Bible Studies
The Terror of the Lord-Part One
By Patricia Backora, author of the book
Tough Love in Christ’s Millennium
Which you can order online from: http://www.publishamerica.com
God wants the world to know his love is not some whimsical, gooey soft soap which wipes away each and every unrepented-of sin. Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But sometimes sinners DO know they’re doing and out of a spirit of malice they’ll say something to attack the Spirit of Christ within the believer. Paul the Apostle knew that the only reason he’d been forgiven for persecuting Christ and attacking the Way of Salvation was he didn’t know any better (I Tim. 1:13). Even now, in the sunset of this 2000-year-old Age of Grace, there is a line beyond which God’s mercy will not stretch!
“Aw, that’s just for the Old Testament,” some will say. “Now God is a good God Who never loses His temper with anybody anymore. He’s given himself an image makeover. He’s had a few rough edges polished off and had every hint of a frown airbrushed away. He’s comfy as an old shoe. He hates the sin but loves the sinner. Besides, sin is always a matter of private interpretation, and who’s to say what the definition of “is” is?
So God has been given a makeover by theological image consultants, has He? And gentle Jesus is just too nice to ever get mad? Then what about this Scripture? Malachi 3:6 says: I am the Lord, I change not (Malachi 3:6). God did not say His nature would change from one Testament to the next. And what does this have to do with Jesus?
Plenty. This is God we’re talking about, not some chameleon which changes its image to blend into the scenery. Jesus and God the Father are one (John 10:30; Phil. 2:6). Christ is the express image of the Person of God (Col.1:15; Hebrews 1:3) Jesus is the third Person of the Godhead, the human manifestation of Yahweh, the Old Testament Name of God, the perfectly Holy and Righteous One Who calls Himself the Great I Am. Just as God the Father is, Jesus is the Great I AM (compare Exodus 3:14 with John 8:58). Christ says in John 8:58: Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (compare with Exodus 3:14).
So does Jesus Himself predate the New Covenant of Grace? A thousand times, yes! Jesus was in the beginning (even before the Creation) with God the Father (John 1:1; John 17:5; verse 24). Jesus is God Incarnate, so He doesn’t change either. Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8).
If Jesus weren’t claiming to be God, He never would have shocked pious Jews of His generation by claiming to be the great I AM. Let’s look at a few more Scriptures before reaching the conclusion that God in Christ will always be patient with sinners and no one ever need fear His wrath. Even if the New Testament God seems to have for a time set judgment and justice on the back burner, and His mercy has taken center stage during this 2000-year-long Age of Grace.
First I’ll address the popular belief that God in Christ simply wouldn’t ever get mad at anybody. What other Christ did Christendom come up with to take the place of the politically incorrect Lion of the Tribe of Judah? Gentle “Jesus”, meek and mild, sweet and tender like a child. The pale, frail-looking Jesus of Sunday School flannelgraphs. A passive figurehead who watches over a dangerous, wicked world through dreamy eyes. Surely He wouldn’t swat at a mosquito, much less send anybody to hell!
It’s a very good thing for us all that God is Love ( I John 4: 8, 16). But He is also to be feared. II Corinthinans 7:1 admonishes us to go on to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Hebrews 12:28-29 says: Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire (KJV). We who receive God’s kindness and love ought to treat it with the utmost respect and be truly thankful He looks favorably upon us.
One popular misconception is this: We’re in the New Testament Period now and every time someone wrongs us the Lord should let them get away with it. In II Timothy 4:14-16 Paul mentions two scenarios where people have wronged him, but his response toward the two sets of offenders is different. In verse 14 Paul says: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works. This mirrors words spoken by Christ Himself in Revelation 2:21-23, where He has appeared to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. Christ, to Whom the Father has committed all judgment (John 5:22) is dealing with Jezebel, a false prophetess who is seducing Christians to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. He says of her: Behold, I will cast her into a bed (probably a sick bed), and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searches the reins and the hearts: AND I WILL GIVE UNTO EVERY ONE OF YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR WORKS (emphasis mine). Jesus gave the Jezebel of the Thyatira church plenty of time to repent, but in the end He had to punish her as her righteous Judge.
