Two Gods?

There are those who want to divorce the New and Old Testament God, saying that they are different beings, bearing little resemblance to one another.  According to these folks, the Old Testament God is a terrible guy, blood thirsty and full of vengeance.  He delights in death and mayhem. The New Testament God, by way of contrast, is a God of love and forgiveness, one who is done with all that terrible talk of sin and judgment. 

Both of these Gods are caricatures, neither true to the whole Biblical picture of who God is.  But if anyone doubts that the God of the New Testament is a holy God, given to righteous judgment upon sin than they have not read the book of Revelation.  Revelation 14 makes it clear that God will judge the wickedness of this earth.  This is not something to glory in.  Outside of Jesus all of us would be deserving of wrath.  How can we celebrate its descent on others?  But it is something to fear.  The wrath of God as described here is an awesome thing. Even as those who have escaped the wrath of God in Jesus, we need to see that sin is a serious matter.  And we need to live lives that show God's hatred for sin.

When Satan Wins

Revelation 13 is a chapter that engenders a lot of controversy. Who is the beast? Who is his prophet? Have these figures lived already or are they yet to come? What is the meaning of that infamous number 666? In the midst of all the debate in this chapter, we often miss a very chilling verse, verse 7. That verse says in part: "He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them."

That verse doesn't fit too neatly with our theology. We don't like to think that there are times that Satan (or his emissary) gets the victory over the Church. Preachers on TV tell us that we should always be healthy and wealthy. But that is not the reality that the Scriptures present. The Bible tells us that there are times when Satan has great power and when there is a great cost for being a Christian. When these times come, what are we to do? Verse 10b tells us: "This calls for patience and for faithful endurance on the part of the saints." American Christians especially need to know that we will not always be the church triumphant. Sometimes, we will be the church patient and faithful.