God's Anger | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 3, 1863

"God's Anger."

WE cannot suppose that God is angry like the man who is resisted and disobeyed. It is not revenge that moves him, but it is a fixed determination to prevent the evil which is being wrought. The active agency which is producing wrong, originates the active agency which resists it; and so "God casts upon the wicked, and does not spare." This he is impelled to do by his sense of

justice. Even we can see how evil, when it is let alone, grows apace, and, marching on with rapid strides, soon comes to be wasteful and destructive; but if we with our imperfect sense of the dependence of one thing upon another, perceive this, how much more He who sees the end from the beginning, and traces with infallible certainty every effect to its cause.

When God therefore, "casts upon the wicked and does not spare;" he acts as a just God not only, but also as a merciful ruler of moral agents. If he did not continue to resist and prevent, the evil would grow into destructive magnitude, and sweep away in its resistless course the last remnant of human enjoyment. This he prevents by the method which he adopts in dealing with it. Hence there is but one course which it is safe to pursue in order to avoid destruction, and that is what is recommended to us in Scripture, viz., to "break off sin by righteousness." Hence, too, there is such a loud voice of warning, uttering its fearful tones in our ears, when we see that judgment has begun. If we consider and understand that voice, it says to us, "Your sins have come up in memorial before God," and He has been impelled to begin to resist the evil which they are working; if they continue, this resistance will, of necessity, also continue, and will so increase in its destructive activity, that yourself will finally perish in the conflict of the opposing forces. "Repent!" the voice celestial cries. Delay is pregnant with danger. Sinner! God is armed against you, and he is sure to conquer. Perseverance is ruin. —Christian Intelligence.