So does God hate certain people? Absolutely! To deny this is to reject a truth that God puts in front of our faces all throughout the Bible. When we try to avoid the subject of God’s anger, we remain mystified by the concept of Hell, and we reject the notion of eternal damnation by saying things like, “Hell is only temporary. God doesn’t really enjoy tormenting people. Eventually, everyone will end up in Heaven. Jesus is deeply grieved when souls end up in Hell.” Each of these statements is an absolute lie. God doesn’t hate to torment His enemies. HE LOVES IT. He relishes it and He flaunts it. He finds it so satisfying that He just can’t get enough of it, which is why the souls who end up in Hell will be tormented there for an eternity.

When we are badly taught about God’s anger, we end up thinking that God delights in torturing everyone—that He is getting high off of making our lives miserable on earth. But this is another lie. There is only one group that God delights in tormenting: the group He has eternally cut off. THERE ARE NO CHRISTIANS IN THIS GROUP. If Jesus is your Lord, then God does not delight in tormenting you. Yes, He will discipline you, and if need be, He will give you quite a severe beating. But His love towards you will never falter, and everything He does to you will be out of a desire to draw you closer to Him. This is the power of Christ’s atonement: once you are accepted by God, you are permanently shielded from ever becoming an object of His hate. But if you are not atoned by Christ and you reject the Holy Spirit’s many invitations to repent and get right with Him, then the day comes when the Trinity will decide that you are now a member of that third terrible group. At that point, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and Yahweh will all consider you to be Their enemies, and Their love for you will change into intensely hatred. You will be someone who They delight in tormenting and They will publicly flaunt your misery before other creatures They have made for all of eternity (see Why Hell?).