Apologetics: Debunking Deconstruction – Is God a Vindictive Bully?

Ah, yes. Another series that I (sort-of) haven’t touched on in a while that I’m now returning to. Wonderful. Like the other questions in the Debunking Deconstruction series, this is a common problem that deconstructors have with God. After all, God seems to allow a lot, suddenly condemn it as sin, and then punish people who seemingly didn’t know any better for it. However, does this criticism actually hold water? Is God really vindictive as they say he is?

While this claim seems accurate on the surface, the people who make these claims often haven’t read the Bible in context, which makes it easy for this claim to seem true. Whenever God’s wrath shows up in the Bible, it’s when he’s serving up a nice heap of justice. Every time His wrath shows up, it’s because someone (or everyone) is acting up against what God has commanded. The book of Numbers is full of examples like this, where God commands something, Moses acts as a middleman to let everyone know what God has commanded, the people (usually) listen, and then someone screws up and crap hits the fan as a result.

However, God doesn’t just pour down His wrath on everyone without giving them a second chance. God is merciful throughout the Bible and provides a way out for those that are willing to repent of what they did. We see this numerous times in the Old Testament with God listening to the pleadings of various intercessors (like Moses) to lessen the punishment. One example is when God sends down the snakes to attack the Israelites after they were being super disrespectful and ungrateful but provides a cure in the form of a bronze snake on a pole that all the dying could look at and be saved. The bronze snake on the stick also foreshadowed Christ hanging on the cross as the ultimate act of mercy for sinful humanity that anyone can go to to be saved.

Furthermore, God is the divine law giver and creator of the world. Because of that, who are we to be saying that His ways are unjust when we can’t understand what His purposes are? He gets to decide what punishment is proper retribution for our sins, often letting us walk into that punishment ourselves to discipline us. He also – being our Heavenly Father – can use this justice to bring us closer to Him, by waking us up to the error of our ways.

Thus, God is not a vindictive bully.

Until next time,

M.J.