The Terror of the LORD

One of the things I have been musing about for a while is the fact God nor His Word has changed from the beginning.  But from books I have read, sermons I have heard, and conversations I have shared I have observed it seems the view of God by His people has changed greatly even in the last hundred years.  Perhaps the depiction of God from the pulpit has changed.  Maybe the truth of God's Word has been watered down like gulag gruel.  The fearsome aspects of God's character have been carefully glossed over:  His terror, ferocity, and infinite power.  It was in 1741 when Jonathan Edwards delivered the masterful and incredibly fruitful sermon titled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."  The views of many in the church today struggle futilely to reconcile an angry God with one of love.  Yet this is exactly how the Bible describes Him.  If I cannot see God the way scripture reveals Him, then I must admit I do not know God as I ought.

The thought has crossed my mind recently that the modern view of God is more a caricature than according to His true character.  Years ago I remember going to an amusement park and walking past the booth where caricatures are drawn.  Pictures of well-known celebrities were plastered across the walls, recognisable yet drawn intentionally with ridiculous facial disproportion.  Jay Leno's chin was way too large and Michael Jackson's ever-transforming angular nose was far too small.  Madonna was sporting her classic microphone and coned bra while Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler looked like he could eat his entire miniature body with a single chomp.  Maybe because of the "fire and brimstone" and guilt-mongering styles of preaching in the past the modern church has gone too far in the opposite direction.  The caricature of Jesus emphasises his regal grin, long hair, white robe with blue sash, and nail-scarred hands.  He hugs lambs and cavorts with children, hardly the picture of the conquering ruler we read of in Revelation riding on a horse with His robe dipped in blood.  Jesus held children in His arms and blessed them.  He also is depicted as a valiant warrior, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  By some Jesus has been emasculated to a point where it is impossible to imagine Him conquering nations.

Man is a master of making a god out of his own image.  It should be expected people therefore tend to cling to a perception of God they see as comforting and non-threatening.  The truth is this:  even professing believers might be more comfortable with idolatry than the reality of God as revealed through the totality of scripture.  That should make us very uncomfortable!  That is one reason why the misconception of an "Old Testament God" and "New Testament God" is prevalent.  There is one God and He is the same throughout scripture.  The Old and New Testament hold forth varying degrees of aspects of God's character.  Because the Old Testament contains the Law, one sees an added emphasis on the righteousness of God and the penalty for sin.  But God was as much a God of love, grace, and mercy in the Old Testament as the New.  His grace is a constant throughout.  The New Testament ushers in the New Covenant through the Gospel and shed blood of Jesus Christ.  We are taught that God loved the sinners of this world so much that He sent His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  We are also told that the Day is coming when Jesus will also judge this world according to righteousness in the fierceness of God's wrath.  Unless He was gracious, none would survive.

Psalm 7:11 reads, "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day."  Only gross wickedness allows wickedness to continue unpunished.  Justice demands satisfaction.  God's love is revealed through making a way for all men to be purified and delivered from the power of sin at work in them.  1 John 1:9 affirms, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  God paved a way to eternal life for all sinners with the blood of His own Son.  When Jesus died on the cross, the sins of the world laid upon Him, He once for all satisfied the righteous requirements of the law.  Those who reject the Gospel will face the just wrath of God for every sin they have committed.  The greatest sin of all is trampling the pure blood of Christ as an unclean thing, the sacrificial Lamb of God lovingly provided so all might be saved.

Does the thought of God being angry make you uncomfortable?  It should.  I think if God would pull back the veil so our eyes might behold His majesty and glory, the very cells of our body would scatter in all directions out of fright!  We would do more than merely kneel and tremble!  Writing to Christians in 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 Paul says, "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ¹¹ Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences."  Let me ask you:  when is the last time you heard a sermon on "Knowing the Terror of the Lord?"  There is something about terror that makes a man persuadable.  Tyrannosaurus Rex is known as the "Terrible Lizard," and the God who designed and knit him together is far more terrible.  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, but fools hate instruction - especially from the Word of God.

What do you know of the terror of God?  Paul said in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."  Paul also knew firsthand the terror of the LORD.  "Phobos" is the word used in 2 Corinthians, the root of the English word "phobia."  Unlike the word "phobia" which suggests an "irrational fear," the fear of God is most rudimentary and sensible.  Those who do not know or believe in God cannot fear Him any more than a fictitious mythological figure.  But as Christians who are convinced of God's reality and infinite power, we should fear and reverence Him.  For those who believe the fear of God is an antiquated, Old Testament and ignorant view, I beg you reconsider.  Jesus says in Matthew 10:28:  "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."  Hear Him!

If we do not know the terror of the LORD, how can we persuade men to repent and be saved from the wrath to come?