When we think that God is an angry God, it affects us in many ways. We are afraid and insecure, and we try to find ways to appease his anger and to protect ourselves from punishment. The truth is the Father loves and is not angry with us; instead, he wants to heal our alienation. This is why he sent Jesus to us.
Books
- Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God (click to see the book on Amazon)
Perhaps my favorite of all passages from this book is:
God is FOR every single one of us, regardless of our beliefs or perspectives or actions or failures or mistakes or sins or opinions about whether God exists or not.
In a world where so many believe in an angry, vindictive God who is ready to punish us at our every stumbling and short-coming, this message needs to be shouted from the house tops so that everyone can hear.
This 225-page volume is easy to read and engaging throughout. Bell deals with theological issues a theologian can appreciate, but he talks in our language—the language of everyday non-theologically trained people. (Read my full review here)
Articles
From Jesus without Baggage:
- The God of the Old Testament vs. the Father of the New Testament
- The #1 Most Harmful Belief Among Christians—Angry God
- God is not Angry and Harsh with Us as Many of Us Thought
- 4 Ways that Believing God is Angry and Harsh Hurts People
- God’s Love for Us Takes Away Our Fear, Guilt, and Self-Condemnation
- Angry, Violent, Old Testament God
- Belief in Angry God is Perhaps the Most Damaging, Misguided Christian Belief of All
- Jesus Speaks of His Relationship to the Father
- Approaching the Father
- Jesus Speaks of the Father’s House
- Show Us the Father
- Jesus Represents the Father Fully
- The Father Grants Judgment Authority to Jesus
- The Parable of the Joyous Father
- We Often Become What We THINK God is Like: Angry God Part 1
- We Often Create God in Our Own Image: Angry God Part 2
- Did God Pour Out His Wrath on Jesus During His Violent Death on the Cross?: Angry God Part 3
From Peter Enns
- God Lets His Children Tell the Story
- The Best Way to Get Out of the Canaanite Genocide
- Is it Right for God to Slaughter People whenever He Wishes?
- More on Canaanite Genocide
- Children and Virgins as Spoils of War
- One Simple Thing
- The Bible’s Violent God Isn’t on Huffington Post
From Other Writers
- The abusive theology of “deserved” tragedy by Rachel Held Evans
- Consciousness and Violence by Rob Bell
- Does God Get Disappointed With Us? by Jonathan Merritt
- Is God a great big bully? Naked Pastor
- Graven Image by Tony Cutty
- Hurricanes, Fires, and Floods: Where is God? by Lou Kavar
- The Opposing Forces in the Universe by Josh Way
- Reframing the Question of Jesus and Divinity by Josh Way
- Harm Is Not Justice On Earth Or In Heaven by Josh Way
Jesus without Baggage exists to assist and support those questioning beliefs they have been taught in fundamentalist, traditional evangelical, and other groups. If you know someone who might find Jesus without Baggage helpful, feel free to send them the introductory page: About Jesus without Baggage.
***
Pages in this series:
Resources on Angry, Violent, Vindictive God
Resources on Inerrancy and Reading the Bible
Resources on Hell and Conditional Immortality
Resources on Legalism, Sin, and Salvation
Resources on Gays and the Church
Resources on Christian Patriarchy, Abuse, and Extreme Fundamentalism
Resources on Young Earth Creationism and Evolution
***
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- Like Jesus without Baggage Page on Facebook.
- Follow @JesusWOB on Twitter
- And now on Pinterest
Jesus Without Baggage 
God is God, as He said, “I AM WHO I AM”.
I will be afraid of my earthly father, if I have committed mistake, which he had warned me not do, naturally we humans always tend to take the easy route, I will always talk about my father negatively as I don’t like Him anymore, for I have created my own God, who is friendly always forgiving unless I die, due to my mistakes/sin, it can be AIDS or…I want to satisfy my senses! when the blood is young and struggle and worry when I am aged…
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Hi Consult,
The Old Testament often does portray God as a fearful person because the writers were describing how they understood God, but Jesus tells us differently. He also tells us to love God, who loves us. And when we respond to the Father’s love we will love ourselves and will love others as ourselves. This love is what causes us to not indulge our ‘senses’ in a manner that is self-destructive or hurtful to other people.
See my series that begins with https://jesuswithoutbaggage.wordpress.com/2014/08/13/does-abandoning-legalism-and-belief-in-hell-destroy-the-foundations-of-morality/.
