A prevailing narrative in our society runs thus: the Christian religion has been consigned to the dustbin of history; therefore the God of Christianity must be fictitious.
But there is another narrative, far more sinister for Unbelief and our age. That narrative introduces the concept of divine judgment.
God's judgment reveals his power over those whose behavior is not in accordance with the order instituted by him for the well-being of his chosen people. The experience of judgment demonstrates that there is no escape from God's power for those who deviate from his purposes and show contempt for him instead of reverence and devotion. The notion of judgement, therefore, is the necessary supplement to the idea of election in a theology of history developed in terms of the pervasive activity of only One God in the course of historical events.
When God seems absent not only from the world but from the hearts of human beings, this does not indicate, as a superficial evaluation would suggest, that perhaps he died. Rather, it foretells impending judgment over a world that alienated itself from the source of life.
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Human Nature, Election, and History, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1977) p. 93.
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