How could a God who is love possibly judge? Can these be reconciled? There are many in the Christian landscape who do not think so, and thus deny a key characteristic of God, His justice.
So what is judgment, what is it’s purpose, and how can these two seemingly opposed sides of justice and love be reconciled?
Part of what the issue is in my mind is a misunderstanding of what the word love is defined as. Our modern world often looks at the concept of love and reduces it down to a feeling. You know, the fluttering in our stomachs when someone flirts with us. The word love is thrown around without any grounding definition, which has led to absurdities like signs saying “love is love”. You cannot define a word by itself, and without an actual meaning then in reality nothing is being said.
Fundamentally the word we say as love can be rightly defined as “willing or intending the best for the other.” This means that even hard or difficult things that seem not nice, if it is in the best interest of the other can fall under the roof of love. Not many people like going to the dentist, especially kids. But it is for their best that they need to go and get checked out. They may not like it, but it is what is best for them, and because their parents love them, they make them go, even if they protest.
Is it any different for God?
God loves each and every single person. He died on the cross for you to have restored relationship with Him, and freedom from sin. That is how much He loves you!
This also means that there are times where hard and difficult things must happen. But those things are not because He does not love us. Rather they are because He loves us they need to happen.
All of the sin, evil and bad things that happen ultimately can be seen as things that are to lead us to repentance. Be that saving faith in Christ, or as things that refine us to become more like Him. Everything we can think of can be encompassed in this reality. Be it the personal evil of an individual, or natural disasters. All of these things are the result of a broken creation in need of redemption, and ultimately God uses them to point us to Him. To show us our need to utterly rely on Him.
So when it comes to judgment, God’s purpose is always love. He’s not an angry God sitting up in the sky with a giant hammer playing a game of cosmic wack-a-mole. Instead, He is a God who loves us dearly, and while the suffering of the judgments and trials we face in this life suck, they are for our repentance. To know Him, and know Him more.
There is no conflict with a God of perfect love, who also judges. It’s just an issue of our perspective.
Today marks the celebration of the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses, which while not desired by Luther kicked off the Protestant Reformation.
During his time there were legitimate abuses and problems in the institution of the western church that necessitated reform. From abusive sale of indulgences to priests openly living with concubines. Luther wished to open debate on topics surrounding the sale of indulgences, which kicked off a firestorm of overreaction. While we have mythologized the story of Luther in many ways, the kick off to the reformation was pretty innocuous. He wanted to start a theological discussion surrounding these topics, but the ante kept getting kicked up until a Papal bull anathematizing Luther kicked him out of the church and boom, proto-Lutheranism is born.
But are there downsides to what took place in the Reformation? Unequivocally yes. Since the reformation there have sadly been many departures from orthodox Christian teaching. One of the earliest examples of this during this period would be Zwingli and his downgrading on the view of what the Eucharist is, and whether Christ is present in some way shape or form in it. As someone in the Methodist tradition I hold to a form of real presence where we are partaking of Christ in faith through the bread & wine, and by it we are strengthened by Christ for the Christian life. Sadly the Zwinglian view has infected much of the Protestant church where the sacraments are seen as ordinances, and are just sings of something.
Another unfortunate fruit that has come in certain circles of the Reformation is a tacit rejection of anything that smacks of “tradition”. Often our imaginations for how to be a Christian often only go back so far (maybe the last 50-200 years), but anything beyond that might not be helpful. The problem with this is that when we fail to look to the saints whom shoulders we are standing on, we end up tripping over the same things others during their time did. So many heresies and heterodoxies have cropped back up in the past 150 years that are just rehashed 1st-5th century heresies. But because much of our theological imagination doesn’t go back far, we may fail to see what led to the issue, and even how to deal with it. The patristics (early church fathers) are a wealth of wisdom in spiritual and theological matters. As someone in the Methodist tradition we can look to the Wesleyan quadrilateral where Scripture, Reason, Tradition & Experience help form a consensus, with Scripture as the infallible authority over the other three. Thomas Oden, who was the tip of the spear in something called paleo-orthodoxy calls us to look to the writings of the early church to help guide us. We must walk into the future looking back.
These are top two of the excesses of the reformation that come to my mind. Every movement has it’s problems because we are fallen humans. But I don’t say all of this to downplay the reasons why the reformation needed to happen. While institutions are necessary & important, but they can at times overgrow their bounds and become what hinders the mission of the Gospel if not put back into alignment. And this certainly was the case in my mind when I think of the big picture of what the 16th century church in Europe looked like.
