On The Eagle's Wings

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. 

Let's take a look at some scripture.  

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

If you have entrusted your life to the Lord, and are fully persuaded of His love for you, you are already living in everlasting life.  John 17 says "to know (experientially) Him is eternal life."  I think we have often been taught that eternal life is for a future date beyond this life.  Scripture never puts off relationship with the Lord, perfection in Him, eternal life, etc. to a future date.  If you look closely you will see that it is for NOW as well as for the future.  "He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God (His fierce love, expressed through discipline) abides on him."  Praise God for His undying commitment to His people.  We would all be doomed if it were not for the discipline of the Lord!!! 

Psalm 95: 

       Today, if you will hear His voice:
    ⁸ “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
         As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
    ⁹ When your fathers tested Me;
         They tried Me, though they saw My work.
    ¹⁰ For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
         And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
         And they do not know My ways.’
    ¹¹ So I swore in My wrath,
         ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

I hope that you can see that if God had allowed a rebellious people to enter His rest, it would have completely defeated His purpose.  We do this at times as parents, allow our children to experience rewards without having allowed them to fully experience the consequences of their wrong actions and we end up with a worse problem than when we began.  On the other hand, when we allow our children to fully experience the painful consequences of their actions, they are trained by it and it changes their behavior.  Throughout scripture God allows His people to experience the consequences of their wickedness though temporal punishment and at times through death.  The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed in the Father's righteous indignation, the fire of His love, yet there is no longer a fire burning in that area.  Would a loving father allowed this immorality to continue and flourish?

God is a consuming fire.  His fire in our lives is His fierce love, fiery indignation, that consumes the sin in us through discipline.  Sometimes wickedness causes death.  Paul says, "The wages of sin is death"!  From our perspective death is an end but is death the end from God's perspective?  Will He raise up the righteous and the unrighteous from their graves for the purpose of burning the unrighteous eternally in hell?  What pleasure would our Father have in raising the dead in order to give them over to eternal torment? Or is the lake of fire a refinery through which He will accomplish His will in their lives -- "for He is not willing that any should perish (be destroyed fully) but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:6)  Scripture says in Eph. 1:9 "having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will." 

I will list some scriptures and when you read them, insert "fierce loving discipline" where you see the word wrath, remembering that God's ultimate purpose is to perfect His people.  If you do so, you will get a clearer picture of what is being said.

Romans 1:

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness

Romans 2:

⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath

Romans 3:

5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?

Colossians 3:

⁵ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience

There are many more scriptures that speak of God's wrath.  I hope you can now see that God's wrath is part of His divine nature and that He must come against sin in holy indignation for the purpose of correction and discipline.  We are all too well aware of the abuse that many have experienced from earthly parents, God is in NO way abusive.  Every one of His actions toward His people is redemptive.  The very fact that He exercises His fierce love toward us is our salvation!!!  Never let it enter your head that God's wrath is about an angry, out of control God, who has finally had enough and is having a holy temper tantrum (think that is an oxymoron) and out of vengence will throw His children into an eternal, never ceasing, fire to burn forever.  I hope that you can see that this is not only an abomination to Him but completely contrary to everything our Father is.

Ps. 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

Ps. 100:5 For the LORD is good;His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

Is. 57:16 For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls which I have made.

Jer. 3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘ Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘ I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the LORD; ‘ I will not remain angry forever. That you have transgressed against the LORD your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the LORD.