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The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. —Nahum 1:2(NIV)

Having covered in recent issues God’s holiness and righteousness or justice, we may quite naturally pass on this month to discuss His wrath. Because He is holy and righteous, God necessarily disapproves of, recoils from, and abhors sin in any form. He loves righteousness and hates iniquity, rewarding His creatures for the one and punishing them for the other. And according to the Bible, this disapproval and hatred of what is wrong is no cool, dispassionate displeasure, but a pronounced anger and wrath.

The concept of the anger of God seems to have presented some problems for Christians in all ages, but even more especially in our own day. Many are embarrassed by it or turn apologetic for it. There are a number of reasons for this attitude, and a number of approaches toward God’s wrath have been consequently taken.

The gods of the heathen were angry gods who constantly required appeasement, and no one wants the true God to be confused with them.

[Anger] is one of the most prominent characteristics of the Greek divinities. The idea of wrathful gods is one of the basic factors of the majority of religions....For man...there is the possibility, particularly within the framework of the cult, of counteracting the anger of the gods by means of prayer, vows, sacrifice and expiatory rites. In the Roman world the idea of wrathful gods and their punitive judgments, affecting individuals in sickness, suffering and natural catastrophes is even more strongly [considered].... the effective cause of historical incidents. (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Colin Brown, gen.ed.; Zondervan:Grand Rapids,MI; 1975, Vol.1, pp.107,108)

For some, anger is inconsistent with love. And how could God condemn in man that which He allows in Himself? In more recent times the anger of God has been either denied or neglected out of concern for its effects on evangelism, that sinners will be turned away by hearing about it or at least much less prone to accept the gospel than by hearing a more "positive" and "loving" message. D.L. Moody in the nineteenth century was one of the first to implement this stress on the love of God in evangelism. Pentecostal healing evangelists, then charismatics, of this century have abandoned practically all reference to the wrath of God (except upon those who dare question or disagree with them!). The idea is that such a "negative" view of God will hurt the individual’s faith for receiving His blessings. When Oral Roberts championed the slogan, "God is a good God," it was not simply emphasis on the obvious, but a theological "correction" designed to remove any real conception of God’s wrath and judgment, which was perceived to be a hindrance to faith for healing and prosperity. All these influences together result in quite a strong and deep seated opposition from both "believers" and unbelievers alike toward anyone who would dare declare that God is indeed a God of wrath. So pervasive is this attitude today that preaching the wrath and judgment of God is tantamount to heresy or blasphemy or at least a lack of wisdom. We get many responses, mostly negative, by telephone and mail to our "Dick, Jane, and Sally" tract. One caller referred me to the scene in which it is said of Jesus that He "is angry with Jane [the hypocrite professing Christian] because she loved sin more than Him." To this young man from a church background, this was obvious and unassailable evidence that we were way off the mark.

But how can we dismiss the subject of God’s wrath when the Scriptures are so full of it? Or are we aware of just how full they are of it? Some of course feel no need to uphold the inspiration of the Scriptures and insist on the freedom to accept or reject according to their reason and liking whatever they find there . Others have taken the approach that these are only figurative expressions and that God is not really angry at all. Some have argued that it is not personal anger in God but the law of cause and effect, that sin brings tragedy and suffering of itself. "Faith" people generally attribute all references to God’s punishing sin as "permissive" rather than "causative"—He allows the devil to attack people, or sin opens the door for the devil to attack them, or sin itself causes the problem. A strict dichotomy is maintained in which all good things come only from God and all bad things come only from the devil, a position quite untenable with the whole of Scripture.

Some try in vain to maintain that the anger of God is a phenomenon restricted to the Old Testament and that Jesus taught us differently, that God is a Father who always loves us and is never angry. Others would restrict God’s anger to unbelievers, never believers, regardless of what their behavior might be. Others would stress that God is love to the exclusion of wrath or anger simply because that’s what 1 John says, and they make no attempt to reconcile the many references to His wrath with it at all, imagining themselves free to build all their understanding of God upon whatever portions of Scripture they choose. Still others would admit that the Bible does teach that God is a God of wrath but that it is unwise to mention it because this may turn prospective converts away and hurt Christians’ assurance (since they are living lives that are not pleasing to Him). Needless to say, none of these approaches is satisfactory; in fact most of them are downright ludicrous.

The fact is that the Scriptures speak much more often than most of us might suppose in both New and Old Testaments of the wrath of Almighty God, and any attempt to set this aside or water it down is not only misguided but wicked.

