[Magdalen] In Christ Alone

Simon Kershaw simon at kershaw.org.uk
Tue May 9 10:09:42 UTC 2017


I think God's allowed to be "wrathful" depending on quite what that means
and what the consequences are. Are parents allowed to be frustrated with
their children's choices? But celebrating and singing about God's wrath is
another thing.

But the real bugbear is perhaps the word "satisfied". God's "wrath" is
"satisfied" by the death of Jesus on the Cross.

That's not something I accept, and nor do I feel that it is good
evangelism. The gospel message is not about hellfire and damnation, but
about having life in all its fullness, as we heard on Sunday.

You can instead sing "the love of God is magnified" or perhaps "the love
of God is satisfied". But the author, Stuart Townend, will not, as I
understand it, allow those words to be printed instead of the words he
wrote, and as he is the copyright owner the law probably supports his
position. However, it is hopefully not a copyright violation to ignore the
printed words and sing something else. Or to print the alternative line
alongside the original and suggest to people that they sing it.

simon


James Oppenheimer-Crawford wrote:
> I was thinking how horrid the words were, happy to see I'm not alone.  A
> wrathful God is heresy. To say nothing of a deity out of control. I don't
> really think that's what is going on, although, who knows, I could turn
> out
> to be wrong, and God is not much different from Osama bin Laden. I don't
> think so, but I seem to be a minority these days. That certainly is the
> driving force behind a lot of the stuff which passes for theology in our
> political scene.



-- 
Simon Kershaw
simon at kershaw.org.uk
Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire



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