God's Wrath
One of the biggest objections to universal reconciliation seems to be due to a misunderstanding of God's wrath. Perhaps it is the tendancy to apply a distorted meaning to this word, for God is not given to raging outbursts of anger as men are. The word means: anger, wrath, indignation, passionate or violent emotion. I often refer to God's wrath as His fierce love. God, our perfect, heavenly Father, expresses His wrath out of perfection as well. It is perhaps hard for us to imagine how holy indignation and righteous anger are expressed. Scripture gives us many examples of it. We must not place our own ideas of what love is, upon our Heavenly Father. As much as love can be warm, soft, and comforting, love is also expressed in discipline. What parent doesn't know the necessity of the hard side, as well as the soft side, of love? Only a neglectful father would deprive his child of consequences and discipline for wrong behavior. God's ultimate plan is "to unite all things into one, in Christ". Being a perfect Father, His main concern is to train and discipline His children. His goal is to love us into complete and consistent obedience. In this process it becomes necessary, at times, to express His fierce love.
Read the rest of this entry ... (1077 words left)
