“We’ve been accused of being a feel-good church, and frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that. Jesus should make you feel good.” These words uttered by the pastor at a church I was visiting were enough to grab my otherwise wandering attention. Something felt inherently wrong about the pastor’s statement, although I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
The following week, I was at a different church that had advertised a message tackling the topic of prophecy. I sat through the entire sermon and left feeling as if, again, something wasn’t quite right about what I had just heard. Several moments of reflecting provided my answer – they hadn’t touched on any of the tough topics that come along with prophecy (false prophets, the difference between prophecy and fortune telling, i.e.). In fact, neither of the two churches had ever approached any tough topic in all the times I had attended either of them. Both churches simply left out anything that didn’t evoke warm, fuzzy feelings in the congregation.
I’m not under the impression that God is “out to get us” or anything along those lines, but I also struggle with the idea that God is basically a giant teddy bear meant simply to provide us with snuggles and happy feelings. When we, as Christians, consider certain aspects of the Old Testament – such as the great flood or Sodom and Gomorrah – we can’t deny the not-so cuddly side of God. Even in the New Testament, Jesus grows angry and flips tables in the temple. The righteous anger of God is apparent time and time again throughout the Bible.
However, the church of today is less focused on addressing issues like God’s anger, false prophecy, or even Hell and spends the majority of its time attempting to draw members in by providing a place to come for a weekly opportunity to feel good. Christians today don’t want to feel challenged, they want to feel uplifted and gratified and that is a very dangerous game. We as the church cannot expect to place God within human parameters and have that work in our favor.
Facebook is a common medium for expressing the opinion that God and His followers are not allowed to disagree with anyone because that would not be “loving.” The concept of not judging others has been transformed from human inability to decide the eternal fate of others to the idea that it is unacceptable to call out sinful actions or to disagree with the theology of those around you. Instead of the unique world filled with free will that God intended, Christians and non-Christians alike are attempting to make the world one where everyone shares the same opinion and no one disagrees with anyone else. God is expected to be more like Ghandi than the simultaneously loving and wrathful being He is.
The idea that God’s love means accepting everything as a good thing is sweeping the nation, but this is a fatal misconception. God’s love comes along with a righteous anger and just punishments. When God’s children disobey, there are consequences for those actions. In Nahum Chapter 1, we are told “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Nahum 1:2-3 ESV)
God does love us and He wants what is best for His children, but in the same way parents teach their children consequences, God teaches us consequences. Believing in God and pursuing a relationship with him does not make Christians exempt from God’s commands or the consequences of disobedience. However, this seems to be the mindset of many Christians today. The church focuses on only the grace of God and not the reality of His wrath.
While God is a loving God, He is also a God who has a just wrath. His consequences are perfect, whether we understand them or not. Today’s Christians need to realize that this teddy bear, accepting of everything, Ghandi-like God is simply a human projection that falls short of God’s full character. If we fall into the trap of believing that God has no anger, we are placing God in a box.
The church needs to address the tough topics, even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It is unfair to turn a blind eye to the consequences of our behaviors and our choices, simply to make everyone “feel good.” God is not a God who turns a blind eye to our behavior and we need to stop projecting him as one.
