Post by Jesse Morrell on May 17, 2006 14:49:35 GMT -5
For some time Psalms 5:5 really had me perplexed. I couldn't understand how the bible said God loves sinners, and then the bible also says God hates sinners.
Then I read Ravenhill say this in an interview, and it made me think more upon it:
I know understand how God both loves and hates the sinner, and that His love and hatred are not opposed on to another.
Here is an article I found on the subject:
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Does God Really "Love" Sinners?
Psalm 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
We have often heard statements such as the following made in Christendom: "There's nothing you can do to make God love you any more than He already does." "God's love is unconditional." "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner."
While these phrases are coined and accepted as "evangelically correct" in our day, do these statements really hold true in light of Scripture?
1. WHAT IS LOVE?
Hollywood portrays love to be either a "good feeling", some kind of emotional response, or a strong sexual attraction. Most people today think they're in "love" with someone if they "feel good toward" them. When it comes to relating to sinners, many in the church today believe that to "love" sinners is to not speak out against their sin. Are these accurate ways to understand love? Or have most been willfully deceived by false doctrine? To grasp the true concept of love, we must first understand that there are really 2 types of love when it comes to God's relationship with mankind:
a) BENEVOLENT LOVE - This type of love simply means to "will the highest good" of another. The Bible says that "God is Love" (1 John 4:8). It is this benevolent love that represents the center of God's character. God "wills the highest good" of all humanity. It is with this sense of love that God loves all men, whether they be saints or sinners. God wills that all men repent and not perish (2 Pet.3:9). His disposition toward man is to show mercy. He is slow to wrath, but quick to forgive. His longsuffering is so great toward man! He does not send speedy judgment, but sends us prophets and gives us time to consider our ways. It was God's unconditional love for mankind that prompted Him to send His only Son to die on the cross. This unconditional love is what secures the salvation of those who meet the terms of His covenant. Most of the time the Bible speaks of God's benevolent love, it is in the context of Jesus' death on the cross (John 3:16, Rom.5:8, I John 3:16, etc.) It should be noted that this benevolence is not "good feelings towards sinners" or "accepting sinners just the way they are", but "good-willing of sinners". This type of love for man is unconditional.
Some Scriptures that speak of benevolent love:
John 3:16 For God so LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 5:8 But God commended His LOVE TOWARD US, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the LOVE OF GOD, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
b) ACCEPTING LOVE - The love of acceptance speaks of the love of complacency, such as the love a man would have for an old, faithful friend. This love that God has for His people is only experienced when one responds in a loving way to the influence of His unconditional/benevolent love. As 1 John 4:19 says, "We love Him because He first loved us." We cannot know God and His accepting love UNLESS we cease to love sin and He becomes our First Love - 1 John 2:15 says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Love by definition must be voluntary, so God cannot "force" His love upon anybody. That would not be benevolent - just as it would not be benevolent for a man to "force" himself upon a woman. God wants our love to be a free expression from our heart. Only in this choice would God receive glory and be pleased. God invites, persuades, pleads, and beckons man to leave his idolatrous loves and worship and adore his Creator above all else. If man complies, God delights in him. Should God delight in Hitler and Moses alike? Should God be pleased with Judas Iscariot and John the Apostle the same way? As long as sinners reject the love of God shown in the bloody cross of Christ by continuing in their sins, they cannot receive God's conditional love. As long as they break the Law, they break the Lawgiver's heart, and cannot be in loving fellowship with Him. As long as they continue in their transgressions, they are at war with the Lawgiver, and under the condemnation of His Law and wrath of His justice. Unless they meet the terms of the covenant - fear God, repent, obey, love God supremely - they will be consumed by the fire of God's Holy hatred and wrath on that Terrible Day of Eternal Woe!
Some Scriptures that speak of Accepting Love:
Proverbs 8:17 I LOVE THEM THAT LOVE ME: and those that seek Me early shall find Me.
John 14:21 He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and HE THAT LOVETH ME SHALL BE LOVED OF MY FATHER, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, IF A MAN LOVE ME, he will keep My words; AND MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
John 15:10 IF ye keep My commandments, YE SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE; even as I kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
John 16:27 For the FATHER HIMSELF LOVETH YOU, BECAUSE YE HAVE LOVED ME, and have believed that I came out from God.
