Tag Archives: Wrath

The Three – Torment

28 Monday Jul 2014

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The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Please consider the second half of Revelation 14:10: “He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

If you’ve ever read this passage before, even if you are reading it for the first time, did you get a picture that sounded like: he will be tormented BY the lamb? If you did, you wouldn’t be the first. It’s a picture that has been painted by those who don’t like God, pop culture, and even Christians.

However, if we remember that the “he” in this verse is anyone who has chosen to be “those who dwell on the earth.” These are those who have so completely aligned with the Beast (a symbol of a Christian looking politcal-religious institutional power on earth that is the Dragon’s main agent in the world now) they have become beast-like. As worshippers of the Beast, they manifest it’s character or in other words, receive it’s mark.

Does it make sense that, for such a person, being in the presence of the lamb would be torment?

The Three – Given Up

03 Tuesday Jun 2014

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The Bible letter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is God’s last message to a dying planet. In Revelation 14:6-12, three angels shout a warning to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Revelation 14:10 tells us that there will come a time when “those who dwell on the earth” will completely align themselves with the Beast (a symbol of a Christian looking politcal-religious institutional power on earth) and thus become beast-like; they manifest it’s character or in other words, receive it’s mark.

What can God do with with someone who stands violently, satanically, opposed to the kingdom of light, love, and life?  I mean the Bible makes it clear that for the sake of all creation, this sin war must come to an end. There has to be an end to starving children, rape, greed that poisons everything it touches, and the parasitic-like consumption that fuels humanity.  Eden will be restored and the heartbeat of the universe will be tuned once again to other-centered love. If they were still alive, “those that dwell on the earth” will hate it and continue to war against it. This cannot be. What’s God to do?

He pours out his wrath on them.  What does that mean?

I’ve already mentioned that all of us read those words through a lens of who we think God to be. Consider how in the beginning when God said to Adam and Eve, if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall die. Did he mean: If you break my rules I will have to punish you with execution? Many think so however, many also see him saying something else: Eating from that tree will break our relationship so horribly that death and destruction will rule the world.  In the first scenario, God offers salvation, in a sense, to save us from his just punishment.  In the second, God desires to save us, not from himself but from the horror of sin and death.  The scenario that you lean towards will be a filter through which you understand God’s poured out wrath.

To me, an interesting picture is revealed when we look closely at Romans 1 and see that the wrath of God is placed within the context of God giving people up because they want to be given up on. Despite everything he has done to win them back to light, love, and life, they have chosen to opt out. God gives them up – to their heart’s desire; to the full, unfiltered consequences of sin.

In the end, could it be that God’s wrath is the most loving thing he can offer those who are determined to die?

The Three – Wrath Poured Out

29 Thursday May 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Revelation 14:10 states, “they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.”

Have you ever asked who are “they” and when does this happen? These are the people John calls “those who dwell on the earth.” These are the people who hate God and hate those that love. They are the ones who worship (put their whole life into) the beast and receive his mark (become like the beast).

When is this happening? While “those who dwell on the earth” have existed throughout time, here we see that in response to the Beast’s final assertion of power, there are those who completely commit to their position against God such that their character has been transformed to match The Beast. By their own free choice, the image of God within them has been replaced by the enemy of life’s character: think rabid dogs or the popular depiction of zombies. What’s key is that as we follow the narrative, this is event is taking place at the time just before the last day of this earth as we know it and the re-establishment of God’s kingdom; this act is part of God’s plan of redemption.

What this means is, as we attempt to understand God’s wrath, we need to be clear that is experienced only by those who have set their course so completely in opposition to God and to those who love God that there is absolutely nothing more God can do for them.

If you had to deal with a dangerous, deadly, animal bent on destroying anything in it’s path, what would you do?

The Three – Wrath of God

20 Tuesday May 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

In Revelation 14:10, we can read that there are those who shall “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation.” In my last post, I noted that all of us understand what “wrath of God” means through our worldview and our worldview is tainted by an enemy that wants us to distrust, even hate, God. What’s the solution?

