The Wrath of a Loving God: Unraveling a Biblical Conundrum

By Brother John of Taize

The portrait of an angry God, quick to condemn, that many people claim to find in the pages of the Bible is undoubtedly one of the greatest obstacles to faith. The modern tendency to efface all traces of anger from our image of God is therefore comprehensible. But might this procedure not risk mutilating the authentic character of the biblical God? Could the theme of divine wrath, properly understood, rather than being a primitive vestige or an aberration, perhaps offer a key to understanding a love "as fierce as death," an approach to the mystery of our redemption in Christ? That is the challenge that this book attempts to take up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Oct 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532670749

Brother John of Taize

Brother John of Taizé is the author of several books in English and French, including most recently A Multitude of Friends: Reimagining the Christian Church in an Age of Globalization (2011), I Am the Beginning and the End: Creation Stories and Visions of Fulfilment in the Bible (2007), and Reading the Ten Commandments Anew: Towards a Land of Freedom (2004).

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The Wrath of a Loving God

Unraveling a Biblical Conundrum

Brother John of Taizé

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THE WRATH OF A LOVING GOD

Unraveling a Biblical Conundrum

Copyright © 2019 SARL Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, Communauté de Taizé CS 10004, 71250 Taizé, France. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-7072-5

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-7073-2

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-7074-9

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Brother John of Taizé, author.

Title: The wrath of a loving god : unraveling a biblical conundrum / Brother John of Taizé.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-7072-5 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-7073-2 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-7074-9 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: God (Christianity)—Wrath—Biblical teaching. | Grace (Theology)—Biblical teaching. | God (Christianity)—Love—Biblical teaching.

Classification: BT153.W7 B76 2019 (print) | BT153.W7 (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A. November 11, 2019

Table of Contents

Title Page

List of Biblical Books Quoted

Prelude

The Wrong Track

Learning How to Read the Bible

A Story of Liberation

A Theology of Anger?

Chapter 1: The Genealogy of Divine Anger

The Journey of the Ark

And Now, Anger

The Rider of the Clouds

An Ambiguous Energy

Chapter 2: Understanding Human Anger

The Wrath of the King

The Risks of Repression

Expressing the No4

A Capital Sin?

A Dangerous or Constructive Reaction?

Chapter 3: Prophetic Anger

Amos

Isaiah

Hosea and Jeremiah

Anger Interiorized

Chapter 4: Explanatory Anger and its Critics

The Deuteronomic History

Innocent, but Condemned

A God Slow to Anger

intermezzo

Chapter 5: A Destabilizing Force

Saved from the Wrath

The Day of Judgment

The Storm Is Coming

A Harsh and Dreadful Love

Changing Our Outlook

Chapter 6: The Man of Sorrows

Preliminary Difficulties

Jesus’ no

A Provocative Act

From Anger to Sorrow

The Other Side of Anger

My Soul Is Sorrowful to the Point of Death

Happy Those Who Mourn

Coda

How to Read the Apocalypse

The Self-Destruction of Evil

A Paradoxical Victory

The Great Day of Wrath

Bibliography

BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

The Pilgrim God: A Biblical Journey

(Washington: Pastoral, 1985 / Dublin: Veritas, 1990)

The Way of the Lord: A New Testament Pilgrimage

(Washington: Pastoral, 1990 / Dublin: Veritas, 1990)

Praying the Our Father Today

(Washington: Pastoral, 1992)

God of the Unexpected: Newness and the Spirit in the Bible

(London: Mowbray, 1995)

The Adventure of Holiness:

Biblical Foundations and Present-Day Perspectives

(New York: Alba House, 1999)

At the Wellspring: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

(New York: Alba House, 2001)

Reading the Ten Commandments Anew:

Towards a Land of Freedom

(New York: Alba House, 2004)

I Am the Beginning and the End:

Creation Stories and Visions of Fulfilment in the Bible

(New York: Alba House, 2007)

Friends in Christ:

Reimagining the Christian Church in an Age of Globalization

(Maryknoll: Orbis, 2012)

Life on the Edge:

Holy Saturday and the Recovery of the End Time

(Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2017)

Published in French by Ateliers et Presses de Taizé, 2018 under the title La colère d’un Dieu d’amour: Déchiffrer une énigme biblique.

