Answering 439 Bible Contradictions
Answer: God’s anger upon his children is temporary, while His wrath up His enemies will carry on forever.
Problem: Some passages say God’s anger lasts but for a moment, while other Scriptures teach God’s wrath is eternal.
Explanation: The nature, intensity, and extent of God’s wrath differs depending on which of His two audiences He is addressing. In the first case, God limits His anger towards His children, whom He loves. Psalm 30:5 illustrates this: “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
Plagues came on Jerusalem because of King David’s sins. But once repentance followed, God’s wrath was brief because He is merciful and slow to anger. Saints of old often spoke of God’s judgment in terms of a rod, a switch God uses to discipline His children the way a father would his son. But when his boy sheds a tear and asks for pardon, the father embraces him. Thus, Spurgeon could say: “God puts up his rod with great readiness as soon as its work is done.”
God told His people: “I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever” (Jer. 3:12). He will show mercy to those that repent. He will not frown on the forgiven. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever” (Ps. 103:8).
God’s anger toward his children is like a train chugging through Europe, full of lengthy stops and pauses. God desires that His people seek forgiveness. Moreover, His wrath will never reach into eternity because of His grace. Regarding God’s mercy, Spurgeon says that God is “rich in it, quick in it, overflowing with it.” As Micah observes: “He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love” (7:18).
In the second case, God’s wrath towards His enemies is eternal. In the Old Testament, the early Exodus generation rejected the land God had given them, so as punishment, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Most were unbelievers, so they died in their sins with God’s wrath upon them. Thus, Numbers 32:13 could say: “And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone.” God’s wrath never left those people.
Oh, sinner, enemy of God, is there a more fearful statement than this? “In my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever” (Jer. 17:4). God’s eternal rage pours upon His enemies, like an avalanche upon a city at a mountain’s base. He is angry toward his foes in the way a crocodile attacks an antelope, but never his friends, the Egyptian Plover bird.
There will be a day of future judgment when the Lord Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, the Christians from everyone else. To the atheists, to the Muslims, to the religious Jews, to the Hindus, to the Roman Catholics, to the Buddhists, to nominal church goers, to the followers of African traditional religion, Jesus will say to them: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41). Their punishment in hell will be “eternal” (25:41), where His anger will never end.
Thomas Watson said: “The fire of hell is such, as multitudes of tears will not quench it, length of time will not finish it; the vial of God’s wrath will be always dropping upon a sinner.”
In conclusion, God’s anger is brief toward His children but is eternal toward his enemies. Sinners must run to this merciful God, cast all of their sins upon Jesus, and seek forgiveness. Spurgeon said it rightly: “Above the mountains of our sins the floods of his mercy rise.”