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abuse, blogging, discipline, faith, healing, insanitybytes22, wrath
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Today I feel compelled to clarify something regarding my campaign against the wrath-mongers of Christianity. With all good humor here, and as gently as I can, but sheesh some people are like, No, you’ll pry the wrath of God out of my cold, dead hands….
The very thought kind of freaks some people out. I feel a bit like an evil mom just trying to wash a kid’s disgusting, sour milk encrusted security, blanket. Like chill out people, you can have your Godly wrath back right after I’ve washed it clean. Promise!
What is a wrath-monger? Somebody who traffics in the wrath of God, somebody selling fear, power, and control as a way to force conformity and terrorize people into compliance. You see this sometimes in street preachers, although not all, some are very cool, some are simply awesome. But the guy screaming about hell who hisses “Jezebel” at you when you walk by, that’s a wrath monger. Most of them are far more subtle, more nuanced and complex. Some wrath mongers I even love and respect, I just happen to be certain they are wrong.
Dead certain.
Some of us who come from the school of hard knocks, can recognize human fear, power, and control, for what it is no matter what form it takes. It is a weak and fear based manipulation tactic. An anxiety ridden symptom exhibited by the powerless to try to control the even more powerless.
God is not weak and powerless. God has no need to control or force us into anything, because He is already all powerful. He may well give you a nudge, or strongly encourage you, or send a whale to swallow you up, but there is no panicked, anxiety ridden, violent reaction to losing control, because God is sovereign already.
People will often confuse bullying and abuse with power and authority and than remake God into that same image. God as cosmic child abuser who tortured his own Son because He was enraged at us, His wrath so vast He slayed an Innocent and it’s all your fault. That is a totally false understanding, a misconception, a lie, but oh boy is it prevalent across the culture in various forms.
Nearly every single atheist, agnostic, nonbeliever, or backslidden, lukewarm, Christian pew warmer believes some version of it, “God hates me, God is punishing me, God is angry at me.” Then right on schedule along comes the wrath mongers with their, “God hates you, beware the wrath, you sinner,” and the accuser of the brethren has just been affirmed and validated.
It hurts our witness, it separates people from Jesus, and it misrepresents the true nature of the Lord. God loves you, flaws and all, and He loves you lavishly. Read the Book of John.
Worst yet, people can confuse “wrath”” with discipline” as if they are one and the same. That’s a tragedy here on earth, but it is ten times as tragic when that attitude is projected onto God Himself. Discipline means to teach, it is the same root word we get “disciples” from. Jesus never unleashes His wrath on the disciples.
Speaking of discipline, go read the tale of the lazy servant. He thinks he is doing good! He is protecting the Master’s money and hiding it in the ground. “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So in my fear, I went and hid your talent in the ground.”
The lazy servant is motivated by fear and he believes the Master is a hard man. We could probably call him a “wrath monger” because no doubt he’s selling everyone else on what a hard man his Master is and to be afraid, be very afraid. It doesn’t go well for the lazy servant. The Bible tells us the Master says, “throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The Lord disciplines those He loves, very true. I have no dispute with that truth! The opposite of love is not hatred, it is actually indifference. The Lord is not indifferent towards us at all. In fact, some of the words we have translated in the Bible as “wrath,” are more firmly rooted in words often translated as, “intense desire,” “passion,” and “longing.”
The Lord is gentle and infinitely kind to me. I’ve told stories of bumping into the Lord’s discipline before and it is not scary at all, in fact it is delightful. I usually laugh, not because I think it’s funny, but because it catches me totally off guard and I wasn’t expecting it, I did not see it coming. For example, I have a pretty good hubby, but this morning I was about go kick him in the shins, so I got up to walk across the house and give him a real piece of my mind, when all of a sudden a woman’s voice came into my head, and announced in the best melodramatic Shakespearian, “my beloved’s grief is my own.”
I nearly choked on my toast! I assure you, it was quite funny and unexpected. He definitely needed to be snapped at, but apparently that was not supposed to be my calling at the moment, so I let it go.
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Everybody has a ministry. I guess my heart is soft towards those who have father fractures, who have abuse histories, those who have been wounded by the church, those who are separated from the love of Jesus because of lies and deceptions. I have the eyes to see those things, the ears to hear them, and a certain kind of fierceness about seeing to it that someone speaks the Truth for them.
If we traffic in the wrath of God, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we reap that wrath ourselves, too. But if we traffic in His grace instead, not only can we help to heal a broken world, but we’ll reap His grace and favor, too.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Such a great post and reminder that it is His life in and through us that draws others near.