Acts 10:34,35 God… ACCEPTS men from every nation who FEAR HIM and DO WHAT IS RIGHT.
Ephesians 1:6 …wherein He has made us accepted in THE BELOVED.
2. WHAT IS HATRED?
As well as the word love, society has often misunderstood the true meaning of the word "HATE." Most of the world thinks of hatred as being solely evil and writes off those who speak out against wrong as being "hatemongers" or committers of "hate crimes." When we look to Scripture, however, we see how it really outlines 2 types of hatred:
a) UNRIGHTEOUS HATRED - this type of hatred could be simply defined as "to will someone/thing's demise from an unjust motive." This hatred is not rooted in benevolence, but rooted in selfishness and malice. It will always involve the breaking of God's Moral Law.
An example of this hatred could be seen in the lives of Adolph Hitler and Saddam Houssein. Their hatred was merely an expression of their own selfishness. They may have convinced themselves so, but they were never out to promote the highest good of all people in the world. On the contrary, the supreme desire of their lives was to achieve power, control, etc. for the purpose of wicked ends. Their crimes against humanity could therefore be rightly termed "hate crimes."
Some Scriptures that speak of Unrighteous Hatred:
Matthew 5:22 …I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
James 1:19,20 Everyone should be… slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
1 John 3:15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
b) RIGHTEOUS HATRED - this type of hatred could be defined as "to extremely dislike, disapprove of or be displeased with someone/thing from a just motive." This hatred is not rooted in selfishness or malice, but in benevolence. The goal of this vehemence is the defense and upholding of God's Moral Law - not personal retribution.
We live in a day where this aspect of God's character is discounted by many who profess to be followers of Christ. They imagine that God is going to weep and cry as he mercilessly casts the wicked into hell - but NO! The Bible says God is going to LAUGH when the calamity of the wicked comes upon them like a whirlwind! He will REJOICE over the rebels to destroy them as they bow the knee and confess Christ is Lord! Oh! How God loves justice! (Psalm 97:2; Rev. 18:20, 19:11 - All Heaven rejoices when justice is done)
Benevolent Love and Righteous Hatred are not opposites
A Judge in a courtroom of justice rejoices to catch the criminals and convict them. Is it because he is unloving? NO! If he is loving, he will be GLAD the rapists, murderers, car thieves, child molesters are sent to jail - for the greater good of society. God hates sinners in the same sense a Judge would hate criminals - for the greater good of mankind! God hates sinners in the same sense that He hates the devil - to promote the general welfare of man. Not because God is hateful, but because He is benevolent. For the greater good of the universe, He will rid the earth of all rebels and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ, and He shall reign forever - not because God is unloving, but because He is loving! As long as sinners serve the devil by continuing their relentless war against God, their Holy Maker hates, abhors, curses, detests, despises them, and will ultimately destroy them in His wrath - because God is Love.
We see many examples of loving people demonstrating righteous hatred in Scripture. When Jesus demonstrated the holy hatred of God in the Temple (John 2:15-17), we know that He never failed to walk in love. When Moses came down from the mountain, smashed the stone tablets on the ground and gave the order to slay the rebellious among the people (Exodus 32:19,27,28), he was obviously led of God to manifest the Lord's true feelings about the people's idolatry and His concern for the wellbeing of the righteous among them. When Phineas drove the spear through the belly of the sleeper (Numbers 25:7-13), or when David slew Goliath and cut his head off (1 Samuel 17:29,50,51) - these people were all acting from a benevolent motive yet manifesting God's righteous hatred as well. They all had an extreme dislike for the perpetrators of evil and went to task in order to justify the ways of God to men.
Some Scriptures that speak of Righteous Hatred:
Leviticus 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I ABHORRED THEM.
Leviticus 26:14-30 If ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant, I also will do this to you... [send plagues, famine, drought, destructive armies, wild beasts who shall devour your children, pestilence, captivity in a cruel land...] And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary to Me; Then I WILL WALK CONTRARY TO YOU IN FURY... I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and MY SOUL SHALL ABHOR YOU.
