Is God Loving or Angry

For years I’ve heard about Jonathan Edwards famous sermon “sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. I probably even read a manuscript of it at one time or another, so I jumped at the opportunity to read Brian Zahnd’s book Sinners if the Hands of a Loving God: the Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News. (Waterbrook, 2017)

The title intrigued me. I go to the local Rescue Mission on a regular basis, and while there are others who go there to preach fire and brimstone, I think what’s needed is love, mercy and grace. Most of the clients there know that they have a sin issue. They don’t need to be reminded of that, what they do need to know it that God loves them.

Brian makes some good points about Jesus being the fulfillment of the law and the prophets—He didn’t come to abolish them. And I liked how he used Old Testament examples and then showed how thanks to Jesus fulfilling, completing, perfecting the law, we no longer have to stone people to death, or exact an eye for eye. We can show compassion, and point people to Jesus. We can love them into the kingdom, instead of trying to scare them into it.

And then we have to talk about Hell. I saw some of the same tracks that Zahnd talks about. People burning in everlasting eternal fires. I didn’t like them when I was a teenager, and I don’t like them now. They’re creepy.  I believe that Hell is real, and I like to remember that hell is the eternal state of being out of God's presence. Is it a big room, very hot, flames licking at the edges and little demons with tails running around in red suits, jabbing people with their pitchforks? I think that is an artist’s rendering.  Regardless of what Hell is really like, it’ real, and if we listen to Jesus, the only way to avoid is to go, through Him, to the Father. And here’s where it seems like Zahnd may be straying a little from traditional Christian thought.

As I read through the chapter on Hell (Chap 6: “Hell…and Hoe to Get There”) it seems that Zahnd is suggesting that you can avoid Hell even without professing belief in Jesus. I hate to think that some really God-fearing people, people who worship God, will not be enjoying eternity in God's presence because they stayed true to their religious roots, but I can’t reconcile Jesus’ Words with desired, or aspirational belief system.  Having said that, Zahnd makes a strong case that our version of Hell is probably quite different than the biblical version.

Except for that one area, I enjoyed the book.

I received a copy of the book from the Publisher (WaterBrook) in exchange for a review.

4/5 because of some theological questions.