The Wrath of God

the wrath is His all consuming love in the face of an unrepentant sinner.

for starters, we read the OT in the light of the NT. so we always start with God as being the good God Who loves mankind.

that being said, wrath and anger is what love is when confronting sin. that's why God gave it to us in the first place.

David Cabrera said:

What's the difference between the wrath of God in an Orthodox perspective from the Catholic and the Protestant one?

I used to believe that God literally got mad.

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From the Lutheran perspective God's wrath is to behold God through the lens of His Law as a sinner. Seeing how we are sinners and the true nakedness of our sin we see God hidden behind the cloudy veil of His glory and judgment: that we are sinners, and that there is no good thing in us. It is only by looking upon God through faith, to see God through Jesus Christ who suffered, died, and gave Himself for us and our salvation, and that in Him we have God as our Abba Father that we see God clearly.

"If you have a true faith in Christ as Savior then you should understand you have a gracious God for faith leads you in and opens up God's heart that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to look upon his fatherly friendly heart in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness. He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but only looks upon a curtain, as if a dark cloud has been drawn upon his face." - Martin Luther

EDIT: My apologies, I didn't see where this thread was posted initially, and the OP seemed to be asking for different perspectives, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant; I see now that he was asking for the Orthodox perspective specifically in contrast with either Catholic or Protestant views. If my post here is out of line with the rules of this board, I don't mind deleting its contents or letting a mod remove it.

-CryptoLutheran

ArmyMatt said:

the wrath is His all consuming love in the face of an unrepentant sinner.

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Hi Matt & David, there's a fairly new thread about the wrath of God here: The great wine press of the wrath of God

The OP author is asking for a differing POV from his own concerning God's wrath, and I believe the EOC has one. My interest is in learning more about what the EOC believes and why, so if you guys have the time, I'd love it if you'd drop by that board (because, as CryptoLutheran just pointed out above, this board isn't the place for Orthodox and non-Orthodox to come together and discuss EOC teachings/doctrine).

Thanks!

--David

David Cabrera said:

Is his love an emotion?

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no, love is never an emotion. love is a relational action.

St_Worm2 said:

Hi Matt & David, there's a fairly new thread about the wrath of God here: The great wine press of the wrath of God

The OP author is asking for a differing POV from his own concerning God's wrath, and I believe the EOC has one. My interest is in learning more about what the EOC believes and why, so if you guys have the time, I'd love it if you'd drop by that board (because, as CryptoLutheran just pointed out above, this board isn't the place for Orthodox and non-Orthodox to come together and discuss EOC teachings/doctrine).

Thanks!

--David

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thanks! but I will have to decline. I don't venture outside of TAW. but feel free to ask any questions!

If you want to discuss more freely, maybe St Justin's is suitable?

ArmyMatt said:

thanks! but I will have to decline. I don't venture outside of TAW. but feel free to ask any questions!

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Thanks

~Anastasia~ said:

If you want to discuss more freely, maybe St Justin's is suitable?

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Thanks Anastasia. That would be a good idea. I know St. Justins allows for a bit of back & forth (rather than simply asking questions), but am I, as a non-EOC, allowed to initiate threads there?

Thanks!

--David

St_Worm2 said:

Thanks

Thanks Anastasia. That would be a good idea. I know St. Justins allows for a bit of back & forth (rather than simply asking questions), but am I, as a non-EOC, allowed to initiate threads there?

Thanks!

--David

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yes you are, that's what St Justin's is for.

Ahh, thank you again

and you can ask us in good fellowship on the main forum if you just wanna know our position.

I think request from one of the mods

David Cabrera said:

What's the difference between the wrath of God in an Orthodox perspective from the Catholic and the Protestant one?

I used to believe that God literally got mad.

Click to expand...

If you want all perspectives I already have a thread where all can candidly participate:

The great wine press of the wrath of God

It seems to me in some circles of Catholicism (from my experiences around certain circles of Catholicism), there's this tendency to view Jesus as this really, really angry guy whose ready to bring down fire from Heaven and wipe out 99% of the world, and the Virgin Mary is this person who can barely hold Him back but tries to, and is barely able to because it's His mother, but His "strength" is almost becoming unbearable to hold back any longer, and any day now we are all gonna die with fire and brimstone reigning down from the skies with the annihilation of nations, unless you managed to say enough Rosaries.

And I'm not the only one who noticed this tendency - even Jack Chick (which I don't know why I've been referencing him lately, so forgive me God), as embarrassingly wrong as he is (even so in this specific comic), points this out.



And while I believe that there is the Wrath of God - which only comes about for purposes of Justice - whether it's directly (Sodom and Gomorrah), or He uses political situations for vengeance (Israel and Babylon), and Christ has shown Himself to get quite angry when it comes to people abusing Holy Things (you know, flipping over tables and whipping the money-changers), I think it's clear that the Orthodox Church doesn't view the relationship between God and man like this above viewpoint - it's kind of a crude caricature, a caricature which contradicts the Book of Jonah - said Book which goes out of it's way to demonstrate that God cares about the Repentance of a Sinner first and foremost.

Again, Fr. Matt, you know what to do.