In an extract from Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God the complaint is addressed that “those who believe in a God of judgment will not approach enemies with a desire to reconcile with them.” The argument here is that if “you believe in a God who smites evildoers, you may think it perfectly justified to do some of the smiting yourself.” The villain of many a movie has been the religious fanatic who believed that by killing people he was acting as God’s instrument of judgment.
The complaint and its movie world representation is crass. Indeed, the very opposite is typically the case. So, as Keller notes, Miroslav Volf maintains that it is the lack of belief in a God of vengeance that “secretly nourishes violence”:
If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end to violence - that God would not be worthy of worship… The only means of prohibiting all recourse to violence by ourselves is to insist that violence is legitimate only when it comes from God… My thesis that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many… in the West. ….. [But] it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human non-violence [results from the belief in] God’s refusal to judge. In a sun-scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die… [with] other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind.
Source: “A God of judgment can’t be a God of love?” in Evangelicals Now (September 2008) 24
This is what the Bible teaches. Let the apostle Paul have the last word:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:17-21)
Posted September 5, 2008
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