In that post, shared something one of my favourite authors had to say on the subject and here’s the rest of her observation:

“Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent him before the fallen children of earth. Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work. The only way in which he could set and keep men right was to make himself visible and familiar to their eyes.” (White, God Made Manifest in Christ)

We are invited to swap out our lenses for a different pair of worldview glasses: To see everything through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

What does that mean on a practical level? It means coming to rest or trust that everything God does, including whatever his wrath is, comes from the bottomless well of his love, grace, and compassion. At the end of the day, we have to come to the point where we can say, “I don’t always understand who you are but God but I will trust you because I know that you always do the most loving thing that can be done.”

Can you do that?

The Three – Wrath

13 Tuesday May 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth;” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – but it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Consider Revelation 14:10 where the Bible says:
“…he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

As soon as you read the word “wrath” a number of pictures probably came to your mind. You may have already determined what wrath means and looks like and we haven’t even dug into it.

It’s important to note that when we read the Bible, ideally we would be utterly surrendered to the Word and Will of God; we would hear only his voice, we would set aside who we are and where we’ve been and just read the word and let it speak to us. That rarely happens because we are product of our upbringing, culture, and experiences. To that, add in the this perspective shared by one of my favourite authors:

“Satan sought to intercept every ray of light from the throne of God. He sought to cast his shadow across the earth, that men might lose the true views of God’s character, and that the knowledge of God might become extinct in the earth. He had caused truth of vital importance to be so mingled with error that it had lost its significance. The law of Jehovah was burdened with needless exactions and traditions, and God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary. He was pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God.” (White, God Made Manifest in Christ)

Everything we are and everything the enemy of life has done to break our trust in God all impact what we think when we read, “wrath of God.” We will need to tread carefully as we consider this next part of the message of the three.

The Three – The Beast part 1

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

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In the last letter of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, God sends a last message of warning to a dying planet – Revelation 14:6-12. This message is given by three angels to “those who dwell on the earth,” people who hate God and hate those who love God. It’s a serious message – the consequences are life and death – and it’s a message given in great love because God is willing to go to the uttermost to reach even his most aggressive enemies.

Revelation 14:9-11 proclaims: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

Revelation is all about worship. The book begins with the worship of Jesus and then it’s revealed in Revelation 12-13 that there is a counterfeit trinity that also wants to be worshipped. What is worship?

It’s the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for someone or something. What does that mean? Words that help us understand worship: veneration, glorification, glory, exaltation, admiration, adulation, idolization.

Worship is powerful and affects us to the core of who we are – we become or reflect what we worship. The last part of this warning message reveals the terrible consequences that come from worshipping the beast. The repeating of the warning stresses how important it is to hear it.

Wouldn’t it make sense to take time to understand who the beast is?

The Three – Glory to Obey

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

What does it mean to give God glory?

Several commentators have noted that John pulls a great deal of content from the Old Testament so he can give context to and describe the visions he is given. When it comes to glory and it’s relationship to respecting God (what is often translated as “fear God”) it looks like John was thinking of Moses’ appeal to the Israelites as they were about to enter Canaan.

Here’s one example: Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Repeatedly, Moses connects being in a close relationship with God with keeping the commandments, obeying him, walking in his ways. This is the promise repeated throughout the Bible: When we are in a relationship with God he transforms us into people who don’t make things into little gods in our lives, we let our yes be yes and our no be no, we rest in him as Creator and Redeemer, we become respectful towards others and we release contempt and our desire to destroy others, we become faithful, don’t take what’s not ours, live with honesty, and be content with what we have.

In other words, when we allow God to transform us and restore his image in us, we give glory to God: who he is, what he is like, and what he can do.

If you’ve been around Christian communities for a while, I likely haven’t told you something you don’t know. And yet, just making this a matter of doing some things right is not seeing just how deep giving glory to God really goes.

The Three – God Gets The Glory

07 Thursday Nov 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

As we consider the loud cry of the first angel, we hear the invitation: Give glory to God.

If you hang around Christians long enough you are going to hear the word glory more than a few times. One of the problems that comes when we use a word a lot is, it kind of loses it’s meaning and power.

