Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Religion, MA

First Advisor

Laurențiu F. Moț,

Second Advisor

Zoltán Szallós-Farkas

Abstract

Topic

One of the most significant concerns regarding the character and love of God is God’s wrath, especially in the Old Testament. For many, it is impossible to believe in a God who punishes and kills rather than a God who shows compassion and love for all people. They neglect either the violent parts of the Bible, since they seem to contradict the image of a loving God displayed in the Gospels. This of course directly questions the integrity of God and His word. As a response, some theologians have published papers on this topic, but many Christians and denominations try to ignore the topic as best as possible and focus instead more on His love.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the nature of God’s wrath. I will try to demonstrate that fear of a wrathful God is unnecessary by showing why God gets angry, what the reasons are for His wrath, how the wrath of God is actually related to His love, and why it is a crucial characteristic for every believer today.

Sources

As previously mentioned, the wrath of God has been widely overlooked throughout history. Therefore, sources concerning this topic are limited to a few articles or a chapter in a book about God’s love, judgment, or hard to understand texts, mostly in the Old Testament. Many times, they also focus on very specific parts of God’s wrath. However, this study will be a holistic, biblical paper, which focuses mainly on a general understanding of wrath in general and God’s wrath in particular.

Conclusions

This study reveals that God’s wrath is a reaction of His holiness when confronted with sin. At any point in time, God is in full control of his emotions and on many occasions he even creates opportunities for the sinner to avert his wrath. His wrath is ultimately averted by Jesus dying for the sins of the world on the cross at Golgotha. Furthermore, this empowers God to actively intervene in favor of His people, limit the suffering and chaos caused by evil, and finally it allows him to create a new earth and a new Jerusalem after He has eliminated sin once and for all.

Subject Area

God--Wrath; God--Attributes

Additional Files
Daeubler_Lukas_Agreement.pdf (240 kB)

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/theses/191/

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