The Wrath of God, suffering, and Hell

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

When the LORD your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the LORD your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. (Deuteronomy 20: 13-20)

I'm as guilty as any other, but sometimes we get so intoxicated with the love and mercy of God, we neglect a vital part of His character. Since the beginning, God's full charachter has been on display in this world. One doesn't have to look far to be see this truth in Nature - cruelty, suffering and pain are ubiquitous. But how can a loving God allow all this cruelty? Even more, how could a loving God have created all this cruelty?

Perhaps the only intriguing argument of Darwinism is how a God of Love could have created so much cruelty. But, as one scholar points out, it is important to remember that, at one level, God reserves the right to be inscrutable, and sometimes, we cannot fathom the reasons of why He does how He does. (Job 11:7, Isa 40:28). As true as this is, it doesn't stop from being less than satisfying. Many people have speculated many reasons. While they may all have their points, the common thread seems to be to re-create God in the prenotions we have from the Gospel message. This is surprising though, it is the wrath of God in the first place that mandates the Gospel. In the understatement of this blog, fortunately God offered a solution.

Unbelievers need only to look around them to see ripples of the wrath of God. But if we really want to see it, all we need to do is open our Bible.

The Jews were constantly agents of God's wrath. Genocide - infantacide - were not uncommon. Torture also. Less Noah, his family, and a pair of some animals, God wiped out an entire population of animals and people. Yes, but that was before Jesus came to earth, and the new covenant, one may object. To that I say: did anybody speak of eternal torment more than Jesus Christ?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). For all the unrepentant whom ignore the pleas of God's neverending mercy and love, God's perfect nature demands justice. That justice is eternal separation from everything that is good, and an eternity of relentless torment, from the One whom has shown what His wrath is capable.

Repent or perish, or risk Hell, full of eternal torment (Luke 12-13, Matthew 25). This is the choice we all make.

Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Romans 9:13).