This first sermon in this sub-series entitled “The Wrath of the Lamb” sets the stage for what is to come. Greg shows how the images in Revelation 6 have been traditionally interpreted as depicting God as a violent arbiter of wrath. However, he challenges these interpretations and introduces an alternative, which is more faithful to the text and to the revelation of God in Christ.
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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Lamb
• Greg Boyd
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The title of this sermon is a play off one of the most famous sermons ever given: “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards. This sermon expresses a common strand in church tradition, one that depicts God as having a violent streak that causes him to pour out his wrath upon sinners. For instance, Mark Driscoll wrote, “In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand, and the commitment to make someone bleed . . . . That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.” Many share this view. They see Revelation as a slaughter fest, and it is Jesus or God who is doing the slaughtering.
This sermon offers a different way of interpreting this book. It asks four questions and the answers provide a foundation for how to understand God’s judgment. How we interpret this chapter shapes how we interpret the rest of the book. The questions are as follows:
Question #1: What is the meaning of the command to “come”?
Each of the four living creatures say to each of the four horseman, “Come.” Is this a command for these horsemen to do God’s bidding? In which case all the destruction these four horsemen unleash on the world is indirectly God’s doing. Another option is that this is a command for evil to come out of hiding and to show its true colors. It is like he is saying, “Come forth and reveal yourself. Show your true colors.” “Come” is a command for evil to end its pretense, to be as nasty as evil really is. In this process, all who are given over to evil suffer the just and destructive natural consequences of the evil they’ve aligned themselves with. The self-implosion of evil, and experiences the destructive consequences of our decisions is what the Bible means by “a judgment of God.”
Question #2: “It was given”– by whom?
Who gave the authority and power to the different horsemen? The most common view is that the answer is God. God supposedly gave the first rider a crown so he could ride as an insatiable warrior conquering new lands. In this case, we must accept that the mayhem ascribed to these Four Horsemen is according to God’s will. However, the passage doesn’t say that God and the Lamb gave the first horseman his crown. Nor does it ever say that God and the Lamb gave any destructive agent their authority to destroy. Another way of reading this is to say that whenever an entity is given authority and power to kill, steal and destroy the giver is the thief whom Jesus says comes only to kill, steal and destroy.
Question #3: Who is the first rider?
Because it is assumed that the first horseman was called and commissioned by God, most who espouse the traditional violent-God interpretation think that the first horseman is Jesus Christ. Therefore, he’s going forth to conquer the world for the kingdom of God. The reason for thinking this is that the horseman rides a white horse and wears a crown, just as Jesus does in Revelation 19. However, the image of this insatiable warrior is radically inconsistent with the humble, loving, non-violent Jesus we find in the Gospels. In Revelation 19, Jesus’ only weapon is a sword that protrudes out of his mouth, which is a symbol of truth. And he wears many crowns to show that he is the one true king of all kings. The four horsemen are not agents of God. They are agents of the Dragon, the cosmic thief who comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. The first rider in Revelation 6 resembles Jesus because he is a pretender. He tries to look like the Lord, but in all the wrong ways.
Question #4: Does the Lamb actually terrorize people?
The imagery of the sun darkening, moon turning to blood, and other images are standard apocalyptic images. This is basically saying that the world is coming undone. People will apparently become so terrified that they would rather die than face “the wrath of the Lamb.” Are they correct in assuming that God and the Lamb are terrorizing them? Most interpreters have assumed that these folks were seeing things accurately.
Here are four reasons why they are deceived. First, the passage does not say that God or the Lamb blackened the sun, turned the moon red, rolled back the sky, shook mountains, or caused stars to fall to the ground like figs. While it is possible to interpret it in this way, there are other clues that indicate how the Dragon, not the Lamb, is behind all the symbolic destruction that we’ll see gets unleashed upon the earth. Secondly, the image of the Lamb doing this does not fit the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as depicted in the Gospels. The third thing to consider is that there are two perspectives that run throughout Revelation. The first is the true point of view. The second is illusory. The true perspective is expressed by those who inhabit the Throne Room of God and the Lamb. The deceived perspective, expressed by the ancient serpent and its cohorts, is embraced by all the inhabitants of the earth. The perspectives of the kings, princes, and generals and all the other inhabitants of the earth in chapter 6 are reflecting a deceived perspective because this is the perspective they always reflect throughout Revelation. The fourth reason to assume they are deceived is that the people of power are afraid of a little lamb, but they are not afraid of the dragon. This imagery is comical in nature.
The answers to these four questions will shape how you read the entire book of Revelation. If you assume that God has a cruel, violent streak in him, then you will find it. But if you assume that God looks like Jesus, then you will see the character of a sacrificial lamb. In some sense, as we interpret Revelation, it is interpreting us. We must ask if we will trust that the Lamb is central to the core of who God is. Who will we trust as worthy to reveal the truth about God’s character, God’s way of acting in the world and God’s means of defeating evil?
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Judgment, Non-Violence, Satan
Sermon Series: The Wrath of the Lamb
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Focus Scripture:
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Revelation 6:1-2, 12-17
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest…
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
8 thoughts on “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Lamb”
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I’ve never noticed the ridiculous aspect of being afraid of a lamb, but not of a dragon. Interesting. I wish I could ask Greg how would using Romans chapter one’s definition of God’s wrath, verse 18, is revealed in verses 24, 26, and 28 as God giving up or giving over sinners to their evil practices. I know he’s busy guy but maybe someone could mention it to him?
