It is fair that people have a hard time reconciling the two things we see from God actions:

• The love displayed by Jesus as He walked this earth, the love based teachings of the New Testament, Jesus sacrifice for us on the cross and the promise of Heaven.
• The harsh wrath displayed by God in the Old Testament and upon the unsaved in eternity (more on that last one on our page about God sending people to Hell).

But, once we understand the purpose of each and how they fit in the timeline of what God is doing, we can see how it is all part of a loving plan and how it matches what we believe in how a loving and healthy parent-child relationship plays out.

There are two subpages here, one for God’s love and one for His wrath.  But remember the big picture first of what God is doing.  That is important because we see more of His wrath in the Old Testament and more of His love in the New Testament.  There is more on this in our page on the big picture of what God is doing, but here is quick summary:

• In eternity past (before earth), it is clear that God gave His creation (angels, etc.) freewill because 1/3 of them denied God’s love and wisdom and rebelled.  So, understanding why God gave us freewill is important.
• This blink-of-an-eye time on earth was created to let us see what happens when we get to do things our way.  In the Garden of Eden, when we were given the rules of good conduct in the Old Testament (Old Covenant), when we were given the message of grace in the New Testament, in each, we rebelled.  God is letting us see what we do with freewill.  We focus on “self” and we think, like the 1/3 of the angels, that we know better than God.  Focusing on self corrupts relationships.  One of the purposes of this blink-of-an-eye time on earth is expressed in the parable of the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) – surfacing who are those that are rebelling.
• Eternity future in Heaven:  Heaven will not include those that focus on “self” and reject that God is more wise and loving than them.  Heaven will be the first time and place that everyone there will be people that decided God is more loving and wise than us and God will be in the direct presence of all of us.  The result will be an eternity of wholesome relationships with God and others because we all trust God.

God built one of the most helpful things to understand why He let’s bad things happen directly into our design – the parent-child relationship.  The child focuses on “now” like we focus on just this blink-of-an-eye time on earth.  The wise and loving parent focuses on the child’s overall life like God focuses on our overall eternal life.  More on that in our page with the 6-year-old picture story.  This is one of the most helpful pages on this site, so consider reading it.  https://whatsgoddoing.com/faqs/the-6-year-old-picture-story/

So, let’s dive into God’s love and wrath:
Link to subpage on His love
Link to subpage on His wrath
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