I try not to burden my readers and hearers with Hebrew and Greek words, since few of us are scholars enough for it. However, when the information concerning these Biblical languages is particularly pertinent and helpful, it is a great mistake to neglect it, and such is the case here, not so much with the Greek words as the Hebrew ones. The Greek word orge, "anger, indignation, wrath" is derived from a verb meaning "be puffed up, swell, be excited." Thymos, "passion, anger, wrath, rage," comes from "the root thym [which] is [related to the] Latin fumus, [which means] smoke, steam." Orge and thymos may have a slight difference of emphasis in that "thymos is preferred for depictions of sudden outbursts of anger...whereas in orge there is an occasional element of deliberate thought." Nevertheless, both of these are condemned in men as sin, and both of them are used of God’s anger. And these two words are made to stand for the seven main Hebrew words for anger in the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures, called the Septuagint. Orge and thymos are used synonymously. (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Colin Brown)

The Hebrew words for anger offer a richer mine of meaning. These words and the subject of God’s anger in the Old Testament are most important, since the New Testament writers simply take for granted the Old Testament view of God’s wrath. These Hebrew words are very colorful in their depiction of God’s anger. Our discussion of them comes from The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, edited by Harris, Archer, and Waltke, and published by Moody Press.

The first word, 'ap, is used 167 times of God’s anger. Literally, it means "nose, nostril." Its use for anger probably stems from the fact that when one is angry, his nostrils dilate and he breathes more heavily. ’Ap is a noun derived from the verb ’anep which also means anger or displeasure and is used 14 times of God’s attitude toward His people when they sinned:

So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence.... (2 Kings 17:18)

...."The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him." (Ezra 8:22)

The second word, za’am, means "anger, indignation....The basic idea is experiencing or expressing intense anger....[U]sed parallel with qasap [number seven, below] (Jer.10:10; Ps.102:11)." It is used 22 times for the anger of God:

[T]he hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. (Isaiah 66:14)

The third word is hema, "heat, hot displeasure, indignation, anger, wrath....derived from the verb yaham, be hot....the term is used, as a rule, to convey the concept of an inner, emotional heat that rises and is fanned to varying degrees." It appears 115 times for the anger of God:

...."‘Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.’" (Jeremiah 21:12)

Fourth, haron, which also means "heat, burning (of anger)....The meaning of the root differs from such words for ‘anger’ as anap, za’am, and qasap in that it emphasizes the ‘kindling’ of anger, like the kindling of fire, or the heat of anger, once started....A frequent use finds it followed by 'ap, giving the translation, ‘The fierceness (literally, "burning") of the anger of [the Lord]Â’ (Num.25:4)." It is used 41 times for God’s anger only:

Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. (Isaiah 5:24,25)

Fifth, kaas, "be vexed, indignant, angry, wroth, be grieved, provoke to anger and wrath; The root meaning is to vex, agitate, stir up, or provoke the heart to a heated condition which in turn leads to specific actions....The term when applied to God, implies that man can affect the very heart of God so as to cause him heat, pain or grief to various degrees of intensity....[H]is people may provoke him to anger and wrath by their unfaithfulness....[M]an, created and called to please and glorify God, when he falls into sin, gives him a deep agitation of heart." Ka’as is used 43 times for Divine anger:

When the Lord heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel. (Psalms 78:21)

Sixth, ebra, "overflow, arrogance, fury. The verbal root of the noun is abar ‘to pass, to pass over, to overflow.’...The ideas expressed by the noun are a surpassing measure and/or excess....When used in relation to [God’s anger], it is used as synonym of such terms as qasap, hema, etc. However, it adds the nuance of the fierceness of God’s wrath (Ps.78:49) expressed in an overwhelming and complete demonstration (Isa.13:9). God’s wrath burns, overflows, sweeps away everything before it (Ezek.22:21,31). Thus on the day of the Lord’s ’ebra, nothing stands before it. When the day of judgment is spoken of, the reference is to God’s wrath overflowing, burning, consuming all that has displeased or opposed him." ’Ebra is used 24 times for God’s wrath. The verb root, abar, is used another five times. One form of this verb is "used to describe God’s reaction to Moses’ and Israel’s disobedience. Deuteronomy 3:26 suggests that God gave a strong, full expression of his impatience and anger with Moses....God became full of fury and he caused it to flow forth as a flood. This term certainly gives us an insight into the spontaneous, complete, and evident abhorrence of God towards repeated sins by his chosen delivered people."

Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. (Psalms 90:11)

Seventh, qasap, "be displeased, angry....the relationship developed, held or expressed in various ways when there is anger, heat, displeasure held or felt within one because of what another has said or done." It appears 22 times for God’s wrath. The noun derived from this word, qesep, which also means "indignation, wrath" is "related to [the] Arabic [word meaning] to break, snap off." Thus it means "splinter" or "snapped-off branch," giving us another very colorful picture of anger. Qesep is used of God’s anger another 25 times:

Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. (Deuteronomy 9:7,8)

They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. (Zechariah 7:12).

Besides these seven major words, another Hebrew word is used a total of three times in the Old Testament for God’s anger: "ragaz....The primary meaning of this root is to quake or shake, from which ideas such as shaking in anger, fear, or anticipation are derived....Most usages of ragaz may describe God’s trembling or raging in anger (Isa.28:21, ‘be wroth’)." It is used also in Job 12:6 for God’s anger. The noun rogez which is derived from it means "trouble, turmoil, wrath, rage" and is used for God’s anger in Habakkuk 3:2.

For Jehovah will rise up as in mount Perazim, he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for a decree of destruction have I heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:21,22, ASV)

From all these words and their use, several things are evident. The Bible very frequently presents God as angry—440 times in these words alone, not to mention those places where His anger is present but not expressed in these specific words. Leon Morris, who is certainly qualified to know, says there are more than twenty Hebrew words used for God’s wrath in the Old Testament and that the total number of references to it exceeds 580!(The Atonement, Its Meaning and Significance; Inter-Varsity Press: Downer’s Grove,IL; 1983, p.153) It is unfortunate that we lack the space to quote each of these references, because the effect upon the reader would be much more dramatic. We simply fail to realize just how often God’s wrath is spoken of in the Bible, what a prominent place is given to it. And besides the hundreds of occurrences of these Hebrew words for God’s wrath in the Old Testament, the two Greek words for anger and wrath are used of God 34 times in the New Testament. Needless to say, any theology which fails to take into full consideration the reality of God’s wrath is at the very least defective.

Some verses increase the force of God’s wrath by compounding it, employing at once several of the Hebrew words for God’s wrath:

I feared the anger [‘ap, nostril] and wrath [hema, hot displeasure] of the Lord, for he was angry [qasap] enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. (Deuteronomy 9:19)

I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger [‘ap] and fury [hema] and great wrath [qasap]. (Jeremiah 21:5)

He unleashed against them his hot anger [haron, burning, kindling anger] his wrath [hema, hot displeasure] indignation [ebra, overflowing fury] and hostility [za’am]—a band of destroying angels. (Psalms 78:49)

Not only are the Hebrew words themselves rich and colorful in depicting God’s anger, many passages are dramatically descriptive of it as well.

See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. (Isaiah 13:9-13)

See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray. And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. The Lord will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his scepter he will strike them down. Every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing rod will be to the music of tambourines and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm. Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze. (Isaiah 30:27-33)

Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save." Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress? "I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me. I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground." (Isaiah 63:1-6)

"How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of his anger! He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he has not remembered his footstool [Temple] in the day of his anger. Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor. In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah. He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The Lord has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest....Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered them without pity. As you summon to a feast day, so you summoned against me terrors on every side. In the day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived; those I cared for and reared, my enemy has destroyed." (Lamentations 2:1-6,21,22)

As men gather silver, copper, iron, lead and tin into a furnace to melt it with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you. I will gather you and I will blow on you with my fiery wrath, and you will be melted inside her. As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.’" (Ezekiel 22:20-22)

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and dries it up; he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither and the blossoms of Lebanon fade. The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into darkness. Whatever they plot against the Lord he will bring to an end; trouble will not come a second time. They will be entangled among thorns and drunk from their wine; they will be consumed like dry stubble. (Nahum 1:2-10)

"The great day of the Lord is near—near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth." (Zephaniah 1:14-18)

"Therefore wait for me," declares the Lord, "for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger."(Zephaniah 3:8)

