The Judgement of God and Message of Christmas

After the Conneticut shooting, everyone is advancing theories and explanations and blame.  Well, the truth is in there somewhere, but I am disheartened by some things I've heard.  I want to touch on two perspective in particular that caught my attention and concerned me.  One is Dr. Dobson's contention that this shooting was perhaps related to God's jugement on America for the country's abandonment of Biblical morality in many areas.  The second is a certain Rev. Susan Russell who takes issue with Dr. Dobson.

Let's start with Dr. Dobson's theory.  Now I like and respect Dr. James Dobson.  He has done a lot of good.  But on this point, I am left really scratching my head on this comment.  There are two ways we see God deal with the disobedient in the Bible.  One is through judgement and the other through consequences.  When we see God actively judging nations, it is usually through the overthrow of that country, either supernaturally, or through another country.   The punishment is usually aimed at the leadership, who God has given authority and therefore holds accountable for the people.   To say that a superstorm, a school shooting, or other terrible event is evidence of God's judgement rather stretches our understanding.  I fear that without realizing it, these fine men are allowing themselves to sound like the detestable Westboro Baptist Church which see every calamity, every death, as a sign of God's punishment on America.  I could go much further with this, but I will sum up for now by saying that the #1 verse we have for understanding how God deals with nations is, "I will bless those that bless you and curse those who curse you."  How our nation treats Israel and the Jews is the #1 route for God's blessing or cursing.

That is not to say there aren't consequences.  As our society makes choices that ignore God, there will be consequences.  Human life that isn't cared for or valued hurts us all.  Trying to unravel how that played out in the very troubled young man who shot those kids is too hard for me.  I just know we live in a fallen world and bad things are going to happen, and trying to find the immediate fault is sometimes too hard.  Blame is not the answer.  Christ is.

So, on to the Rev. Susan Russell.  In an article in the Huffington Post, she takes strong exception to Dr. Dobson's theory and goes pretty far in the other direction.  I feel she ends up missing the point as well in her eagerness to rebut him.   She says in part, "That [Dr. Dobsons's] God has nothing whatsoever to do with the God of love, justice and compassion who "came down at Christmas" incarnate in the Prince of Peace who became one of us in order to show us how to love one another."  Her point in her article is that God is not angry and does not cause these things.  Now while I agree that we must be careful in assigning any particular event like that to God's direct judgment, she mischaracterizes God and why He came down at Christmas.

You can't have the manger without the Cross.  Jesus didn't come down to show us how to love each other.  He did mention that, but His primary purposes were to demonstrate God's love to us and to do so by dying for our sins.  Dying was required because we had incurred the wrath of God which is powerful and fearsome and deadly.  We cannot ignore that clear teaching of Scripture.  God IS a God of justice, as the good Reverend states, and sin/injustice makes Him angry.  His anger/wrath is as powerful as His love.  He's a powerful God.  Because He also is a God of mercy, he sought to satisfy His justice and His love both by offering to pay for our crimes Himself.  The cross shows that fierce wrath being poured out on Christ.

If we ignore Christ and reject this offer of mercy, the wrath remains.  Jesus did not come merely to illustrate a point, Jesus is the point.  He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."

We do need to love one another.  We also need to love and accept the Love of God poured out in the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Here are the two articles cited in this post.

Dr. Dobson

Rev. Russell