Separation vs. Alienation & “the Fear of God” by Brad Jersak
My friend Lazar Puhalo recounts his memory of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on a new-fangled invention called the ‘television. It was June 2, 1953. During the coronation of this graceful and gracious 27-year-young woman, the same style of King James language used above referred to the new queen as our ‘fearful and ‘terrible sovereign, which sounds ominous indeed. And yet, those who ‘feared her with reverence and awe’ also felt a deep love for her, however solemn and reverential the occasion.
For me, that analogy was extremely helpful. So many preachers have told us to ‘fear God, fear God, fear God,’ using the threat of punishment and ultimatums of eternal fire if you don’t. But the fact is that you cannot love someone under compulsion or threat. Such ‘love’ is nothing more than a form of psychosis on the one making such demands or an obsession in the one who consents to them.
“The Love of God and Affliction” by Simone Weil
In the realm of suffering, affliction is something apart, specific, and irreducible. It is quite a different thing from simple suffering. It takes possession of the soul and marks it through and through with its own particular mark, the mark of slavery. Slavery as practiced by ancient Rome is only an extreme form of affliction. The men of antiquity, who knew all about this question, used to say: “A man loses half his soul the day he becomes a slave.”
“Unwrathing God” with Brad Jersak — The Canadian Orthodox
It would have been so helpful to learn aspects of the Divine — minus any anthropomorphic trappings. Sadly, the consequence becomes a god made in our own image, reinforced through the lens of a literal reading of the Bible.
Punisher or Pushover? How is Wrath “God’s” by Brad Jersak
As we continue to preach and teach the NT message that “God is Infinite Love,” embodied in Christ and revealed on the Cross, it is right that we should continually challenge and be challenged by “the wrath of God.” That challenge requires us to keep returning to the Scriptures and to the Lord for greater clarity, because such great potential for error persists. We dare not slander God, either as a violent punisher or a spineless pushover, because such images serve as stumbling blocks, especially to those suffering under the consequences of their poor choices or those of somebody else.
SOURCE: Christianity Without Religion