Understanding of the Wrath of God

Not long ago I saw a bottle of hot sauce with the creative name “Wrath of God!” Now that’s gotta be some hot sauce!

But what is God’s wrath? It is spoken of often in the scriptures and it is a concept with which we have to be careful. On the one hand we cannot simply dismiss the concept as contradictory to the fact that God is love. But neither can we fail to see God’s wrath apart from his love.

As a follow up last week’s discussions on Hell, it seems worthwhile to consider some aspects of the very complicated and reality of the wrath of God. There is not enough space to cover the whole topic in the post but the comments stay open as always for your additions and subtractions.

What are some ways that we can explain and understand the wrath of God? Let me propose a few.

The wrath of God is not merely an Old Testament Concept. In fact we find it mentioned quite frequently in the New Testament as well. For example consider the following:

  1. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him. (John 3:36)
  2. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness (Rom 1:18)
  3. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. (Rom 12:19)
  4. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things [i.e. sexual immorality] God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. (Eph 5:6)
  5. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess 5:9)
  6. The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. (Rev 14:19)

And there are at least a dozen other texts from the New Testament that could be referenced but allow these to suffice. So it is clear that the “wrath of God” is not some ancient or primitive concept that the New Testament has dispensed with. And notice too that the wrath of God is not something simply for the end of the world. It is also spoken of in some of the texts above and others not listed as something already operative in certain people.

So what is God’s wrath? And how can we reconcile it with his love? Consider some of the images, explanations of God’s wrath. None of them, all alone, explain it, but together a picture and understanding may emerge.

1. Image: God’s wrath is his passion to set things right. We see this image of God’s wrath right at the beginning in Genesis when God cursed Satan and uttered the protoevangelium (the first good news): I will make you and the woman enemies….one of her seed will crush your head while you strike at his heel” (Genesis 3:15). God is clearly angered at what sin has done to Adam and Eve and he continues to have anger whenever he beholds sin and injustice.

He has a passion for our holiness, and a passion to set things right. He wants what is best for us. He is angered by what hinders us in this regard.

Surely all sins provoke his wrath but there are five sins that especially cry out to heaven: Willful murder – [Gen. 4:10]; The sin of the Sodomites, [Gen. 18:20; 19:13]; The cry of the people oppressed, [Ex. 3:7-10]; The cry of the foreigner, the widow and the orphan, [Ex. 20:20-22]; Injustice to the wage earner. [Deut. 24:14-5; Jas. 5:4] (cf Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1867).

Thus, especially for these but also in terms of all sin and injustice and anything that afflicts or hinders the possibility of salvation, God has a wrathful indignation and a passion to set things right.

This is part of his love for us. His wrath may be manifest through punishments, disturbances of our conscience, or simply by allowing us to experience some or all the consequences of our sin and injustice.

2. Clarification: God’s wrath is not like our anger. In saying that God is angry we ought to be careful to understand that, however God experiences anger or any passion, it is not tainted by sin. God is not angry like we are angry. When we get angry we often experience an out of control quality, our temper flares and we often say and do things that are either sinful or at least excessive.

It cannot pertain to God to have temper tantrums and to fly off the handle, to admix anger with an unreasonable lashing out. The way God does experience anger is not something we can fully understand, but is it surely a sovereign and serene act of his will, not an out of control emotion.

3. Clarification: God is not moody. It does not pertain to God to have good days and bad days, good moods and bad ones. Scripture seems clear enough when it indicates that God does not change. Consider this from the Book of James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning.

Hence to speak of God’s wrath does not mean that he has suddenly had enough, or that his temper has flared, or that his mood has soured. God IS. He does not change. As the text says, he is not variable. And this leads us to the next point.

4. Image: Given what we have said, the primary location of God’s wrath is not in God, it is in us. Perhaps the best definition I have heard of God’s wrath is this: God’s wrath is our experience of the total incompatibility of our sinful state before the Holiness of God. Sin and God’s holiness just don’t mix. They can’t keep company.

Think of fire and water. They do not mix. They cannot coexist in the same spot. Bring them together and you you can hear the conflict. Think of water spilled on a hot stove and hear the sizzle and popping and the steam as the water flees away. If, on the other hand there is a lot of water the fire is overwhelmed and extinguished . But the point is that they cannot coexist. They will conflict and one will win.

This is wrath, the complete incompatibility of two things. It is this way between sin and God’s utter holiness. We must be purified before we can enter the presence of God otherwise we could never tolerate his glory. We would wail and grind our teeth and turn away in horror. Thus wrath is the conflict between our sin and God’s holiness.

God cannot and will not change, so we must be changed. Otherwise we experience wrath. But notice the experience is in us primarily and not God. God does not change, he is holy, serene, he is love. If we experience his wrath it is on account of us, not him. Consider the next example.

