God and wrath

[contriteheart]

Dear Friends,

I am confused about something. From what I've read on TAW, it would seem to me that you are saying that God never expresses wrath. If this is the case, then what do you make of all the OT passages which speak specifically of the wrath of God - sometimes in quite graphic and violent terms? Also, why are people sent to hell if God never expresses wrath?

Any help you could give me in understanding the Orthodox perspective would be appreciated.

In Christ's love,
GraceMercyPeace

[gzt]

Our God is a consuming fire. Hell is the experience of the love of God by those who hate and despise the love of God and love their sin instead. God's wrath is the same as His love, but those who hate God experience God's love as pain.

[Marjorie]

We do believe in God's wrath, but just tend to believe in it in a more figurative way... since we believe that God is unsearchable and unknowable and beyond anything we can imagine, we know that when it is said that God is angry it doesn't mean that in the sense that we are angry.

"He is good, and He only bestows blessings and never does harm, remaining always the same. We men, on the other hand, if we remain good through resembling God, are united to Him, but if we become evil through not resembling God, we are separated from Him. By living in holiness we cleave to God; but by becoming wicked we make Him our enemy. It is not that He grows angry with us in an arbitrary way, but it is our own sins that prevent God from shining within us and expose us to demons who torture us. And if through prayer and acts of compassion we gain release from our sins, this does not mean that we have won God over and made Him to change, but that through our actions and our turning to the Divinity, we have cured our wickedness and so once more have enjoyment of God's goodness. Thus to say that God turns away from the wicked is like saying that the sun hides itself from the blind."

- St Anthony the Great, Philokalia Vol. 1

In IC XC,
Marjorie