Multifaceted God
- Thread starter Natsumi Lam
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Yes he is a God of justice. Some would say wrath because of Noah...Sodom. i say we just need to see the bigger picture to see even "wrath" as justice.
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I would agree. For those with tunnel vision it is hard to see some of His tasks a merciful. As far as the big picture, the many are eliminated while the few are redeemed.
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fhansen
Oldbie
Well, there are many. It's a common theme in the bible that God will ultimately separate the two, that a major change will occur.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Rev 21:4-5
And the sheep and the goats being separated in Matt 25:31-46, the wheat and the tares in Matt 13, the wolf dwelling with the lamb in Is 11:6, Death and Hades being thrown into the Lake of Fire: the second death. Etc
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The question i have is that ...cant the body be filled with darkness while you are saved in your spirit(the light)
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Jonathan Mathews
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It's not just God the Father who throws people into the Lake of Fire. It's Jesus Christ. God has entrusted all Judgement to the Son (John 5:22). Jesus Christ saved Peter but handed Judas over to Satan. Jesus Christ has a Sword come out of His mouth that kills all the followers of the Anti-Christ (Revelation 19:21). God both heals and He kills. He saves and He damns. Jesus Christ and the Father are One
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From a certain perspective, God causes everyone's death. Each and every single human will have to die once in one way or another. There's not a particular way of death is more advantageous than another. Those died under swords are not necessarily less comfortable than those died a natural death. When I was a kid I saw myself how my neighbor died after screaming every night for months due to an extreme pain.
That said. God's job here is avoid humans going to hell due to the judgment of Law. What God did are necessary to establish the Jews as the chosen people for His salvation to be carried forward to reach today's humans.
Thus the baseline of God's morality is different from that of humans. Our morality is avoid someone being hurt in terms of our physical body (including psychological damage and etc.). God's morality however lies on avoiding someone being sent to hell.
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fhansen
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I'm not really sure what you're asking I guess. Being sanctified-and saved, even- is a process in my understanding, one that depends on how much one may be given in terms of knowledge (revelation), grace, time, etc, during this life so certainly we struggle with sin throughout our lives, but we must also be overcoming it in the bigger picture. But to be "snow-covered dung-heaps" as some have termed it, clean on the outside while still really dirty on the inside, is not what the gospel is all about. God has the purpose of restoring justice/ righteousness/ holiness to His creation, not ignoring it.
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I mean cant darkness of the body..ie sinful acts be present while your spirit is saved?
Light and dark in the same person.
Example idols and money changers in the temple while God occupies the Holy of Holies.
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section9+1
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He is a God of justice. Nothing bad about that. He claims to have many attributes and capabilities. I see no conflict.
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Pádraigín Ní Saorlaith
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We shouldn't confuse God's light as Him being lovey-dovey. He is a God of love, but He is also a God of justice. The image of a just and majestic God is not exclusive of a loving and merciful God. In fact, we cannot properly have a merciful God if we do not have a just God.
When considering God's justice, we need to look closely at the context, both Scripturally and historically, of places where God exacts justice. In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, God agreed with Abraham to spare the city of ten righteous people could be found inside it. Only ten. He only destroyed the cities because ten people could not be found. Furthermore, Genesis gives us a glimpse into how corrupt the city of Sodom was (In Genesis 19:5, a gang of men from Sodom threaten to rape the two angels staying with Lot), as well as how living in the city had corrupted Lot's thinking (In Genesis 19:6-8, after refusing to hand over the guests to be raped Lot considers handing over his two young daughters to these violent men, and the only reason Lot did not was the angels striking the men blind in v. 11).
Sodom and Gomorrah were not totally unique in their sins. The civilizations neighboring the Israelites practiced ritual prostitution, child sacrifice, and worse. God was not destroying these civilizations (or, in some cases, asking the Israelites to destroy them) on a whim. He was destroying them to protect the Israelites, as well as to put an end to those practices in that region. It is also worth noting that Sodom and Gomorrah were not unique in that God often gave these civilizations a chance. In the Book of Jonah, He offers a second chance to the people of Nineveh. Elsewhere, in the Book of Joshua, God rewards the faithfulness of Rahab of Jericho by including her and her children in the bloodline of King David, and through King David, the bloodline of the Messiah.
Were God not a just God, He could not be a merciful God. Mercy implies that there is some punishment that would otherwise await us were mercy not given. Without justice, mercy is not mercy—It is lawlessness. God's punishment for all of us was exacted on His Son. The mercy offered to us is only possible because of God's justice being satisfied.
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Apologetic_Warrior
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I find it helpful to consider concepts like justice from two perspectives, the Divine perspective, and the human perspective, recognizing the Creator-creation distinction is important. The Biblical concept of justice, is not in conflict with the Holiness of God, but in harmony with, fully compatible with all of His Divine attributes. As fallen creatures we struggle with justice, much like inmates in prison may be both victims and criminal offenders. In a similar way an inmate may look at the criminal justice system as unfair, we may look at our Creator as unfair. But part of the problem is in our unwillingness to accept what would be fair, if a Holy God were to fully execute justice on fallen mankind without mercy. Would it be unjust for God to execute His justice based on His Holiness? Unlike God, man loves darkness, and portraying sinful man as righteous, without the righteousness of Christ, is a complete facade, a cover up, an attempt at deflection when guilt is pressed upon the conscious. Much can be said about always portraying God in a good light, even what is meant by that, but we do injustice to not portray God as He has portrayed Himself in Scripture. We need not worry about defending God, He is more than capable of defending Himself. As the children of God, we should want to be faithful to Scripture, faithful to Christ who is the truth, and allow the chips to fall where they will, while having a clear conscious, with a healthy fear of God and not man. Let God be true, afterall we are completely dependent upon Him to justify knowing any truth. What is justice apart from God? We have to know what justice is before claiming to know what injustice is. So many of life's experiences though, may leave us with only an unanswered why? By His grace and mercy do we continue to trust Him.
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section9+1
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If we portray God honestly, how can it not be in a good light? We don't get to declare what's right or wrong. Hopefully we will recognize the difference, but we do not determine it. If God calls something right, it's right and our approval is not required. Isaiah 45:19
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fhansen
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There will continue to be light and dark in us as we struggle with sin, but the Christian faith should never lead or serve as an excuse for antinomianism, to a license to be lawless, and few Christians would assert that such a thing is allowable by God. And Scripture, IMO, is quite explicit that such can never be the case. A serial killer, for example, should never comfort himself about his salvation despite his actions, just because He considers himself a believer. OTOH God judges by the heart, which He knows far better than we do. But:
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Gal 6:7-8
"Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister." 1 John 3:7-10
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The Darkness and the destruction all come from the choice of human beings.
1 John 1:5
. 5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all
One thing you have to be careful with this line of thinking. God allowed evil, but He is not the author of Evil! (A trap that people tend to fall into if they pursue this line of speculation)
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Giving humans and angels the opportunity to choose evil is different than creating it. When God created the Heavens and the Earth "It was good". And the same goes with the angels.
If you say he made "darkness and evil", that implies that God is the author of evil, which by implication would mean God is evil.. Matthew 7:15-20 etc.
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