Psalm 2:4-9 The Lord that sits in the heavens shall LAUGH [at rebellious men]: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His WRATH, and VEX THEM IN HIS SORE DISPLEASURE... [and Christ shall] break them with a rod of iron: Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Psalm 5:5-6 The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight: THOU HATEST ALL WORKERS OF INIQUITY. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing (lies): THE LORD WILL ABHOR THE BLOODY AND DECEITFUL MAN.
Psalm 7:11-13 ...God is ANGRY with the wicked every day. If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors.
Psalm 10:3 For the wicked... blesseth the covetous, WHOM THE LORD ABHORRETH.
Psalm 11:5-7 The Lord trieth the righteous: but THE WICKED AND HIM THAT LOVETH VIOLENCE HIS SOUL HATETH. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness...
Proverbs 16:5 Every one that is proud in heart is an ABOMINATION TO THE LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
John 3:36 …whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath abides UPON HIM.
THE HISTORICAL POSITION on HOLY HATRED
AS REVEALED BY THE CHURCH and its REPRESENTATIVES:
AUGUSTINE: (354-430, Bishop of Hippo): "For it may be that GOD HATES A PERSON to the degree more mildly, as not to destroy him, but whom He destroys HE HATES THE MORE EXCEEDINGLY, by how much He punisheth more severely. Now HE HATETH ALL WHO WORK INIQUITY: but all who speak lies He also destroys." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol.3, p.462)
JOHN WESLEY: (1703-1791, founder of Methodism): "But as for the wicked, GOD HATES THEM, and will feverishly punish them." (Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, Vol.2, p.1639)
JONATHAN EDWARDS: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much in the same way one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, ABHORS YOU, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire: He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire: He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight: you are ten thousand times more ABOMINABLE in His sight than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours." (Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God, July 8, 1741)
CHARLES G. FINNEY: "The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event - the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases God that a rational moral agent under His government should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and only object of His anger." (The Guilt of Sin, pp.84-85)
F. DELITZSCH: "Of such (sinners - the foolish, and more especially the foolish boasters:)... SUCH MEN JEHOVAH HATES: for if He did not hate evil, His love would not be a holy love," ... "And His soul HATES the evildoer and him that delights in the violence of the strong against the weak. And the more intense this hatred, the more fearful will be the judgments in which it bursts forth." (Psalms, Vol.5, pp.122,189)
CHARLES H. SPURGEON: "Verse 5 - Note the singular opposition of the two sentences. GOD HATES THE WICKED, therefore in contrast He loves the righteous..." (The Treasury of David, Vol.2, pp.57-58)
AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG: "There is no abstract sin that can be hated apart from the person in whom that sin is represented and embodies. It is the sinner who is punished, not the sin." (Systematic Theology, p.290f)
J. VERNON MCGEE: " If you think God is just lovey-dovey, you had better read this (Ps.11:5) and some of the other Psalms again. GOD HATES THE WICKED who hold onto their wickedness... I do not think God loves the devil, I think He hates him, and HE HATES THOSE WHO HAVE NO INTENTION OF TURNING TO GOD. Frankly, I do not like this distinction that I hear today, that 'God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.' God has loved you so much that He gave His Son to die for you, but if you persist in your sin, and continue in that sin, you are the enemy of God. And God is your enemy." (Psalms, Vol.1, p.72)
LEONARD RAVENHILL “I don’t believe there is a man on the whole TV that preaches salvation. They preach forgiveness. Forgiveness is not salvation. They point out “there’s a man in bed with some other mans wife in a Motel’. “Oh you know the Lord loves you just as you are.” Well then why get changed? Commit adultery as much as you like. He still loves you. Be a cheat, be a liar, be a thief, and be a failure. He still loves you. But there’s a scripture. Isn’t it the Psalms 7….where it says “God is angry with the wicked every day.” I heard somebody quote today “God loves you but hates your sin” that’s bunken. God hates you for committing the sin. Is God going to take your sins and judge them at the Judgment and leave you alone?”