5. Image: It is we who change, not God and this causes wrath to be experienced or notConsider an example. On the ceiling of my bedroom is a light with a 100 watt light bulb. At night before bed, I delight in the light. I am accustomed to it. But then, at bed time, I put out the light and sleep. When I awake it is still dark (at least in the winter). Hence I put the light on. But Ugh! Grrr! Now the light is bright and I curse it!

Now mind you, the light has not changed one bit. It is still the same 100 watt bulb it was hours earlier. The light is just the same, it is I who have changed. But do you know what I do? I blame the light and say, “The light is harsh!” But the light is not harsh, it is just the same as when I was happy with it. Now that I have changed I experience its wrath but the wrath, the problem,  is really in me.

So also consider the experience of the ancient family of man with God. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the evening when the dew collected on the grass (cf Gen 3:8). They had warm friendship with him and did not fear his presence. After sin, they hide. Had God changed? He had not, they had and they now experience him very differently.

Fast forward to another Theophany. God has come to Mt Sinai and as he descends the people are terrified for there are peals of thunder, lightning, clouds and the loud blast of a trumpet. The people told Moses “You speak to us, but let not God speak, else we will die!” (Ex 20:19) God too warned Moses that the people could not get close lest his wrath be vented upon them (Ex 19:20-25).

Now again, had God changed? He had not. He was the same God who walked with them in the cool of the evening in a most intimate way. It was we who had changed. We had lost the holiness without which no one can see the Lord (Heb 12:14). The same God, unchanged though he was, now seemed to us frightening and wrathful.

6. What then shall we do? If we can allow the image of fire to remain before us, we may well find a hopeful sign in God’s providence. Since God is a holy fire, a consuming fire (cf Heb 12:26; Is 33:14) how can we possibly come into his presence? How can we avoid the wrath that would destroy us?

Well, what is the only thing that survives in the presence of fire? Fire is the only thing that survives! So it looks like we’d better become fire if we want to see God.

And thus it was that God sent tongues of fire upon the Apostles and us at our confirmation. God wants to set you and me on fire with the Holy Spirit and in holiness. God wants to bring us up to the temperature of glory so that we can stand in his presence:

See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. (Mal 3:1-4). And indeed Jesus has now come: For you have turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. 1 Thess 1:10-11)

Time to become totally fire! Veni Sancte Spritus, tui amore ignem accende. (Come Holy Spirit, and kindle in us the Fire of thy Love)

So there is a wrath of God. As I have tried to show it is more in us than in God. But I will not say to you that there is NO wrath IN God. Scripture seems clear to indicate that wrath does pertain to God’s inner life. What exactly it is and how God experiences it is mysterious to us. We can say to some extent what it is not (as we did above) but we cannot really say what it is exactly. But far more rich is the meditation that the wrath of God is essentially in us. It is OUR experience of the incompatibility of sin before God. We must be washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb and purified. Most of us will need purification in purgatory too. But if we let the Lord work his saving work we are saved from the wrath for we are made holy and set on fire with God’s love. And fire never fears the presence of fire. God is Love but he will not change. So it is that Love must change us.

One of the greatest cinematic depictions of the Wrath of God occurred in the move the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Nazi’s sinfully think they can open the Ark and endure the presence of God. What they get is wrath for sin cannot endure the reality of God’s presence. “Enjoy” this clip:

16 Replies to “Understanding of the Wrath of God”

  1. The Wrath of God is the Justice of God. In the above clip, I think of what God told Saint Margaret Mary: “I am Purity and I cannot stand even the least sin. No one who has even the smallest stain of sin can enter Heaven.”

    1. Hence Mary, the Immaculate Conception and Virgin of Virgins, was assumed into Heaven and made Queen over all things. Which we celebrate today 🙂

  2. Monseigneur,

    Thank you for your thoughtful, insightful writing. I found your definition of God’s wrath is very helpful. How does the God’s wrath described in the Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah fit in with this?

    On a separate note, I’m disappointed that you have a 100 watt light bulb in your bedroom 😉 Didn’t you get the memo last year from The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change (a partner of the USCCB) urging the faithful to observe Lent by replacing their incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescent bulbs?

    1. Hmmm…. I guess I thought most were familiar with it. And of course it is the wicked in the scene who perish and fulfill the text of Scripture which speaks of the mountains, an allegory for the powers of this world, as “melting like wax before the Lord.” There is also the image from Exodus of the Lord, “casting a glance” at the forces of Pharaoh and sending them into confusion. Horrible though the clip was, it does conform pretty well to Biblical images of the wicked before the face of God: cf also Malachi 4 which speaks of the Day of the Lord blazing like an oven…..etc.