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Thank you for your kind words and for reading. It really is His life in us that draws others near. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Because I can… and commented:
So much of what was written here spoke to me today. I was thinking today that the physical setbacks that I have had may be the Lord’s way of rebuking me for my lack of empathy lately. I had gotten prideful in the way I have handled my illness and not sympathetic towards others who cannot handle the pain as well. All of us are different and have different levels of tolerance. I need to remember that. I need to remember how easily things can go badly, sometimes overnight. My pain has been making me angry and resentful. But, I am working now around people who are suffering more than I am. That keep going even in the face of grief, loss, and pain. Many of these people are maintaining their humor and a good outlook on life. Those that are not, who I am to judge them. I don’t know all that they have suffered or experienced. I need to remember that and treat everyone with the compassion and respect they deserve. Not that I have not, but I have not always felt so charitable. What I feel and what I express are two different things. I need to feel what I portray. Or I betray myself. I can only hope that people will continue to do this for me. I have been so fortunate in the friends and coworkers I have who have stepped up to support me. May I find the path I need to show the grace of the lord, and be a representative of his message for peace and love.
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Thank you for the reblog, much appreciated. I’m glad it spoke to you. I will definitely lift you up in prayer, too.
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I guess I haven’t experienced a lot of the fire and brimstone stuff first-hand, although I’ve seen some truly cringe-worthy “Christians” spout off on the news. I’ve heard way more preaching about a God who is so patient that you can pretty much get away with anything, because He either doesn’t know, doesn’t care, or is powerless to do anything about it. He just wants us to be happy. (Loving discipline is unheard-of to these people.) But I’ve also heard great teachings that balance a God that is all-knowing, all-powerful, AND all-loving, who is both just and merciful. That’s the God of the Bible, the One I know and love.
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Nailed it again, IB. I was just thinking, “Really? Why are the ones created trying to ‘create’ their CREATOR?” Maybe that’s a “Throw It Out There Thursday” post!
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Ha! I really like your “Throw it Out There Thursday,” posts.
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Jesus never expressed wrath toward his disciple but he sometimes expressed in regard to the scribes and Pharisees. Just read Matthew 23.
We shouldn’t speak of God’s wrath in dealing with believers or with unbelievers who are hurting and recognize their need for help, but there are unbelievers who are satisfied with their lives and have no interest whatever in God. Sometimes the only way to reach people like that is to tell them of God’s wrath.
God is a God of love but he is also a God of wrath. There is a proper time for expressing each of these characteristics.
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I see God’s “wrath” as an impassioned “NO!” to injustice and bondage. As you said, God disciplines us like a Father and gets angry when His children are abused, bullied, or kidnapped and put in bondage by lies.
When I think of wrath, I think about when I was young and smoking was still cool (and advertised on TV), and what a good parent might do when they caught their kid smoking. They might make them eat the cigarette (or smoke several together until they choked), which sounds cruel by today’s standards, but it was a very effective form of parental “wrath.” The parent wasn’t trying to hurt them at all but save them from a lifetime of habitual smoking and respiratory diseases.
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I think the truth is found in your first words, Mel. “I see…” Than you go and relate it to an experience, to an analogy. But others don’t “see” at all, nor do they have the same experiences. Even I, when people speak of the “wrath of God,” will immediately picture hypocrisy, abuse, tyranny, exploitation, violence, and abuse. I’ve been doing this for a while, so I can walk through that reaction and eventually translate what people are trying to say, but many who have nothing but negative experiences with the dysfunctionality of human “wrath,” cannot. To complicate matters even more, there are some really bad teachers out there, some people who reinforce those false beliefs by teaching that God is precisely that, abusive, dysfunctional, and perpetually mad at us.
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Amen, IB. That is SO true! This is probably (not probably!) the most important thing we can understand. Without an genuine encounter with God, we WILL ALWAYS project our human experience on to Him and even define these biblical terms from a dysfunctional human perspective. And our concordance isn’t going to help us here.
My perspective profoundly changed (after being a devout Bible-believing Christian for 20 years) when I actually began encountering Him in a profound way that touched the deepest part of my soul. And I found that the way I was taught about God (from our Western transactional mindset) wasn’t at all what He was actually like! He totally turned my religious world upside down! Actually, He saved me from religion. 🙂
For example, I will ask people what they think of when I say that God is a judge. They immediately think of our court system and some gruffy, exacting judge in his robes sitting high and lofty on his throne, waiting the put the gavel down on us! But I submit to you that the Bible doesn’t actually teach this view of God as judge. All you have to do read the book of JUDGES! What does a judge do in the Hebrew culture (not ours)? He DELIVERS God’s people from oppression and bondage! That should totally changes our perspective! Now, I love His judgment! I understand His wrath…I love repentance (changing my mindset to His mindset). Yay God!
