If you seek a God of vengeance and violence,
you will find your God in the Bible.
If you seek a God of compassion and love,
you will find your God in the Bible.
In fact,
the history of Christianity
tells the story of the battle
between these two incompatible images.

Inevitably, one of these two wins out,
and the  other must be discarded.
Let me repeat:
Inevitably, one wins,
and we discard the other. 

You must choose.

Need some help?
The answer is fairly simple:
We find the definitive disclosure of God
in Jesus–
healing,
reconciling,
nonviolently resisting an unjust system of domination,
unconditionally embracing the fringes,
calling us to rework the  world
to match his dream of peace.

So the winner?
(Envelope please…)
The God of compassion and love.
And one day,
one glorious morning,
all who identify themselves as Christians
will awaken to this astonishing, transformative truth.

It will be tougher for some than others;
a God of anger and vengeance is much more satisfying
for those of us nursing our own, sad need
for retribution and fairness.

But we're invited to a great Party
thrown by the God of love
that leaves the god of anger lost in the dusty past
and welcomes absolutely everybody else.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.