LAYMAN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY: "God's Hatred of Evildoers (Psalm 5:4-5)... God is not said to love the sinner and hate his sin; He is said to HATE BOTH THE SINNER AND HIS SIN. This sounds harsh to modern Christian ears, but there is truth here we dare not overlook."
MATTHEW HENRY'S COMMENTARY: "He is a holy God, and therefore HATES THEM (the sinner), and cannot endure to look upon them; the wicked, and him that loveth violence, HIS SOUL HATETH... Their pros-perity is far from being an evidence of God's love...their abuse of it does certainly make them objects of HIS HATRED. He hates nothing that He has made, yet HATES THOSE who have ill-made themselves."
THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY: "But the wicked HIS SOUL DOTH HATE... Their treacherous preparations...are all observed by Yahweh, and HE HATES THEM FROM HIS VERY SOUL. The soul is the seat of the passion of anger and hatred, for God as well as for man...therefore, Yahweh is trying the righteous man, and HATING His deadly enemies..."
THE INTERPRETER'S BIBLE: "In vs. 5 the verb 'trieth' has its object both the righteous and the wicked, and means no more that the Lord watchfully observes them both and estimates them for what they are, HATING THE LATTER and ultimately pouring His destruction upon them."
BROADMAN BIBLE COMMENTARY: "Yahweh takes no pleasure in wickedness and does not dwell with evil (or evil men). Insolent, boasting people have no position at all in the presence of Yahweh, who HATES ALL 'DOERS OF SIN.' Indeed, Yahweh will annihilate those who speak deception: HE DETESTS THE MAN OF BLOODY DEEDS AND DECEITS."
Oh, how we must confront the sinners of this generation with the righteous hatred of God! When we sample most of today's evangelical preaching, its main theme is love. However, neither Jesus or any of His Apostles ever told the lost multitudes, "God loves you". Never! Rather, they told the multitudes of their duty to love God supremely and love their neighbor equally - this is all the Law of God. The Lord's followers were undoubtedly motivated by love, and so should we. But this does not mean that we should speak of love. The real question for the world today is not "Does God love you?" but "Do you love God?" If sinners would not keep God's Law, they were warned of the righteous judgments of God, so that they would fear Him. In the book of Acts (our first example of Church evangelism), the word "love" is not mentioned even once, while the fear of the Lord is referred to ten times! What is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom? The Bible says it is THE FEAR OF THE LORD! One cannot love God in the Biblical sense - benevolence, good-willing, perfect submission - until He fears God!
Many will say today that "God loves the fornicator, but hates the fornication He loves the drunkard, but hates the drunkenness." This is absurd. Actions have no moral character apart form the actor. Charles Finney explains, "The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event - the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases God that a rational moral agent under His government should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and only object of His anger."
Alexander Maclaren cautions, "Let us take care, lest for the sake of seeming to preserve the impartiality of God's love, we have destroyed all in Him that makes His love worth having. If to Him the good and the bad, the men who fear Him and the men who fear Him not, are equally satisfactory, and, in the same manner, the objects of an equal love, then He is not a God that has pleasure in righteousness; and if He is not a God that has pleasure in righteousness, He is not a God for us to trust."
The extraBiblical, humanistic gospel that starts with God's love for sinners has quenched the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon so many. Sinning rebels will hear some patty-cake "Christian" telling them that "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life". The sinner then thinks that it means God accepts them, is pleased with them, or that God has good feelings for them. How far this is from the truth! May the prophets of God begin to speak the truth and define their terms. God is Holy, and does not accept sinners as they are - He righteously hates them as they are! God's "plan" for them is eternal torment in the lake of fire unless they repent and submit to God! This "God-loves-you, false Gospel" should be utterly forsaken for the message of the Bible!
-article adapted from God Hates All The Workers of Iniquity, by Dr. J. Patrick Johnston.