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I partially agree with your thoughts, mentioned in the link as we have taken each every word, literally, like you have mentioned about Sabbath day commandment, I will differ on this as even Jesus, spoke about how David ate the food kept in synagog. Meaning we have to understand want exactly is the requirement,
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, _ What God wanted us is to keep the day holy,in what ever you do! He never tells you not to work or study or… what ever we do, Do it in a holy way which will be acceptable to God the Creator, We had one Muslim brother who maintains, shop in our locality, the items bought on a Friday will be always marginally less, as He was very God fearing and especially on Fridays he will be a perfect, Muslim, by reducing his margin he will sell, Are we living like that? When the Law was established people had one day as holiday otherwise they work was very tiresome and they were indulging in all malpractices on a holiday to relive themselves, like the present IT people call it TGIF! and booze, maybe this was the reason?
For example, The commandment like, Honour your father and mother! when we are children we find it difficult to follow but as parents, we want our Children to follow this very religiously!
What is wrong in,
1) “You shall have no other gods before me.” This commandment is against worshipping any god other than the one true God. while it is very clear that, all other gods are false gods, which includes, material, money, women/men…
2)“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”_this commandment is broken in all possible ways…as we worship man/woman, material, money, women…
7)“You shall not commit adultery.”9) “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”8) “You shall not steal.”Are these commandments for our welfare, or… are we able to understand his language and level? That is GTF,s commandments which were valid for thousands of years, and many more to go!
My thoughts, we cannot abandon the laws but modify our mindset to suit the commandments like we adopted ourselves from road ways to airways! from bullock cart to flight?
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I don’t think there is anything ‘wrong’ with the 10 Commandments; my point is they are not legalistic rules to follow, nor are they the foundation of morality.
Following religious rules of any kind is far inferior to loving others as we love ourselves, and it distorts our attitudes and behavior in negative ways. This is perhaps more clear in the current series I mentioned in my response to your previous comment.
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Loving others as we love ourselves? Will I ever love anybody else, other than my wife as I will expect only this if your statement was understood correctly by All, but we Humans are very brainy in things that will benefit my senses! So God, breaks HIS law into granular level, He says very clearly, Do not covert for other goods… It can be Women, material, Fame,…following these can never be inferior, as it is for our good, only the initial ones are about Him, but for our Good any way!
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On a directly related note, here’s a “Kinder, Gentler Easter sermon” http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogerwolsey/2014/04/a-kinder-gentler-more-grown-up-easter-2/
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Thanks for sharing, Roger.
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Tim, please do a post on religious scrupulosity…it would be so helpful.
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Hi Manny, what do you mean by religious scrupulosity? Are you talking about legalism–following a bunch of religious rules? If so, you might check the collection of article by myself and others on this topic at:
https://jesuswithoutbaggage.wordpress.com/books-and-resources/legalism-and-behavior/
If you had something else in mind, can you clarify it further? Thanks!
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Hi Tim,
I mean like the obsessive condition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrupulosity and your take on it and how to best overcome it.
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Manny, thank you so much for the Wikipedia link. This is an area of study with which I was previously unfamiliar. I already have notes on a post called ‘Dealing with Guilt’ planned for later this year, but I will now add the link your shared and will do additional research on the condition.
I am not sure what date this article will post, but thanks again for steering me toward this very relevant material!
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Scrupulosity, is a single word summarising all your GUILT?
Wonderful! So You agree that you have committed mistakes, grave or small only time will tell, otherwise why should you feel guilty to go and stand in front of ALL LOVING, ALL PUNISHING, ALL merciful… GOD is and always and will be GOD, only Human change.
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Manny, Consult comments here from time to time. Be aware that Consult does not represent my views or attitudes.
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George Carlin:
“I’m not really angry, because anger implies that I have a stake in the outcome that I care, and I don’t really care! It just comes across as anger.”
God isn’t angry with us or our sins, because He has no stake in the outcome. He doesn’t care about sin. That was never the issue between us!
It’s time we took heed of one of our present day prophets, a true voice crying in the wilderness that America and the world has become!
R.I.P., George . . . may your truths live forever!
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I find it hypocritical that on one hand those who call god a violent tyrannical s.o.b. for ordering the wars with the canaanites is an incentive unloving s.o.b. for not saving the innocent when the canaanites are being tyrannical themselves.
So I guess god would be considered a violent prick if he enticed the Americans to annihilate the nazis while they were gassing innocent jews too, huh?
Are you an angry and violent man if you kill the intruder or intruders who attack your country, or try to rape and kill your loved ones
You people are hypocrites
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Endar, I don’t think I am a hypocrite; I think I am consistent in following the teachings and example of Jesus in these matters and also in his representation of God’s loving character.
Regarding the Nazis, I don’t think God takes sides in wars; God loves the Jews who were killed but also the Germans who killed them in such an atrocious way. I believe God loves us all and wishes to heal our fear, our brokenness, and our alienation.
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