{"id":90088,"date":"2024-10-14T15:20:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T20:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=90088"},"modified":"2024-10-14T15:22:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T20:22:35","slug":"three-crucial-truths-when-gods-judgment-seems-too-severe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/three-crucial-truths-when-gods-judgment-seems-too-severe\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Crucial Truths When God\u2019s Judgment Seems Too Severe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How many times have you winced at a story of God\u2019s judgment in the Bible, unsure of how to respond or what to make of it?<\/span><\/p>

Stories of God\u2019s Judgment in the Bible can be difficult to swallow. In response to reading them, Christians often tend to avoid discussing these stories or thinking too deeply about them. Sometimes, like with the flood in Noah\u2019s day, they have even been turned into sing-along songs or bright and colorful children\u2019s books. But let\u2019s face it: The Flood of Noah isn’t a happy story of an old man with a beard upon a floating petting zoo. It\u2019s a story of God\u2019s severe judgment.<\/span><\/p>

How can Christians continue to believe that God is good when God\u2019s judgment seems so outrageous? After many hours studying and wrestling with the judgment of God, I have found three crucial truths most helpful.<\/span><\/p>

God\u2019s Judgment in Light of God\u2019s Character<\/span><\/h1>

The first truth when thinking about God\u2019s judgment is this: The Bible tells us plainly and repeatedly that God is good. For example, 1 Chronicles 16:34 says, \u201c<\/span>Give thanks to the L<\/span><\/i>ORD<\/span><\/i>, for he is good!\u201d Psalm 25:8 says, \u201cThe L<\/span><\/i>ORD <\/span><\/i>is good and does what is right<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Related: Why Would God ask Us to Fear Him?<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>

I recognize the skeptic inside of you may be asking, <\/span>\u201cSo what? Couldn\u2019t the Bible be wrong?\u201d<\/span><\/i>We have many other articles on <\/span>josh.org<\/span><\/a> showing why we can trust the Bible, but my point in mentioning this first crucial truth is that <\/span>if this: People often worry that if all these stories of God\u2019s judgment are true, then God must be a horrible person. But if the Bible is true<\/span><\/i>, then <\/span>God is always good even if we don\u2019t understand how God could be good in light of His judgments<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>

If the Bible is true, then however we understand God\u2019s judgments, we cannot conclude that God is not good. Those conclusions have already been made for us in the same Bible that tells of God\u2019s judgments. When we (or others) conclude differently, we must have misunderstood something about God, goodness, or the context of God\u2019s actions. And that leads us to our second truth.<\/span><\/p>

God\u2019s Judgment in Light of God\u2019s Highness<\/span><\/h1>

I often put it this way: A spider does not understand the deep things of a dog, a dog does not understand the deep things of a human, and a human does not understand the deep things of God. Consider Isaiah 55:8\u20139:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the LORD. \u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.<\/span><\/i><\/p>

When it doesn\u2019t make sense how God can be good in light of Noah\u2019s flood, the warfare in Joshua, or even the doctrine of hell, don\u2019t panic. God\u2019s ways are higher than ours, so it makes sense that it doesn\u2019t make complete and total sense to us. Consider this: if you have a disagreement with the author of knowledge, who do you suppose is the one confused here?<\/span><\/p>

Don\u2019t misunderstand me. I am <\/span>not <\/b>saying that the judgment of God is one big mystery, and we have to rely on blind faith against our natural intuition. I wrote <\/span>Why Did God Do That?<\/span><\/i><\/a> specifically to show how God reveals his goodness in the hard passages of Scripture. When you really study the Bible and dig into the context, you find answers. Good ones. Yes, challenges remain, but we can know <\/span>enough <\/span><\/i>to trust God is good even when things still don\u2019t make complete sense.<\/span><\/p>

A good God has good reasons for his acts of judgment in the Bible. Even still, something is missing from the equation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

God\u2019s Judgment in Light of God\u2019s Mercy<\/span><\/h1>

Whenever we see stories of God\u2019s judgment in the Bible, we may view God as an angry tyrant or a vengeful dictator. Not so! Lamentations 3:32\u201333 says, <\/span>\u201cThough [God] brings grief, He also shows compassion because of the greatness of His unfailing love. For He does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/i> Similarly, Ezekiel 33:11 is a heartfelt cry from God pleading with His listeners to repent because <\/span>\u201cI take no pleasure in the death of wicked people.\u201d <\/span><\/i>We must take these verses with us when we journey to the difficult stories of judgment in the Bible. They show that just as a good judge does not enjoy locking people away, God does not relish executing judgment. God delights in showing mercy.<\/span><\/p>

Related: Why does God Keep Satan Around?<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>

Consider this: God\u2019s laws in the Bible were intended to bring life and fulfillment. But something went wrong. All throughout history, people have chosen not to follow God\u2019s ways. The Biblical word for this is \u201csin.\u201d Since God is perfectly just, He must punish sin. So God came down in human form and took the punishment of sin Himself when he died on the cross. It\u2019s as if God looked upon the judgment before us and said, \u201cOver my dead body!\u201d The difference between the expression and reality being that Jesus Christ then defeated death and rose from the grave.<\/span><\/p>

Take the Dare<\/span><\/h1>

Many people think the Bible is a scary place, and anyone who takes it seriously will give up on Christianity. This is simply not true. The Bible teaches God is good, His understanding is higher than our understanding, and God\u2019s heart is to show mercy. So press into those challenging stories of judgment, like the flood of Noah, the plagues of Egypt, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. I dare you. Properly understood, you will find that God reveals Himself as good even in those difficult stories, and you will be ready to share that with others who continue to struggle.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many times have you winced at a story of God\u2019s judgment in the Bible, unsure of how to respond or what to make of it? Stories of God\u2019s Judgment in the Bible can be difficult to swallow. In response to reading them, Christians often tend to avoid discussing these stories or thinking too deeply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50255,"featured_media":90101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"How do we respond when we see examples of God\u2019s severe judgment in the Bible. Here are three crucial truths we must keep in mind.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[1228,1229],"translator":[],"blog-author":[77],"class_list":["post-90088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","tag-gods-judgment","tag-judgment-of-god","blog-author-matthew-tingblad"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2024\/10\/judgment-courtroom-gavel_6741da.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90088"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90105,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90088\/revisions\/90105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90088"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=90088"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=90088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}