Aw, why didn’t Paul ease up on Alexander the coppersmith? Paul tells Timothy in II Tim 4:15: Of whom be thou ware (beware) also; for he hath greatly withstood our words (our preachings).
Is Paul only overreacting to picky sermon critics who don’t know any better? Back in I Timothy 19-20 we find that Paul has dealt with Alexander before. Paul exhorts Timothy to hold onto his faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck; of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Evidently Alexander had once been a Christian but he has forsaken Christ Paul states that Alexander is guilty of blasphemy, or speaking ungodly things about Christ. Enough to prompt Paul to exercise his apostolic authority to deliver him into satan’s hands for punishment, in order that Alexander might come to his senses and repent. Paul did this at least once before in I Cor. 5:1-5. A man in the church has slept with his father’s wife and Paul castigates the church for tolerating the situation. In verse 5 Paul’s sentence on the man is: To deliver such an one unto satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
By the time Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy Alexander still hadn’t repented of his evil works, so Paul declares it fitting that the Lord reward him according to his works. Alexander, a former believer, had greatly opposed Paul’s preaching. Alexander knew full well he was fighting the Holy Spirit and trying to hinder other souls from being saved. This was heavy stuff. Alexander had set himself up as an enemy of the Kingdom of God and was knowingly collaborating with God’s enemy, satan, in much the same way as people will side with the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation.
In II Tim. 4:16, right after he mentions Alexander, Paul says: At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God it may not be laid to their charge. To his everlasting credit, Paul views these offenders with an eye of mercy. Other believers have deserted him when he needed a friend the most. A despicable thing to do and a hard thing to forgive. But perhaps Paul remembered that he also committed some terrible sins in times past, because of ignorance. The cowardice of his erstwhile friends is evidence of immaturity and human fallibility, not necessarily of hard hostility toward the Gospel. Those men needed mercy and the chance to grow into stronger, braver believers. Paul prayed for God to be patient with them, knowing God has also had to be patient with him. Jesus said in Matt. 5:7: Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
God’s treatment of individual sinners seems to hinge on their degree of accountability based on their comprehension of the seriousness of their sin. Even in the Old Testament the Lord drew a distinction between people who sin out of ignorance and those who sin presumptuously because they despise the Word of the Lord (Numbers 15:29-31).
Before Paul the Apostle’s conversion he was known as Saul of Tarsus. Saul was more zealous for the Law of Moses than his contemporaries (Gal. 1:13-14). But before he surrendered to Christ he had been Christ’s worst persecutor (Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-6). Yet he says he obtained mercy of the Lord because he did it ignorantly, and in unbelief (I Tim. 1:13). By contrast, Jesus consigned certain wicked Pharisees to hell because they deliberately insulted the Holy Spirit Who inspired His wonderful words and miracles (see Matt. 12:24-32). If Paul had hounded the Christians because he despised the Holy Spirit within them he would be in hell today.
In Romans 2:5-9 Paul, a former sinner saved by grace, has this to say about hardened sinners: But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile.
As He hung on the Cross Jesus prayed for his murderers. He said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do ( Luke 23:34). Christians tend to fixate only on the first part of Christ’s statement and conclude that every time somebody wrongs us, even if it’s a very vicous violent crime, we should always, immediately “just forgive them and let it go”. Just count it as nothing, no questions asked, because Jesus even forgave others for nailing Him to the Cross. But why did Christ’s murderers receive immediate forgiveness? Because they knew not what they did!
