On Wednesday Night, Sep 11^th,  we will have a discussion on “The Wrath of God.” I was recently reading an article by Dr.  Timothy George – Dean of the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Alabama – in the Christian Journal “First Things.”

In this article he writes,  – Recently, the wrath of God became a point of controversy in the decision of the Presbyterian [PCUSA] Committee on Congregational Song to exclude from its new hymnal the much-loved song “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  The Committee wanted to include this song because it is being sung in many churches, Presbyterian and otherwise, but they could not abide this line from the third stanza: “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied.” For this they wanted to substitute: “…as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified.” The authors of the hymn insisted on the original wording, and the Committee voted nine to six that “In Christ Alone” would not be among the eight hundred or so items in their new hymnal.”

Obviously the hymn committee does not think that the Love of God and the Wrath of God are compatible. One blogger on the “First Things” website seems to agree that it’s difficult to describe God as a Loving God and at the same time attribute Divine Wrath to Him. He writes “The problem comes when we use an anthropopathic term like ‘wrath’ and apply it univocally to the God of eternity… Then caricatures of divine wrath proliferate: God having a temper tantrum or acting like a big bully who needs to be ‘appeased’ before he can forgive or, as is often alleged with reference to the atonement, practicing cosmic child abuse.”

So this will be our topic for the evening:

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