How will we escape the wrath of God?

Ian Denness — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 11:42:30 +0000

If you don’t believe that God exists, or if you don’t believe the Bible is true, then you wouldn’t be bothered by this challenging question.

However, if you do believe both, then what does the Bible say about this?

The Bible says…

“It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Hebrews 10:31 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness”

Romans 1:18 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

And Jesus’ words:

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Matthew 10:28 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

So, God’s wrath is coming

Why is it coming? It’s coming because of our rebellion against him. This shows itself by our ignoring and minimising him, or actively hating him. Either way, they are different levels of rebelling against him, since he is the God of the universe in which we live.

How can we escape the wrath of God?

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Acts 16:31 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

Help yourself!

By accepting what Jesus has already done for us, to solve our problem. He purposely fitted into God’s plan to reconcile us by going to the cross on our behalf. He voluntarily took that wrath of God against our rebelling. Instead of each one of us being punished, he became our perfect substitute. No punishment, no wrath, remains for those fortunate people who have accepted his sacrifice. That will hurt our pride, but then there is reconciliation and forgiveness. Such love, such compassion, such empathy, such incredible kindness!

What’s the proof?

To prove that it was accepted, God brought him back to life again. God presented adequate proof that Jesus had come back to life again by him showing himself to many people over 40 days. God must have thought that was enough proof for any reasonable person to believe that it had really happened.

However, those who don’t accept this free gift of the ‘get out of jail card’, well, that will be another Post.

What do you think?

The post How will we escape the wrath of God? appeared first on Life Hope.

Why is there evil? Where does it come from?

Ian Denness — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 06:48:23 +0000

Evil can be thought of as the absence of good. Another way to think of it is as the opposite of good. Some may say “bad karma”.

An evolutionary worldview

Evil would be fully expected in an evolutionary worldview, based on “survival of the fittest”, and “dog eat dog”, for each to get ahead individually. It would just depend on whether you were the ‘eater’ or the ‘eaten’.

However, based on a worldview with God as the law maker of what is truth and what is right, the definer of good and evil, then it all depends on the choices that we make. God has given us free choice, because he loves us, the people he has created.

“I love you”

In fact, we have to realise that in a world without choices, the true meaning of “I love you” would be lost. The ability to love others is void and meaningless without the power to choose. God wanted us to experience the reality of choosing to love him. Along with that gift, God knew the great risk was the possibility of evil. Our responsibility to act on that possibility rests with us, not God.

The hidden evil – “the prince of this world”

There is also Satan, one of the leading powerful angels created by God. Angels, as well as people, were given free choice by God. Satan chose to rebel against his creator, and led a rebellion with about a third of the lesser powerful angels.

God banished them out of his immediate presence, and they came to earth. Satan leads them in inciting and aiding people in rebelling with them against God. It is very interesting that Jesus called Satan, “the prince of this world”.

We can be the source of evil, along with Satan and ‘demons’.

When asked about something similar, Jesus said,

“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. [21] For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, [22] adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. [23] All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Mark 7:20 (NIV) (http://www.laridian.com)

We can choose to love and obey God, living to please him. Or we can choose to rebel, and live to please ourselves. God loves us enough to not force us to love him.

However, later, God will be God, and we won’t be. Now we can choose how to live, but then we won’t be able to choose the consequences. That’s when both justice and judgement will be displayed, and evil will finally be dealt with…