How should we think of God's wrath?
The question of divine wrath is one that garners a lot of discussion. And, to be sure, it needs to be handled carefully. On the one hand, we don’t want to say that God does not have wrath at all. How could God in any sense be called “good” if he never got angry at injustice? On the other side of the coin, we need to make sure to factor in the very important idea that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and that he does not want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). He’s not mean.
So how do we balance all this out? Well, it’s a loaded topic, as I mentioned above. But we would do well, I think, to follow the proposal from Greg Boyd that divine wrath is, most basically, an act of divine withdrawal. I don’t agree with Boyd on everything, but I do think he’s onto something important here. At the heart of the divine withdrawal idea is that (1) humanity has free will and (2) God will give people what they want. And sadly, some people say “no” to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. And to do that is, by definition, to embrace that which is not True, Good, and Beautiful.
Lots more to say, of course.
Here’s a video with some brief reflections on the topic.