Wrath of God

Definition and Meaning

The wrath of God refers to God's holy opposition to and judgment upon sin and unrighteousness. Christian theology distinguishes it from capricious human anger and describes it instead as a consistent disposition that flows from God's righteousness and holiness. In Old Testament Hebrew, words such as aph (originally meaning "nose") and chemah ("heat") carry this sense. In New Testament Greek, the terms orgē and thymos are used.

Biblical and Historical Background

The Old Testament portrays God as angered by Israel's idolatry and disobedience. At the same time, it confesses Him to be "longsuffering" (Exodus 34:6). The prophetic books connect wrath with the Day of the Lord and also speak of "the wine cup of this fury" that the nations will be made to drink (Jeremiah 25:15).

In the New Testament, Paul states that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:18). He also explains that those who are "justified by his blood" shall "be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9). The Book of Revelation depicts the final judgment in terms of cups and vials of wrath.

In the second century, Marcion regarded the wrathful god of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament as distinct beings. The church of his day rejected this teaching. The Reformers emphasized an understanding of the atonement in which Christ bore on the cross the wrath that sinners deserved. In the twentieth century, scholars debated how to translate hilastērion in Romans 3:25. The British New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd read it as "expiation," a means of cleansing sin, while Leon Morris and others countered that it should be read as "propitiation," a sacrifice that turns away wrath.

In Korean Church Practice

In Korean churches, the wrath of God is frequently addressed in sermons and revival meetings as a theme calling for repentance. Denominational emphases are as follows:

• Presbyterian: Teaching follows the Reformed tradition. The Westminster Confession of Faith confesses that every sin brings the sinner under the wrath of God and that deliverance from this wrath comes only through Christ's substitutionary atonement.
• Methodist and Holiness: Following Wesleyan theology, these churches affirm divine wrath while also emphasizing that, through prevenient grace (grace given to a person before he or she believes), the way of salvation is open to all people.
• Progressive churches and theologians: These tend to stress a prophetic interpretation that reads wrath as God's response to social injustice and oppression.

However, statements by some pastors declaring major disasters or particular events to be God's wrath upon specific groups have drawn criticism both inside and outside the church. A number of theologians have cautioned against interpreting disasters directly as evidence of divine wrath.