God’s wrath

1. God’s wrath “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Mark 15:34)

2. Heaven & Hell • “As wax melts in front of the fire, so do the wicked perish in his presence. • But the righteous are glad and rejoice in his presence; they are happy and shout for joy.” (Psalms 68:2) • “The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: ‘Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?’ He who walks righteously and speaks what is right…” (Isaiah 33:14-15 – NIV)

3. Hell and God’s Wrath • “Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, ‘Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.’” (Revelation 14:9-10 NRSV)

4. God’s Wrath Strong, stern or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire. Vengeance or punishment as the consequence of anger.

5. Google: “What is God’s Wrath?” • “God’s wrath represents his righteous indignation and imposed punishment for sin.” • “Divine wrath is God’s righteous anger and punishment, provoked by sin.” • Central question: Is God’s wrath externally imposed by God

6. God’s wrath in the Bible • “My anger will flame up like fire and burn everything on earth. It will reach to the world below and consume the roots of the mountains. I will bring on them endless disasters and use all my arrows against them.” (Deuteronomy 32:22,23 ) • “They fail to see why they were defeated; they cannot understand what happened. Why were a thousand defeated by one, and ten thousand by only two? The Lord, their God, had abandoned them; their mighty God had given them up” (Deuteronomy 32:29,30)

7. God’s wrath • “They will abandon me and worship the pagan gods of the land they are about to enter. When that happens, I will become angry with them; I will abandon them, and they will be destroyed. Many terrible disasters will come upon them, and then they will realize that these things are happening to them because I, their God, am no longer with them.’” (Deuteronomy 31:16-17)

8. Philistines • “They angered him with their heathen places of worship, and with their idols they made him furious. God was angry when he saw it, so he rejected his people completely. He abandoned his tent in Shiloh, the home where he had lived among us. He allowed our enemies to capture the Covenant Box, the symbol of his power and glory.” (Psalm 78:58-61)

9. Assyrian captivity • “I will attack the people of Israel and Judah like a lion. I myself will tear them to pieces and then leave them. When I drag them off, no one will be able to save them. • I will abandon my people until they have suffered enough for their sins and come looking for me. Perhaps in their suffering they will try to find me.” (Hosea 5:14, 15)

10. “How, oh how, can I give you up, Ephraim! How, oh how, can I hand you over, Israel! How can I turn you into a Sodom! How can I treat you like a Gomorrah! My heart recoils within me, all my compassion is kindled. I will not give vent to my fierce anger -- I will not destroy Ephraim again.” (Hosea 11: 1-9 Phillips)

11. Babylonian Captivity • “I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury. I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease…. Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease... • It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the LORD, have spoken.” (Jeremiah 21:5,6,9-10)

12. “The LORD has abandoned his people like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the LORD’s fierce anger have turned the country into a desert.” (Jeremiah 25:38) • “The LORD, the God of Israel, told me to go and say to King Zedekiah of Judah, ‘I, the LORD, will hand this city over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it down. (Jeremiah 34:2)

13. “You will feel my anger when I turn it loose on you like a blazing fire. And I will hand you over to brutal men, experts at destruction.” (Ezekiel 21:31) • “The king killed the young men of Judah even in the Temple. He had no mercy on anyone, young or old, man or woman, sick or healthy. God handed them all over to him.” (2 Chronicles 36:17)

14. The Lord in his anger has covered Zion with darkness. Its heavenly splendor he has turned into ruins. On the day of his anger he abandoned even his temple…Why have you abandoned us so long? Will you ever remember us again? Bring us back to you, LORD! Bring us back! Restore our ancient glory. Or have you rejected us forever? Is there no limit to your anger? (Lam 2:1, 5:20-22 GNB) • “The Lord in his anger has covered Zion with darkness. Its heavenly splendor he has turned into ruins. On the day of his anger he abandoned even his temple…” (Lamentations 2:1)

15. Progressive unfolding of “truth” • “You have brought this on yourself by abandoning the LORD your God when he led you on his way… Your own wickedness will correct you, and your unfaithful ways will punish you. You should know and see how evil and bitter it is for you if you abandon the LORD your God...” (Jeremiah 2:17-19) • “Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has stabbed you through the heart.” (Jeremiah 4:18)

16. The Romans destroy Jerusalem • “In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God’s anger has at last come down on them!” (1 Thess. 2:14-16)

17. God’s anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known. God punishes them, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself made it plain.” (Romans 1:18,19)

18. “They say they are wise, but they are fools; instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles. And so God has given those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they do shameful things with each other. They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen. Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions….Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.” (Romans 1:22-26,28)

19. “Because of our sins he was given over to die…” (Romans 4:25) • “At noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which lasted for three hours. At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?" (Mark 15:33-34)

21. How are Jesus’ words usually understood? • Jesus took on the sins of the world • God can’t look on sin so he turned his back on Jesus • Jesus took God’s wrath which should have been poured out on us • Meaning: God’s wrath is externally imposed as a punishment for sin; it is a legal balancing of the books

22. What does God’s wrath mean in the Bible? • God respecting the choice of his rebellious children by “giving up” “handing over” “abandoning” them to their free-will choice • In every case, the consequences are natural, not imposed

23. “He was hated and rejected; his life was filled with sorrow and terrible suffering. No one wanted to look at him. We despised him and said, ‘He is a nobody!’ He suffered and endured great pain for us, but we thought his suffering was punishment from God. He was wounded and crushed because of our sins; by taking our punishment, he made us completely well.” (Isaiah 53:1-5 – CEV)

24. God: “You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.” (Genesis 2:17) • Satan: “That’s not true; you will not die.” (Genesis 3:4)

25. What is the sin? • “Sin is a breaking of the law.” (1 John 3:4 – GNB): A-nomia • “Sin is lawlessness” (NASB, ESV, NRSV, TNIV); “Sin is a major disruption of God’s order.” (Message) • “Anything that is not based on faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23) • “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

26. “They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:42) • “The heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12)

27. “We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner, works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to transgress again. By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death.” 1888

28. What do physicians do with “rebellious” patients?

32. God: “You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.” (Genesis 2:17) • Translation? “Do not rebel against me. If you do, I will kill you” (or, “I will throw you into hell-fire for all of eternity”) • Translation? “Do not rebel against me. If you do, I will do everything to win you back (including dying on a cross), but if I can’t, I will respect your choice to leave me and to die.”

33. “For sin pays its wage---death.” (Romans 6:23)

34. Seizures – MRI, EEG, counseled, referred to ATU • Peripheral Neuropathy – counseled, family meeting, referred to ATU • Left ATU after 2 days • Gait ataxia – counseled • Dementia – placement in nursing home

35. “Very well, then, I will give you freedom: the freedom to die by war, disease, and starvation” (Jeremiah 34:17 – GN)

36. “The wrath of the Lamb” (Rev 6:16) • The last plagues which are “the final expression of God’s anger” (Rev 15:1)

37. Divine Jujitsu • “Way of yielding”