Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (Paul’s concern from 2 Corinthians 11:4)
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The False Filter |
The Biblical Filter |
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The word OR the Word |
The Word THROUGH the word |
We have now considered these
two questions:
1. What does Romans 5:9 mean in
speaking about “the wrath”? Is this the “wrath of God” as
translated, or is it someone else’s wrath? The exact wording was inconclusive,
hence the need to research the context.
2. How does Paul speak of “wrath” in
Romans, and then in his other epistles?
From
this research, we discovered that the wrath Paul is talking about is clearly
the “wrath of God”. I showed that in the previous study, so let’s move on to
the third question:
3. How do the gospels speak of “wrath”?
First,
this isn’t about the word “wrath”. It is about whether God is just, and whether
he is just as just to carry out vengeance on sinners as he is to forgive
sinners who repent and trust in Jesus. What we are looking for is whether God
is just to punish sin, to carry out vengeance, to express his wrath against the
horrible things being done in our world. We have seen that “the wrath of God”
is clearly taught in the Bible, hence the BJs extreme efforts to undermine the
Bible’s authority as the collection of Scriptures breathed out by God.
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Matthew 3:7 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his
baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the
wrath to come? |
“wrath” = “orge” “wrath (punishment) n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous
indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger long-building” (BSL) |
“the wrath to come” is clearly the same wrath spoken of throughout the
New Testament, the final judgment awaiting the lost. However, John speaks of
it as something everyone already knew about, so clearly he is summarizing
something from the Hebrew Scriptures. |
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Luke 3:7 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him,
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? |
“wrath” = “orge” |
While parallel to Matthew’s account, this shows that the comment was
directed to the crowds as well as the religious leaders. |
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Luke 4:28 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with
wrath. |
“wrath” = “fury n. — a feeling of intense anger.”
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We finally have a verse that speaks of people showing their wrath to
Jesus! Except it is not the Greek word “orge” as used for God’s wrath, and it
was just the people in his hometown who were angry that he was addressing
their unbelief. |
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Luke 21:22 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. |
“vengeance” = “doling justice n. — the act of meting out justice
according to the law” (BSL) |
This presents what was soon to happen to Jerusalem as God’s justice
against the people of Israel. And the fact that it was “to fulfill all that
is written” means that this is the message of the Hebrew Scriptures as well.
No contradictions or cancellations. |
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Luke 21:23 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants
in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath
against this people. |
“wrath” = “orge” |
As this follows the “days of vengeance” in the previous verse, it
continues to affirm that Jerusalem would experience the wrath of God “against
this people”. |
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John 3:18 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son
of God. |
“condemned” = “to be condemned v. — to be or become subject to a
pronouncement of guilt and a punitive sentence in a legal context” (BSL). |
Those who do not believe in Jesus are condemned, guilty, and the “punitive
sentence in a legal context” takes us back to the “wrath of God”. |
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John 3:36 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. |
“wrath of God” = “orge tou theou” (wrath of God) |
“believes” & “does not obey” are opposites. “eternal life” & “the wrath of God” are opposites. And the fact that Jesus indicates the wrath of God “remains
(continues)” on people means it is already there as described in the Hebrew
Scriptures. |
While there
are not the same number of references to the “wrath of God” in the Gospels as
the epistles, it is clearly stated by John the Baptist and Jesus as a real
thing. However, Jesus did speak about hell both directly and indirectly, and
that tells us a lot about the wrath of God against sinners. I will simply show
the references:
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Text |
Scripture |
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Matthew 5:22 |
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be
liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council;
and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. |
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Matthew 5:29 |
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. |
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Matthew 5:30 |
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it
away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole
body go into hell. |
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Matthew 10:28 |
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. |
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Matthew 16:18 |
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. |
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Matthew 18:9 |
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It
is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown
into the hell of fire. |
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Matthew 23:15 |
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across
sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you
make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. |
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Matthew 23:33 |
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being
sentenced to hell? |
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Luke 12:5 |
But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed,
has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! |
There
is enough in these verses to show that Jesus saw hell as a synonym for the
wrath of God to come. I will share an article here for further reading if
anyone is interested.[1]
I will
also add a testimony of how God spoke through his word this morning. In Jesus’
familiar parable of the weeds and the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30), the master
instructed his servants to leave the weeds to grow among the wheat for the time
being “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them” (vs
29). But then he explains how justice will take place, “Let both grow together
until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the
weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my
barn’” (vs 30). Clearly, the harvest speaks of this judgment to come, including
all that Jesus taught about hell.
4. How did the other apostles
communicate about this “wrath”?
Let’s
continue the simple format to emphasize what is written in Scripture that
clearly contradicts BJ’s false teachings.
