The Bible declares that God, a God of love, destroyed all but eight people with a flood in Noah’s day. (Genesis 6-9) The Bible also declares that God, a God of love, will destroy every wicked person at the end of the thousand years. (Revelation 20) These actions seem completely inconsistent with a God of love. It may surprise you that God’s omnipotent and omniscient character of love does not respond with the same type of impatience and anger that humans do. God does get angry (Deuteronomy 32:22; Hebrews 3:11), but the basis for His indignation is never self-centered. Corporately speaking, God’s anger is aroused when a majority of people in a city or nation openly and defiantly violate the moral values necessary for the well being of society. God hates wickedness. (1 Corinthians 6:9,10) He becomes especially angry when lawlessness and immoral conduct reach a point where the oncoming generation (that is, innocent children) have no choice but to experience the deadly and painful consequences of their fathers’ sins. (See Exodus 20:5 and Jeremiah 32:17-19.)
The
curse of sin is inescapable. History reveals that no nation or
civilization can save itself from the slippery slope of moral
degeneracy. It is just a matter of time before a majority of people
within a city or nation will fail to exalt or heed righteous counsel.
When this occurs, God’s wrath is aroused because He knows that
future generations will be ruined from birth. (Genesis 18:20; Jonah
12:2; Colossians 3:5,6) Even though the city of Nineveh temporarily
repented of its wickedness after Jonah warned them of God’s coming
wrath, the Ninevites eventually returned to their wicked ways (Nahum
1:14) and God responded by sending King Nebuchadnezzar to destroy
them. God also used Nebuchadnezzar as “His servant” to destroy
Israel, His own people. (Jeremiah 25:9)
God’s
intimate view of man’s behavior and moral degeneracy (1 Kings 16:7)
explains why a God of love required ancient Israel to kill every man,
woman, child, and all livestock belonging to the Amalekites. (1
Samuel 15:3) When nations become hopelessly evil and defiant, God may
first send “redemptive” judgments to see if the people will
repent. (Ezekiel 14:12-21) If the people will not repent, God either
destroys them Himself or raises up a destroyer to eliminate them from
Earth. This truly is an act of love so that future generations can
live and enjoy the land previously occupied by a decadent and
degenerate people. (Leviticus 18:24,25) Innocent people may perish in
these corporate events, but this does not mean that all are eternally
lost! The Bible indicates that Rahab, the prostitute, was saved when
Jericho was destroyed. (See James 2:25.) The Bible indicates that
Daniel and some of his friends were saved from death when
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. (Daniel 1) However, the Bible
also indicates that sometimes God’s people perish as a result or
consequence of His wrath! (Revelation 6:9-11; 17:6)
Unfortunately,
corporately speaking, children rarely rise to a higher, more noble
standard of conduct than that of their parents. Children may have
more materialistic wealth, but seldom do they embrace a higher
standard of moral conduct. Man’s nature is sinful and attracted to
rebellion and wickedness. Each generation of teens push the envelope
of decency, and each generation delights in greater rebellion. As
generations come and go, each generation becomes more ignorant of
God’s will, and then it insults God with greater indifference and
degeneracy than their parents did. This slippery slope leads each
successive generation into greater wickedness.
When
we violate God’s design for living, the suffering index increases,
and agony and death occur. There comes a point within man’s misery
where God’s patience runs out and He takes matters into His own
hands by cauterizing the cancer of sin. Ironically, what God is
unable to achieve through patience and longsuffering with
individuals, He can sometimes achieve through His wrath. (2 Peter 2)
It is so important to properly understand both levels of God’s
love. In His love, God does all He can to save the maximum number of
individuals, and at appropriate times, He must “prune back” the
curse of sin so that the people of Earth will not self-destruct or
drown in wickedness.
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