Article found at: www.consumingfirefellowship.org/Does%20God%20Love%20Sinners.htm
Then I read Ravenhill say this in an interview, and it made me think more upon it:
“I don’t believe there is a man on the whole TV that preaches salvation. They preach forgiveness. Forgiveness is not salvation. They point out “there’s a man in bed with some other mans wife in a Motel’. “Oh you know the Lord loves you just as you are.” Well then why get changed? Commit adultery as much as you like. He still loves you. Be a cheat, be a liar, be a thief, and be a failure. He still loves you. But there’s a scripture. Isn’t it the Psalms 7….where it says “God is angry with the wicked every day.” I heard somebody quote today “God loves you but hates your sin” that’s bunken. God hates you for committing the sin. Is God going to take your sins and judge them at the Judgment and leave you alone?” Leonard Ravenhill
I know understand how God both loves and hates the sinner, and that His love and hatred are not opposed on to another.
Here is an article I found on the subject:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Does God Really "Love" Sinners?
Psalm 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
We have often heard statements such as the following made in Christendom: "There's nothing you can do to make God love you any more than He already does." "God's love is unconditional." "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner."
While these phrases are coined and accepted as "evangelically correct" in our day, do these statements really hold true in light of Scripture?
1. WHAT IS LOVE?
Hollywood portrays love to be either a "good feeling", some kind of emotional response, or a strong sexual attraction. Most people today think they're in "love" with someone if they "feel good toward" them. When it comes to relating to sinners, many in the church today believe that to "love" sinners is to not speak out against their sin. Are these accurate ways to understand love? Or have most been willfully deceived by false doctrine? To grasp the true concept of love, we must first understand that there are really 2 types of love when it comes to God's relationship with mankind:
a) BENEVOLENT LOVE - This type of love simply means to "will the highest good" of another. The Bible says that "God is Love" (1 John 4:8). It is this benevolent love that represents the center of God's character. God "wills the highest good" of all humanity. It is with this sense of love that God loves all men, whether they be saints or sinners. God wills that all men repent and not perish (2 Pet.3:9). His disposition toward man is to show mercy. He is slow to wrath, but quick to forgive. His longsuffering is so great toward man! He does not send speedy judgment, but sends us prophets and gives us time to consider our ways. It was God's unconditional love for mankind that prompted Him to send His only Son to die on the cross. This unconditional love is what secures the salvation of those who meet the terms of His covenant. Most of the time the Bible speaks of God's benevolent love, it is in the context of Jesus' death on the cross (John 3:16, Rom.5:8, I John 3:16, etc.) It should be noted that this benevolence is not "good feelings towards sinners" or "accepting sinners just the way they are", but "good-willing of sinners". This type of love for man is unconditional.
Some Scriptures that speak of benevolent love:
John 3:16 For God so LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 5:8 But God commended His LOVE TOWARD US, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the LOVE OF GOD, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
b) ACCEPTING LOVE - The love of acceptance speaks of the love of complacency, such as the love a man would have for an old, faithful friend. This love that God has for His people is only experienced when one responds in a loving way to the influence of His unconditional/benevolent love. As 1 John 4:19 says, "We love Him because He first loved us." We cannot know God and His accepting love UNLESS we cease to love sin and He becomes our First Love - 1 John 2:15 says, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Love by definition must be voluntary, so God cannot "force" His love upon anybody. That would not be benevolent - just as it would not be benevolent for a man to "force" himself upon a woman. God wants our love to be a free expression from our heart. Only in this choice would God receive glory and be pleased. God invites, persuades, pleads, and beckons man to leave his idolatrous loves and worship and adore his Creator above all else. If man complies, God delights in him. Should God delight in Hitler and Moses alike? Should God be pleased with Judas Iscariot and John the Apostle the same way? As long as sinners reject the love of God shown in the bloody cross of Christ by continuing in their sins, they cannot receive God's conditional love. As long as they break the Law, they break the Lawgiver's heart, and cannot be in loving fellowship with Him. As long as they continue in their transgressions, they are at war with the Lawgiver, and under the condemnation of His Law and wrath of His justice. Unless they meet the terms of the covenant - fear God, repent, obey, love God supremely - they will be consumed by the fire of God's Holy hatred and wrath on that Terrible Day of Eternal Woe!
Some Scriptures that speak of Accepting Love:
Proverbs 8:17 I LOVE THEM THAT LOVE ME: and those that seek Me early shall find Me.
