Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Education and Religion
Is God a moral monster? The book of Revelation and wrath #1

Is God a moral monster? The book of Revelation and wrath #1

Last updated on: May 22, 2023 at 12:57 am by Rob Dalrymple

Is God a moral monster? The book of Revelation and wrath #1 2023-05-16T20:24:55-08:00 Rob Dalrymple

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I would like to ask a favor.

Could we lay aside our preconceived notions of the end times and the book of Revelation for a bit and wrestle with the text in light of who God is?

What I mean is this. I believe that much of the popular understanding of the book of Revelation blatantly contradicts what we know about God.

Many evangelicals have come to believe that the book of Revelation provides details as to what is going to happen in the years immediately prior to Jesus’ return (I’ll address this conception in a future post. I’ll just note for now that this has nothing to do with what the book of Revelation is about).

In many popular understandings of the book of Revelation, God sends plagues, boils, famines, demonic locusts, and even turns the seas into blood shortly before His return.

Now, you might say, “That is what it says!” To which I would reply, “No, that is not what it says.”

But before I even discuss that, let me simply note that the conception that God is an angry despot who sits on His throne in heaven ready to inflict suffering on those who do not repent, has no place in Christian thought.

In fact, this understanding has more in common with the ancient heretical teachings of Marcion, than it does with the Scriptures

NB: Marcion was a 2nd century leader in the church in Rome who was very influential. He argued that the God of the Old Testament was a god of judgment and wrath and that this god was not the same as God the Father of Jesus as revealed in the NT. He believed that God the Father was a God of love.

NB Note the antisemitism running through Marcionism.

Revelation: a love story

As I noted in a previous post, I am currently writing a commentary on the book of Revelation and it is my conviction that the narrative of Revelation continues God’s grand love story.

In saying this, I am arguing against the popular notion that God brings devastation, destruction, and death upon humanity and upon creation in order to bring people to repentance.

It is my conviction that the book of Revelation affirms that devastation, destruction, and death are what happens when humanity rules apart from the wisdom of God.[1]

That this is what the book of Revelation is about should not come as a surprise—though, sadly, I suspect for many it does.

The entire biblical story is about God demonstrating His love toward us.

This story centers on Jesus: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

Paul also says that “the kindness of God leads you to repentance” (Rom 2:4).

As perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

The book of Romans adds, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

1st John says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Jesus says that the two greatest commandments are: (Mark 12:30-31)

Love the Lord your God
Love your neighbor as yourself

Jesus says, “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil me” (Luke 6:35).

Look carefully at what Jesus says here. He says that when we love we are acting like God. In fact, we will be called “sons/daughters of God.” The expression “to be a son of” meant to have the qualities, character, and attributes of the person to whom one is a son of. Because God loves everyone we are His children when we do the same.

After all, the biblical story is clear: in Jesus, the kingdom of God has come. And it has come through love. This is what the Cross is!

This is the consistent message of the New Testament.

How come we approach the book of Revelation as though it is about God inflicting suffering on others in order to let those who survive know that they better repent?

Now, I know what you might say here (after all, I used to believe this myself): “God loves us so much that He doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. So, He inflicts suffering on some, but not all, so that those who remain may come to their senses and turn to God in repentance. And, as for those who died as a result of God’s wrath, they were sinners and deserved it. It is true that they don’t get the chance to repent, but that is because they wouldn’t have repented anyways.”

There are so many problems with this line of thought I almost don’t know where to begin.

Let me begin by asking if we really think any non-Christian with any common sense will want to believe in a God that just blitzed one-fourth of humanity, but was “kind” enough to spare them? Do we really suppose that they don’t see the radical inconsistency in this message: “God loves you so much he struck your daughter with demonic locusts, boils, and the fierce heat of the intensified sun so that you might learn to fear Him”?

As usual, I have much more to say.

I will continue to address this issue in upcoming posts.

Let me finish with this thought:

One of the reasons why I suspect that we do not wrestle with Jesus’ message of love your enemies, and why I believe we are too willing to accept the notion that God is an angry despot who will inflict suffering on the nations just prior to His return is because it is hard!

Let’s face it: cross-bearing love is hard. It is hard to love our own family this way, let alone our neighbors or our enemies.

It is much easier to view others as “them.” You know, the ones on whom God will inflict wrath upon if they don’t repent and become like “us.”

