God's Hatred Toward Sinners

All attempts to discard or soften the doctrine of eternal torment have their roots in the idea that God loves everyone. In reality, the Scriptures make it perfectly clear that God categorically hates sinners.

The only respect in which it can be said that God "loves" the unjust is that He blesses them with temporal blessings and that He made a way for them to be made redeemed through the sacrifice of Christ. But for those who finally reject these gracious overtures, the Lord will withdraw all mercy and love and the only thing left will be His unmitigated hatred towards them.

God's destruction of the wicked is not passive. He is out to destroy the wicked with a miserable destruction and will most certainly succeed. How anyone can read the Scriptures and fail to see this point I do not comprehend. It is found at every turn.

One of the most explicit statements of God's hatred is found in Hosea:

"Give them, O Lord; what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more."

What a terrifying thougt! Totally abandoned by God! This is what David described when he prophesied of Judas and his kind:

"Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell therein.

For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."

It was said in another thread:

"God could make us 'happy' whilst our loved ones suffered in hell only in two possible ways: either by concealing from us the magnitude of the tragedy (blissful ignorance), or by giving us a callous and stony heart, so that we no longer truly loved those who were lost. Both of these possibilities, however, are incompatible with true blessedness. So in the end, it is logically impossible for God to bring blessedness to one person without also bringing it to all."

Tell me, how does this vile philsophy compare with what the Scriptures actually teach? Where is it written that we must love the wicked to find blessedness with God?

The very words of Christ, given first to Isaiah and called to remembrance when Christ walked on earth tell another tale. Hear the word of the Lord!

"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenced; and they shall be an abhoring to all flesh."

God is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him!

Mark Osgatharp

 

SUE,

The reason God gave Christ to die for the world is because He is a merciful God who was willing to save people that He hated. That is to say, God demonstrated love or acted in love toward men who were abhorent to Him.

God continues to love the wicked in that He sustains their physical life and offers them salvation as long as they live. That is not the same love that He has toward His children which is an everlasting love.

The fact is, God despises the wicked and when a wicked man dies in impenitence and unbelief, there will be no love left for him - only pure, undiluted hatred from God and God's people.

"The wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. On the wicked he will rain snares, fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." Psalm 11

"Thou hatest all workers of iniquity." Psalm 5

We cannot simply ignore such passages.

BOB,

Apparently you think I'm approaching this from a Calvinist perspective, which I am not. I believe that God both hates and loves the whole human race - all men without exception - at least all those who are yet living.

He hates the whole human race in that He despises, abhors, and loaths us considered as sinners. And since an unbeliever is nothing but a sinner He has no acceptance with God.

Those who have been born again have a pure soul and therefore are made worthy to be accepted by God. But God does not accept us as sinners - He accepts us as saints through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

And yet it can be said that God loves the whole human race - at least those who are living - in that He gives all live and breath and sustanance as well as making a genunine offer of salvation to all through the sacrifice of Christ.

But, again, this does not mean He accepts all. Those who die in their unbelief will fall under that awful curse found in Hosea,

"I will love them no more."

For such there is nothing left but mere hatred from God and God's people. These are they who will be cast into a lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Mark Osgatharp

 

SUE,

And one more thing - you said,

"As far as God making us happy while our loved ones burn in hell.....We may cry when we see loved ones and friends being thrown into the lake of fire that we had a chance to witness to and did not.....but then..."

How does that square up with the 58th Psalm? It says,

"The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked."

That sounds to me like God's people will shout "Amen" when God executes His fierce wrath on the impenitent.

Mark Osgatharp

 

SUE,

I am not talking strictly about God hating dead sinners. I believe God hates all sinners. But I believe that God also loves - that is to say acts in love - toward those whom He hates as long as they are living. When they are dead all acts of love toward them cease and so they are left with pure hatred.

When a man is saved, he is no longer seen as a sinner in God's sight because he has a 100% sinless soul. We still sin in the flesh and God still hates our flesh. But our flesh is no longer the real "us" because we are a new creatures in Christ Jesus. As Paul said,

"It is no longer I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me."

And again,

"Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."

I hope that clarifies what I am trying to say.

Mark Osgatharp

 

Brother Vaughn,

Amen! "The wicked will be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

And, "Thou shalt be thrust down to hell."

And neither God nor the saints will be crying when it happens.

Mark Osgatharp

 

Artimaeus,

I totally agree that we should love sinners in the same respect that the Lord does - treating them with love. That does not mean approving of them in their sin, anymore than God approves of us in our sin.

I also agree that God prefers that the wicked turn from their wickedness and live - so much so that He offered Christ as a sacrifice to make it possible.

None of this negates the categorical statments that,

"Thou hatest all workers of inquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing [deceit]. Thou wilt abhor the bloody and deceitful man" Psalm 5.

And, "The wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible temptest; this shall be the portion of their cup" Psalm 11:5.

Tell me, Arty, where is the love in that? These Psalms speak in explicit terms as to the fact that God will destroy the wicked. When He does that there will be no love left, as He said in Hosea,

"I will love them nor more."

And it was the Lord, not Hosea, who said that. And even if it were Hosea, are you suggesting that Hosea didn't know what he was talking about? Remember,

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Mark Osgatharp