John 14:21 He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and HE THAT LOVETH ME SHALL BE LOVED OF MY FATHER, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, IF A MAN LOVE ME, he will keep My words; AND MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
John 15:10 IF ye keep My commandments, YE SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE; even as I kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
John 16:27 For the FATHER HIMSELF LOVETH YOU, BECAUSE YE HAVE LOVED ME, and have believed that I came out from God.
Acts 10:34,35 God… ACCEPTS men from every nation who FEAR HIM and DO WHAT IS RIGHT.
Ephesians 1:6 …wherein He has made us accepted in THE BELOVED.
2. WHAT IS HATRED?
As well as the word love, society has often misunderstood the true meaning of the word "HATE." Most of the world thinks of hatred as being solely evil and writes off those who speak out against wrong as being "hatemongers" or committers of "hate crimes." When we look to Scripture, however, we see how it really outlines 2 types of hatred:
a) UNRIGHTEOUS HATRED - this type of hatred could be simply defined as "to will someone/thing's demise from an unjust motive." This hatred is not rooted in benevolence, but rooted in selfishness and malice. It will always involve the breaking of God's Moral Law.
An example of this hatred could be seen in the lives of Adolph Hitler and Saddam Houssein. Their hatred was merely an expression of their own selfishness. They may have convinced themselves so, but they were never out to promote the highest good of all people in the world. On the contrary, the supreme desire of their lives was to achieve power, control, etc. for the purpose of wicked ends. Their crimes against humanity could therefore be rightly termed "hate crimes."
Some Scriptures that speak of Unrighteous Hatred:
Matthew 5:22 …I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
James 1:19,20 Everyone should be… slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
1 John 3:15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
b) RIGHTEOUS HATRED - this type of hatred could be defined as "to extremely dislike, disapprove of or be displeased with someone/thing from a just motive." This hatred is not rooted in selfishness or malice, but in benevolence. The goal of this vehemence is the defense and upholding of God's Moral Law - not personal retribution.
We live in a day where this aspect of God's character is discounted by many who profess to be followers of Christ. They imagine that God is going to weep and cry as he mercilessly casts the wicked into hell - but NO! The Bible says God is going to LAUGH when the calamity of the wicked comes upon them like a whirlwind! He will REJOICE over the rebels to destroy them as they bow the knee and confess Christ is Lord! Oh! How God loves justice! (Psalm 97:2; Rev. 18:20, 19:11 - All Heaven rejoices when justice is done)
Benevolent Love and Righteous Hatred are not opposites
A Judge in a courtroom of justice rejoices to catch the criminals and convict them. Is it because he is unloving? NO! If he is loving, he will be GLAD the rapists, murderers, car thieves, child molesters are sent to jail - for the greater good of society. God hates sinners in the same sense a Judge would hate criminals - for the greater good of mankind! God hates sinners in the same sense that He hates the devil - to promote the general welfare of man. Not because God is hateful, but because He is benevolent. For the greater good of the universe, He will rid the earth of all rebels and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ, and He shall reign forever - not because God is unloving, but because He is loving! As long as sinners serve the devil by continuing their relentless war against God, their Holy Maker hates, abhors, curses, detests, despises them, and will ultimately destroy them in His wrath - because God is Love.
We see many examples of loving people demonstrating righteous hatred in Scripture. When Jesus demonstrated the holy hatred of God in the Temple (John 2:15-17), we know that He never failed to walk in love. When Moses came down from the mountain, smashed the stone tablets on the ground and gave the order to slay the rebellious among the people (Exodus 32:19,27,28), he was obviously led of God to manifest the Lord's true feelings about the people's idolatry and His concern for the wellbeing of the righteous among them. When Phineas drove the spear through the belly of the sleeper (Numbers 25:7-13), or when David slew Goliath and cut his head off (1 Samuel 17:29,50,51) - these people were all acting from a benevolent motive yet manifesting God's righteous hatred as well. They all had an extreme dislike for the perpetrators of evil and went to task in order to justify the ways of God to men.
Some Scriptures that speak of Righteous Hatred:
Leviticus 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I ABHORRED THEM.