List of Biblical Books Quoted

Gen Genesis

Exod Exodus

Num Numbers

Deut Deuteronomy

Josh Joshua

Judg Judges

1 Sam 1 Samuel

2 Sam 2 Samuel

1 Kgs 1 Kings

2 Kgs 2 Kings

1 Chr 1 Chronicles

2 Chr 2 Chronicles

Neh Nehemiah

Job Job

Ps Psalms

Prov Proverbs

Isa Isaiah

Jer Jeremiah

Lam Lamentations

Ezek Ezekiel

Dan Daniel

Hos Hosea

Amos Amos

Jonah Jonah

Zeph Zephaniah

Zech Zechariah

Mal Malachi

Song Song of Songs

Qoh Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes

Sir Sirach/Ecclesiasticus

Matt Matthew

Mark Mark

Luke Luke

John John

Rom Romans

1 Cor 1 Corinthians

2 Cor 2 Corinthians

Gal Galatians

Eph Ephesians

Phil Philippians

Col Colossians

1 Thess 1 Thessalonians

2 Thess 2 Thessalonians

2 Tim 2 Timothy

Heb Hebrews

Jas James

1 Pet 1 Peter

2 Pet 2 Peter

1 John 1 John

Rev Revelation

Mark 14:36 par = Mark ch. 14, v. 36 and the parallel texts in Matthew and Luke

All biblical translations, unless otherwise noted, are by the author.

Prelude

An Angry God?

Is it not evident that, in our day, one of the main obstacles to understanding the biblical message is the portrait of a wrathful and vengeful God that some people claim to find in the pages of the Bible, notably in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament of Christians? It must be admitted that the collective unconscious of the inhabitants of Western countries that are traditionally Christian is populated with such images. And it goes without saying that such a vision of God is distasteful to many people of good will, interested in spirituality, who are looking for meaning in their lives, and so represents a formidable obstacle to accepting a biblical faith. But believers themselves usually do not know how to deal with those texts where God is presented as full of rage and jealous of his honor. Here are two typical passages, chosen more or less at random:

Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. So the Lord said, I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’ (2 Kgs 23:26–27 NIV)

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people;his hand is raised and he strikes them down.The mountains shake,and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,his hand is still upraised. (Isa 5:25)

What relation is there between these perspectives and the God of love revealed by the carpenter of Nazareth? How can they be integrated into our understanding of the divine and its actions?

The Wrong Track

One possible solution, by far the easiest and therefore implicitly adopted by many, is simply to eliminate these difficult passages from our portrait of God. The popular version of this procedure, in large part unreflective, leads to a doubling of the divine identity. On the one hand we have the deity of the Old Testament, an exacting and irritable God, and on the other the God of Jesus Christ, overflowing with kindness and tenderness. Even a mind as brilliant and enlightened as that of the philosopher Simone Weil (1909–43) did not escape this kind of facile simplification. She wrote that she could not understand how it was possible for a rational mind to see the Jehovah of the Bible and the Father mentioned in the Gospel as one and the same being.¹

Most of those who adopt this apparent solution probably do not imagine that it has a long history. It does not date from yesterday. At the beginning of the second century of the Common Era, a man was born in Asia Minor. He left his birthplace and came to Rome, where his preaching won for him a certain renown. His name was Marcion. Seeing no affinity at all between the Creator God found in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ, Marcion drew the logical—indeed too logical—conclusions from this incompatibility. In his eyes there were two completely independent deities: on the one hand the God of this world, an evil God, a merciless Judge who gave the Law to Israel; and on the other a good God, previously unknown, the Father of Jesus. Jesus came to save us from the wicked God, which meant that he had to take us out of this evil world.

