God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

2 Thessalonians 1:6

The wrath of God is not a subject near to our hearts. We don’t sing songs about the glorious, inescapable destructive power of God on display throughout the universe.

The god we sing about is a puppy. A gigantic, invisible puppy who licks our faces and wags his tail so we’ll smile when trouble comes our way. He makes us feel better after an automobile break-down. His omnipotent kindness is at our disposal to patch up a relationship or find us a job or cure our sickness. Puppies don’t have wrath.

We sing songs about God’s gentle response to our ‘brokenness’ and ‘mistakes.’ We don’t use the word ‘sin’ anymore because sin requires repentance. Puppies don’t need repentance. They don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. They’ll lick any face they find. It’s impossible to imagine a puppy punishing those who won’t obey the gospel message.

“Because of sin, the full wrath of this puppy is being poured out on the Earth!”

We don’t sing about the God who keeps the universe in motion. When you look around the cosmos you can tell it wasn’t created by a puppy. Everywhere you go you’ll find something that will kill you. Most of the universe is cold, empty space. There are pockets of heat so intense that you’d turn into steam just trying to drive past them. Earth is the only place we know about where you can actually survive for more than a second. Yet we keep singing about gentle, peaceful Jesus.

By now, you probably want to bludgeon me with God’s word so I’ll understand that Jesus is gentle.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Matthew 11:29

First, a yoke is not a hammock. You put on a yoke so you can go to work, not sit by a babbling stream singing about gentleness. Yokes are not what you wear on vacation.

And second, Jesus’ yoke is easy in COMPARISON TO THE WRATH OF GOD. Wearing the yoke of Christ allows you to escape the anger of The perfect, Holy Creator of the Universe; who is NOT a puppy. When the alternative is facing the ire of the God who invented nuclear energy, Jesus yoke is a no-brainer.

Modern, Western theology has taught you that God is not dangerous. You’ve been told that God is all sweetness and light. If that were true, wouldn’t you expect to see more puppies and fewer viruses?