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Hebrews 3:11 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” |
“wrath” = “orge” |
“my wrath” means “wrath of God”. What God demonstrated towards a
generation of rebellious Israelites connects to what is expanded to refer to
the final judgment to come. |
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Hebrews 4:3 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore
in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were
finished from the foundation of the world. |
“wrath” = “orge” |
This is a second reference to continue the point of what happened to those
Israelites as a warning to not fall in the same trap and face the same
judgment. |
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Revelation 6:16 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the
face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, |
“the wrath of the Lamb” = “orge (wrath) tou arniou (of the Lamb)” |
This is a phenomenal rebuke to the BJs for suggesting Jesus corrected
his Father when here it shows that both the one who sits on the throne and
the Lamb are so terrifying in their wrath that the people are calling on the
rocks and mountains to bury them. |
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Revelation 6:17 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” |
“their wrath” = “auton tes orges (of their wrath)” “great” = “great adj. — remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree,
magnitude, or effect” (BSL). |
This clearly is the wrath of the Father and the Son, and it confirms
that this “great day” of their wrath is what the earlier writers were already
talking about. |
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Revelation 11:18 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to
be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and
those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the
destroyers of the earth.” |
“your wrath” = “sou he orge (your wrath)” |
This verse rhymes the thought of “your wrath came” with “time for the
dead to be judged (held to account for actions and sentenced)” and with “for
destroying (to destroy completely) the destroyers”. These are like three
witnesses against the BJs claim that Romans 5:9 is not speaking of “the wrath
of God” since the message of the wrath and judgment and vengeance and justice
of God are so absolutely clear that only those who do not want God to be as
holy and righteous as he is would deny what is revealed. |
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Revelation 12:12 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to
you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath,
because he knows that his time is short!” |
“wrath” = “thymon (fury)” “fury n. — a feeling of intense anger”
(BSL). |
It is noteworthy that the word “orge” has only been used in reference to God’s wrath, supporting the definition, “wrath (punishment) n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger long-building” (BSL). The devil's "wrath" is a different word indicating he is furious because his time is short, but he has no right, power, or authority to mete out justice against sin. He is the author of sin, and justice will be meted out on him. |
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Revelation 14:10 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into
the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence
of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. |
“wrath” = “thymou (fury)” “anger” = “orge (wrath)”
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This is a very real but horrifying look at the judgment coming on
those who bear the mark of the beast. And the fact it is in the presence of
both the holy angels and the Lamb again shows that Jesus was not correcting
his Father! |
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Revelation 14:19 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape
harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of
God. |
“wrath of God” = “fury of God” |
Clearly, God is expressing his overflowing anger and fury against the
horrible sinfulness of the people who worship the beast. |
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Revelation 15:1 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels
with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is
finished. |
“wrath of God” = “fury of God” |
What comes next is a description of the things that will complete
God’s wrath against unredeemed sinners. |
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Revelation 15:7 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven
golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, |
“wrath of God” = “fury of God” |
This judgment is pictured as pouring out on sinners the anger of God
that fills the bowls. |
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Revelation 16:1 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels,
“Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” |
“wrath of God” = “fury of God” |
God’s intense anger against sin is emphasized along with his justice
against sin. |
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Revelation 16:19 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup
of the wine of the fury of his wrath. |
“the fury of his wrath” = “fury of his wrath” |
Here John combines the fury and wrath of God in one expression. |
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Revelation 19:15 |
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What the verse says |
What the Greek says |
How it applies |
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From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the
nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the
winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. |
“the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (just as in the Greek). |
This is speaking of Jesus who is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (vs
16). Contrary to BJ’s claim, Jesus is not even close to correcting his
Father, but is himself expressing his Father’s fury and wrath totally in
keeping with him being the image of God, the Word of God, the radiance of the
glory of God, and the exact imprint of God’s nature. |
A big
part of my sharing is to expose the deceptive nature of “A More Christlike Word”
with a positive focus on how Christlike the word of God already is. In my daily
sharing, I am testifying to how God speaks through the Bible as his word. It is
because every book is Scripture that the collection is Scripture. It applies
that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” as Paul meant it, not as BJ means
it.
Earlier in this day’s journey I
shared a personal testimony above about how Jesus spoke of God’s wrath in his
parables. The parable of the wheat and the weeds
in Matthew 13 speaks of “the harvest” when the weeds will be gathered and
burned. This morning, as I continued in Matthew 13, I came to where Jesus’ disciples
asked him to explain this parable. Look how clearly he states what he meant:
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear (Matthew 13:36-43).
Clearly, Jesus was talking about the judgment of sinners, but in the
context of the reward of the righteous, the fullness of life in Jesus Christ our
Lord.
I will end here simply because we have covered so much ground. What we can say is that there is no doubt that the “wrath of God” is very real and that only the salvation given to us in Jesus Christ can redeem us from this wrath because only Jesus has propitiated God’s wrath by bearing our condemnation on himself.
However, this is exactly what is written, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II
Corinthians 5:21). There is no hope for us without Jesus becoming sin and
propitiating God’s wrath, but because of what he has done for us, we “become
the righteousness of God”. Unthinkable in this sin-cursed world, but Amazing
Grace in the kingdom of God!
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
A More Christlike Word © 2021 by Bradley Jersak Whitaker House 1030 Hunt
Valley Circle • New Kensington, PA 15068 www.whitakerhouse.com
Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the
Emmaus Way. Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.
Definitions from the Bible Sense Lexicon (BSL) in Logos Bible
Systems
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