Is God Capable of Hate?

[austenbosten]

God is Love

Hate is the opposition of Love.

Therefore, God cannot hate, because it would be contrary to who He is.

All sin and hate exists due to opposition of God.

Therefore, the word “hate” does not apply to God in that sense…I think you could rephrase it a little better

Nicely summed up!

 

[Marie1234]

Nicely summed up!

Why thank you, darlin’.

The feeling is mutual about your comment.

 

[Marie1234]

If you believe that “with God, all things are possible” then yes, God can hate.

That logic is flawed… God is a constant. God is Love. Therefore, God is not hate and does not hate.

God Bless!

 

[Lost_Sheep]

That logic is flawed… God is a constant. God is Love. Therefore, God is not hate and does not hate.

God Bless!

I said he CAN hate. I did not say he DOES hate. But if with God all things (emphasis: all) things are possible, than the ability to hate is included with “all” things.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

You quoted some of the Psalms as support of the idea that God can be hateful.

The Psalms were not written by God, they were written by inspired men (David is often considered the author.) They are not all prescriptive, and many are lamentations for the sorrows of Israel.

They can be considered a beautiful and deeply moving series of poems or hymns that express the full range of human feeling and emotion - religious awe, devotion, love, sorrow - and even rage and anger.

There is bitterness expressed in the “Cursing Psalms” that seems over-the-top to modern readers - cries raised to God that the enemies of Israel should be buried alive, their teeth knocked out, their babies smashed on rocks, and so forth. Atheists love to point to these psalms as if they are somehow commandments from God to smash babies on rocks. They aren’t.

They are expressions of the rage and loss of the Israelites experienced under their conquerors. If you are enslaved, your friends slaughtered, your wife and children sold into slavery, your God mocked, driven from your land, your people drawn to forsake the one true God to follow the abominable practices of a hostile tribe and their demonic idols - yes, you will be angry, and you will say some very vengeful things, as Americans, even secular Americans did (under far less provocation) after 9-11 and after Pearl Harbor.

There is a lot of anger and hate and bitterness expressed all through the Bible, often by believers, speaking to God. Life in the ancient world wasn’t all sweetness and light. Even Moses got snappy: ““What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people? Did I give birth to them? Did I bring them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby?…If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”(Num 11:10-15)

Or Jonah: And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed. Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “angry enough to die!” (Jonah 4:8-9)

Anger is a part of life, even in the Bible, but we are taught not to let it control us.

 

[Robertanthony]

I said he CAN hate. I did not say he DOES hate. But if with God all things (emphasis: all) things are possible, than the ability to hate is included with “all” things.

God is coherent with his own nature, he cannot do something that is in opposition with his own nature. All things *logical and internally coherent *are possible. Brother, get out of Hell.

 

[Richard320]

One of my friends mentioned something the other day about the Westboro Baptist Church and it piqued my interest. From what I know about them, they seem to be motivated almost purely by hate, but I decided to visit their website. I was instantly shocked by how hateful their webpage was and it sickened me beyond belief. Everything seemed so incredibly hateful. But then I noticed that they posted some scripture in order to “validate” their hate.

Here are some of the Bible verses:

Leviticus 20:23 - “And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.”

You might try a different translation of the Bible. When you switch between languages, sometimes nuances get lost; English uses love whereas Ancient Greek has four distinct words: agápe, eros, philía, and storge. It works that way with many words. For instance, using the USCCB Bible pages, your first citation is translated as

Do not conform, therefore, to the customs of the nations whom I am driving out of your way, because all these things that they have done have filled me with disgust for them.

I know my Mother was disgusted with me plenty of times as a teenager, but that didn’t mean she stopped loving me.

Westboro Baptist is a bunch of cranks. They were outside the cathedral once. Cardinal Mahony was presiding and at the very end of Mass warned us by saying, “They’re in town to protest the Academy Awards, but that’s not until later tonight, so they came by here to spread some hate. Ignore them.” Well, I couldn’t, since I had to go out to the street to have a smoke after breakfast. One woman started shrieking at us for having graven images. When I pointed out that the camera she was carrying made graven images, she looked stunned, then turned to someone else and started screaming at them.

 

[Marie1234]

God is coherent with his own nature, he cannot do something that is in opposition with his own nature. All things *logical and internally coherent *are possible. Brother, get out of Hell.