Consider those who participated in the crucifixion of Christ. Who were they? The mob who stood outside Pilate’s Judgment Hall baying for Jesus’ blood was primarily composed of Jews who had been sold a lie by their own leaders. The unbelieving priesthood as well as the hardened, Spirit-rejecting scribes and Pharisees referred to in Matt. 23:13. The scribes produced copies of God’s Law without necessarily obeying the heart of it: Love thy neighbor as thyself. The Pharisees were the expounders of the Scriptures. Whenever they deliberately misled people for their own purposes (like today’s politicians) they became the most dangerous of hypocrites, blind critics of Jesus. They would lead their blind followers into the ditch (Matt. 15: 12-14). Jesus spends most of Matt. 23 giving the Pharisees a verbal whipping. He pronounces doom upon them. Matt. 23: 13: But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men (hinder them from going in): for neither ye go in yourselves, neither suffer (allow) ye them that are entering to go in. In verse 33 Jesus warns them of their fate: Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Jesus was furious with those who knowingly warred against His Spirit. These evil men would take others to hell with them. They would whip up the mob into such a frenzy that they would bay for Jesus’ blood and cry: His blood be on us and on our children (Matt. 27:20-25). Instead of being justified, or made righteous, through the Blood of Christ, these unbelievers would be guilty of the Blood of Christ and suffer the consequences. Those religious leaders who had deliberately insulted the Holy Spirit could never be forgiven (see Matt. 12: 24-32).
What of the Roman soldiers who executed Jesus? These were battle-hardened men who had gone through such rigorous training they were impervious to the sight of death. They were trained to be efficient killing machines on the battlefield and out in the provinces of the Roman Empire where order needed to be kept. Obedience to any and all orders of their superiors had been thoroughly drilled into them and insubordination was punishable by death. The Romans’ ruthlessness as soldiers and occupiers had won them a vast empire. They, like the angry mob who had betrayed Christ to them, had been brainwashed by their own leaders to believe that cruelty toward Christ was necessary in order to preserve order in society.
But once Christ died and God showed His displeasure through darkness and a terrible earthquake, even the Roman centurion presiding over His crucifixion was forced to admit that Jesus was truly the Son of God (Matt. 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 23:44-47).
At the precise moment of Christ’s death the Veil of the Temple, woven of very thick fabric, was ripped from Top to Bottom, signifying that the Way into the Holiest Place of the Presence of the Lord was now open. Christ’s sacrificial death had ended the enmity between God and all who would believe on Him, so that we can even enter boldly into His Holy Presence in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
The chief priests ought to have understood the significance of the torn veil. They should have glorified God for His mercy in providing that Lamb Who came to atone for the sins of the world (John 1:29). But instead of admitting they were wrong about the Carpenter from Nazareth, they paid the soldiers to say His body had not been resurrected, only stolen ( Matt. 28:11-15). After Christ’s ascent into heaven, those same priests persecuted Christ’s disciples (Acts 5:17-40). Those cruel, crafty leaders of the blind rejected God’s Lamb of Atonement so they are roasting in hell today.
Countless criminals know that what they are doing is wrong. It sickens me to hear news reports about gangs of thugs breaking into old people’s homes, assaulting them and robbing them of what little they have. They know full well they’ll probably get away with it, and even if caught, tried and convicted, they’ll get little more than probation or community service. When your child has been savagely beaten by bullies, and they’re laughing about how they got away with it, you can’t just pass out easy forgiveness like popcorn. In those cases it is fitting to pray that God will mete out to the perpetrators the justice they won’t get from human judges. Because punishment for crime doesn’t immediately happen, crime flourishes in today’s world (Eccl. 8:11).
That’s only the Old Testament God talking, some will argue, and God’s nature has softened, even toward hardened sinners. But why should the God Who judges righteously become just like today’s slap-on-the-wrist judges if He is perfectly just, and especially if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever? How wondrously true that God is merciful. When he revealed His Glory to Moses on Mt. Sinai, He spoke these words about His nature in Exodus 34:7. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that by no means will clear the guilty.
