Is God an enraged, sadistic, out-of-control tyrant?
Some people reject Penal Substitutionary Atonement because they don’t like the idea of God’s wrath. Of course, we cannot accept or reject an argument based on what we like or don’t like. So, the question is this: Does God have wrath?
The answer is an unequivocal “Yes.”
We see His wrath in many places in the Bible, including the beloved John 3:16. To understand how the “love” of God works in this verse, we need context.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:14-16)
The picture is one of wrath, hearkening back to the fiery serpents in the wilderness. As Moses lifted up the brass serpent on a pole to rescue people from God’s judgment, Jesus will rescue us by being lifted up on the cross.
In this video, we also look at Romans 1, 2, and 5, as well as the cup of wrath in Mark 14:36–the wrath of God that Jesus would experience the next day.
> Is God an enraged, sadistic, out-of-control tyrant?
He used to be if we’re to believe the Old Testament, but he seems to have gone into hiding now we’ve got cameras everywhere. But yes, God is depicted in the OT as having the same personality traits as a really horrible person who you wouldn’t want to spend any time with. If he was real, people like Moses would be absolutely petrified of him. He’s someone who can kill you in the blink of an eye on a whim – like Homelander from “The Boys”.
“Some people reject Penal Substitutionary Atonement because they don’t like the idea of God’s wrath.”
The reason most people reject substitutionary atonement is that it’s a completely irrational and useless idea. If I stole your car and wrecked it, what practical or moral purpose would be served if an innocent third party was arrested and imprisoned to ‘atone’ for my crime? Your car would still be wrecked, I’d be free to steal more cars, and an innocent person would be in prison.
“We see His wrath in many places in the Bible, including the beloved John 3:16.”
It doesn’t make any sense that God would have human emotions like anger, but if he did, it would be unreasonable of him to get angry with human beings whose entire nature he designed and created. By analogy, God is like a scientist who creates living beings in a lab experiment then gets angry with them for behaving exactly how he designed them to behave.