Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1916 — The Wrath of God [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Wrath of God

By REV. J. H. RALSTON

Secretary of Correspondence Department, Moody Bible Institute of Chicago

TEXT—For the wrath of God' is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth In unrighteousness.—Rom.

What are the good tidings of great Joy as announced by the angels to

the shepherds? To say to men today that Gcd loves them? Yes, but only announcing that part of the Gospel the preacher is acting cruelly, he must announce that there is wrath with God. Many years ago the bishop of the. centraj diocese of New York said to a class of young men about to enter the ministry:

“The truth is, half of God’s word is law. The Gospel without a promise of retribution is emasculated. It is not only a theological mistake, it is not a Gpspel.” The text proclaims that there is wrath with God, and there are scores of Scripture passages speaking of the wrath of God and many of them are in the New Testament. What Is the. Wrath of God? When the ancients saw the mountains that are now the witnesses of the wrath of man against man rocking and reeling, they said the gods were mad. But we cannot so think of the wrath of God. That wrath is real indignation against its object, and this indignation carries with it the idea that the object of the wrath will be the subject of God’s opposition. The wrath of God is always based on justice and reason that take into account the rights and prerogatives of men as moral agents. Yet, God’s own character for holiness and justice will be vindicated whatever may be the impatience of man with such a statement. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap*'—no limitation or modification. The Wrath of God Against All Sinful — t —Mem We know God hates iniquity and all evil deeds, but it is a more serious matter for us to note that the preponderance of scripture testimony is that the wrath of God is against sinful men and logically so. Sin is an abstract thing, and cannot be in itself the subject of the execution of justice, but the sinner can be. Jesus told Nicodemus that the wrath of God abode on sinning man. Paul told the Ephesian and Colossian Christians that the wrath of God would come on the children of disobedience. He told the Thessalonians that the day is coming when Jesus Christ will be revealed from heaven taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Wrath Provoked, Slow In Development, and Fearful in Visitation. There are three things concerning the wrath of God that should be carefully noted: First: The wrath of God can be provoked or called out. The Israelites provoked the wrath of God repeatedly and plagues broke out on them. In the second Psalm men were urged to kiss the son lest he be angry and they perish from the way when his wraths was kindled but a little. The wrath of God will never be manifested without the positive act of man calling it out, or provoking it, and one of the strongest evidences of the love of God is that his love has been frequently provoked and was most mercifully restrained. Secondly: The wrath of God is slow "in Its development. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” One of the minor prophets teaches almost exactly the same thing, saying: “Turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.” Thirdly: The wrath of God is fearful in its visitation. The time comes when kindness, merciful indulgence and longsuffering, are st an end, and the most terrible judgments fall. This was illustrated in the destruction of the race by the flood, by the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, by the 'plagues on Egypt, by the wholesale destruction of many of the enemies of Israel. Not less fearful, indeed rather more so, will be tile awful visitation of God’s wrath in the future as indicated in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9. Thank God there is a refuge, for as Paul teaches by the Holy Spirit, that being novr Justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, we shall be saved from wrath through him. . - If ever in the history of the worst the attention of man ought to be called to the wrath of God, it is £ow when the wrath of man against man—man so glorified by himself as to be almost a god—is manifested with a bitterness and hellish hate as never, before. In thfe awfulexperiences in the warswept regions there is something of the wrath of God. Men have forgotten God and he is making himself known ia wrath. John the Baptists are needed to urge men to flee from the wrath U> coma '' .■ . ...•