I heard Joel Osteen and changed the channel

Sunday morning I came home from work, ate a little breakfast and laid down to sleep the day away – I did have to work that night. I turned on the TV and was flipping through the channels and came across Joel Osteen. He was preaching about the prodigal son and it was interesting. Running through his message was this story of his mother praying for a man who had grown up in church but became a country singer, a prodigal. By this time, I wanted to find out what became of the man. Good news - her prayers were answered, he came back to the Lord and was actually in the audience.

But then Osteen got to the interesting part of the message. He said God wasn’t angry anymore. You see, part of the country singers’ problem was the churches he attended talked about an angry and always disapproving God, but the singer learned from Osteen that that’s just not true. Not anymore.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. We briefly attended a church last year, liked the worship, not crazy about the preaching. One Sunday I heard the pastor say the same thing – God is not angry anymore. He’s not angry with anyone. Maybe this pastor explained it that Sunday and it didn’t register, but Joel Osteen explained if fully. He said, It is true that in the Old Testament God did sometimes get angry at people and nations, but now, because of what Jesus did, He’s no longer angry and He doesn’t act like that anymore.

I changed the channel.

It sounds good and plays well. But, is it true? Has God’s character changed? Was he angry and always displeased and disapproving in the Old Testament, but now in the New Testament He’s loving and kind and merciful? NO. This is actually a very old heresy, and it’s most infamous promoter was a man named Marcion. He said the God of the Old Testamnet, this angry and petty deity was a different God from the one of the New Testament. The early fathers went to great lengths to demonstrate that the God of the Old Testament was exactly the same as the God of the New. They are not different gods and God has not changed.

Now I know that Joel Osteen was not saying all that. But what he said is based on the same reading of the Old Testament. So the question remains, Has God changed? Was He angry in the Old Testament and now, because of Jesus, He is no longer angry?

First, if someone reads the Old Testament and sees only an angry and vengeful God, that person is reading something into those 39 books! For it is chock full of grace and mercy and kindness. Consider:

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,   Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...

It is true that the Old Testament speaks of the wrath of God and of judgment to come and has several instances of God’s judgment on people and nations. But did this theme disappear in the New Testament?
John the Baptist, "when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:  And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."

You might say, Well, John is still Old Testament. What about Jesus? He said, But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

Of course, it is also true that Jesus said: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Amen!  But we often forget to read on in the same chapter: “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

This theme of the wrath of God runs throughout the New Testament. “For therein [in the Gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed… For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;” and, “Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.” And here is Paul’s description of the glorious second coming of our Savior: “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”

God has not changed, as He declared in the Old Testament, “I am the LORD, I change not.” What He was, or better, who He was under the Old Covenant, He is under the New Covenant! Therefore, those who preach an always angry and disapproving God, lie. In the Old Testament itself we read, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”
And, those who tell us that God once was angry but that he is no longer angry with sinners, that there is no wrath to come, from which we should flee, also lie.

The cry of God has always been, “Why will you die? Turn and live!” For God so loved – notice, He loved us before Jesus came and died on the cross, it was His love which sent Jesus to die for us – the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Amen. Turn and live. The door is open. God is calling. Turn and live! Make no mistake, there will come a day when the door will close and the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven. But now, before that day come, run to Jesus who delivers us from the wrath of God!

I changed the channel because Joel Osteen was only half right. And the half that he has wrong is a lie. A dangerous and damning lie.