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Apologetics
33. Questions about an Angry Judgemental
God
(Understanding
the reality of God's nature)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
•
Checking reality.
1.
What is the accusation that is made?
•
God
is not nice!
2.
What is the Nature of God described in the Bible?
•
God is nice!
3.
What are the General Principles of Discipline, Correction & Judgement?
•
Defining
each in the light of the Bible.
4.
What are the Reasons for God's Judgement?
• The
Reasonableness of God's Judgement.
5.
What are the forms of God's Judgement?
•
So often using our own folly.
6.
What is the Reality of God's Grace & Mercy in the Old Testament?
• God
who calls again and again and again!
7.
And So?
• A
final conclusion
There
is often a completely wrong perception about God that is based
'apparently' on the Old Testament, which almost leads to Him
being seen as a completely different God from that seen in
the New Testament.
On
this page we examine the truth about this. For those of us
who are Christians it is important that we are clear on what
the Bible does genuinely teach. For those who are seekers
it is important to get a balance in what is often a biased
and uninformed opinion.
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| 1.
What is the accusation that is made? |
Answer:
The
Accusation
There
is an accusation that is voiced by crusading atheists that
God is a cold, heartless, vicious murderer. It hinges on the
whole question of the judgement of God. Atheists, and a lot
of other people as well, don't like the thought of being held
accountable and, even more, that that accountability may involve
punishment.
The
Biblical Reality
Without
any doubt the Old Testament (and the New) does reveal God
bringing both words of condemnation and destruction, and words
of instruction to bring destruction. In that sense He does
seem at the outset to be a bloodthirsty God, but is that a
true picture?
How
does the God of judgement of the Old Testament square with
the God of love of the New Testament? To give a satisfactory
answer requires some time and effort.
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| 2.
What is the Nature of God described in the Bible? |
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Answer:
It
is important to observe how God is described in the Bible:
“The
LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious
God, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving
wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
(Ex 34:6).
God
who is compassionate is also referred to in:
Ex 22:27 Ex 34:6, 2Ch 30:9, Neh 9:17, Ps 86:15, Ps 103:8, Ps
111:4, Ps 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2
God
who is gracious is also referred to in: 2Ch
30:9, Neh 9:17,31, Ps 86:15, 103:8, 111:4, 116:5, 145:8, Joel
2:13, and Jonah 4:2, with many other references to His gracious
acts.
God
who is slow to anger is also referred to in:
Num 14:18, Neh 9:17, Psa 86:15, 103:8, 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah
4:2, and Nah 1:3
God
who is abounding in love is referred to in:
Num 14:18,
Neh 9:17,
Psa 86:5,15, 103:8, Joel 2:13,
and Jonah 4:2 with multitudinous other references to God's love.
Now
the point is that these descriptions are repeated by many
different writers in the Old Testament, and yes the above
words often go together and are often repeats of the original,
but they go to show that the writers at least had this opinion
of God.
The
above references are strictly those with those exact phrases
but the sense of each is repeated many, many more times, right
the way throughout the Old Testament.
We
need to examine what happened and what was said in the light
of these descriptions.
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3.
What are the General Principles of Discipline,
Correction
& Judgement?
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These
three concepts occur many times in the Old Testament, and
it is these, I suspect, that make many of us uncomfortable.
1.
Discipline
Discipline
means training that develops self-control and character.
Reminding
Israel
what had happened to them, Moses said:
“You
were shown these things so that you might know that the
LORD is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven
he made you hear his voice to discipline you.” (Deut
4:35,36).
In
other words God's intention, through speaking to Israel
, was to train them to
become His people who lived according to His design-laws.
Indeed
later in Deuteronomy He reminded them that part of their training
was observing how He had moved in power on their behalf to
save them out of Egypt (Deut 11:2-7).
We
often think of discipline as punishment, but God always views
it as training. It is not destructive but formative.
In
the New Testament, the writer to the Hebrews was to comment
about God's discipline:
“No
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later
on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and
peace for those who have been trained by it.”
(Heb 12;11)
Note
God trains for an outcome.
Such
self-discipline or training is common throughout life and
we would be most unhappy if it was absent, e.g. soldiers,
pilots, doctors etc.
2.
Correction
The
concept of correction is very similar – action taken to bring
about change of behaviour.
“The
rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself
disgraces his mother.” (Prov
29:15)
The
whole point of God's relationship with Israel was so that
He could train them, correct them, and bring them into a place
of understanding where they could see that God had designed
the world in a particular way and that He had designed us
to ‘work' in a particular way.
