As the suit and tie from the pulpit proclaimed: The Lord will return to unleash a righteous wrath amongst the people to show his fathers glory. To rapture those who are his unto himself and others will burn in an eternity of hell....
Really? Righteous wrath? Killing to show the father in all his glory? Terrorist much?
Is it against unrighteousness or unrighteousness people? Will he abolish those things that hold us captive as humanity in a sinful state? He comes to restore, to redeem, to put back together. So why are we claiming that he is coming back on a horse or a trumpet or a cloud to destroy the very people he wants to save? It will be joining heaven and earth together all that is wrong will be now made right. No more tears, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more shit.
As I study scripture and discover who Jesus is and how he is the picture of God I don't see the war lord we have claimed he is. God is not a terrorist! God is not a war lord! God is not a military leader! No! I have experienced a God who wants his people to experience life. A God that says be at peace with all men. A God who wants us to be a part of the upside down kingdom where the first will be last and the last will be first. A God who does not use scare tactics to draw people to him. I see a father who loves his children who would do anything to see them be apart of the story of reconciliation. How can a father who desperately loves his children want to strike them down? Is it he loves his people and hates what sin has done to them? Has he come to rescue us not from us but from the devastating effects of sin and the choices we have made?
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
More to come.
