The Light of Life Series
Why is God so angry that he would place people in hell for eternity? Equally provocative questions related to our first question are: is today's Gospel diluted, and if so, how and why did it happen? I will be brief.
How the Gospel Was Diluted of God's Anger
Intellectualism began to grow in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The same intellectual energies that fueled the burgeoning historical studies in nineteenth-century Germany and England were also applied to biblical studies. Scholars in academic circles, however, employed newer critical methods while trying to free biblical studies from the heavy hand of theological conviction. These newer biblical studies were also influenced by prevailing Enlightenment presuppositions, especially those espoused by Kant and Hegel. By the late nineteenth century, increasing English-speaking scholars viewed the newer critical methods as promising, responsible, and liberating.
How the Gospel Was Diluted of God's Anger Explained
A Diluted Gospel removed God's Anger. How did the Gospel become diluted? To criticize scripture is to throw faith in the tank and discredit what God has said and written. Without the integrity of the Bible, at best, we have a skewed view of God's integrity and character. Why did our view of the Gospel and God become skewed? 1) External Temptation: The Serpent said, "Has God really said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" 2) Internal Temptation: "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate..."
The Diluted Gospel in History
The "church" was filled with abusive behavior for nine hundred years. Kings and Popes competed to see who would rule the people. The priesthood was filled with religious men who used extra-Biblical means for the people to avoid the torments of hell and thereby secure their own livelihoods. The Pharisees, as hired hands, had returned with greed and through the wiles of the devil.
Why is God so angry that He would place people in hell for eternity?
Why People Accept a Diluted Gospel and Reject God's Anger
I want the reader to think about the most irritating person you know—a person that is ugly in how they treat others and for no apparent reason. Sure, there can be reasons, but we're not looking to justify behaviors that cause other people pain right now. We are looking at hurtful, hateful, and destructive behaviors that arise from people's hearts. When considering hell, we must also consider the Great White Throne Judgment. As people made in the image of God, even sin does not completely distort reason and an awareness of right and wrong. People are not demons whose light they receive is so diminished that no thoughts of goodness remain.
When God's Anger Will No Longer Be Removed from the Gospel
A Diluted Gospel removed God's Anger. However, at the final judgment, all the veneer, hypocrisy, and superficial goodness will be swept away in light of every person's lack of relationship with the living God. As individuals of Adam's sinful race, we want love, acceptance, and respect. Some become powerful and rich, and others never leave the ranks of the dirt poor. In either case, sin, like cancer, grows. For some, their riches increase their selfishness, arrogance, and pride. For others, their wealth becomes a means of even more incredible hypocrisy as they become wonderful gift-givers. For some, their poverty makes them bitter, angry, and violent. For others, their acceptance of poverty becomes an incredible means of increasing a superficial humility until one day; they become painfully aware that their supposed humility wasn't humility at all.
The day of which I speak is Judgment Day. Humanity, as created creatures, cannot judge correctly, for "... God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7). On Judgment Day, there will be the revelation of everyone's heart. For those not standing under the forgiving blood of the cross, there will be judgment with no pity or blindness to hinder eternal wrath.
Why We Should Feel Empathy for God's Anger
My dear reader, please remember how you felt when you were misjudged, disrespected, spoken of inappropriately, maligned, robbed, hurt physically and emotionally, betrayed, offended, lied about to the ruin of your reputation, lost a job to no fault of your own. Now consider, as you look deep down inside, are you perfect, and do you treat all people perfectly? If your answer is no, as it should be, know this: you are not God. God is perfect within the divine family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is eternal and infinitely transcendent above all the creatures He brought into being.
I mean this with all due respect toward you, my reader. Do you think God is offended or hurt any less than you because He is infinitely perfect? Do you not believe that he would be hurt infinitely more? Can anything hurt more than when a human spouse is betrayed by the one with whom a promise binds them? To join in a physical union with one outside the marriage vow is a betrayal like no other. Psychologists tell us it is worse than losing someone by death because even though the loss continues, there can be healing, but not so in divorce through betrayal and remarriage.
For all my readers who have felt that kind of betrayal, take that feeling into infinity, which you can't, and you will know how God's morality, holiness, righteousness, and goodness are violated by people who will not listen EVER. Stand people under the blood sacrifice of God's Son, who say they believe and inwardly deny that they need a savior, and how is that feeling of betrayal magnified? Are you beginning to understand the extent to which God is violated?
Lastly, consider that no matter how much punishment sinners will endure, they will never find it in their hearts to say they are sorry, repent and turn from their sin, and believe in the sacrifice of God's Son.
No one who reads the words of Jeremiah the prophet should believe that Israel was not facing the anger of God.
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