Do we have Punishment in Christianity?

By Pope Shenouda III Those who oppose the justice of God are in fact denying a fundamental attribute of Him as a just judge, focusing only on His mercy and love. If they combat God’s justice in the name of mercy, they should understand that God’s attributes are inseparable; His justice is merciful, and His mercy is just. In their focus on God’s love, they ignore many verses that speak of His justice or try to interpret them according to their own way of thinking. Sometimes, when they quote the sayings of the fathers, they do so briefly, as if extracting a phrase without reference to the context in which it was said. They do the same with their quotations from the Divine Liturgy. For instance, when they quote the phrase “You have turned for me the punishment into salvation?!”, they focus on the word “salvation” and ignore that it is salvation from punishment. Yet they boldly claim that God does not punish anyone. When they use the phrase “You have removed the curse of the law from me,” they focus on Christ’s redemptive work in removing the curse of the law from us, forgetting that it was God who placed these curses on anyone who disobeyed His commandments (Deut. 27-28). When they quote the phrase “You sent the law as a help to me,” they focus on the word “help” and forget that the law was a help in terms of guidance, but it was also a measure of justice and judgment. People are judged according to what is written in that law. Time would fail me to list all their examples of misquotations. But I say that in their focus on God’s love, they deny all words of punishment. They deny the punishment of death, the punishment of the curse, and all that pertains to eternal torment. They consider that God has no role or plan in any of this and say that man brought all this upon himself through his free will. We do not deny that man was the cause of his exposure to punishment, but at the same time, he exposed himself to God’s judgment. Death and destruction were punishments issued by God Himself, and the curse and eternal torment were punishments issued by God Himself. So how can it be said that these are not from God’s plan? The Punishment of Death The first time the word death is mentioned, it was from the mouth of God and by His judgment. He said to the first man about the forbidden tree, “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). So how can someone dare to say, “And even when we say that death is God’s judgment on the sinner, this does not mean that death is from God’s plan or creation at all; rather, the word judgment means evaluation or diagnosis”? How can he also say, “God created us for life, and He did not create or plan the punishment of death at all”? Truly, He created us for life, but He judged death upon disobedience. Here is God saying at the end of Deuteronomy, “I have set before you today life and good, death and evil” (Deut. 30:15). So God is the one who set life (eternal life) as a reward for doing good and death as a consequence of doing evil. He repeats the same words in the same chapter, saying, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30:19). How then can it be said that this is not from God’s plan? In contemplation on what is said in the Divine Liturgy about death, “We were held by it, sold by our sins,” it says, “sold (by our will) by our sins, and not that death held us by God’s will as a punishment!” Truly, as we say in the Divine Liturgy, “I have drawn upon myself the judgment of death,” but we drew upon ourselves the judgment of death which God decreed on us if we sinned. Our sinful will exposed us to the judgment issued by God as a punishment for sin. This is not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. Here is the Apostle Paul saying in his letter to the Hebrews, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries… It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:26-31). Should we then deny the judgment—primarily death—in our discussion of God’s love? As for the phrase “Death that entered the world through the envy of the devil,” it does not mean that the devil issued the judgment of death, but that he tempted man to disobey God’s commandment, thus falling under the judgment of death which God issued. Thus, we say to God in the Divine Liturgy about man, “And when he fell by the deception of the enemy, and disobedience to Your holy commandment.” Our fall, then, was by our will, and through the intervention of the devil who envied us and tempted us to disobey God’s holy commandment, so we fell under God’s judgment of death. God is the one who issues the judgment of death, and He is the one who lifts it through our repentance. Therefore, when David repented and regretted his sin, he heard the divine judgment from the mouth of Nathan the prophet: “The Lord has also put away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Sam. 12:13). In the same chapter, God the just judge imposed punishments on David and judged death upon his child born of sin, saying, “Because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die” (2 Sam. 12:14). Nevertheless, those who oppose God’s justice say, “God did not create death!” When God withdraws the gift of life from a person, He has judged them to death. He, as He said about Himself in Revelation, “I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev. 1:18). He is the one who gives life and death. He issued His judgment saying, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:4). He also said about the repentance of the sinner, “If a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die” (Ezek. 18:21). Do you not see, then, that life and death are in the hands of God? This does not prevent that if a man walks in the way of righteousness, he deserves eternal life granted by God. If he walks in the way of sin, he deserves death by God’s judgment. Many judgments of death were issued by God: + The judgment of the flood, in which the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth… the end of all flesh has come before Me… I am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die” (Gen. 6:13, 17). Yes, this flood which that author mocks, who in defending God’s love, does not respect the Holy Scriptures! + There is also the judgment issued by God on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, where “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households… they and all that belonged to them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly” (Num. 16:31-33). Is this not a divine judgment of death, which Korah and his associates drew upon themselves, but it was a judgment from God executed miraculously. + Similarly, the judgment issued by the Apostle Peter on Ananias and Sapphira, issued by Peter by the authority given to him by God, for he could not do so by his human power (Acts 5:3-4). Truly, they deserved it for lying to the Holy Spirit. It was a divine judgment of death. Similarly, the Lord’s judgment on the murderer, by having him killed. The Lord said after Noah’s ark rested, “…Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man” (Gen. 9:5-6). Thus, God demanded Abel’s blood from Cain his brother, saying to him, “Where is Abel your brother?… The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:9-10). But those who attack divine justice defend the offender, not the victim. They say, “Destroying the offender like the victim, to satisfy the victim’s bloodthirsty vengeance!” Isn’t it just to protect the weak from the strong’s oppression by punishing the offender? Otherwise, the law of the jungle would prevail, and the one who can devour others would have no deterrent from doing so! God, as the ruler of all, “executes justice for the oppressed” (Ps. 146:7). He said in Ezekiel, “I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down… I will bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong.