God Does Not Punish in This Life?

Stasia St. James said…

Finally, GOD does not punish in this life. HE did not send Aids to punish homosexuals and HE did not send Bin Laden to punish us. The Bible teaches (study the book of Job, please) that GOD will withdraw his protection, but punishment awaits us in the afterlife.

God does punish in this life. He does more than just withdraw his protection. God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden. (Genesis 3:17-23) He gave Cain a punishment that was more than he could bear. (Genesis 4:10-16) He punished the entire world with a flood. He punished the people at the tower of Babel by confusing their languages. (Try to image how that one would happen by God withdrawing his protection only!) God inflicted diseases on the Pharaoh who had taken Sarai, Abram’s wife, into his palace. God punished Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. He punished the Pharaoh and Egyptians of Moses’ time with plagues. He punished the Israelites for worshipping a golden calf. He punished them with snakes for murmuring in wilderness. Ezekiel 5:8, 9 says, “Therefore this is what the sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. Because of your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.” I dare you to read what comes next. There are many other passages like this.

He caused an earthquake to swallow up a man named Korah and his followers who rebelled against God. (Numbers 16:31) In this instance Moses said, “This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt.” (Numbers 16:28-30)

In the Book of Job, God allowed bad things to happen to Job. But just because the bad things were happening to a good person in this instance, does not mean that God never punishes evil in this life. Just because Job and friends erroneously arrived at the conclusion that Job must have done something wrong because of what was happening to him, does not mean that God never punishes people in this life. Sometimes bad things are a punishment from God and sometimes they are not.

I don’t know whether God sent AIDS or the September 11th attacks to punish people or if he only allowed these things to happen. But just in case that you are thinking that Jesus’ death on the cross put an end to God’s punishment on earth in this life, read Revelation 15 and 16.

More on part two