Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The Wrath of God?

There's a certain subsection in the blog world that believes that God the Father murdered Jesus. Well they do acknowledge that our sins in some way helped to nail Jesus to the cross, because human sin for some reason got God the Father all riled up, hurt his feelings, insulted his "honor", so mad that demanded payment. He became angry, wrathful, if he wasn't repaid for the damage done to his "honor" he would get all violent on us humans. Throw us all into "hell", and just basically burn his violence out on us. Fortunately for us, a the theory goes, Jesus was there to absorb the wrath of God the Father in our place. Jesus would pay what we couldn't.

Penal substitionary atonement theory is absurd. God is on the verge of freeing us from this oh so theoretical theory. Nagasaki, Hiroshima, the Holocaust and ethnic cleansings throughout the 20th century and into the 21st have profoundly shown us human wrath. A few verses:
1. Mark 13:20
And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.
(
One thing to note in this verse, "for the chosen/elect" looks like it could be "through the chosen/elect)

2. Matthew 21:41-43
41They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
42Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
43Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
(Because they answered in this manner the kingdom of God will be taken away from them. God is not violent he will not destroy them. The stone the builders rejected will become the cornerstone. They don't learn, the want to reject Jesus again. If they would have really learned that killing the prophets was wrong they wouldn't want to kill Jesus. Jesus will not punish them, he will forgive them, but they will not accept his forgiveness. They are stuck in the cycle of violent retribution, all they understand is violence, revenge and murder. Jesus is a scandal, someone who will not answer violence with violence, this is the greatest perversion the world system knows. This is why Jesus is such a scandal to them. After all that God has done for them they still haven't learned that God is not a wrathful God, he will not destroy them.)

3. John 10:1-21
Why do the people call him mad? Is it because he said that He will lead his people through the sheep gate. The sheep going to slaughter. Is Jesus asking us to follow Him to slaughter? We must become as Jesus did, the bonds of the covenant of peace. He is not sending some else through the sheep gate, some substitute through the sacrificial machinery, He will go to the slaughter Himself. God does not want sacrifice, he wants mercy. Humanity demands sacrifice and retribution for sins. Jesus sacrifices Himself to a violent mob. He is not a thief who has come to kill and destroy, He has come so that we may have life. If left to ourselves we will destroy each other in nuclear holocaust, Jesus has substituted Himself for us. God doesn't want to destroy us, He loves us. We want to destroy ourselves. Jesus says destroy me instead of destroying each other. My blood is life, drink, and realize what you have done.

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