When
we ‘worked' or lived like that then blessing flowed, partly
because God brought blessings, but more simply because we
were operating or working (if you will excuse the mechanical
sense) as we were meant to. Because God is good and God is
love, that way meant it is enjoyable and for our pleasure
and benefit.
Yet
the truth is that Israel
displayed the same sinfulness
that is seen in all of mankind and foolishly turned away from
God, rejecting all the goodness that is available when we
live as designed!
In
Leviticus we find God challenging Israel:
“in
spite of these things you do not accept my correction but
continue to be hostile toward me.” (Lev 26:23).
The
“these things” had been a variety of punishments which were
being used as forms of discipline to bring correction (change
of behaviour)
3.
Judgement
Judgement
refers to an act of judging. When it is God bringing judgment
there are always two aspects to it:
i)
the act of assessing wrong or determining wrong and rendering
a just verdict, and
ii)
the act of bringing the decreed punishment.
Now
there is nothing strange about this because we are very much
aware of the law enforcement aspects of our own nations:
•
lawmakers who decree the Law,
•
police who apprehend apparent
lawbreakers,
•
judges who determine the
truth of the situation and determine
punishment, and
•
prisons that implement the
punishment (or whoever is involved
in whatever other form of
punishment is applied).
In
respect of God He is lawmaker, judge and executioner.
Executioner
is in fact NOT the right word but we use it for the moment
because it is what many think!
We
need to observe, therefore, that punishment can be one of
two forms:
i)
death – where God sees and knows the person or group are
so
set in their ways that nothing
will change them,
ii)
painful activity not involving death – where God sees that
this
will act in a corrective manner to
bring about good change in
them.
NB.
God's Righteousness
Something
to be noted along the way is the description of God that occurs
again and again in the Bible: that God is righteous and everything
He does is righteous.
This
simply means that everything about God – His thoughts and
His actions – are always exactly right. Because He has total
knowledge and total wisdom He never ever makes a mistake.
Now
obviously that is a faith statement which is in line with
the Scriptural teaching and if you say, “Can you prove that?”
I have to reply, “Yes, but only when you die and face God.”
Our
difficulty is that we do not have total knowledge and we are
so often motivated by self-centred emotions, so that our ‘judgement'
is often wrong – but God's isn't!
If
we don't understand the grounds on which God declares judgement
(and He always does make it clear in Scripture WHY He is bringing
punishment), it is simply that we don't understand the awfulness
of an attitude or action of an individual or group. Instead
we foolishly blame God for what we assume (wrongly) is injustice.
More
often than not atheists object to judgement, NOT because it
involves punishment (which they basically agree with),
but because it involves God, a being superior to them!
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4.
What are the Reasons for God's Judgement?
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In
thinking about Judgement we are considering God as both the
Judge and the one who implements the judgement. Here first
we consider His activity as Judge.
Contrary
to the claims that God is hasty and unkind, we need to remind
ourselves of the truth as revealed in the Bible.
We
have observed so far that God
is all-wise and all knowing, that He is compassionate, gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love and utterly committed to
what is right.
Consider
for a moment your own life:
•
Not one of us can claim
perfection, freedom from any wrong
thought, wrong word or wrong deed.
•
Most rational thinking people
believe, ultimately, in right or
wrong and, if we dare be honest, recognise
our imperfection.
•
Most rational thinking people
also believe in accountability
(which is why we berate the police for failing
to catch
criminals, or the teacher in our class when we
were young, for
wrongly blaming us and letting off little Peter
or Judy who we
knew were the real culprits!)
Now,
at this point, there are two possibilities:
1.
There is no God and life is unfair and unjust and right is
only what I think –
which may be different from what you think,
or
2.
There is a God, a Supreme Being as we have been describing
according to
the Bible and He has made clear:
•
what is right and what is
wrong (according to how He has
designed us)
•
what happens when we opt for
either.
If
we are talking about God – and this whole section is about
Him – then it comes down to what this figure who is
all-wise and all knowing, compassionate, gracious, slow to
anger, abounding in love and utterly committed to what is
right, decrees.
I
want to suggest that:
a)
Such a person is the best one to make the rules (fitting
in
with the way
He's designed us), and
b)
He's the best person to implement them (I wouldn't want
a
harsh, changeable,
picky individual to do it)
Rather
than go into a list of ‘wrongs' that God is against may I
suggest instead that you look in the Bible and see the specific
things and see them as things which are stopping individuals
or groups coming to a wonderful knowledge of this God and
all the good things that He has for us.
Ask
each time, what is it that is stopping this person or these
people entering into a relationship with God and receiving
all the good things that He desires for them?
In
general terms it may be attitudes, e.g. pride, or it may be
practices, e.g. occult activity, or a whole range of other
things.
