Once again I feel it necessary to reiterate that GOD HATES SINNERS.
Second to state that the worldly culture in general has seen fit to relegate the fear of God to the waste bin of history. In effect, this attitude attempts to kill the God of righteousness and extinguish the flames of hell. The result is to justify sin and give license to it - in the name of love.
But if the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, as the proverb teaches - then what is the debauchery of the fear of God but the beginning of foolishness and sin and death?
There is no such limitless love of God expressed in the Bible. Anywhere. It is true that those who justify sin and wickedness do so in the name of love and can quote numerous scriptures using them as slogans, but it is not the point and context of scripture. It is said that figures don't lie, but liars can figure. Similarly, scripture doesn't lie, but liars can quote scripture.
In point of truth God loves righteousness and is very jealous of it. He destroyed Israel and Judah, the world of Noah and he ejected Adam and Eve from the land of God because of it. Jesus said that He didn't come to replace the law, but to fulfill it. If that is true, then the ultimate purpose of His ministry and sacrifice was to fulfill righteousness....to offer sinners a way to be justified before God the Father.
The gospel of love wins no one to Christ these days. The gospel of the cross and the blood Jesus shed to avoid the wrath of God is that which saves. To dilute the true message of the imminent wrath of God upon SINNERS, is to commit the gravest sin in the book - to call God a liar when He said He would damn the soul that sins.
Salvation is not license to sin. It is not universal and it is not based upon love. The salvation of love is, however, sold by every snake oil salesman since the world began, and as PT Barnum once said, "there's a sucker born every minute."
If GOD HATES SINNERS, as the Bible says He does, then the next logical step to be taken is to repent of one's sin and beg forgiveness and salvation.
But nobody really wants to do that. Everyone would rather rely upon human efforts to justify human sin by means of love - any way they can do it.
and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
God does
not necessarily hate sinners, but rather the sin that they commit. Jesus told Nicodemus: "For God loved the world (those who are alienated from God) so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."(John 3:16)
Hence, our Maker, Jehovah God, has deep love for mankind and gave his "only-begotten Son"(or was fathered by God) for those who would in time "exercise faith" in him, but does hate those who intentionally lie about him, such as the religious leaders of Christendom as a group (not as individuals), called "the man of lawlessness" at 2 Thessalonians 2:3.
At Matthew 21, Jesus was tested by the Jewish religious leaders, asking concerning his "works": "By what authority do you do these things ? And who gave you this authority ?"(Matt 21:23) Jesus knew their intention was wicked, for they could see the blind and lame people that were cured by him, but rejected it as coming from God.(Matt 21:14, 15; see also John 9 concerning the man born blind and the Jewish religious leaders response at verses 24 and 29)
So Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders: "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going ahead of you
into the Kingdom of God (all who are truly sinners). For John came to you in a way of righteousness, but you did not believe him. However, the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even when you saw this, you
did not feel regret afterward so as to believe him."(Matt 21:31, 32)
So, in the illustration that he next gave, he lays out the fact that the Jewish religious leaders as a group would see "a terrible destruction on them" in the future.(Matt 21:41, which proved true when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 C.E.) These proved to be God's enemies, so that Jehovah had a right to hate them.
But "the tax collectors and the prostitutes" accepted Jesus as the Messiah and changed their personality, their habits, to "strip off the old personality and clothe (themselves) with the new personality, which through accurate knowledge (of the Bible) is being made new according to the image of the One who created it."(Col 2:9, 10)
The Jewish religious leaders, on the other hand, rejected Jesus despite his "powerful works", including resurrecting Lazarus from the dead, and then sought to kill both Lazarus and Jesus.(John 11:47, 53; 12:10) They showed their wickedness, deserving of God's hate or wrath.
So, God's wrath remains upon those who willfully promote lies about him (yes, they know what they teach is wrong, but teach false religious doctrines anyway so as to "tickle" the ears of others, 2 Tim 4:3), who prove unwilling up to "the day of Jehovah" to share the "Kingdom" with others (see Matt 25:24-30 concerning the "sluggish slave" who buried his talent and was severely chastised by the "master") despite calling themselves "Christian", who continue to be obstinate despite efforts to reach such ones with "the good news of the Kingdom."(Matt 24:14)
Jesus said that "the one who exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; the one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him."(John 3:36)
