Thursday, April 10, 2008

God the Righteous Judge

Sunburst over Craig Dunain

It is impossible to reconcile Old Testament history with the effeminate notion of neological divinity1, that God is only a universal Father, but not a governor and a judge. If these gentlemen will quietly read some of those awful2 passages in the Old Testament, they cannot — unless they should deny the inspiration of the passage, or attempt to tone down in meaning — they cannot but confess that they see there far less a loving parent than a God dressed in arms, of whom we may say, “The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. Thy right hand, O Lord, thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces thine enemies.” A God without justice is what this modern church is seeking after. These new doctrines would fashion a deity destitute of those sublime attributes, which keep the world in awe, and command for him the reverence of his creatures.

1By which he means some a newly-devised system of theology.
2In the old-fashioned sense of the word which means awe-inspiring or terrifying.


From a sermon entitled "Not Now, But Hereafter" delivered September 22, 1861.

Flickr photo by Calum Davidson; some rights reserved.

1 comment:

April Anne said...

We talked about just this topic in Bible study last night. It amazed me the number of people that dont "like" the old testiment because they say it is too VIOLENT, that God is not LOVING in the old Testiment. Oh we do so water down God and make of him something neat and clean we can hang a picture of on our Refrig. Wake up people, He is a GREAT BIG GOD!! The depth of his character is limitless,the width infinite. Do not make the Great I AM anything less that ALL that He is!!!