Celebrating The Wrath Of God--A Cosmic Dance In The Theater Of Space And Time For All Sentient Beings To Watch, Mouths Open. 2nd edition.

Being a real hard head grounded in Scriptural doctrine and valuing the unchanging truths of God, just what would it take to change my doctrine? About 2 weeks. When I first wrote this article, I did not want to go too far. I said that we MAY celebrate God's wrath vigorously some day. Originally posted on January 31, 2007 I have decided to edit it to be more biblical. After reading and meditating on Isaiah 66 I decided that at some future point in time, believers WILL indeed rejoice jubilantly to see the wrath of God poured out in all its fury, even on those we loved in this life. Here is the new article:

As believers we celebrate a lot of things about God. We celebrate the love, mercy, and condescension of God at Christmas. We celebrate the power and promises of God at Easter. Did you know we also celebrate the wrath of God? We do. At communion.

During communion we celebrate the humiliation of the Son, His sacrifice, and His love. However, we also celebrate God's wrath being poured out on Jesus. It goes without saying that we don't celebrate God's wrath in the sense that we jump in the streets and sing. We can't do that now because we are too guilty. Too close to the fire. "The fear of God is the begining of wisdom." In this life, we are not able to be jubilant about wrath, because we are too close to it and too blind to see sin as He sees sin.

Heaven points to God's wrath as a facet of His glory radiating to the universe.

Listen to what the Spirit says:

22What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

23And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

24even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Romans 9:22-24.

So then, according to Scripture God puts His attributes on display for His glory, including His wrath. He does so purely for His glory. This is frightening. He claims to prepare vessels for destruction on purpose in order "to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy."

The plight of the unsaved is incomprehensible. According to verse 23, they are allowed to live for a time on this earth in order to glorify God by showing His mercy to the elect. God's mercy on you, if you're saved, is a shining star in an unlit coal mine of the sin of others and the wrath that awaits them. It's the job of the unsaved to glorify God in their sin and punishment. God uses them in this way without their permission or knowledge, while they revel in their idolatries and evil acts. The atheist is a puppet of the God he hates. The drunk is taking part in an ingenious dance choreographed by God before the universe existed.

Do you see an apology from God for His sovereign dealings with men, destroying one and saving another for His glory? The cosmos watches unblinking as the majestic dance of Providence unfolds to demonstrate the power, righteousness, holiness, mercy, and love of God. The infinitely angry wrath of God is shown so that His power can be demonstrated and His love known in its full depth. Oh, the GLORY OF GOD!

When we read that God will wipe away all our tears, we usually think we will no longer remember our loved ones. How could we possibly be happy if we remembered our loved ones in eternal torment? Obviously, He will make us no longer remember them, right?

No. There are two reasons we will know of God's wrath carried out on all unrepentant humans. First, as we have already read in Romans 9, God is glorified by sin judged. Is it not logical that He would never shield us from His glory displayed? Would He display all His glory to us except His glory displayed in His punishment of our loved ones? It does not seem logical that the Author of truth would hide this from us. So how will He assure our eternal joy? Ignorance must not be the answer. Indeed, Lazarus could see the rich man and the rich man could see Lasarus.

Second, the Scripture does deal with this very issue. I believe after meditating on Isaiah 66 and listening to the teaching of Paul Washer on this subject that the answer lies, not in our ignorance of God's wrath displayed, but in the fullness of the regeneration we will one day experience. One day we will see sin as He sees it. Isaiah 66:24 says,
"Then they will go forth and look
On the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm will not die
And their fire will not be quenched,
And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind."

Note the last line. The wicked will be an abhorrence to all mankind. When we see the actuality of the vileness of sin exposed in the light of God's judgment, our most dearly beloved on earth will turn our stomachs. We will thank God that He has rid the earth of these vile creatures. We will know that His wrath is glorious. We will say with all the angels and all the saints from all the tribes of the earth, "Has not God done right?"

Examine yourselves. Make your calling and election sure.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.