Divine Wrath

Romans 2:5-8 describes the unrepentant as storing up divine wrath against themselves that worsens in its intensity, meted out in accordance with their ideology, deeds, and motives.  Those who seek righteousness and immortality can receive eternal life (2:7), which they would not otherwise possess since the destiny of the unsaved is to literally die, to perish (Ezekiel 18:4), with God being the only being that is by nature immortal (1 Timothy 6:16).  Even if it was the only verse to clarify a little more about the wrath of God, Psalm 30:5 says that "his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime."  God's wrath is contrasted with a positive disposition that people cannot outlive.  Now, this verse does not actually specify anything about the duration, severity, or manifestation of the wrath in store.  Even if other passages did not directly address these exact issues about the nature of Yahweh's wrath, a verse like Psalm 30 that is not obviously referencing only the Biblical afterlife would still have some relevance.

God's anger, or wrath, lasts only a moment compared to the favor that he bestows for a lifetime, it says.  Before Christ, there is the occasional mention in the Old Testament of the eternal life in store for the righteous/saved, such as in Job 19:25-27 or Daniel 12:2, the latter of which distinguishes it from the eternal shame of the damned--something that neither logically requires eternal existence on their part nor would be consistent with a plethora of verses from both testaments.  From the more vague or sparsely detailed Old Testament verses like these, it is still clear that there are at least hints that God's favor would extend to the righteous (or the pardoned) in a glorious afterlife, as well as that the unrepentant wicked would come to an end as conscious beings.  God's wrath is presented like a drop in the ocean compared to his love even as both of them stem from his justice.

For humans consigned to what is ultimately the death of the soul as more clear verses affirm (Matthew 10:28, John 3:16, and many more), perhaps following a limited time of torment, this wrath would be satisfied by the annihilation of evildoers and the ultimate end of their sins.  As they perish, those people who committed to God in repentance and faithfulness live forever in something beyond the Edenic state, beyond the greatest nonsinful pleasures (of which there are many, many more than evangelical legalists believe!) of life on Earth.  The wrath of God, tied to his proportionate and perfect penalties for sin, is appeased as death itself is expelled from reality (1 Corinthians 15:26), no longer able to gorge itself on victims.  That Christ dies and returns to life only reflects how it is death that is the final consequence of collective human sin and that it is resurrection to God's side that nullifies this fate of death.

This is justice and not mercy.  To go past the relatively tame punishments of Mosaic Law to the desired cruelties that conscience and cultural traditions would have so many people support is evil.  This is to practice or horrifically abusive, undeserved things for the supposed sake of justice.  Why would a deity whose nature grounds the justice of these specific terrestrial punishments and whose just wrath lasts "only a moment" compared to eternity be as brutal as many fallen people who practically do not know their left hand from their right hand?  It is death, not eternal life in agony, that the masses of unrepentant humans deserve according to Christian philosophy.  To deny this is to deny what is indirectly or directly taught from Genesis to Revelation.  The Biblical God is slandered every time someone believes or says that his wrath demands anything beyond our potential finite torment and our eventual exclusion from eternal life.