The grounds or basis for God’s anger—His holiness—serves to show the difference between His and that of heathen deities or man. God’s anger is not a personal peevishness, nor is it arbitrary, as is so often the case with men and heathen gods. We know what makes God angry because the Scriptures tell us what they are. Israel’s idolatry is the thing mentioned most often: Ex.32:10; Num.25:1-11; Dt.4:23-25; 6:14,15; 7:4; 11:17; 29:16-28; 31:17,18,29; 32:16-25; Josh.23:16; Judg.2:12,14,20; 3:5-8; 10:6,7; 1K.11:9; 14:9,15,22-26; 16; 21:22; 22:53; 2K.13:3; 17:5-23; 21:1-16; 22:17; 23:19; 2 Chr.36:15-17; Jer.7:18-20; 8:19; 11:17; 32:29-32; 44:3-8; Ezek.7:20; 8:17,18; 9:8; 16:26; 20:28,33,34; 43:8; Hos.8:5. Other sins specifically marked out as provoking God to anger include: afflicting widows or orphans (Ex.22:24); rebellion against God’s authority (Num.16:21-50); fornication (Num.25:11; 1 Sam.28:18); adultery (2 Sam.11:27); homosexuality (Deut.29:23; 1K.14:24); disobedience (Josh.7:1; Prov.22:14); intrusion into holy things (1 Chr.13:10); intermarrying with the heathen (Ezra 9:1,2,13,14; 10:14); murder (2 K.21:16; Ezek.36:18); sorcery, divination, and spiritualism (2K.21:6); child sacrifice (2K.21:6); and violence (Amos 1:11,13). But we should not conclude that God is angry only for "major" sins. Scripture tells us He was also angry for such "minor" offenses as Moses complaining, when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, that he couldn’t speak well (Ex.4:14), the people murmuring because they had only manna and no meat to eat (Num.11), Baalim going with the leaders of Moab to curse Israel after God had told him not to go (Num.22:22), the thoughts of the wicked (Prov.15:26), breaking one’s vows (Eccl.5:4-6), the pride of one’s heart (2 Chr.32:25,26). We may reasonably conclude that God is angry with men for all sin.

Two of the Psalms, 78 and 106, recount Israel’s history, highlighting the numerous times they provoked God to anger. God’s wrath is mentioned 18 times in these two chapters, and most of the Hebrew words we looked at are employed. Moses himself, when he came to the end of his life as the Israelites prepared to enter Canaan, reminded them of the many times they had provoked God to anger in their travels in the desert:

"Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath so that he was angry enough to destroy you. When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord told me, "Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves." And the Lord said to me, "I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they." So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so provoking him to anger. I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me. And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain. You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah. And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea, he said, "Go up and take possession of the land I have given you." But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you. I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty nights because the Lord had said he would destroy you." (Deuteronomy 9:6-25)

Lest someone should think God’s anger for sin was limited to unfaithful Israel, there are a number of passages that tell us He is angry with all the nations:

"O my people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did. Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction." (Isaiah 10:24,25)

The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. (Isaiah 34:2)

"I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing....I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground." (Isaiah 63:3,6)

See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord. (Isaiah 66:15,16)

But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. (Jeremiah 10:10)

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them." So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it....But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: You must drink it! See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the earth, declares the Lord Almighty.’...The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the Lord will bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and put the wicked to the sword,Â’" declares the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth." At that time those slain by the Lord will be everywhere—from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground....The peaceful meadows will be laid waste because of the fierce anger of the Lord. Like a lion he will leave his lair, and their land will become desolate because of the sword of the oppressor and because of the Lord’s fierce anger. (Jeremiah 25:15-17,28,29,31-33,37,38.)

"I will take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed me." (Micah 5:15)

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth. (Zephaniah 1:18)

"Therefore wait for me," declares the Lord, "for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger." (Zephaniah 3:8)

Has God changed? Of course not. Why, then, do we not hear more about His anger and wrath? What excuse could possibly be valid for neglecting this subject in the light of such massive evidence in the Bible? If God was angry with Israel who had spurned the Law, how could He not be angry with America who has spurned the Gospel? Are not our sins the same as theirs? The Southern Baptists conducted a nationwide evangelistic campaign a few years ago with bumper stickers reading, "Smile! God loves you, America!" It would have been far more appropriate and Biblical to have said, "Be sorrowful, America! God is angry with you!"

