Does God Hate?

[Sheep]

Does God hate some people?

Article by Scott Price

[SERay]

Scott Price is skewed in his understanding to a degree. Another guy rants like this at http://www.angelfire.com/on4/calebhamer/

They are unschooled and don’t have a grasp of Jewish colloquialisms. The Hebrew writing style uses extreme words to express a thought. God doesn’t hate in the sense that Scott speaks, but rather his cutting off a soul from His presence could be summed up as “hate”, although the emotion of hate is not God’s attribute. God’s hate as written, is a Holy indignation, not hatred wishing death like evil provokes. It is different.

Of course, the opposite is the New Agers and Universalists that teach that God is so full of love, that He simply cannot send anyone to eternal hell fire. It is against His infinite love. They want God to forgive all, even those who openly reject Him and die cursing God. I must admit, it is nice to think of God's love being so infinitely great that all will ultimately be saved. Hell is a terrible place and I don't want anyone to go there. But it does not matter what I think. It matters what the Bible says.

God is love (1 John 4:8), but God also punishes the sinner and hates (holy hates not evil hates) all who do iniquity. God is not one sided. He is not simply an infinitely loving God. He is also infinitely just. He must deal with sin. He must punish the sinner.

Let me try to explain it this way, because this is nearly impossible to explain. God loves us, but allows evil to continue. Babies die still born and 1,000 of children die in Africa every week. God loves us but his creation has natural disasters that kills. However, by free will, we get on airplanes that have killed in quantity. We also wage wars that kills off future generations. We know that evil exists, nature purports it and we escalate it via our nature. A really grim reality I must say. Much could be said on this matter alone. This very subject is why some seminary professors become agnostics (Dr. Bart Ehrman for example). They can’t get past how a Holy God could allow evil to continue, therefore surmise that there is no Holy God and it is all a big glorious cult. Get Bart’s book “God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer” if you want to seriously thrown off course. Meaning, end up doubting God and get entrenched in details you can never hope to answer.

The plain fact is, God hates sin, but gives grace to the sinner. God is pure infinite light which there is no darkness. The world is darkness, therefore it is under a curse with a measurable end. All that is infinite, without end, indwelt by the Creator is light. Our regenerated souls are light only inasmuch as the Holy Spirit dwells, but our bodies are darkness because they belong to this world. Our sinful and dark natures make us enemies of God because he is pure light without blemish. When we come under the salvation contract through the blood of Christ, we are justified, but to turn back to our dark natures is a breach of that contract. And like a business deal, there is a penalty if you breach a contract. Sometime a breach can be so serious, the contract is nullified (Hebrews 6:4-6). That is why we have to walk in a new way, under the power of Christ. Why the anointing of the Spirit is absolutely essential, because in and of ourselves, we cannot hope to remain true to the contract. I guess I spun off the thought there for a moment, but it was going somewhere.

God hates sin. But, He does not punish sin. He punishes the sinner. Sin is borne from the heart which cannot be tied up and thrown into a fire. It cannot be put in a box or glued to a stick. It is rebellion against infinite perfection conceived from a corrupt nature. It is breaking God's Law of moral justice. Sin occurs inside the heart and mind of people. Therefore, God must punish the sinner. Why? Because He is both Holy and Just and the person who sins offends God. God's Holy and Just character will not allow Him to ignore this offense

The Law of moral conduct is a reflection of God's character. It is pure and perfect. It is powerful for the revelation of our true nature. The Ten Commandments reflect God's holiness and justice. These commandments are not without punishments. A law without consequences is only an empty slogan. To sin is to break God's Law and offend His character. To sin means to challenge His character and authority by insisting on your own ambitions. It means we act against His word. The Creator has said He will punish the lawbreaker.

The sobering fact is that God is so holy and righteous that He hates (in the pure definition) the sinner (Psalm 5:5; Lev. 20:23; Prov. 6:16-19; Hos. 9:15). Some say that we should say that God only hates the sin but loves the sinner. But, the above scriptures speak contrary to that. But it is also true that He is love (1 John 4:8). It is better to accept the love of God found in Jesus than to reject it and suffer His wrath.

This is a tough subject to write on a 6am in the morning. I hope I made sense? I probably need to rewrite some content for accuracy and explaination.

[Sheep]

This answers some of my questions I had for a while. Sometimes I find myself unaware and will doubt God. There is sooo much to learn.

Now about that Caleb Hamer fellow...."if you speak more than one language you are sinning"?...first time I ever heard that.

In Christ,
Pat

[Joel]

God richly loves mankind, his creation : “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

God would that all sinners “should come to repentance”. In that sense yes he hates the sin, but not necessarily his creation that he loves.

God has given us free will to choose repentance. The mere word Gentile means a person of a non-Jewish faith, or a Heathen or Pagan. Heathen of course is defined as a one who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods. A pagan has the qualities of a Heathen and further worships strange Gods.

When the Jews rejected Christ, the Gentiles were grafted in. Even though God loves us, it is up to us to accept that love and return that love. And though God is great love, he is also a God of great wrath. There is no hate within God. Though he “hateth” certain things., this to say he is extremely displeased.

The best way I have to grasp the concept is to look at friends, family, and foes. In all of the folks I know, which one’s would I delight in seeing suffer hell? Personally, I can’t think of any.