Christ makes it very clear in the Sermon on the Mount, and in other parts of the Gospel that His Kingdom will not look like what we think it will. I do believe that the Church is both visible and invisible. Visible that we can visibly see the buildings, institutions, and people that make it up. Yet also invisible that while there may seem to be many organizations or denominations, those whom partake in the classical Christian consensus of orthodoxy make up the entirety of the Kingdom of God.
So despite some of the problems, I’m happy the reformation happened, and that I am apart of it. The Church must always be focused on Christ, and the spreading of the Gospel. I look forward to doing that with my other Protestant, Roman & Orthodox brothers & sisters as we participate in building God’s Kingdom on earth, waiting to be a people who will welcome the physical arrival of their King.
We all know that shifting uncomfortable feeling when someone in the
room goes just a bit too far with a joke. That moment of silence when
the tension can be cut with knife, and everyone is darting their eyes
around, looking for some kinds of out.
If there’s one part of the Bible that makes most evangelical
Christians uncomfortable its the imprecatory psalms in the book of
Psalms. To imprecate means to invoke judgment, calamity, or curses on
ones enemy. And sometimes the language can be really stark. An
example of this is Ps. 69:24, “Pour out your wrath on them; let
your fierce anger overtake them.” Wow, that seems pretty harsh for
a God of love!.
This is where we
really need to be careful. A knee-jerk reaction may be to say, “Well,
the God of the Old Testament is just like that, the one we see in the
Gospels is different!” That understanding is Marcionism, which was
a heresy in the early church that has been dealt with. God is the
same, yesterday, today and forever.
So how do we
reconcile or understand this?
One of the issues
that really flattens how we seek to understand Scripture is our
understanding of the spiritual world, and the realities of the
spiritual realm. Most of us don’t know, but many Christians have
imbibed more materialism into our worldviews than we think, even
those in the Charismatic movement. Through Scripture and tradition we
know that there is a lot more going on in the spiritual world than we
give credit for. But when we take that into account, things really
come into focus.
(For an introduction
into the entire area of Biblical studies and theology I highly
recommend Supernatural by
Michael Heiser, and The Lord of Spirits by
Andrew Damick as primers into understanding what goes on in the
spiritual world.)
Once
our spiritual landscape is more fleshed out then we begin to see what
these imprecatory psalms are speaking to. The writer of the Psalms is
not necessarily look to God to strike down his natural enemies (maybe
we can read it that way). They are instead asking for the one true
God to give them victory of the spiritual powers and authorities over
pagan nations that they are facing against.
While
yes God does command the destruction of humans when wickedness is
full (i.e. the flood, the conquest of the Promised Land), there is
always a strong influence of what we can only call demonic activity
that is going on, that has corrupted humanity into doing great evil.
These demonic forces have redirected worship that is due to the true
God, and instead take it for themselves, having the people under them
commit horrid acts.
It
is against these spiritual foes, pagan demonic forces that are coming
against God’s people, seeking to destroy them, or mix them up in
what everyone else is doing.
This
theme continues on through to the New Testament. The Apostle Paul
speaks of our weapons not being natural and physical, but instead
spiritual that can tear down strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4).
So
what does this mean for us today? The people “out there” that we
think are our enemies really aren’t. Those who are not followers of
Christ are not just misguided or lost. They are slaves of demonic
forces that are desiring nothing but the destruction of humanity
because we are image bearers of God. No matter how vile or horrid
they seem, they are ultimately lost and in need of the thing all of
us are in need of. Christ, the savior and King to free them from
death, and their slavery of sin, to become part of His Kingdom and
join the fight in conquering the world with the Gospel.
As
we do that, keeping singing these Psalms, asking Christ to strengthen
you in the fight against the spiritual powers and forces that are
holding those you love captive. And do not fear, love as won! Hell
has been harrowed, and the enemy is in retreat.
Family is messy and complicated. Blood runs thicker than water as you
know, and we don’t choose the family that we have. So what is the
most necessary thing for a healthy family? Is it a well ordered
structure where the authority lines are abundantly clear and no one
gets out of line with the tune everyone plays? Not really. That sort
of family culture breeds contempt and hurt.
Rather the most
important thing for a family is honesty and truth. Unity is not about
sameness, but about oneness. Being together, unified. And the only
way that happens is when there is open honestly and everyone is on
the same page. The opposite of this is playing a game of wack-a-mole
when someone steps out of line.
One of the best
examples of this I know of is from the TV show Blue Bloods. If
you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. The show follows a large
family, all either working in or around the NYPD. The patriarch is
the current police commissioner, the grandpa is a former police
commissioner, one brother is a detective, the other a beat-cop, and
the sister is a prosecutor. They all have different perspectives,
life-experiences and ways of doing things. In every single episode
they come together for a family meal on Sunday, pray, and enjoy time
together.
