 Jn. 4:7-21.
To say that God is love is to say that God is the living, active, dynamic, ceaselessly desiring reality who will not let go until he has won the free response of his creation.
By Richard K Murray
