The Vengeful God

It really shouldn't surprise us that Evangelicals support warfare; their concept of God is one of a violent, revenge seeking divinity that looks for every opportunity to kill and destroy humans everywhere. If God is more than willing to kill and maim, why shouldn't his followers?

But what if they have misunderstood God? A cursory reading through the prophets reveals a God who is quite frequently angry, but not randomly at humans who haven't had the forethought to confess Jesus as Lord. God is angry when humans create injustice, and he doesn't relent until he has seen justice served. That's quite different from the idea that God is after humans for failing to understand the importance of the sinner's prayer.

What is really behind this idea of God as a vengeful, angry God? Isn't it our unwillingness to love our neighbors the way we love ourselves? We think God cares deeply about morality, but God doesn't need morals, for morals are based on virtue, and virtue is based on justice. Where justice is found, morals are not needed. Our love for morals reveals our distaste for justice, for morals allow us to elevate ourselves above our neighbors - we know better, wherefore we are better; justice demands that we treat our neighbors the way we want them to treat us. Not as superiors, not as inferiors, but as equals.

Yet, mercy triumphs over justice; God forgives because he loves. Forgiveness is, however, not an invitation for us to become unjust, for if we fail to show mercy, neither will we receive mercy ourselves. It is this thought of feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless that makes the vengeful God so appealing, for selfish ambition and envy cause us to see ourselves, and only ourselves. We don't particularly want to share what we have with those who have less, for how can we elevate ourselves above others, if we create economic equality? Thus the vengeful God becomes the perfect excuse for us to continue to convince ourselves and others that we don't have to love our neighbors, for if God doesn't, we should we?