That’s what I was trying to say, but I don’t think it’s very nice to imply he’s in hell or in evil territory…he just misinformed, right? He’s not intentionally saying something inconsistent with the faith .

God Bless!

 

[Robertanthony]

That’s what I was trying to say, but I don’t think it’s very nice to imply he’s in hell or in evil territory…he just misinformed, right? He’s not intentionally saying something inconsistent with the faith .

God Bless!

Bless your heart! No I was just referring to what he stated as his location, which is “My own private Hell”. God bless you, too.

 

[Marie1234]

Bless your heart! No I was just referring to what he stated as his location, which is “My own private Hell”. God bless you, too.

Haha!
OH, okay…
Ooops, well I see that now
Sorry about that!

God Bless you, sweetie!

 

[Radyj]

Who am I to know the wisdom of God, The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob upon whom no man could look upon and live. Creator of heaven and earth, The Great I Am.

Who in his love for mankind allowed his Son to die upon a Roman Cross not only for the redemption of our souls but to give us a glimpse of the depth of his love. To show his power over death and the grave in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

That the Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth Loves me and knows me personally is something I struggle to comprehend none the less I believe. I must also believe that Gods hatred of sin is for the effect that it must have; of driving us, his creation whom he loves away from Him who lovingly created us in His image.

 

[yunat]

Who am I to know the wisdom of God, The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob upon whom no man could look upon and live. Creator of heaven and earth, The Great I Am.

Who in his love for mankind allowed his Son to die upon a Roman Cross not only for the redemption of our souls but to give us a glimpse of the depth of his love. To show his power over death and the grave in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

That the Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth Loves me and knows me personally is something I struggle to comprehend none the less I believe. I must also believe that Gods hatred of sin is for the effect that it must have; of driving us, his creation whom he loves away from Him who lovingly created us in His image.

No man = no sin = no hatred of sin by God.

It really is that eloquently simple.

 

[Robertanthony]

No man = no sin = no hatred of sin by God.

It really is that eloquently simple.

Yunat, I’m a miserable speck of dust in comparison to God (I’m basically bragging here), so I don’t have him all figured out. I know he did create us out of his goodness, for our sake, not because it added anything to him, because he’s already perfect in everything and lacking in nothing. It’s not as if he felt lonely in his eternal solitude. His plan was all good, his desire is for us to choose him, to spend eternity with him beholding his majesty/glory/awesomeness etc. What Adam and Eve did was a slap in their Creator’s face. “You’ll be like gods”. They were the real life equivalent of Greek Mythology Pandora when she opened the proverbial box. Christ is God’s response to our fallen humanity. You can’t fault God with not trying, with not giving us chances.

I’m someone, due to my personality make-up, who often daydreams, thinks of how things could have been if this or that *had * happened, ultimately though, even though reality can be a *****, that’s all I/we have to work with. God could have not created us and spare some of us a lot of trouble, heartache and disappointment, but we have to contend with the reality that he did decide to go ahead and start creation some (according to our best estimates) 13.7 billion years ago. Do my very best to be judged worthy of being eternally with God is all i can do, really. I can’t speak for everyone, but my life is essentially me fighting almost daily a barrage of negativity which, if left unrestrained, would have me drown in it.

 

[yunat]

Yunat, I’m a miserable speck of dust in comparison to God (I’m basically bragging here), so I don’t have him all figured out. I know he did create us out of his goodness, for our sake, not because it added anything to him, because he’s already perfect in everything and lacking in nothing. It’s not as if he felt lonely in his eternal solitude. His plan was all good, his desire is for us to choose him, to spend eternity with him beholding his majesty/glory/awesomeness etc. What Adam and Eve did was a slap in their Creator’s face. “You’ll be like gods”. They were the real life equivalent of Greek Mythology Pandora when she opened the proverbial box. Christ is God’s response to our fallen humanity. You can’t fault God with not trying, with not giving us chances.

I’m someone, due to my personality make-up, who often daydreams, thinks of how things could have been if this or that *had * happened, ultimately though, even though reality can be a *****, that’s all I/we have to work with. God could have not created us and spare some of us a lot of trouble, heartache and disappointment, but we have to contend with the reality that he did decide to go ahead and start creation some (according to our best estimates) 13.7 billion years ago. Do my very best to be judged worthy of being eternally with God is all i can do, really. I can’t speak for everyone, but my life is essentially me fighting almost daily a barrage of negativity which, if left unrestrained, would have me drown in it.

