Does God Hate ?

Does God hate ? The demise of Fred Phelps of Westbro Baptist

I came across a t'shirt on facebook that celebrates demise of Pastor Fred Phelps of Westbro baptist and it had me asking the questions: Does God hate Westbro baptist and Fred Phelps  and should we as a society 'hate' him to ?. 

In my view it undeniable that Ps Fred Phelps of Westbro baptist was a wicked man and who created a horribly abusive cult that has  seriously misread the bible and the nature of God . 

It understandable that many people are angry with the man and cult and they will feel some relief now that he has left this mortal coil , especially the families that have had the funeral of their loved ones so cruelly protested at.

Now that  Phelps of West Bro  baptist is dead  and people plan to picket his funeral, make offensive t 'shirts and offensive signs, and flood the media with all types celebratory hate in the spirit of revenge,  two thing will have happened : 

1.He will have got the attention his cult have always wanted , we will become a martyrs , a future icon for other emboldened bigots . 

2.  People will have become an embodiment of the evil, hatred and spite that  this leader and his sect have been condemned for. 

Is this what we want ?

This whole episode has me thinking though about larger theological questions that the presence this man his cult have raised ?

Does God hate ? What about the wrath and judgment that these guys go on about ? Is this something that 21st century Christians should going on about ? What is the Christian response to a group like this and how does faithful orthodox evangelical Christianity distinguish itself from groups like this ?

Does God hate Homosexuals ? Does God hate everyone ?

Does God hate bags , figs and signs ?

Is Slayer right ? 

Its confusing when you read the bible because we come across texts like this :

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

and verses that tell us quite clearly that God is love :

I John 4:7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

Then what about texts like this ?

Leviticus 20:23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

Pretty strong words ?

There are even texts that talk about God being jealous !

Exodus 20:4-5 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me.

What do with a God of Wrath, Hatred and Jealously ? 

This problem is as old the beginnings of Christianity itself In the second century (c. 85 – c. 160) Bishop Marcion believed Jesus Christ was the saviour sent by God, and Paul of Tarsus was his chief apostle, but he rejected the Hebrew Bible and the God of Israel. Marcion believed that the wrathful Hebrew God was a separate and lower entity than the all-forgiving God of the New Testament.

 Marcion's canon consisted of eleven books: A gospel consisting of ten sections from the Gospel of Luke edited by Marcion; and ten of Paul's epistles. All other epistles and gospels of the 27 book New Testament canon were rejected as inconsistent  with God who is love. In essence he edited out the God he didn’t like to create one he was more comfortable with.

Church Father , Tertullian sarcastically describes the Marcion's gospel : "a better god has been discovered, one who is neither offended nor angry nor inflicts punishment, who has no fire warming up in hell, and no outer darkness wherein there is shuddering and gnashing of teeth: he is merely kind. Of course he forbids you to sin – but only in writing."

Much later down the track in Church history in the from end of 17 century onward liberal theology would make another attempt at getting rid of God of wrath. 

Neo orthodox theologian H. Richard Niebuhr would come up with own sarcastic remark about that theological movement in the , 'The Kingdom of God in America (1937),  describing its message as,

 "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross."

This movement of liberal theology in both its traditional and emerging forms have brought decline to church wherever it has spread. It has emphasized God's love at the expense of his wrath. While the fundamentalist gospel of Westbro baptist has created picture of God where his love is obscured by his wrath and he becomes a monster. 

Both are in serious error and distortions of the gospel.

What if we took at face value the idea that God both loves and hates but does so in way that is unlike  anything like human hatred or love and was consistent with his nature ? Lets revisits those trouble texts .

Revisiting Leviticus 20:23

"You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

The English words abhor and loathe translate biblical terms that suggest image of turning away from something or someone because of an extreme dislike or intolerance. When the primary actor is God it means he loathes those things which human beings have become tolerant of .His disgust grow to point that where he cannot bear  it or them any longer".

Why was God so mad at the Canaanites ?

2 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him.

3 I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.

4 If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, 5 I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek.

What was it about Molek worship and why was it so bad that it corrupted people to point God wrath being kindled  ?

Archeology gives some hints about what the Canaanites did. On one of the High Places, archeologists found several stone pillars and great numbers of jars containing the remains of newborn babies.When a new house was built, a child would be sacrificed and its body built into the wall to bring good luck to the rest of the family.

The firstborn also placed in a giant hollow bronze image in which a fire was built. Parents would place their children in its red hot hands and the babies would roll down into the fire.  The sacrifice was invalid if the mother showed grief. She was supposed to dance and sing. The Israelites later copied this practice in a valley near Jerusalem called Gehenna. Hundreds of jars containing infant bones have been found there.

Then there was the god El 

Legends of EL have him as a bloody tyrant, whose acts terrified all the other gods. He dethroned his own father, murdered his favourite son, and decapitated his own daughter. Poetry about him describe of his frequent seduction of women.

