Westboro Baptist church hate signs

Oct. 4, 2012: Yesterday I listened on YouTube what two granddaughters of Fred Phelps, the pastor of the infamous Westboro Church in Topeka Kansas, had to say, “I’d rather the whole world go to hell. Yeah, that’s just fine with me because … whatever God’s Will is, is great by us.” (From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gX-vQ5sMOw )

And then they talked about disasters and future disasters as the work of God and laughed about it! It grossed me out. Their attitude is the exact opposite of the Message of the Bible!

1 Timothy 2:4  Who (God) will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

These girls are literally laughing at people dying and burning in hell! Does God do that? The Bible says:

Ezekiel 33:11  Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

The message of the Phelps’ girls: “We’d rather you burn in hell!”

I was particularly disturbed by the “God hates you” sign held by one of the members of the Westboro Baptist church. Does the Bible say that? I did a Bible study using the nifty Theophilos Bible software. It was created for MS Windows but runs just fine in Linux under WINE. Theophilos Bible uses the good old KJV, the most authoritative English version of the Bible.

There are only 17 Scriptures in the Bible with the combination of God and either hate or hateth, and not one of them talk about God hating a person! It talks about people hating God, or people hating God’s people, or God hating some sin or deed, but not the person. Below is the output of a search of a combination of God and hate, a total of eight verses:

• Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
• Deuteronomy 5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
• Deuteronomy 30:7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
• Psalms 68:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David.>> Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
• Amos 5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
• Amos 6:8 The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.
• Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
• Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

There are 36 verses with the combination of Lord and hate or a grammatical form of the word hate, and only one of them, Psalm 11:5, say that the Lord hates wicked people, specifically the person who loves violence! Who would love violence? People who profit from waging war, international bankers who profit from war, and individuals who receive blood money. I think most of the world hates that kind of people as well. But though they may be still powerful in the world, they are an exceedingly small minority of people!

In contrast, there are 96 verses with the combination of Lord and love, and 90 verses with a combination of God and love. These include grammatical forms of the word love.

Adding it all up, verses with God and love are 3.5 times more than verses containing the words God and hate with only one verse which says God hates those who love violence.

There are also verses where God using the first person singular “I” says He hated Esau, but that was in comparison for His love for Jacob! God blessed Esau and he became prosperous. And though Esau hated Jacob for deceiving his father Isaac to get the blessing that was supposed to come to him, he didn’t hold a grudge forever and welcomed Jacob’s return.

God does not hate the world in general, the Bible says that God loves the world!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16

The Bible does say, “Love not the world” (1 John 2:15) but it is talking about “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (verse 16), not hating people.

Conclusion: Those poor relatives of Fred Phelps who comprise the majority of his church follow only him, not the Jesus Christ of the Bible, nor what God’s Word says in the Bible. If they don’t have love, they don’t know God for the Bible says:

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.– 1 John 4:8

I pray they wake up and realize they are a cult following a cult guru: Fred Phelps.

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