I fear that we have lost sight of the Gospel of love because—to be frank—we aren’t very good at it and we really don’t want to be good at it.

To be continued . . .

Our goal is to keep these posts free of charge. I do not intend to ever hide them behind a paywall. I can only do this if those of you who have been blessed by them and can afford to give ($5, $10, $25, or more/month) do so. You can give a tax-deductible contribution by following this link.

Please share this post and let others know about determinetruth.

If you wish to view this blog on your smartphone through the Determinetruth app simply download the “tithe.ly church” app on your smartphone and insert “determinetruth” as the church name you wish to follow. Once it is loaded, simply click on the “blog” icon and it will automatically load.

If you would like to have Rob speak at your church or organization in person or via Zoom, please let us know by filling out the contact info on the Contact me tab on this site.

[1] This is in accord with the biblical story beginning with Adam and Eve’s expulsion and carrying forward until the return of Jesus. When humanity decides to make its own decisions of right and wrong, people like Cain kill others such as Abel.

Progressive Christian

Education and Religion

Politics and Religion

Eschatology

Revelation

Wrath

About Rob Dalrymple

Rob Dalrymple is married to his wife Toni and is the father of four fabulous children, and two grandchildren. He has been teaching and pastoring for over 33 years at colleges, seminaries, and the local church. He has a PhD in biblical interpretation. He is the author of four books (including Follow the Lamb: A Guide to Reading, Understanding, and Applying the Book of Revelation & Understanding the New Testament and the End Times: Why it Matters) as well as numerous articles and other publications. He is currently completing a commentary on the book of Revelation titled, “Revelation: a Love Story” (Cascade Books, pending 2024). You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

May 19, 2023

Devotional guide: Rev 12:1-14:20

Next Post

May 26, 2023 Devotional guide: Rev 15:1-19:10

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 000 1 Cor 11:17-34 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 10 Commandments 2 Corinthians 2 John 2 Peter 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy 3 John 666 Abortion Acts 2:42 Ahmaud Arbery AIPAC All Saints Day America antisemitism BDS Beast Betting Bible Bible study Biblical Interpretation Biden Book of Acts Boycott Campus Protests Catholicism Ceasefire Chavez Ravine Christian Nationalism Christian Zionism Christianity Today Christmas Church Colossians Communion Convict Leasing Covid-19 Craig Blaising creation Crucifixion Daoud Nassar Deception Deconstruction Democracy Devotional guide Discipleship Easter Eden Education Election End-times Ephesians Eschatology Ethnic Cleansing Evangelicalism Evangelicals Evolution Fall Famine Fascism FIFA Freedom of Speech Galatians Gary Burge Gaza Gaza; Genocide; Boycott Genesis Genocide George Floyd Global Warming God's will Gospel Gospel of John Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Government Grace Great Prostitute Hamas Harris healthcare Hebrews HeGetsUs Holy Spirit Holy Week Honor Father and Mother ICJ Immigration Indigenous peoples day Iran Israel Israel Palestine Itamar Ben Gvir James Jesus Joel Willits Jude Just war Justice Kamala Harris Kingdom Of God Kings and Queens land of Israel Law (OT) Lazarus Les Miserable LGBTQ+ Love Luke Mahmoud Khalil Man of Lawlessness Mark Mark of the Beast Marriage Martin Luther King Jr Mercy Mexican Repatriation Military-Industrial-Complex Ministry Mission Money NAFTA Nakba Netanyahu New Creation New Testament Nicaragua Nicodemus Non Violence Occupation Pacifism Palestine Parable Paul Peace Pentecost Peonage Philemon Philippians Politics Poor Power Prayer Pride Month Priests Pro-life Propaganda Prophesy Prophet Qatar Queen Elizabeth Racism Reconstruction Redemption Reformation Resurrection Revelation Roe v Wade Romans Romans 13:1-7 Rome Russia Sabbath Samaritan Seals Sermon Settlements Slavery Spiritual gifts Taxes Tent of Nations Terrorism The Beast Theology Titus Torture Trump truth Ukraine Uncategorized Veteran's Day War Warsaw Ghetto wealth Wedding Women World Cup 2022 Worldview Worship Wrath Yemen Zionism

Select a Month September 2026 May 2026 February 2026 November 2025 October 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 September 2017 July 2017 May 2017 November 2016 October 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Elijah's successor, receiving a double portion of his spirit?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Micaiah Obadiah Elisha Samuel

Support this
Column