When I set out to write a post about this, I found the article below and it describes the problem fundamentalists and many others have created with their translation of wrath.
If it is indeed anger, or anger and consequential punishment, it’s quite out of line with the character of God, who loves everyone and has set in motion his plan to save the whole of his creation, excluding nothing and no-one.
The Greek for wrath is orgé (ὀργή), which is where our words orgy and orgasm are derived from. That is weird, since an orgy is used to describe a wild sexual group interaction, where the participant give themselves over to hedonistic desires and feelings. If the word wrath originally meant anger and punishment, it’s meaning had certainly been lost on those who started to use the words orgy and orgasm for the above.
Strong’s doesn’t leave out the meaning completely, but as with many other words, it seems reverse transcription of the meaning is again being done here. (as in: we know it means anger and punishment, so that meaning is put into the definition).
orge –
(G3709) 2. movement or agitation of the soul, impulse, desire, any violent emotion, but esp. anger.
W. E. Vine writes this:
orge –
originally any “natural impulse, or desire, or disposition,” came to signify “anger,” as the strongest of all passions.
It seems the anger meaning of orge is by implication and only if one doesn’t believe that Jesus already died and paid the full price for all sin. This is quite a serious falsehood in my opinion, which seems to be held up by the evidence.
So what does it actually mean when Paul writes about wrath in Col 3:6?
“Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,”
I believe the following makes it quite clear.
This was originally written by Fr Barnabas Powell, but the site is not available anymore except on archive.org, so I took the liberty of republishing it here.
American author Laird Barron once said “Mom was all about hellfire and brimstone. Her Old Testament God was a colossal, ancient brute, a maelstrom of blood and fire, of appetite and wrath.” Sounds familiar.
Our society has been shaped by a narrative, both subtle and overt, about how we think of God. And, for many people (could we say the majority?), God is exactly like Barron’s mother described: A colossal and angry deity, filled with exacting wrath to punish the “evildoer.” Here’s the problem; that description sounds more like the pagan deities of the ancient days than the God described in the scriptures. To be sure, there is lots of talk about wrath and God’s “anger”, but do those words mean what we think they mean? Could there be another way of seeing this that doesn’t impugn the character of the Father? After all, that was the first lie by the evil one; to say that God wasn’t good; that He was withholding something from us or meant to harm us.
Look at our lesson today in Romans 1:18-27:
BRETHREN, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
Paul certainly talks about God’s wrath here in this passage and he’s pretty specific about who are the folks subject to the wrath of God.
Notice what he says: The wrath of God is “revealed” (significant!) against people who know better! The people who have every advantage in knowing the truth, in knowing God Himself; the folks who have access to the wisdom of the ages; the faith “once delivered to the saints,” they are the ones who experience the wrath of God.
And what does God do? He “gave them up” (an amazing phrase that literally means God gave them exactly what they wanted: the freedom to do whatever they wanted) to their desires. And He did this because He loved them and never intended to impose Himself on anyone! And this all resulted BECAUSE they exchanged the true God for “gods” created in their own image rather than humbly embrace the God Who Is! They preferred their delusions and illusions over the Real Thing! They preferred their fantasy to reality.
And the result is that God’s wrath is “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness” In other words, the Love of God is experienced by these people who prefer fantasy over reality as punishment. It’s like how kids experience the kitchen light coming on while they are stealing cookies! And to make matters worse, these folks should know better! They have purposefully chosen to reject reality for their own “creation.” They insist on being “god” in their own fantasy and actively reject the reality of the True God.
No wonder Paul describes how they experience being forced to deal with reality as wrath! Just like we hate to “wake up” after a “good dream” these folks despise having to deal with the reality of their fantasy. They hate being told “No, that will hurt you. Don’t do that.” They rebel against any suggestion that what they want must be tempered and tamed by what is good. In other words, they feel like they are being punished when in reality they are BEING LOVED!
Today, are you willing to deal with reality and stop living in a fantasy world of your own creation? You have so many spiritual treasures available to you to help you wake up and live in reality. Rejecting these treasures will mean when you can’t run from reality anymore, you’ll think God is angry with you or punishing you. But He isn’t. He’s just calling you to be Orthodox on Purpose!
(End of quoted article)
So the next time you read about the wrath of God in the scriptures, think about His love for those who think they can do as they please in their own fake reality, having been given over to their passions and emotions. Think about the Master’s plan that will lead to eventually everyone and everything willing bowinging their knee in acknowledgement of Jesus Christ.
Reading the scriptures as a whole, not a verse is isolation, will help us retain the big picture, despite the many misguided preachers who want us to believe otherwise.
Christian-Mythbusters 