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Hi, Father, If memory serves me right, in the book of Romans it's written that we should not give place to wrath: for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Does God always repay those who have wronged others? Or should we understand that in the context of the final judgement and not this life?
Answer to Question 455 I think you have answered your own question. In the Old Testament God is portrayed as a vengeful and punishing God and this was because people lived in an age without the grace of the Holy Spirit to teach them. They had to learn like little children that if you harm someone then you will also be harmed and if you sin God will punish you.
In the New Testament we have been enlightened to understand that God doesn't punish, but rather that Christ is love and merciful but he is also the righteous Judge, and because he is merciful and righteous he will not punish us and throw us into everlasting hell: he will allow us to judge ourselves. We have the choice to be with God or to exist without him. It is our choice and God always respects our choices. If we choose to live without God in this life that will also be our choice in the after life. Just because we are in a different world doesn’t mean that our choice will be different, we are still the same person with the same choices.
On the day of Judgement we will all give an account of all the things we have done and said. We will not be able to lie because everything we have done has been recorded by our guardian angel. Thus by our own mouth we will be saved or condemned. Christ doesn’t demand of us things that are beyond our power, all he asks is that we love him and our fellow human beings. He doesn’t mention that we must have all the Christian virtues, he doesn’t mention that we must live uprightly with prayer and fasting and going to church every week. The only criterion that Christians will be judged with is whether they showed love to their fellow men.
This is all that he demands of us Christians. This is the only commandment of the New Testament: “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” (John 13. 34-35)
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