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A huge amen to your comment, to the definition of judges in a Hebrew cultural context. In my neck of the woods here, on the wrong side of the tracks, the only reason people ever go to court is because they’re in trouble, they’ve done something wrong. We don’t even realize that going to court can mean something else entirely, that in civil court people can go seeking protection, justice, and a favorable judgement! The righting of wrongs, compensation. In the Book of Job, the Lord restores what was taken, ten fold. That’s a judgement, a restoration. Same for the persistent widow, she is persistent about going before the judge everyday because she wants her favorable judgement. 🙂
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OK, IB, I’m looking for some points of agreement here. I agree with you that God’s wrath and his discipline are not connected. They are two entirely different things. I agree with you that Christians (especially teachers and preachers) should not wallow in the wrath of God, use it as a weapon against others, or neglect to share the love and mercy and forgiveness of God.
But three things concern me about this post and the similar ones that preceded it. First, your words suggest that your response to the idea of God’s wrath is guided more by your own feelings and perceptions than by the Word of God as delivered by his chosen apostles and prophets. It is hazardous to say, “The God I know wouldn’t do that” when God is known best through his Word, not through our feelings. Second, you do seem to be lumping together everyone who speaks of the wrath of God–those who portray him as a cosmic child abuser with those who are quoting Paul’s letter to the Romans correctly. I’ve heard Christians mangle their description of the Trinity horribly, but that does not mean that the one God is not three Persons–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Third, it seems that you consider every mention of the wrath of God to diminish his love and mercy and grace. The opposite is true: when a Christian understands the wrath God has toward sin and toward sinners, his redeeming love expressed at the cross is magnified rather than diminished. I don’t know, but I think I will probably try to address this topic in more detail at my place some day next week. J.
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Awesome, I would like it if you decided to address wrath with a post. I often hear the concern or the accusation that I am guided more by my feelings and perceptions than by the Word of God. People would be wrong about that, and ironically I actually think the need to cling so fiercely to their own perceptions of the wrath of God is emotionally driven, a heart matter, and not rooted in the Word at all.
The Word is actually filled with verses warning us about the dangers of wrath, James, “Be slow to wrath, because the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Proverbs,” A quick-tempered man acts foolishly.” Ephesians tells us anger and wrath should be put away from us, along with bitterness and malice. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Instead of taking those verses to heart, many Christians actually project their own wrath onto God, as if their own wrath is God endorsed, sanctified, commanded. Than we completely ignore John that tells us, “God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” We than proceed to condemn the world with the alleged wrath of God, which isn’t really God’s wrath at all, but our own.
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I would totally agree with you on this, IB. There’s a big disconnect here. Making the (mostly Western) argument that feelings aren’t as important as His Word has, ironically, done a LOT to damage our understanding of God and His Word. Not that feelings are more important than His Word, but that our human perspective ALWAYS interprets His Word. You cannot divorce your feelings from what you understand about anything. The Word of God is perfect, but how we project our understanding on to His word is anything but perfect! As I said in my previous comments above, unless we have genuine encounters with God, we will not be able to understand His Word rightly. His Word is not the printed text, it’s living and active, it’s Jesus Christ Himself. It’s able to separate our Spirit-man from our soulish man, able to reveal our true thoughts and motives. We have no hope of understanding these things by simply reading the text. We must open our heart (which includes our feelings) to His Spirit, putting all our perspectives and what we think He’s like, on His potters wheel, to be re-shaped and re-formed, until we begin to read His Word from His perspective. Our feelings are simply an expression of what we have encountered, whether that experience comes from human wounds or actual encounters with God.
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Mel, I’m with you on opening our hearts to the Lord. As far as I’m concerned, both my mind and my heart are subject to Christ’s Lordship. When I worship God, I worship him with both my mind and my heart. When I study his Word, I let it teach both my mind and my heart. But neither of them is allowed to change or cancel his Word. If something in the Bible doesn’t make sense to me, I don’t assume the Bible is wrong; I look for other Bible passages on the same topic that will help me to understand what God is saying to me. If something in the Bible doesn’t feel good to me, I don’t assume the Bible is wrong; I look for other passages that will direct my heart on God’s paths. I don’t experience the Lord where and when I please; I experience Him where he promised to be found–in his Word, in the gathering of his people, and in his holy blessings. J.
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I couldn’t agree with you more about His written Word, Salvageable. His Word is always true, my understanding of it needs constant adjustment. And that’s where encountering Christ, the Living Word, unveils the truth that transforms my soul. It’s with the heart one believes (Rom. 10:10), and oftentimes my heart knows the truth long before my head understands it.
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I will get something written, but it might take a while with everything else going on in life. I definitely agree that projecting our sinful anger onto God’s wrath puts us in a bad place. But understanding God’s wrath might help us to know more about our salvation and our proper, Christian response to a sin-polluted world. J.
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Such a great article on a topic I knew nothing about !! GW!!!
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