Bob Peters

The Love and Wrath of God Bob Peters

This book grows out of a struggle in my mind to reconcile the love and wrath of God. I believe other people have similar struggles, so I have written down my conclusions and given many biblical references and illustration which satisfy my mind. I have tried to reflect absolute loyalty to God's word. As you read you will notice many references. I have sought to tie what I say to Scripture, and give you easy access to where I came up with such a thought. I grew up with the idea that forever means there is no end. To me forever was not an indefinite long period of time. I heard people say things like, "They have lived there forever." I thought they do not understand forever. They had not lived there forever. They were not even a hundred years old. I looked up forever in a dictionary and was somewhat surprised that most of the dictionary's definition was, "A long indefinite period of time." It hardly mentioned that "forever" goes on and on and never stops. But the dictionary is not the final authority on what forever is. Scripture is. As I understood hell, people who went there were stuck there forever and ever and ever and would never get out. That concept of eternal conscience torment was a powerful force that caused me to kneel down in a farm truck at age 12 and pray and ask Jesus to forgive my sins, but over the years I have been bothered by the fact that a loving God would send a 12 year old girl from Bangladesh to be tormented in the fires of hell forever. Eternal conscience torment seemed so harsh. She did not believe in Jesus because she had never heard of him. No Christians ever told her. She did not know that Jesus died to make atonement for her sin. She would have to pay for her own sins. She would never get out. She would never be burned up and loose consciousness and cease to exist. How could a loving God do such a thing? Something was wrong with God or my thinking. You can probably guess where the wrong was, but that did not solve the problem. How can an all loving God both love and punish sinners. I have satisfied my own mind that the love and wrath of God can be reconciled, but in the process I had to discard some erroneous teaching with which I grew up. This book contains many stories, comparisons, illustrations and references to many other similar teaching from Scripture. There are a number of biblical pictures that are true to the situations. They are in color in the ebook but black and white in the paper edition. It has 106 pages. The table of contents will help you know how I approached the subject. The Love of God P 4 God's Love Expressed in His Creation P. 4 God's Love Expressed in His Salvation. P. 6 God's Love Expressed Through Two Snakes. P. 8 God's Love Expressed in Common Grace P. 9 God's Love Expressed in Jesus' Healing Ministry P. 13 God's Love Expressed in Jesus' Feeding the Five thousand and the Four Thousand. P. 20 Rest for the Weary Matt. 11:28-30 P. 21 The Rewards of a Good Family The Church P. 23 God's Love Expressed in the Remedy for Our Sinful Nature Acts 1:8 P. 27 The Acts of the Sinful Nature Gal. 5:19-21 P. 29 The Fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5:22-23 P. 30 God's Love expressed to The Tax Collector Luke 18:13 P. 36 God's Love Expressed to Samuel's Mother 1 Samuel 1:11 P 37 God's Love Expressed in his Rewards P. 39 The Wrath of God P. 42 God is a Righteous Judge P. 42 God's Pay back 2 Thess. 1:3-12 P. 43 God's Vengeance P. 4 The Flood Genesis 6 P. 50 Sodom and Gomorrah Genesis 18, 19 P. 52 Jonah and Nineveh P. 56 King Nebuchadnezzar P. 68 Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth. P. 87 Satan Re-payed 96 Conclusion 103