Wrestling with the Violence of God

As Christians, we must be willing to engage with every portrait of God in Scripture, even those that make us uncomfortable. In this small group we will wrestle with the content of many of those texts.

Where: Media Room (front library conference room)

Who: Katie Black

When: Weekly on Friday at 2:30 p.m. (starting September 12)

Contact: Katie at Katie@studycenter.net

We love to sing praises to God, celebrating his mercy, love, faithfulness and beauty. We thank him for the gift of his Son, for salvation, and for creation. But you’ve probably never heard a song celebrating the violence of God. Who wants to sing about God's judgment? His jealousy? His wrath? In fact, you probably rarely hear Christians bring up the topic at all. After all, who really wants to reflect on the flood? The conquest? The deaths of the firstborn in Egypt?

It’s not surprising that we shy away from biblical passages that portray God in violent ways. Yet as Christians, we must be willing to engage with every portrait of God in Scripture, even those that make us uncomfortable. In this small group, we will wrestle with many of these texts, seeking to understand how the biblical authors consistently present a God whose actions, even those that most confound us, are good, just, compassionate, and holy.