And again in Micah 1:3: The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked (KJV). In both passages we see no contradiction, but two sides of God’s nature: His mercy and His judgment. God is slow to anger and ever merciful toward the repentant. A sinner who comes to Christ in repentance can justly be forgiven because he trusts in Christ’s atonement to pay for his sins, and so his life gets washed clean by the Blood of Christ ( I Cor. 6:9-11; Rev. 7:14). John 8:3-11 tells of a woman seized in the act of adultery. Her self-righteous accusers were certain Christ would agree to their stoning her to death for her sin. But Jesus didn’t see only the sin of the woman, but the hidden sins of her accusers. She was spared the death penalty because Christ knew she was sorry for her sins and would trust in Him to save her. Her accusers were blind to the seriousness of their own sins before God. They failed to consider that if they didn’t trust in Christ for salvation they would die in their own sins. Jesus said in Luke 13:3: Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Apart from repentant faith in Christ, a sinner cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Any sinner who refuses to come to Christ to have his sins cleansed away remains an enemy of God, and the wrath of God still hangs over his head (John 3:36). And since the unrepentant sinner has refused to let Christ pay a sin debt he himself could not pay, God cannot acquit him of his debt of sin, and so he must one day appear at the Great White Throne Judgment to answer for every dirty deed he has ever committed (Rev. 20:11-13).
Many think “gentle Jesus” would never take vengeance on anyone, even hardened criminals. But none other than the Lord Jesus is soon to return from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on God’s enemies, and on those who refuse to obey His Gospel. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction (I Thes. 1:7-10). One teenage defendant was sentenced to “life imprisonment” for the most heinous violent crimes committed against a helpless teacher. He sneered at the judge who presided over the trial. “Life imprisonment” means he’ll be eligible for parole in a few short years to go do more dirty deeds. But when that thug stands before the Great Judge of all the earth, his smile will fade. He won’t get a slap-on-the-wrist sentence at the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:11-15.
Is God indifferent to the cries of persecuted Christians around the world who are being martyred for their faith by cowardly enemies of Christ? Did He ignore the dying cries of saints who were slain for their faith in Christ down through the ages? Will the Judge of all the earth do right? He surely will!
Deut. 32:35 To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Verses 41-43 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand shall take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
How strange, rejoicing and divine vengeance in the same context. God’s avenging of his servants is to be a cause for giving Glory to God, rather than regret. Compare to a New Testament Scripture which exhorts God’s people to rejoice over the destruction of a corrupt world system which had cruelly persecuted them and shed their blood in martyrdom. This judgment is yet future, to take place before Christ assumes His rightful place as King over all the earth.
Revelation 18:20: Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
Notice, also, that both apostles and prophets join in the rejoicing. This would contradict the widely-held belief that while it was permissible for Old Testament saints to rejoice in God’s judgment upon their foes because they didn’t know any better, persecuted New Testament believers should never desire to be vindicated by God’s righteous judgment upon their oppressors.
Why do I take issue with that popular belief? One reason lies in Revelation 6: 9-11. The souls of those martyred for their faith assemble beneath the altar of God in heaven crying out: “How long, O Lord, Holy and True, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Rather than finding fault with these holy martyrs for asking Him that question, God gives them white robes (which symbolize righteousness) and tells them they must rest a season until all those destined to be martyrs are likewise killed. Then the vengeance would be poured out upon wicked earth.
Another reason I feel the day will come for New Testament believers to glorify God for His perfect executed justice is this: In Revelation Chapter 18:20 both apostles and prophets are exhorted to glorify God for the perfect justice He has just poured out upon wicked Babylon, an evil world system which has shed the blood of the righteous. While prophets are found in both Old and New Testaments, the apostle is exclusively an office of the Church. The word “apostle” is derived from the Greek “apostolos”, which means an ambassador, or one sent forth in the service of Christ. The apostle hails from the New Testament.
To be continued in Terror of the Lord Part Two
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