  3. Dear Monseigneur,

    “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. I think that coming to a deeper understanding of God’s wrath can be a tremendous aid to pursuing a life of holiness. While it is, I think, vastly better to be motivated by God’s love, the knowledge of the punishment that lies in wait for the wicked can be a powerful antidote to the temptations of the devil. I have turned from many sins because I know the punishment I would get if I willfully chose to do what I knew was wrong. For the Christian, God’s wrath sometimes comes in the form of a cosmic spanking at the Hand of the Almighty to help deter us from an evil path.

    On the larger scale, God’s wrath is good and the exercise of His justice is good because it is good to destroy that which is evil. If, as a father, I kill a poisonous snake that is trying to kill my child, that is both an act of love towards my child and a righteous exercise of my wrath towards the snake. God’s wrath is His active engagement in battle with those who put themselves in opposition to Him and His Children. The last several chapters of Isaiah speak very eloquently about it. God’s wrath is perhaps most brilliantly evident in the destruction of the Egyptian’s first born in Exodus. The Israelites were saved from destruction by marking their doors with the blood of a lamb. Similarly, in the new covenant, we are saved from God’s wrath by the Blood of the Lamb of God. It is only through the grace available through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that we may be saved from the punishment that we all deserve.

    Thanks so much for addressing this important topic!

  4. There is also “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16). What a peculiar concept. May it possibly be that on the day of judgement we will be presented with a choice of which side we choose, the lamb on the alter or the Satanic warrior on his war horse and those who choose apparent power over weakness experience union with Satan instead of the joys of heaven?

  5. “God’s wrath is our experience of the total incompatibility of our sinful state before the Holiness of God.” –That is very thought provoking and insightful. I suppose it explains why the heathen rage. I like this maxim: “God always forgives. Men sometimes forgives. Nature never forgives.” Of course, men have to ask for God’s forgiveness. I got that one listening to Collin Donovon on Catholic Radio.

    I’d say that the first maxim expresses the interior effects of God’s rage and the second expresses the exterior effects of God’s rage.

    I was a kid when I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and I didn’t appreciate at that time the importance of the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites. Makes me appreciate the movie more, though I haven’t seen it again since then.

    Neat post.

  6. Oh Dianne! Give me a break! For goodness sake, it’s only a movie! That was a great visual example, Msgr. Pope. Thanks for a great article.

  7. I watched that scene once as a small child with almost zero understanding of what the men were doing (I don’t think I even comprehended that they were Nazis) and it gave me nightmares for years. Now I understand it better but I still can’t watch it because it brings those nightmares back, too – even though it actually teaches a rather good lesson!

    (Another good reason to be very careful about what your children have access to!)

    Still – maybe my prior experiences have just scarred me too much, but I’m amazed that this is shown on TV with relatively little/no censoring (no, I haven’t personally compared) and that it isn’t considered “graphic” by many people.

  8. Interesting comparison at the opening, where a commercial product uses God as a standard by which to measure. Their intent, sincerity and other motivations I couldn’t know about but, the standard is accepted.
    The comparison of wrath to fire is very inspiring, since fire can be a great benefit if applied properly to our lives but, a horrendous problem if mis-applied – whether through ill intent, carelessness, contempt for it’s power, overconfidence in our own abilities, lots of reasons.
    The well trained worker; such as a cook at a wood or gas fueled oven, a blacksmith, etc must apply their skills carefully and continue to do so if he/she wants to avoid disaster.
    At any rate I recall how, earlier in the movie, Indiana Jones and the Nazi were contending over the possession of a very hot medallion with a clue to the ark’s location if I have recalled that exactly right, and Jones took off with the medallion, but the Nazi was able to continue because he had a reverse image burned into his hand.
    The artistic example of the evildoer following a distorted Godly message really struck me. In the movie it was easy to interpret the distortion but, in real life, do many find it not so easy?
    Feelings on many things, such as the violent climax scene portrayed here, may vary from joyous, through lesser positive, to lukewarm, through mildly unpleasant right to extremely uncomfortable. Each of us has a right to our feelings and, I suspect that having the feelings derided may well contribute to a frustrated state that leads to a frantic, and hedonistic, grasping of intense – but shallow by nature – passions that seem to beset our current society so problemishly lately.
    Although I can only speak for my own sake, I thank everyone for their contributions, including Diane.

  9. Good quotes.. thought provoking!

    St. Margaret Mary, pray for us!

    ‘For it was in fierce anger that the Angels were punished, or, rather, were condemned; but it was only a milder degree of displeasure that was felt by man. For in the midst of His wrath God remembered mercy. Wherefore the children of men are called to this day “children of wrath”, but not “of fierce anger.” If I were not born in the former state, I should not need a New Birth through Baptism; but if I were born in the latter state, either a New Birth would be unattainable to me or would profit me nothing if attained.’

    St. Bernard of Clairvaux

  10. For some reason, Isaiah 6:7 came to mind, “And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.”

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