The
crazy thing is that with that unity and love that they share it is
also filled with so much conflict. The siblings get is fights over
work related stuff, there is tension between kid and parent, and all
the other messiness that comes along with being a person in a family
of similarly broken and complicated people. And yet in all of that
there is abounding love, even in the deepest of disagreements. Why?
Because there is honesty. Watch the linked clip above if you haven’t to see what I mean!
What
happens when the opposite is true? I have in the past known and lived
some of the tensions of that reality. Where the presumed pretense is
to keep your mouth closed, and your opinions to yourself because they
go against the prevailing dogma. The truth and honesty between people
is not there, and you never actually get to know the other person
because you are presenting a fascade to “go along to get along”,
and you know the other person is likely as well.
Jesus
talked about whited sepulchers when describing the pharisees (Matthew
23:27). The outside may have looked pretty, but inside was rotting
flesh, and dry bones.
So
which one is better. Honest messiness that doesn’t look as pretty,
but is real and true? Or a fabricated image of “everything is
perfect, there are no problems, and we are all in line”? I can just
about guarantee with few exceptions that the latter is a fabrication
that is built on fear and hurt. We are all messy and broken. That is
the reality of being human. And even more fundamentally that is the
hope that the Gospel brings.
In
all of our broken messiness, Christ loved us so much He gave His life
while we were yet sinners! For
those of us who have accepted that gift of salvation we are now part
of His family and His Kingdom. But that Kingdom is not one of rigid
uniformity and sameness. Rather, Christ’s Kingdom is built of all
of our differences beautifully pieced together like a mosaic, working
together to build His Kingdom as a representation of the beauty of
His creation. We are all different, and with that difference we are
all commonly bonded together by that amazing work of salvation
through Christ.
The
unity of His Kingdom is not sameness, it is recognizing how our
common experience of salvation reinstates us to the fullness of our
created intention, in all its many differences.
Think
bigger and broader. If you are in a place of rigidity, where
everything is forced to look and operate in a specific way, there is
so much more that Christ offers.
I don’t really
know much about boating. I’ve been on them, I love touring old
warships. But when it comes to practical sailing knowledge, that’s
not really my area of expertise. But one thing I do know is that
anchors hold the boat where it is. We all have that image of a ship
cutting through the water, and then it drops it’s anchor and as the
anchor and the chain begin dragging across the bottom the ship comes
to a stop (I’m particularly thinking of that epic scene from the
2012 movie Battleship!).
As
apart of this conversation I also want to mention Paul’s words in
Ephesians 4:14, “Then we
will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and
blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and
craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (NIV).
A lot of imagery in this passage that relates to a ship, really in
need of an anchor. When a boat is anchored, even in a terrible storm
it can be held, and while it might get battered a bit, it can remain
where it needs to. We live in a day and age with a lot of teachings
that seem to go all over the place. A lot of “theology” that is
done in our post-modern era is
sometimes problematic at best, or as the text suggests sometimes
deceitful.
How
are we to tell!? How could we possible know what is sound doctrine
and what is not. It can be really hard because most of the time
everyone is using the same Bible, and yet people come to vastly
different interpretations and understandings.
The
answer is we have to make sure we are anchored. The anchor that we
have in Christianity is that of the classical Christian consensus of
the Church found in the creeds and in the writing of the early church
fathers (a.k.a the patristics). When we hold commonly what the early
church believed (summed in the creeds and presented in the patristic
writings) we find an anchor that a follower of Jesus in any age is
able to go to, yank on it a bit and see if they are still attached to
it.
Gnosticism
was an early church heresy (that even Paul deals with), where they
believed they had special revelation and knowledge of salvation,
securing them no matter what they did. This obviously led to many
problems. When we then turn to the creeds and early church fathers we
find out how these issues were dealt with, and we can assess from
there is we are attached to the anchor or not.
My
encouragement for us all is to make sure that we are anchored. In the
last year I have memorized the Apostle’s Creed, and it has been so
live giving. I can recite the core historic beliefs of the Christian
faith, and it is a constant reminder that I am anchored to the faith
once delivered to the saints, which has been proclaimed since the day
of Pentecost.
Go
learn the creed (The Apostle’s Creed, Nicaean Creed & the
Athanasian Creed are the core ones) and read some of the early church
fathers (Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Justin Martyr, Clement of Rome,
Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Origen just to name a few). You will
find that the thoughts and questions of our modern age really aren’t
that new, and you will likewise be amazed at the depth of thought
that the Church has for us today.
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