Thx
Hi Tim,
Here’s a response from Greg:
I think Romans 1 is the classic expression of the “wrath of God”. He begins by saying, “Now, God’s wrath has been revealed,” and, as you note, he proceeds to show God giving people over to their sin, and they head down a path of self-destruction. God doesn’t need to inflict punishment. We end up punishing ourselves, including making ourselves vulnerable to self-destructive influence of the Dragon.
— Emily from the Communications Team
Thanks so much for your response! Really, really appreciate you all at woodland hills. I’ve been thinking along these lines too. Good to know I haven’t gone off in the weeds in my own subjective interpretation. It sad that it’s hard to get people to see these verses. But we can just keep planting seeds for God to help us see him as he really is. You all are a blessing to me. I’m an stuck at home with a chronic illness.
“7 Simple Choices for a Better Tomorrow”
To state the essence of the book in a sentence: In order to have a Hog Hole Heaven on earth you need to understand indiscretions are habitual in that the little stuff leads to the big stuff so, if you want a little more Heaven to come down to earth, you need to not cut corners, manipulate the truth or allow yourself these little indiscretions for if you do God’s wrath will be, not to punish you but, to remove his protective presence, letting you have your own way, so you now become liable for your own mess.
Is removing God’s protective presence in great punishment in itself? How many little indiscretions do I have to do before God removes my protection?
I believe God is here, now, all around all of us, but we choose to ignore God and suffer natural consequences for some of our actions. Also some bad things happen because of complicated interactions of humanity, not because God has removed protection from me. If I am caught up in a natural disaster, or an illness, is this because God has removed protection? We live in a fallen world at a time when a lot of innocents are suffering.
Hi Maggi,
Here is a response from Greg. —Emily from Communications Team
Hi Maggi,
Thank you for your question. I had to paint with pretty broad strokes for this sermon, and I didn’t have time to add much nuance. I TOTALLY agree that plenty of crap comes our way simply because people were being jerks, or whatever. And so I would NEVER suggest that any person undergoing a particular adversity or affliction was because God had removed his protection. In fact, Jesus explicitly taught against this notion.
Every free choice is a variable that influences what comes to pass, and God must honor that free choice and all that it affects. So, in my view, God must work around each of these variables, and that significantly affects what comes to pass, and when it comes to pass.
Until the Final Judgment, I’m afraid blood will always be crying out from the ground. Which is one of the reasons why we are supposed to looking forward to the Final Judgment and coming transformation.
Hope this helps. Bless you, Greg
Andy Stanley, who admits he sucks at counseling, has met with a lot of folks over the years and says the number one question he got is some rendition of how close to sinning can I come without actually sinning!
There are two kinds of judgment.
1. judicial judgment – I believe what Bob, see above comment, was relating to.
2. organic or intrinsic judgment – an already built-in punishment as a natural consequence for some choices.
Interesting insurance policies differentiate between natural disasters and acts of God which they will not cover. Greg what’s that about?
Illness is interesting.
98% of 37 to 100 trillion cells, and then the 100 trillion atoms within each cell, are replaced every year.
About 20 million cells die every second however before they die cells birth, mitosis, a new copy.
How good that copy is governed by, for the most part, a cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Neurons, the other 2%, NEVER DIE however: Neurogenesis – every day you wake up, Lam 3:22-23, there are new brain cells generated in your head: moldable, changeable, and fresh ready to be shaped, NOT by food or nutrients, but by your thoughts.
I like to think of these neurons in terms of I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. The fruit is of the spirit and nothing in works of the flesh, our PLANKS.
If we don’t deal with our own [planks ] Matthew 7:3-5 we will take them into our future where they’ll go into the cellars of our soul and they will, so to speak, [pump iron], lift weights, playing havoc with our imagination of our future.
Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Other’s planks, their pieces, become our ongoing baggage. So why not work on closing the gym now?
Ephesians 4:31-32 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you while you were yet a sinner.
So back to the question: How many little indiscretions do I have to do before God removes my protection, i.e. at what point do I need to close the gym?
Hoping Greg: you can give us some insights on that, would be really good to know!
Thank you Greg I believe this from the summary, “Poetic Justice” , answers the prior comment, above, ending question.
“How many little indiscretions do I have to do before God removes my protection, i.e. at what point do I need to close the gym?”
“This reframes judgment as an organic process. Sanctification is not optional. We will experience it now, or later. We can work with God now—as God is always working on something—or we can submit to the purging of our sin later.”
I believe also you said it would be much easier to deal with this while we are still on the road or: Matthew 5:26 “You will not get out until you have paid the last penny”
The wise thing to do when taken to court is to make every effort to make peace before the judge gets involved. Otherwise, the guilty party risks being thrown in prison for the wrongdoing.
The spiritual application is that a prison of sorts—hell?—should be avoided at all costs by not wronging anyone or causing them to wrong us by provoking their anger.
I was wrong about my Bob Merritt’s one sentence book summary not being organic. I was trying to be generous to a prior response to my one sentence summary of Bob’s book. Sorry!
Thanks again Greg for your insights!