Neither can it be rightly held that God was angry in the Old Testament, but that the New Testament reveals through Christ that He is only love. Romans 1:18 tells us,

The wrath of God is being revealed [present tense] from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Jesus, like John the Baptist who preceded Him, warned His hearers to "flee the wrath to come!" (Luke 21:21-23). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says:

The OT understanding of God’s wrath is taken for granted by the NT writers. Paul states as axiomatic that God’s wrath is universally revealed, now and always, against human impiety and injustice, inasmuch as these spring from human suppression of the truth concerning God’s eternal power and divinity (Rom.1:18-21). This revelation of wrath is an essential aspect of the revelation of God’s righteousness....The coming of salvation in Christ does not mean that divine wrath has been eliminated. Rather, the gospel proclamation, in calling hearers to repentance, speaks of the wrath to come (Acts 17:30f.; Rev.14:6f.) The salvation that comes through Christ is salvation from wrath (Rom.5:9). The association of wrath and judgment specifically with the eschatological day of wrath is more definite in the NT (e.g., Mt.3:7; Rom.2:5; 5:9; 1 Thess.1:10; Rev.6:17), but wrath is in certain respects already resting on humankind (Jn.3:36; 1 Thess.2:16).... (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, gen.ed.; Eerdmans: Grand Rapids,MI; 1988, Vol.4, p.1135)

How is it that all evangelicals are confident we are near the end of the age, which will be characterized by the greatest display of God’s wrath ever known to man, and yet so few have anything to say about the wrath of God? It seems there is a deliberate attempt to down play it, even on the part of "Bible prophecy" teachers. The destruction of the earth is attributed not to God but evil men (Rev.11:18). But this is an extremely unsatisfactory evasion. How could we therefore account for these plain expressions:

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:12-17)

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9,10)

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. (Revelation 15:1)

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth." (Revelation 16:1)

Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (Revelation 19:15)

I am aware that some scholars deny that the Book of Revelation predicts future historical events; others say it is all only "symbolical" and in effect deny it any meaning at all. But most of us take it for just what it declares itself to be—prophecy (1:3; 22:7,10,18,19)—and since most of it has never come to pass, it is yet future (22:6).

Aside from a few exceptions in which it is considered legitimate (2 Sam.12:5; 1 K.3:27; Esth.1:18), human anger is always discouraged by God (Ps.37:8; Prov.12:16; 14:17,29; 15:18; 16:32; 19:11; 22:24,25; 27:4; 29:8,22; Eccl.7:9; Mt.5:21,22; 2 Cor.12:20; Gal.5:19-21; Eph.4:26,31; Col.3:8; 1 Tim.2:8; Tit.1:7; James 1:19,20). "Christian psychologists," contrary to this condemnation of man’s anger, almost always justify it in people, within limits. They usually point to the fact that God is often angry, that Jesus on occasion was angry (Matt.21:12,13; Mk.3:5; 10:14), and that Moses was frequently angry (Ex.11:8; 16:20; 32:19-22; Lev.10:16). However, the Divine wrath, unlike man’s, is a holy anger; Jesus, likewise, had only on rare occasions, righteous indignation; and Moses’ anger in striking the rock was the reason God refused him entrance into the Promised Land (Num.20:10-12; Ps.106:32,33). Because Jesus was fully human as well as Divine, we may assume that a man might have righteous indignation just as He did without sinning; but too often men justify their anger in this way without it being for a righteous cause. Besides, James warns against it: "...Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires" (1:19,20); he then goes on to include anger in "moral filth and evil" (v.21). Jesus said anyone who is angry with his brother (the phrase, "without a cause" is absent in the original) is liable to judgment (Mt.5:21,22). Paul says anger is among the things which exclude men from the kingdom of God (Gal.5:19-21; Col.3:5-8). It is true that in Ephesians 4:26, "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry," he seems to advocate control of anger, not the forbidding of it altogether. But just five verses later he adds, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger..." (4:31). The admonitions in Proverbs regarding anger may be viewed as management of it rather than forbidding it altogether; still, 29:22 warns, "An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression" (NAB). Ecclesiastes 7:9 says rather bluntly, "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools" (KJV).

To sum up, the great difference between God’s anger and the anger of men or heathen gods is that God’s anger stems not from peevishness, irritability, capriciousness, or selfishness but from His holiness. Dr. Maldwyn Highest calls it "an eternal recoil against the unholy on the part of the all-holy God" (What Is the Atonement?, p.54, quoted in Leon Morris’ The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, p.119). Many seek to explain God’s anger in terms of love, that He loves so intensely and so passionately desires the very best for His people and His creatures that He cannot stand to see anything destroy them. And there may indeed be some connection between His wrath and His love, as evidenced by the statements that He is a "jealous" God, almost always in connection with idolatry (Ex.20:5; 34:14; Dt.4:24; 5:9; 6:15; 32:16,21; Ezek.16:38,42; 23:25; 36:6; Zeph.3:8). In Ezekiel 16 God is depicted as a Lover who has been jilted by His unfaithful wife, Israel, with the result that He is furious as well as jealous (16:38). Notwithstanding this, it seems plain that God’s anger stems primarily from His holiness.