It goes without saying that, if the universe in which we live is the work of a wicked Creator, it follows that it too is evil. Marcion thus offers a simple explanation of the eternal problem of evil by affirming that it is the direct responsibility of a wicked Creator. The Savior thus comes on behalf of the good God to put an end to the dominance of this evil world, by destroying the works of its Ruler and by saving the souls of his disciples.

Although this way of thinking provides us with an explanation of evil, the price to pay for it seems far too high. We are forced totally to reject everything that exists, to turn our backs on the world as a whole and not just on its troubles and sorrows. In addition, Marcion had to deal with another difficulty: he did not find a confirmation of his views in the texts of the New Testament taken in their entirety. The Gospels are too permeated by the traditional faith in the God of Israel, a compassionate and generous God (Exod 34:6). This is even the case for Saint Paul. If some of Paul’s affirmations, such as his critique of the Law, could seem to corroborate Marcion’s approach, he is not completely trustworthy either. Using an argument which will later be employed by a host of others to justify their systems, Marcion claimed that the version of the New Testament promulgated by the Christian church was corrupt, perhaps due to the false brothers stigmatized by Saint Paul (cf. Gal 2:4). He thus set to work to establish a list of authentic passages, which was limited to a few of Paul’s letters and part of Luke’s Gospel. In the end, Marcion’s theology led to the constitution of a new sect, to communities of his disciples which did not survive very long after the death of their founder. Most of the other believers, including illustrious writers and teachers such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, reacted strongly against what they considered a mutilation of authentic faith in Jesus the Christ.

As has often been the case in the history of the church, this whole controversy had a positive result. It forced Christian thinkers to reflect more deeply on the composition of the Christian Bible and the relationship between the two Testaments. They concluded that the heritage of ancient Israel retains its value for the church of Christ; we cannot simply eliminate the passages that disturb us. The Creator and Legislator of Israel is the beloved Abba of Jesus Christ, as Jesus himself recognized.

The condemnation of Marcion’s teachings closed off a dead-end for the Christian faith. It excludes once and for all the facile solution which consists in rejecting out of hand all the Bible texts that cause difficulty for us, notably the separation between the two Testaments. Once we have accepted this, however, our problem has still not been solved. How can we integrate into our vision of God apparently unacceptable elements like violence or anger? Can we attain an image of God that is less simplistic but which nonetheless retains the features of the God of love so well-testified to by Jesus in his words and his actions?

Learning How to Read the Bible

Before tackling our topic directly, it is necessary to deal first with some questions of method. In the first place, the prohibition against eliminating all the difficult bits from the Bible does not mean that everything must be placed on the same level. Recognizing that the Scriptures are inspired by God does not rule out the role of human beings in their composition. The biblical books did not fall ready-made from heaven like meteors. Divine inspiration takes into account the life and the intelligence of human beings, marked by their particular backgrounds and their vision of the world, which is inevitably limited. The faith of the writers and editors, like that of the women and men who people the pages of the Bible, remains imperfect. Christians confess that in Jesus alone do we find a perfect harmony between what God was doing in someone’s existence and the awareness that person had of it. And even Jesus, as a true human being, experienced a growth in understanding (cf. Luke 2:40) and moments of uncertainty (cf. Matt 26:39). It is therefore all the more understandable that the words and events presented in the Scriptures communicate to us God’s identity and desires for his creatures, but most often seen through a veil (cf. 2 Cor 3:12–18) or in a rudimentary mirror (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). A process of discernment is always necessary.

Similarly, the great tradition of the Christian church, both in the East and the West, has always emphasized the need for a global reading of the Scriptures. Inspiration is not primarily a matter of a particular passage isolated from its context; it is the biblical message taken as a whole that transmits an authentic understanding of divine realities. Two images can help to explain this.

The first is that of a mosaic that depicts a portrait. If the tesserae or tiles are not