A pastor friend of mine tells of a time when he was standing at the front door of the sanctuary and he could see a family driving up to the building. The parents were obviously upset with the kids and each other; he could see them shouting at each other. Then they parked and got out of the car, doors slamming, walked into the building muttering their irritation and impatience at each other. When the pastor met them he asked, “How are you this morning?” The father replied, “Wonderful, pastor, wonderful, all glory to God.”

Is that what the loud shout is calling people to do – simply add the phrase “Glory to God” into sentences? Is there something more? What difference does it make?

Artist Chris Medina wrote a song his fiancé who was terribly injured before they were married. The song, “What are Words” is about living the words we speak. The chorus goes:

“What are words
If you really don’t mean them
When you say them?
What are words
If they’re only for good times
Then they don’t?
When it’s love
Yeah, you say them out loud
Those words, They never go away
They live on, even when we’re gone.”

Would you like to discover what it really means to give God glory?

The Three – Glory!

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

As we consider the loud cry of the first angel, we hear the invitation: Give glory to God. Giving glory flows from giving God respect.

Why should we respect God? Because he said so: God said it so I believe it! Does God want blind obedience? He’s God and that demands respect but can you demand respect? The thing is these characteristics are part of Satan’s methods. God forces no one to love or worship him.

In the Bible, there is what I like to call the lovingkindness principle. God initiates a relationship with us by demonstrating his lovingkindness for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. What do we do? We respond by loving him back and in that love there is respect, reverence, and repentance. What happens when we love God back? We’ve engaged with him so he is able to pour out even more lovingkindness on us which inspires us to respond even more and so on.

When we embrace God’s love and begin to live in his grace – we are respecting him – giving glory will flow out from us naturally, almost unconsciously. The irony is, trying to give God glory without being completely grounded in God’s love and grace will eventually degrade into works righteousness – a position that makes us think God owes us.

Are you living in the stream of God’s lovingkindness?

The Three – NO FEAR!

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

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If you just had a few moments to call out a warning to people you love, what would you say and how would you say it? What would you be willing to risk? If you knew that the warning would be scoffed at and ignored, would you still give it? I ask you to consider these questions and more in a series called, “The Three.”

In the last letter of the Bible, there’s a lot of symbolism; a story being told with vivid imagery. In that letter we find an urgent message in Revelation 14:6-11.

Last post, I asked you to consider the first angel shouting at those who dwell on the earth: “Fear God!”

The problem is, John also wrote that, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” 1John 4:18 Those who dwell on the earth already fear God.

Without getting too technical, in Revelation 14:7 the Greek word behind fear is phobeo. Phobeo comes up a handful of times in the Bible. Here’s an example from Ephesians 5:33: “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she phobeo her husband.”

When I noticed this, I went to my wife, pointed to the text and said: “Fear me, woman!” The rest of the conversation did not go well. Fear is not a good building block in marriage. This is a good thing to keep in mind because marriage is the deepest and most intimate pictures of our relationship with God. God is frequently pictured as a husband and his people are the bride. Fear seems very out of place in such a relationship, doesn’t it?

Maybe this helps. The English word for phobeo in Ephesians 5:33 is respect; in this case respect based on deep, unconditional, love – God’s love.

So how do we put this altogether? As I wrestled with this, a thought came to me from back in my lifeguarding days at the public swimming pool. When a person is drowning, he or she is out of their mind. Because of everything going on they can’t hear, they’re panicked, they don’t know what to do.

When you go into the water – which is a last resort because it’s a huge risk likely to get you killed – the lifeguard must approach the person and assume a defensive position. Then you shout in a loud voice – “Calm down, I’m here to help you, I going to grab on to you and take you to safety, and so on.” You have to risk coming across forceful because it’s urgent and you have to try and get through to the person so you can save them.

To me, this is another picture of our amazing God. He’s reaching out to people who have a terrible picture of who he is and yet he’s willing to take risks, even put his reputation on the line, do whatever it takes to rescue the perishing. Have you ever heard of a God so good? Have you ever seen such love?

Can you respect a God like that?