More to The Story - Chapter 8 - Judges

A GOD OF LOVE BRINGING JUDGMENT ON THOUSANDS? Part 2

"Behold then the kindness and severity of God"   Romans 11:22 


Reflection

The following is a second quote (see yesterday’s reflection for more) from the writings of Yale theologian Miroslav Volf. I hope it helps your thinking about God as it did me.
 
“My thesis is that the practice of non violence requires a belief in divine vengeance. My thesis will be unpopular with many in the West. But imagine speaking to people (as I have) whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit. Your point to them ---- we should not retaliate??? Why not? I say – the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when comes from God . . .Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take the sword . . it takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge." (Italics mine)“ 

In a scorched land -- soaked in the blood of the innocent, this idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind . . . if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship”. (See his book “Exlusion and Embrace”)

This next quote comes from theologian H Richard Niebuhr in 1934 as his critique of the liberal, social gospel of his day;

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”

Prayer

“Lord, once again I am reminded of the cross. You experienced the worst of human violence, exposing its horror. I deserve this, not you. Forgive me Lord. Amen”