Leviticus 26:14-30 If ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant, I also will do this to you... [send plagues, famine, drought, destructive armies, wild beasts who shall devour your children, pestilence, captivity in a cruel land...] And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary to Me; Then I WILL WALK CONTRARY TO YOU IN FURY... I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and MY SOUL SHALL ABHOR YOU.
Psalm 2:4-9 The Lord that sits in the heavens shall LAUGH [at rebellious men]: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His WRATH, and VEX THEM IN HIS SORE DISPLEASURE... [and Christ shall] break them with a rod of iron: Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Psalm 5:5-6 The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight: THOU HATEST ALL WORKERS OF INIQUITY. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing (lies): THE LORD WILL ABHOR THE BLOODY AND DECEITFUL MAN.
Psalm 7:11-13 ...God is ANGRY with the wicked every day. If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors.
Psalm 10:3 For the wicked... blesseth the covetous, WHOM THE LORD ABHORRETH.
Psalm 11:5-7 The Lord trieth the righteous: but THE WICKED AND HIM THAT LOVETH VIOLENCE HIS SOUL HATETH. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness...
Proverbs 16:5 Every one that is proud in heart is an ABOMINATION TO THE LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
John 3:36 …whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath abides UPON HIM.
THE HISTORICAL POSITION on HOLY HATRED
AS REVEALED BY THE CHURCH and its REPRESENTATIVES:
AUGUSTINE: (354-430, Bishop of Hippo): "For it may be that GOD HATES A PERSON to the degree more mildly, as not to destroy him, but whom He destroys HE HATES THE MORE EXCEEDINGLY, by how much He punisheth more severely. Now HE HATETH ALL WHO WORK INIQUITY: but all who speak lies He also destroys." (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol.3, p.462)
JOHN WESLEY: (1703-1791, founder of Methodism): "But as for the wicked, GOD HATES THEM, and will feverishly punish them." (Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, Vol.2, p.1639)
JONATHAN EDWARDS: "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much in the same way one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, ABHORS YOU, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire: He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire: He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight: you are ten thousand times more ABOMINABLE in His sight than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours." (Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God, July 8, 1741)
CHARLES G. FINNEY: "The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event - the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases God that a rational moral agent under His government should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and only object of His anger." (The Guilt of Sin, pp.84-85)
F. DELITZSCH: "Of such (sinners - the foolish, and more especially the foolish boasters:)... SUCH MEN JEHOVAH HATES: for if He did not hate evil, His love would not be a holy love," ... "And His soul HATES the evildoer and him that delights in the violence of the strong against the weak. And the more intense this hatred, the more fearful will be the judgments in which it bursts forth." (Psalms, Vol.5, pp.122,189)
CHARLES H. SPURGEON: "Verse 5 - Note the singular opposition of the two sentences. GOD HATES THE WICKED, therefore in contrast He loves the righteous..." (The Treasury of David, Vol.2, pp.57-58)
AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG: "There is no abstract sin that can be hated apart from the person in whom that sin is represented and embodies. It is the sinner who is punished, not the sin." (Systematic Theology, p.290f)
J. VERNON MCGEE: " If you think God is just lovey-dovey, you had better read this (Ps.11:5) and some of the other Psalms again. GOD HATES THE WICKED who hold onto their wickedness... I do not think God loves the devil, I think He hates him, and HE HATES THOSE WHO HAVE NO INTENTION OF TURNING TO GOD. Frankly, I do not like this distinction that I hear today, that 'God loves the sinner, but hates the sin.' God has loved you so much that He gave His Son to die for you, but if you persist in your sin, and continue in that sin, you are the enemy of God. And God is your enemy." (Psalms, Vol.1, p.72)
LEONARD RAVENHILL “I don’t believe there is a man on the whole TV that preaches salvation. They preach forgiveness. Forgiveness is not salvation. They point out “there’s a man in bed with some other mans wife in a Motel’. “Oh you know the Lord loves you just as you are.” Well then why get changed? Commit adultery as much as you like. He still loves you. Be a cheat, be a liar, be a thief, and be a failure. He still loves you. But there’s a scripture. Isn’t it the Psalms 7….where it says “God is angry with the wicked every day.” I heard somebody quote today “God loves you but hates your sin” that’s bunken. God hates you for committing the sin. Is God going to take your sins and judge them at the Judgment and leave you alone?”
