God Hates Sin Archives | The Way Forward

History tells us that the Roman Catholic Church butchered and killed people they considered heretics. When confronted with the brutality done in the name of the Catholic God, Catholics will often say the Church never killed anyone. It was civil authorities that carried out the punishment of heretics, so the blood is on their hands and not the church’s.

This is a classic dodge used by many Christians to avoid the logical conclusions of their actions and beliefs. I am sure you have heard countless times, hate the sin but love the sinner. To the homosexual, they say, yes God hates your sin, but we love you and so does God. They never seem to understand how disingenuous this sounds. Telling someone they are hated and at the same time telling them they are loved is contradictory and quite confusing.

But Bruce, it is the sin God hates not the person, the Christian says. Only in the Christian bubble does this kind of thinking make any sense. I look at it this way…if you came upon a skunk in the woods and he sprayed you, would you say, I hate the smell but love the skunk? Of course not. The skunk and the smell are intricately linked. (besides the Bible says, The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. (Psalm 5:5-6) The LORD tests the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. (Psalm 11:5) )

I wish Christians would be honest about this and quit trying to cover up the harshness of their beliefs with cheap clichés that no one believes. I wish they would own what the Bible says and just tell it like it is. Don’t Christians have the mind of Christ? Aren’t they filled with the Holy Ghost? Don’t they have God’s perfect Word at their disposal? Why not be honest with what God says? No need to sugar coat things.

We get it. God hates sin and those who do it. We get it. Unless we repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will die in our sins and be tortured in hell by the Christian God for all eternity. It seems atheists are more willing to accept the Bible for what it says than many Christians are,

Yesterday, a commenter said to me:

About the most I know about atheism is what God said in a verse that you used to love, but don’t love it much now. Ps. 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.”

I replied:

Besides, I am a fool in your eyes, yes?

The commenter replied:

NO, you are not a “fool” in my eyes. That’s what God said, not me.

In other words, God said it, he didn’t, so he can’t be held responsible for what GOD said.

Christians need to understand that when they quote Bible verses at nonbelievers the nonbeliever does not separate the quote from the person saying it. When a Christian tells me God thinks I am a fool then I understand that to mean that they think I am a fool too.

The commenter needs to own the harshness of the words he quoted from the Bible. It is his God speaking and I would assume that a Christian would want to speak the same words as God on how an atheist is to be viewed. Doubly so, since this commenter is a pastor.

Christians either need to quit quoting the Bible to nonbelievers or they need to own what the Bible says and quit trying to deflect accountability for what it says.

A common cliché used by Christians is:

I hate the sin but love the sinner.

The reason Christians use this cliché is that they want to be on God’s side and the sinner’s side at the same time. Most Christians, except for the Fred Phelps, Ken Silva, Peter Ruckman kind of Christians, want to be liked and respected. They know the Bible says some pretty harsh things about non-Christians and the sins they commit.

Here’s the problem with this cliché. God doesn’t think this way. Note what the Bible says about God and how he views sin and the sinner:

God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:11)

The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth (Psalm 11:5)

Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (Psalm 45:6,7)

Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,(Proverbs 6:15-17)

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. (Amos 5:2)

And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD. (Zechariah 8:17)

I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. (Malachi 1:2,3)

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:13)

For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: (divorce) for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. (Malachi 2:16)

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. (Revelation 2:5,6)

The Bible is clear. God not only hates sin but he also hates those who do it. According to good, old fashioned, substitutionary atonement, Evangelicalism, God would even hate the Christian if it weren’t for Jesus standing between God and the Christian.

Look at what God did to Jesus on the cross. It is hard not to conclude that God really has a problem with anger. He beat his son to death, not for his own sin, but for the sins of others. Talk about taking the whole sin and sinner thing seriously.

As a pastor I never used the hate the sin but love the sinner cliché. The Bible is quite clear on the sin/sinner issue. God turned the devil loose on the human race after Adam and Eve sinned and he has been punishing the human race ever since. Christians, because of Jesus’ atonement, are protected from God’s anger over sin, but non-Christians bear the full-brunt of God’s wrath.

Ponder the message of the book of Revelation. What’s the central theme of the book? The rapture? The second coming? What does the writer of Revelation spend most of his time writing about? Wrath. Judgment. God does some pretty sick stuff to the humans who are alive when Jesus comes back again, and when he is all done, what does he do? He sends all the non-Christians to the Lake of Fire to be tormented day and night for all eternity. This sure makes me want to break out in song and sing, What a Mighty God we Serve.

I used to explain God’s view of sin and sinner this way:

Imagine you are taking a walk in the woods and come upon a skunk. Before you can run, the skunk raises its tail and sprays you. Do you at that moment say I love the skunk but hate his smell? Of course not. The skunk is directly connected to the smell. No skunk, no smell.

So it is with sinners and their sin. Sin is what sinners do. You can no more disconnect a sinner from his sin that you can a skunk from his smell.

I should note in passing that most of the God hates talk is found in the Old Testament. The person who talks the most about God hating? None other than, the man after God’s own heart, David.

Christianity would be better served if it jettisoned the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. As long as these books remain in the Bible, Christians will continue to have a hard time explaining to the non-Christians that God really loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life.

God may be love but he sure has a mean streak.