Myth Busted! God is an Angry, Judgmental God

This has to be my favorite myth to bust because it is the most detrimental to our relationship with God, definitely the most wrong but also, it seems one of the most common misconceptions of God.  So first, I have to address that there are actually two parts to this statement – that God is an angry God AND that He is here to judge us.

Let’s talk about the first part of that statement - is God an angry God? The best way to answer this question is to dive into the scriptures to John 1:18 which states; No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known. Basically John is saying here that Jesus came to show us here on Earth exactly the heart of God by walking among us.

What do we know about the character of Christ as he walked the Earth? We see throughout the gospels that Jesus’ mission was to do good. He went about healing, encouraging, serving, and in the end sacrificing himself for us. Jesus was really good at putting his money where his mouth was, shall we say, he backed all he talked about with action and ALL of his actions were full of unconditional love. So if Christ came to represent the heart of God what then does that say about God?

Now let’s tackle the second part – Is God judgmental? Well we know from scripture that God is the ultimate judge, however, we have to understand that he is also perfectly just. We, as humans, can’t fully understand how just He is and what perfect justice looks like; only God knows that. We also know that he is a merciful God.

I heard a great story recently that really helps summarize how God judges. A 16 year old young man just got his license, went out to drive and not so very long after getting his license he got into an accident. The accident wasn’t that bad but it was this boy’s fault. The boy and his father went to court in hopes of persuading the judge not to take away the boy’s license as that was a common punishment for young drivers. After hearing what happened, the judge sternly looks down at the boy who was clearly terrified and asks, “How do you plan on paying for the damage?” The boys starts to say, “Well… my dad says he could…” but the judge stops him and says to the boy, “No, how are YOU going to pay for the damages?” The boys sheepishly replies, “Well I have a part-time job…” So the judge looks straight in the eye of the father and says to him, “Dad, make sure your son pays for ALL of it!”

Now let me tell you just how deep God's love is for us; despite all the bad things we’ve done and all the debt we have to pay to him - unlike the judge who ruled against the boy - God doesn’t look to us to pay it. God instead turns to his beloved and perfect son Jesus and says, “Son, “Make sure you go and pay all of it for every last one of them.” And that’s exactly what he did. See, yes, God is in fact a judge but a judge with perfect compassion and unconditional love for us and that makes all the difference!

So we can see through scripture and hopefully even throughout your life that God is a merciful and loving father to us instead of an angry ruler. Romans 5:8, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

There is so much more I’d like to say on this topic but I fear this post is too long and I might have already lost you! But at least I hope I’ve answered this question, to some extent, as to what the true heart of God is like and more importantly what it is not like which is angry and judgmental.