There are some things in the Bible that a great many churchers refuse to believe. Among them is this:
The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And His soul hates one who loves violence.
Psalm 11:5. NASB.
They are so conditioned that “God loves everybody” that they simply have to ignore passages like this―or worse, write them off as the unenlightened Old-Covenant ramblings of people who lived before Jesus came, and just didn’t know any better about what God is really like.
And this isn’t the only passage that they can’t fit into their theology. They don’t think they can afford to hush and listen to what the scriptures actually say.
16 There are six things the Lord hates,
Proverbs 6:16-19. NIV.
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
These lines describe many people in the very churches who refuse to believe such passages, and who love to claim instead that “God loves everybody”.
Of course, God is very loving, but not to everybody. Some people’s transgression is very offensive to God, and he hates them just like we hate some people. (How do you feel, for example, when someone attacks or abuses someone you love?) But in common church talk, it’s not OK to speak of God being mad with people, or hating them. It’s also not OK to fully believe all the passages about how he will judge the unrighteous; they have to be hand-waved away or softened somehow. This, of course, tends to ruin the power of the many warnings in scripture, and perhaps it should come as no surprise to find that so many churchers are lackadaisical in their pursuit of righteousness. Ironically, though, it seems that God hates that, too:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Jesus. Revelation 3:14b-19. NIV
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
This was Jesus’ warning to the people of a certain congregation. This was not a call for people for convert to Christianity, but a strong rebuke of people already claiming to be Christians, but not living the life. He’s telling him the disgust him, and uses the metaphor of vomiting to make the point.
But even this passage is read from time to time in so many churches, yet not heeded.
They have no room for his words. They simply aren’t interested in the whole of his teachings, but only in certain excerpts that they can use for their own purposes.
This is what many worldly people have always done. The very fact that they can’t admit that
God does not “love everybody” is evidence that they are not squared with the truth, but have some serious issues. And I’m not talking about some obscure churches here, but the mainstream groups that shape our very culture. It seems to me they simply do not agree with all the items’ on Jesus’ list of sins—and they do not agree with Jesus’ judgment about what is the proper end of sinners.
Some will fight me tooth and nail on this, thinking surely that they are in the right, and that “God loves everybody”. They will think me a monster–or a troublemaker–for pointing out scripture to the contrary. They will insist on their own proprietary view of things, and will have no other—the scriptures notwithstanding.
And it appears that God lets them get away with that for now. But in the First Century, many such warnings seem to have issued from the apostles and prophets. And “the church” now has supposedly “evolved” or “progressed” into a body in no real danger from sin, and without need for any such warning. Jesus, apparently, has softened his heart regarding the unrighteous, and now loves them the same as the righteous. (And to be clear to the uncareful reader, that’s not my view, but the view of those I am criticizing here.)
If you’re claiming to be a Christian, but aren’t living like Jesus, God hates that—just like you hate it when somebody gives lip service to things that are important to you, but doesn’t live up to what they say. If you’re persecuting his children, he hates that, just like you hate it when people persecute your children. God is not stupid, and he’s not entirely unlike you in every regard. His disdain for unrighteousness is not so far removed from your human experience that you can’t understand it yourself.
And regarding this, he says:
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Romans 12:19. NIV.
Yet many churchers don’t believe this, either. Instead, they envision a world in which everybody pretty much gets away with everything―except maybe Hitler, and either Trump or Biden (depending on their political camp). Regarding these, they’re just fine if God damns them to torment in the Lake of Fire forever and ever. Even so, they’ll fight you if you suggest that God may well hate their churchmates who are living in adultery or deceit or theft or violence, and the like. They tend to hate that particular insistence of God on righteousness in the congregation of those who claim to be his own people.
And this is something I hope they can get worked out with God sooner than later. I hope they can come to see eye-to-eye with him about this while they still have opportunity to change their minds, and to start listening to him better than they are so far.
