Question: I have a friend whose ex-boyfriend is humiliating her online and she wants to retaliate to make him stop but I am telling her God will step in but it doesn’t seem like He is because the ex is still doing it. Where is God’s Vengeance in all of this? – Dee Answer: Dee, […]
Question: Is God Mad at Me? While studying about wrath, I came across a question: What does it mean when God has “wrath” towards them (John 3:36)? Basically, is God mad at me? I believe (as in Romans 1) that God’s wrath is against the actions (ungodliness). However, there are many verses like John 3:36 […]
Wrath and anger, as the Bible uses them, are especially important words to understand correctly. Note that this is an especially-long definition page but a very important term to understand. Traditional Legal Model – God’s outrage at the wrong done to Him; at how He has been treated. It is directed towards the one who has […]
In both gospel models, of course, names are recognized and used as identifying labels. Beyond that, there are variations in emphasis of different aspects. Traditional Legal Model – At times, great importance is put on use of the correct name and pronunciation especially of divine names and you had better use them. The Jews went […]
Korah’s rebellion and the destruction that followed can be better understood by looking at what the Bible says about murmuring. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, documents the experiences of Israel in the wilderness: “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed […]
“And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him [Moses], and sought to kill him.” (Exodus 4:24) This verse occurs in the midst of the account of Moses traveling from Midian back to Egypt from which he had fled 40 years earlier. God was sending Moses on a […]
To understand how hearts are hardened it might be helpful to understand what the opposite of hardening the heart is: “Because thine (King Josiah’s) heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation […]
Traditional Legal Model – To be hardened is understood to be an individual’s action of resisting or refusing truth. Biblical Healing Model – The meaning is the same but the word is included in the glossary to clearly distinguish who is responsible for the hardening. From a Modern Dictionary: Hardened (adjective) made or become hard […]
Smote in the New Testament The Greek word translated as smote is “patasso” (Strong’s G3960): probably prolongation from 3817; TDNT-5:939,804; {See TDNT 607 } v AV-smite 9, strike 1; 10 1) to strike gently: as a part or a member of the body 2) to stroke, smite: with the sword, to afflict, to visit with evils, […]
Traditional Legal Model – Smote or to smite is used both as a physical blow and as the conscience being smitten. Biblical Healing Model – The word is used similarly except that this model recognizes that often when God is said to smite it is by withdrawing His protection. It is also understood in the […]