Thanks for your view point Wayne. I really enjoyed hearing you and Brad discuss this further on your podcast, and I think it was good to get a fuller discussion of it. Thank you Jesus for the cure!

Hmmm,

I think it's time we stopped projecting our own sensibilities on to cosmic truths. Enough worrying about how icky reality is. For a more extensive treatment of this subject, and of man's "missing the mark" by projecting his own tastes and preferences onto God, see Job. ie. "Where were you when the earth was separated from the waters?"

God is the author and finisher of love and he embodies it as well. But that is not his limit. We are made for that love. But we are much much more that just the "lov-ee".

Unfortunately, we often sell both God and ourselves very short by assuming that things must conform to our sensibilities of the moment ("of the moment" because surely they do change and hopefully grow over time).

God is all of who he says he is. We are all of who he spoke us to be. That is glorious, tough and occasionally harsh. That God has shared it all with us through Jesus and the cross and resurection, there can be no doubt. He is Risen - He is risen indeed.

I see God's anger as a product of both His love and His justice. Sin cannot harm God and is no threat to Him or His well-being. However, sin has done incredible harm to His beloved creation, mankind. That is intolerable to a holy, loving God. His justice cannot tolerate sin being allowed to permanently rule over His beloved ones. It must be destroyed. His love demands the same goal, separating sin from man and uniting them with God.

The crucifixion is clearly and convincingly a demonstration of God's love (Romans 5:8). Through this one event, He also has forever demonstrated His righteousness. He is both just (in condemning sin) and the justifier (by grace) of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:25-26). It isn't an either/or situation.

Jesus is more than a moral example for us to follow. He is God in the flesh. He went to the cross as an act of love for both His Father and for us.

It makes me alot more uneasy when people so thoroughly anthropomorphize God. We are created beings, and Jesus was far more than 'the greatest, most compassionate human who ever lived.' I guess the author's intent was to lead people who think this way to the knowledge that Christ is God, and that the standard atheistic argument that a God that demands justice, and bloody justice at that, is not worthy of existence, let alone worship.

The more we learn as humans, the more we are either puffed up with arrogance, or we grow in awe of the God who created us, and the God who condescended (we hate even admitting the idea of that in this cultural setting) to take all the wrath we deserve upon Himself.

It appears as if the author is saying that the old testament writers were wrong and the the new testament writers came along to correct the perception of the cross. I hope this is not the case because though they describe it differently I think that both are equally true. God is surely not like like Baal or Molech but the truth of God's judgment and love need to be held in proper balance. Straying too far to the side of love is just as dangerous as going too far to the side of judgment.

Glory be to God!!
May the author be guided and blessed by God!

Now it is up to us to live lives that are worth-y of what was paid for them.

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