Then there was the god Baal 

Baal  was the giver of rain and all fertility.Canaanite mythology in his struggle with Mot (Death), the god of drought and adversity. In his  fight with Mot, he is slain. As a consequence, a seven year cycle of  drought ensues.

Then the goddess Anath, the sister and lover of Baal goes in search of him, recovers his body and slays his enemy, Mot. Baal is then brought back to life and placed on Mot's throne so that he ma insure the revival of vegetation for seven years. They bring fertility to earth through having sex.

Then there is God Anath

Anath is represented often as a naked woman bestride a lion with a lilly in one hand and a serphant in the other. The lilly represented sex appeal and the serpent represented fertility.The male prostitutes were consecrated to her honour. Poetry about her  say’s : 

She smites the people of the seashore. Destroys mankind of the sunrise....

She piles up heads on her back. She ties up hands in her bundle....

Anath gluts her liver with laughter. Her heart is filled with joy.

Canaanite Society was a society that had become filled evil, perversion and injustice  with and had it had become institutionalized into every aspect of life from worship , government , culture right into the very fabric of family life:

1. Child Sacrifice and Murder.

2.  the Occult and the Demonic.

3. Sexual immorality and abuse.

A) Adultery.

B) Incest.

C) Homosexual acts.

D)Bestiality.

The Canaanites became what they worshiped , their society became so corrupt that God had to act to save humanity itself. For four hundred years in his grace and love he sent patriarchs and prophets to warn then but they did not change. So out of his love he poured out his wrath . 

Are we any better ?

Problems with Idea of God’s Wrath

Our unhappiness seems to be a disquieting suspicion that the  idea of wrath is unworthy of God.  Does the idea of 'wrath' suggests a loss of self-control, an outburst of 'seeing red‘  that is irrational ?

The bible uses ‘Anthropomorphic language’- i.e human forms and emotions to describe God action and character. It talks about His eyes, His feet, Him sitting on a throne and it talk about his love , wrath, hatred and jealously . Does not mean he has these human element but these terms help us understand something about God’s character or nature.

One thing is certain God is totally ‘other’ than us and his love and wrath completely and utterly unlike our own which is broken and fallen.

Everything God feels and does is holy, just and loving.

God's wrath in the Bible is always judicial  and redemptive- that is, it is the wrath of the Judge, administering justice and making sure  out of ‘love’ that evil does not have its way and totally destroy and overwhelm humanity and creation. 

                              

 Romans 2:5

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

The Hebrew noun that is translated “wrath” is derived from a verb that means, “to be hot.” The imagery of heat often appears with statements that speak of God’s wrath. The impression left by this language is terrifying. It is meant to be. 

Elsewhere the Scriptures warn: “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). This is because God in His wrath is “a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29).

The wrath of God, unlike human anger, is never capricious, self-indulgent, or irritable. God is only angry where anger is called for.

"As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die?"

~ Ezekiel 33:11

Shall We escape Gods Wrath Roman 1:18-32?

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

In Verse 18  in the statement ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven’, the grammar is present continuous .

Note the expression “is revealed” in Romans 1:18 is in the present tense in Greek. In Greek, the present tense usually refers to an ongoing or continuous action.

               In other word’s we are under wrath now .

In Romans  God’s wrath is a process whereby.  God says : If people really want their sinful lifestyles, I will give them over to it and they create their ‘own hell ‘is this life before they encounter it in the next and perhaps they will come the hate the world they have created and turn to me  .

 As C. S. Lewis as aptly remarked, “There are only two kinds of people : those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’

“The punishment of sin is sin.”—Augustine

Is there Hope for world under Wrath Roman 1:16 ? 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek”.

Gospel is the power of God. If we preach Gospel the power of God changes people. 

We don’t have to lobby the government to institute Christian laws on the rest of the world , this is legalism not grace ! 

We need to preach the Gospel that Christ died in our place and took the wrath that we deserved so that we might free from the power of sin. 

We don’t need to protest , we need to serve and speak the truth in love while we wash the feet of those who are broken and lost, those who  hated us , despise us and reject us.

 Yes there is the bad news as well as the good news ? How do we do that without coming  off like Westbro Baptist and Pastor Phelps ?! Yes God will bring judgement to world but he will also bring judgment to the Church !

We need to humble because God is going to sort out our house !

  1 Peter 4:17

“For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God “?

1 Corinthians 11:29-30

29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.way of Jesus.

How shall proceed ? We need to show respect !

  1 Peter 3:15

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”.

There is no place in Christianity for the type of behaviour that Westbro Baptist exhibits to the world. Yes, there is element to God’s nature that has those darker notions they have alluded but they have grossly exaggerated them and they are nothing like ours .

 The how , when and who of God’s wrath is his business not ours.  God mercy will always triumph over his judgment and his grace always tries to find a way to meet people before it’s too late.

Now that Pastor Phelps is dead I won’t be celebrating . I won’t be dancing on the street. I won’t be judging him or the people that hate him and his sect ,  I will be asking God to have mercy one me a sinner and saying Jesus and his cross is greater than our hate.

Grace and Peace

Brad Bessell Heavy Metal Preacher