Conversing the Kingdom: God of Wrath vs God of Love

Deut. 3:3 and Luke 6:35

Sometimes in our minds we can get all tangled up when in the old testament we read of Moses, at the Lord's command, slaughtering an entire people right down to the last survivor and then we read in the new testament Jesus commanding us to love our enemies? Are we not seeing two different God's here or at the very least God having changed his mind on how to act somewhere in between the last book in the old testament Malachi and the first book in the new, Matthew.

This is something that I have personally been thinking and persuing a clear answer for for sometime and I feel that recently for me the last few pieces of the puzzle have clicked into place and I would love share this with you.

The key to this conundrum I think lies in Romans 2:3 where Paul explains the Lord's kindness, forbearance and patience towards sin. What we often interpret as the Lord not acting in history, not displaying his wrath against judgement or the slow fulfilment of prophesy Paul actually explains as patience. One thing that is interesting to remember is that the time period covered by the old testament period is significantly longer than that of the new. Often we can mistakingly think that the Lord was constantly destroying one nations after another in judgement. But in actually fact there are long periods of patience recorded in the old testament where the Lord delays the punishment of a nation until their sin had reached a critical mass and then he steps in. The most obvious occasion is during the Lord's covenant making to Abraham in Genesis 15 where the Lord details to Abraham that the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Another aspects of this problem is again detailed by Paul in Romans 12:19 where he records the Lord's command that vengeance is his and his only. If we take a careful look at the old testament we will discover that at each point that a nation is judged and wiped out it was always at the specific instruction from the Lord and whenever the Israelites decided to take things into their own hands and deal out a bit of their own judgement the Lord comdemed them for it.

The final piece of this puzzle comes together when we consider exactly how seriously the Lord considers sin. We must not take lightly the periods of patience depicting God as a God of Love only and forgetting his wrath and judgement towards sin. If we think that Gods wrath and judgement has been confined to the old testament period we need to remember Jesus' prophesy of the fall of Jesusalem and the historical recording of this we find in Josephus' writing. The death toll in Jerusalem itself without taking into account the surrounding towns was over a million. It is not easy reading and was a horrendous judgement that brought about an end to the age of the jews and signified the age of the gentiles.

And let us not forget the prophesy's of John of the end times when Jesus comes again in glory. There will again be an out pouring of wrath and woe to those whoes names are not written in the book of life as that day will be horrendous eclipsing all previous judgements. So let us not delay in seeking the face of the Lord and repenting of sin and leading other to do the same lest we become complacent that during this time of patience we forget the nearness of the final coming wrath!

Conversing the Kingdom: Contraception

Ex. 1:7

As Christians contraception is a difficult topic because in a similar way to money we can very easily us it to control exactly how we want our lives with no room for God any longer. The world around us shouts loud that marriage/committed relationships is all about individual happiness and not the God centred, sanctifying, self sacrificing, loving environment perfectly designed for the bringing up of children that the Bible displays.

This attitude has begun to creep into the church and as a result there is a general trend of waiting longer and longer to get married in order to focus on careers or simple because we are not ready for marriage and once we are married we wait longer and longer to have kids for a variety of reasons because we are availing ourselves more and more of the control given us by contraception. Are these very subtle attacks drawing us away from the Biblical perspective on marriage and family? Aided with a more relaxed attitude towards contraception we as couples are now using this control over our bodies to delay conception and or limit the numbers of children in our family. Who are the winners and losers in this new relaxed attitude?

I do find the growing trend a case for concern when contraception is now so widely used amongst evangelicals that it is very rarely questioned and no longer is it a case by case exception but the accepted norm.

So what are the implications? Are we questioning our motivations enough?

If children are a blessing from the Lord are we using our control to limit that; Are we saying that we do not trust the Lord for the number of children that he intends for our lives; Are we saying to the Lord that we do not trust his timing in our contraception or alternatively are we to use this control to wisely and prayerfully limit the number and timing of the children in our family?

Are we worried about the financial implications of lots of children; Are we too concerned for our children to get the best of the best and that would never be possible to provide for more that 2 or 3 or alternitavely are we using our God given wisdom in stewardship or to not overstretch ourselves or do we feel a different calling for our family?

Perhaps these are interesting questions for the church today in the light of the ever decreasing emphasis in our country being placed on marriage and family. Are we as Christians being truly counter cultural, or are we being more subtly influenced by the world than we would care to admit? What does it indicate when contraception is more the default setting instead of a considered case by case basis? Let us always and often be questioning our motivations in all areas of life continually looking to become more Christ like for our good and his glory.

Dave and Cath