Many texts show us that God’s anger may be diverted or appeased. Throughout the Old Testament, God taught that through vicarious sacrifice, atonement could be made by which His wrath could be diverted (Gen.8:20-22; Num.16:41-48; 2 Sam.24:15-25; Job 42:7-9). Sometimes the execution of criminals served as an atonement of sorts to divert God’s wrath from the community in which the act was committed (Num.25:1-13; Josh.7:26; Deut.21:1-9). God’s wrath is diverted by repentance and reformation of life (2 Chr.30:8; 32:25,26; Ezra 8:22; Jer.4:4; 18:20-23). Moses’ intercession for the people diverted His wrath from destroying them (Ex.32:9-14), and intercession diverted God’s wrath on other occasions as well (Isa.63:4-6; Dan.9:16).

Notwithstanding all the references to God’s anger and wrath in the Bible, still it is clear, even in passages that speak of His anger, that love is the overriding, predominant characteristic of God. This appears in various kinds of statements including that God is "slow to anger" (Ex.34:6; Neh.9:17; Ps.86:15; 145:8; Joel 2:13) "will not be angry forever," that His "anger is but for a moment,"etc.—

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalms 30:5)

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. (Psalms 86:15)

Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. (Psalms 78:38)

"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the Lord your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:7-8)

Go, proclaim this message toward the north: "‘Return, faithless Israel,Â’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,Â’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever.’" (Jeremiah 3:12)

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. (Psalms 103:8,9)

It is clear from many texts that even though God does get angry over sin, love predominates. He would rather show mercy than wrath. He would rather people repent and live than for Him to destroy them for their sins. Mercy is what He really "delights in"—

"How can I give you up, Affirm? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Affirm. For I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. (Hose 11:8-9)

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. (Micah 7:18)

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23)

Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:31,32)

"Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?Â’" (Ezekiel 33:11)

Many theologians do not consider God’s wrath to be one of His attributes in the ordinary sense. They correctly point out that His wrath is not an abiding attribute but is occasional; that is, it arises only due to some action that precipitates or provokes it. True attributes such as His love, holiness, omniscience, are always present as part of His nature. Had there never been sin in the universe, there would have been no occasion of His wrath. And so, it may be improper to speak of His wrath as one of His attributes. On the other hand, since there is plenty of wickedness in this old world, and as Psalms 7:11 (KJV) says, "God is angry with the wicked every day" ("a God who expresses his wrath every day," NIV), we may just as well consider His wrath an attribute in some sense. God’s anger is so prominent in Scripture that it certainly warrants our attention and deserves full treatment in any attempt to understand what He is like, especially since it is so much neglected today. It actually deserves fuller treatment than what we can offer in this format—we have abbreviated and outlined much more than we wished. We only hope that the information we have brought to bear here will be useful for a more thorough personal study.

Dear reader, I wish you to understand that unless you have fully put your trust in Jesus and are daily following Him, living a holy life that is pleasing to Him, this wrath of God we have talked about is upon you and will remain on you for all eternity in hell unless you repent. You are guilty of many of the things Paul lists that bring the wrath of God upon men and which he warns believers to forsake: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed (Col.3:5). But the good news of the gospel is that though we have sinned and are subject to the wrath of God, God loved us in spite of our sins and sent His Son Jesus to be the propitiation or appeasement that turns away His wrath (1 John 2:2; 4:10). His sacrifice will do you no good, however, unless you put your trust in Christ and His death and resurrection for your forgiveness and turn from your sins and live a holy life. We must avoid the things He has told us in His Word make Him angry. Don’t think that you can believe in Jesus, yet keep on sinning, and escape the wrath of God—you won't, no matter what anyone may have told you. Yes, God is a God of wrath; but He Himself has made provision for us to be saved from that wrath and the sin that brings it. Take advantage of that provision today before it is too late, because the time John saw will surely come, when men will cry out to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:16,17)

Leon Stump, Pastor of Victory Christian Center

Background from Greenfield Graphics.