Thanks for the response. As you can well imagine, I do not believe any of it and so, I live a fearless life. I take the good with the bad and genuinely appreciate the majesty of life and my good fortune at having the luxury of conciousness.

That being said, if I were a believer and had the hammer of heaven / hell over my head…non-existence would most certainly be the better alternative.

If you didn’t exist, you wouldn’t know it or know what you were missing, whether good or bad.

No man = no sin = no decisions to choose or reject God, which depending on the decision one reaches, can condemn man to an eternity in hell.

I’m to believe that;

God created man and then forces man, who is a finite creature, to make a decision that has infinite consequence?

Even if God is real and everything of Christianity is truth, I want nothing to do with such a supernatural being.

So yes, if it is all true, I am choosing hell, as that is apparently as far away as I can get from this supernatural being.

 

[Radyj]

God created a perfect world, with mankind in a state of perfection (eden) and it was mans disobedience to Almighty God that caused us to be in the state we find ourselves in.

Did God know Adam and Eve would sin? -Yes of course he is all knowing,
Did he cause them to sin?- No we were created with the ability to choose.
Well if he knew they were going to sin he made them sin by making them… seriously get off the circular logic.

Like most parents know children will sometimes do things to make you heartbroken or happy, furious or amazingly proud. It falls short of the Glory of God to put it in those terms none the less it is as apt an analogy as I can provide. Indeed we call God Father.

I will pray for you, pray you find the peace and joy found only in embrace and relationship with Almighty God.

 

[yunat]

God created a perfect world, with mankind in a state of perfection (eden) and it was mans disobedience to Almighty God that caused us to be in the state we find ourselves in.

Did God know Adam and Eve would sin? -Yes of course he is all knowing,
Did he cause them to sin?- No we were created with the ability to choose.
Well if he knew they were going to sin he made them sin by making them… seriously get off the circular logic.
U
Like most parents know children will sometimes do things to make you heartbroken or happy, furious or amazingly proud. It falls short of the Glory of God to put it in those terms none the less it is as apt an analogy as I can provide. Indeed we call God Father.

I will pray for you, pray you find the peace and joy found only in embrace and relationship with Almighty God.

I’m well pleased you at the very least understand the circular logic.

That logic is so sound, that I cannot ignore it.

Thanks for the discussion.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

God has set before us the choice between good and evil, life and death. It’s the same choice He gave to the ancient Israelites before they moved into the “promised land”. And it’s the same choice He gives everyone today.

Deuteronomy 30:15 - Douay-Rheims Bible

Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil:

It’s our choice. None of us can say we don’t know what good and evil are, unless we’re mentally incapacitated. Whether God “hates” is in one way irrelevant, since we’re going to answer for our actions, particularly as to how they relate to the way we treated other people.

To take extreme opposites - Mother Teresa chose good. Adolf Hitler chose evil.

In doing so they chose life (heaven) and death (hell). It was their choice, no matter how difficult it is to explain the difference between God in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The message about judgement hasn’t changed.

 

[davidv]

No man = no sin = no hatred of sin by God.

It really is that eloquently simple.

And simply wrong. Your failed to identify many good things that result from the creation of man. And you failed to show that the cost (sin) was greater than the benefits.

 

[Qoeleth]

I believe Anselm said God neither actually feels wrath (Hate), or love. Rather, both of these are to do with our relationship to Him. Sometimes He might seem angry or jealous or hateful, while other times loving and merciful. In reality, He is not one nor the other, but unchanging and wholly beyond all.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I believe Anselm said God neither actually feels wrath (Hate), or love. Rather, both of these are to do with our relationship to Him. Sometimes He might seem angry or jealous or hateful, while other times loving and merciful. In reality, He is not one nor the other, but unchanging and wholly beyond all.

There is also the question of dealing with billions of individuals similtaneously. He might be angry with a drug merchant, pleased with a nun, watching someone’s reaction to a current tempation, letting a sparrow fall while subtly alerting another to the presence of a cat, counting the hairs on somone elses’s head (pretty easy with me these days), judging someone who has just died, taking note of someone’s baptismal promises and all the rest.

So He would have to be in many different states similtaneously, as far as His creation is concerned.