Paul Washer's Erroneous View of God
In a recent Facebook post, this meme appeared:
IMO, Mr. Washer has done a significant amount of damage to the body of Christ with his teachings over the years (see video link at the end of this post for some examples), and the quote above seems to be another example of Washer’s flawed theology.
My response to the meme is below:
I wonder how Paul Washer fits these two passages into his theology/view of God...
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Is Washer saying that God hated sinners at the same time He loves them? That doesn't make sense. IMO, Washer ought to revisit the passages about God's wrath and rethink his doctrine in view of the FACT that God loves sinners.
In Romans 1, Apostle Paul discusses the wrath of God.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...."
Apostle Paul then goes on to tell us HOW God reveals His wrath:
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves...
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions...
God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done....".
Apostle Paul is describing God's wrath as letting people suffer the consequences of their own intents and choices.
Psalm 107 describes specific examples of people suffering the consequences of their choices and God using those consequences to draw them and save them:
"Some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction...
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress."
THAT is the wrath of God in most instances. It's similar to a parent who has to allow a teenager make some bad choices and suffer the consequences in order for the teenager to learn and grow. It causes pain to the parent to see their child suffer because of said consequences, but such is necessary.
God loves the sinner and wants him/her to know Him. God hates that the sinner is going around harming him/her self and others. Yet God also allows His offspring1 to make bad choices and suffer the consequences of those choices.
Dr. Michael S. Heiser2 points out what should be obvious to Washer and everyone else from the above passages, but Washer can't see it.
"... it’s a mistake to say that the point of the sacrifice of Christ was that God was angry at the sinner... We might say that God is angry with the sinner instead of at the sinner. He’s angry because the sinner is forfeiting what he could have in relationship with God, or that sin is self-destructive. God loves people and sin destroys them. That makes God angry. But that’s different than God being angry at the sinner... God is angry with the sinner because of what sin costs the sinner. God hates what sin does to people. He hates that it irrupted into his good world. He doesn’t hate sinners, though. I would think John 3:16 makes that clear."
Apostle Paul tells us: "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Which confirms that Heiser is correct - God's anger is directed at the fact that sin harms other people (and one's self). God's goal in giving instructions/commandments is for people to cooperate, get along, love one another, not harm one another.
The commandments are NOT arbitrary rules that God made up to force people to jump through pointless hoops. The commandments were given to provide a basis for functional family units, a functional society, etc...
Here’s the video link I mentioned at the beginning of this post. The creator of the video is addressing the errors in Washer’s teachings to young Christians about dating, courtship, marriage, sex, etc…
In Acts 17, Apostle Paul tells unbelievers in Athens, Greece that they are the offspring of God.
Some Random Thoughts About Substitutionary Atonement
https://drmsh.com/random-thoughts-substitutionary-atonement/