Lenten Perspective: God and Volcanoes

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

God and Volcanoes

Scripture:

Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn't disciplined by his or her father? But if you don't experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters.

Hebrews 12:7-8 (CEB)

Bring me joy; bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When my life bring me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

From "Bring the Rain" by MercyMe

In the 1990 romantic comedy Joe Versus the Volcano, the Waponi people live on a volcanic island and believe in an angry fire god who threatens to destroy the island every hundred years. Joe Banks, portrayed by Tom Hanks, is asked to be the willing human sacrifice necessary to appease the angry fire god. Similar versions of this story have been told in numerous films, cartoons, and comic books.¹

I become really disturbed when I hear the ways that some Christians speak of God. Some Christians have a perception of God that is not unlike the pagan volcano gods portrayed in the media. They describe a God who is growing angrier and angrier and angrier with each sin humanity commits. They speak of Christ's death on the cross much like the human sacrifice necessary to appease an angry volcano god. The catch is that God will still pour out His righteous anger forever and ever and ever on anyone who does not believe in Christ and His sacrifice.

Based on their descriptions of God, one might come to the conclusion that God hates sin a lot more than God loves humanity.

I don't believe that God is like an angry volcano god. Though Scripture does indeed tell us about the wrath of God, Scripture also tells us about the love and mercy of God. Over and over again, the Old Testament describes God as "merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."² The prophet Micah says that God "doesn't hold on to His anger forever" but "delights in faithful love."³ St. John even goes so far as to say that God is love.⁴

Can a God who is gracious and merciful and who is, by nature, love itself ever become angry with us, His sons and daughters?

Yes, I believe that God does, at times, become angry with us - at least in extreme situations - but I also believe that God's anger originates from God's love. Sometimes people seem to present the holiness of God as an aversion to sin not unlike an aversion to germs a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder might experience. In the book Surprised by Christ, A. James Bernstein argues against this notion, saying, "God hates sin, not because of what it does to Him, but because of what it does to us."⁵ In short, God hates sin because it hurts us. We know from Scripture that God loves us dearly, so it makes sense that God would only want what is best for us. Even so, God knows, as well as we do, that our having what is best for us depends on the choices we make.

Imagine for a moment that you have a child. As a good parent, you love your child dearly, and you want only what is best for your child. Now imagine having to watch your beloved child continually spiral downward, making one stupid, selfish, destructive choice after another. Would you not be angry? Of course you would! It would be unloving for you not to be angry with your child for his or her destructive decisions. If your child's destructive actions did not upset you, I would question whether or not you really cared about your child at all!

St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, writes, "God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodly behavior and the injustice of human beings who silence the truth with injustice." He goes on to say that "God abandoned them to their hearts' desires" and to "moral corruption."⁶ In this case, the wrath of God seems to be more passive than active. As C.S. Lewis wrote, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"⁷

I have a bad habit of letting my car's gas tank run dangerously low before refueling. One night, there was an accident on a major highway in my town, and traffic became congested, even on back roads. Of course, I had let my gas tank run low once again, and, already driving on fumes, I found myself in a traffic jam. Afraid of being stranded, I flew into a rageful panic. Luckily, I was able to get to a gas station. I told my mother about the incident, and she said that this would hopefully cause me to change my ways. I cynically yet honestly told her that I probably would not change my ways until I actually found myself stranded on the side of the road.

One night years ago, while I was watching a talk show, I heard Dr. Drew Pinsky say that there are two situations that will cause an addict to change his ways. Either the addict becomes so disgusted with himself that he is compelled to give up his addiction, or he comes to the realization that if he doesn't give up his addiction, he will die.

Maybe this is true, not just for addicts, but for all of us sinners. Maybe we will only learn some lessons the hard way. Maybe sometimes we have to get what is coming to us for us to be compelled to change. Maybe God has to let us hit rock bottom before we will begin look up at Him once again. Perhaps the wrath of God can be better understood as the tough love of God. Perhaps the punishment we receive from God hurts God more than it hurts us.

Before the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, God gave them a list of blessings they would receive if they did what was right and an even longer list of punishments they would face if they did what was wrong. God then promises them that, even if they do go astray, if they repent and return to Him, they will be restored.⁸ The good news is that punishment and wrath are not God's ultimate goal for the wayward. God's ultimate goal for all of us is our restoration.

God's tough love can be seen in the story of the prophet Jonah, in which God appears to torment Jonah from the beginning until the end. First, God commands Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and to minister to a people whom Jonah hates. Next, when Jonah tries to run away from his duty, God sends a storm to stop him and a whale to swallow him. After Jonah convinces the people of Nineveh to repent and becomes angry that God decides to spare them, God destroys Jonah's shade tree to teach him a lesson. In this story, God is not just forcing Jonah to do what He wants him to do or simply trying to give Jonah a hard time. God is working to break Jonah of the hatred he harbors for his enemies.⁹

We can also see God's tough love in Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son. The father in the story surely knows what his son is really like: he knows that his son is arrogant, rebellious, and self-destructive. When the son asks his father for his share of the inheritance, the father gives it to him and allows him leave home so that he might learn the hard way the consequences of his behavior. When the son hits rock bottom and comes home, the father is so happy to see him he runs to him, throws his arms around him, kisses him, and throws him a welcome-home party.¹⁰

This story does not tell us about a hateful, vindictive, spiteful God who holds grudges. This story tells us about a God who welcomes us back, not when we have completely fixed ourselves, but when we have turned around and made a step in the right direction.

According to St. Paul, "The wages that sin pays are death, but God's gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."¹¹ Sins are actions that cause despair, destruction, and death. When Jesus died on the cross, the one who had no sin was destroyed by the sins of humans. In a very literal way, He received the wages earned by the hatred the religious leaders harbored for Him and the violence of the Roman Empire. When He rose from the dead on the third day, he showed that the "wages that sin pays" are not the end of the story.

God hates sin, but God only hates sin because He loves us. Sometimes God even becomes angry with us when we refuse to see the light and refuse to do what is best for ourselves and for others. Sometimes God might even let us get what is coming to us so that we will change our ways. I believe that we are punished by our sins more often than we are punished for our sins, but, if God does indeed punish us for our sins, it is only because we are God's beloved sons and daughters.


Notes:
1 - tvtropes.org: "Appease the Volcano God"
2 - Exodus 34:6, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2 (NRSV quoted)
3 - Micah 7:18 (CEB)
4 - 1 John 4:7-8
5 - A. James Bernstein, Surprised by Christ. 2008, Conciliar Press. p. 259
6 - Romans 1:18,24 (CEB)
7 - From The Great Divorce
8 - Deuteronomy 28-30
9 - See the entire Book of Jonah
10 - Luke 15:11-32
11 - Romans 6:23 (CEB)

The photograph of the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, Costa Rica is attributed to the USGS and is believed to be public domain. The painting The Return of the Prodigal Son was painted by Pompeo Batoni in 1773.


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