So
the key issues are:
•
what is it stopping that
coming about and
•
is there an implacableness
in that person or individual that
means they will never change (and thus hinder others
in
coming into that experience of God), or is there
a hope of
change in them.
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| 5.
What are the forms of God's Judgement? |
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Answer:
Remember
we are considering God as both the Judge and the one who implements
the judgement. We are now moving on to implementing the judgement.
Dependant
on the People
We
noted just above that it will depend on:
•
whether the person or group
will not change (and death is the
likely outcome), or
•
whether they will change
(and something lesser is more
applicable
to help bring about the change).
We
also need to note God's desire in all this:
“Do
I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares
the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn
from their ways and live?” (Ezek
18:23)
Thus
there may be instantaneous deaths (judgements) brought about
by some catastrophe (e.g. Num 16:32)
but mostly the form of the judgement means delay and opportunity
for repentance.
Thus
we find that often the judgement was another nation coming
to attack apostate Israel.
This meant that they had plenty of time to turn back to God
and seek His help – which was ALWAYS forthcoming when that
happened. The opportunity was ALWAYS there for repentance
and judgement was ALWAYS averted when that repentance came.
Involvement
of God
Now
again the forms of judgement appear to be one of two kinds:
•
Those involving freak weather
conditions or earthquakes etc.
•
Those involving other people.
The
first kind, the atheist says is just Nature, but when they
occur specifically after God has warned, then nature or not,
I suggest it must have a divine motivation behind it!
The
second kind, is the most common kind found in the Old Testament,
and these fall into two groups:
•
Those where God directs
action to happen,
•
Those where God lifts off
His hand of restraint and the enemy
are allowed to let their
unrestrained hatred for others to rise
up and cause them to attack.
An
example of the former is God directing Israel
to clear the people
out of the Promised Land. These were primitive peoples who
worshipped idols, sacrificed their children and so on. (Read
your Bible and you'll see the ‘so-on'.)
Having
said what we've just said, this particular example wasn't
that clear cut. The options for the inhabitants were:
•
flee the land and be saved,
•
change and join Israel
– as the Gibeonites
did, or
•
fight and possibly die (some
did and some didn't in practice)
Our
difficulty when considering those times is to appreciate
a)
how primitive those societies were, and
b)
how warlike they all tended to be.
The
latter group observed above, where God lifts off His hand
of restraint, reveals a reality that most of the time we don't
think about, or even understand.
Yet
the Bible does clearly indicate that this is how God often
brings judgement – He simply lifts away any restraint and
let's the warlike natures of individual kings and their people
rise up against the nation that God is wanting to discipline.
It is a complex subject but for the sake of space we recommend
you simply read say chapters 9 to 21 of our Isaiah studies
to see how it works in practice. CLICK
HERE
Very
often, therefore, in fact the majority of times, God's so-called
judgement comprises letting sinful kings and sinful peoples
do what their hearts want to do, and that brings pressure
to bear on the nation under scrutiny.
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| 6.
What is the Reality of God's Grace & Mercy seen in the Old
Testament? |
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Answer:
What
comes through to the careful Bible reader, but which of course
is absent from the understanding of the person who never looks
at the Bible or doesn't take time to carefully read it, is the
fact that when God brings judgement He first brings warning
after warning.
It
is God's grace that allows a people to carry on rejecting Him
while He sends His messengers to them again and again. I first
saw this many years ago in my studies of Jeremiah where, before
the Exile to Babylon, God pleaded with the kings and the people,
through Jeremiah again and again.
In
fact a study of that period of Israel's
history reveals that God was speaking to all parties through
a variety of His prophets. Many years before he had warned of
this through Isaiah, and these prophecies
were in existence and known about in Israel
already.
In
Jerusalem Jeremiah
was God's mouthpiece to the various kings and to the
leaders and people in the years leading up to the exile which
occurred over a decade culminating in Jerusalem
's destruction in 587BC.
With
the early exiles in Babylon,
Ezekiel was God's mouthpiece to the
ordinary exiles and to the people still back in Israel.
With
later exiles, Daniel was carried
into Nebuchadnezzar's court where he was God's mouthpiece to
him and to following kings.
In
each of these situations, God was speaking into the situation
to bring knowledge of Himself and pleading for the people to
turn away from their idolatry. Thus He carried on speaking in
the midst of the captivity in Exile which lasted for fifty years,
and seventy years between the destruction of the Temple
in Jerusalem
and the completion of
the new one.
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And
So? 
The
picture is clearly seen in the Bible, of God seeking to bring
mercy to bear on these foolish peoples.
Mercy
and grace come through again and again.
NEVER
say that God is hasty and harsh, for that is a complete contradiction
of the Old Testament record!
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