LAYMAN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY: "God's Hatred of Evildoers (Psalm 5:4-5)... God is not said to love the sinner and hate his sin; He is said to HATE BOTH THE SINNER AND HIS SIN. This sounds harsh to modern Christian ears, but there is truth here we dare not overlook."
MATTHEW HENRY'S COMMENTARY: "He is a holy God, and therefore HATES THEM (the sinner), and cannot endure to look upon them; the wicked, and him that loveth violence, HIS SOUL HATETH... Their pros-perity is far from being an evidence of God's love...their abuse of it does certainly make them objects of HIS HATRED. He hates nothing that He has made, yet HATES THOSE who have ill-made themselves."
THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICAL COMMENTARY: "But the wicked HIS SOUL DOTH HATE... Their treacherous preparations...are all observed by Yahweh, and HE HATES THEM FROM HIS VERY SOUL. The soul is the seat of the passion of anger and hatred, for God as well as for man...therefore, Yahweh is trying the righteous man, and HATING His deadly enemies..."
THE INTERPRETER'S BIBLE: "In vs. 5 the verb 'trieth' has its object both the righteous and the wicked, and means no more that the Lord watchfully observes them both and estimates them for what they are, HATING THE LATTER and ultimately pouring His destruction upon them."
BROADMAN BIBLE COMMENTARY: "Yahweh takes no pleasure in wickedness and does not dwell with evil (or evil men). Insolent, boasting people have no position at all in the presence of Yahweh, who HATES ALL 'DOERS OF SIN.' Indeed, Yahweh will annihilate those who speak deception: HE DETESTS THE MAN OF BLOODY DEEDS AND DECEITS."
Oh, how we must confront the sinners of this generation with the righteous hatred of God! When we sample most of today's evangelical preaching, its main theme is love. However, neither Jesus or any of His Apostles ever told the lost multitudes, "God loves you". Never! Rather, they told the multitudes of their duty to love God supremely and love their neighbor equally - this is all the Law of God. The Lord's followers were undoubtedly motivated by love, and so should we. But this does not mean that we should speak of love. The real question for the world today is not "Does God love you?" but "Do you love God?" If sinners would not keep God's Law, they were warned of the righteous judgments of God, so that they would fear Him. In the book of Acts (our first example of Church evangelism), the word "love" is not mentioned even once, while the fear of the Lord is referred to ten times! What is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom? The Bible says it is THE FEAR OF THE LORD! One cannot love God in the Biblical sense - benevolence, good-willing, perfect submission - until He fears God!
Many will say today that "God loves the fornicator, but hates the fornication He loves the drunkard, but hates the drunkenness." This is absurd. Actions have no moral character apart form the actor. Charles Finney explains, "The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event - the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases God that a rational moral agent under His government should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and only object of His anger."
Alexander Maclaren cautions, "Let us take care, lest for the sake of seeming to preserve the impartiality of God's love, we have destroyed all in Him that makes His love worth having. If to Him the good and the bad, the men who fear Him and the men who fear Him not, are equally satisfactory, and, in the same manner, the objects of an equal love, then He is not a God that has pleasure in righteousness; and if He is not a God that has pleasure in righteousness, He is not a God for us to trust."
The extraBiblical, humanistic gospel that starts with God's love for sinners has quenched the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon so many. Sinning rebels will hear some patty-cake "Christian" telling them that "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life". The sinner then thinks that it means God accepts them, is pleased with them, or that God has good feelings for them. How far this is from the truth! May the prophets of God begin to speak the truth and define their terms. God is Holy, and does not accept sinners as they are - He righteously hates them as they are! God's "plan" for them is eternal torment in the lake of fire unless they repent and submit to God! This "God-loves-you, false Gospel" should be utterly forsaken for the message of the Bible!
-article adapted from God Hates All The Workers of Iniquity, by Dr. J. Patrick Johnston.
Article found at: www.consumingfirefellowship.org/Does%20God%20Love%20Sinners.htm