The end is near, everyone! Judgment Day is coming! How many times have we heard this? Evangelicals possess a romantic infatuation with the end times. The God of Creation is going to come and judge the “quick and the dead,” as many creeds proclaim. Everything that stands in opposition to the church, deemed evil for such, will be destroyed and burned, cast into a lake of lava with the devil. Nobody can hide. Nobody.
Yet, the church will not face this judgment. You are definitely familiar with the extrabiblical concept of the rapture. Before this day of judgment comes, God is going to rescue the church and place it in heaven. The sins of church-going Christians? Forgotten. Erased. As long as you attend church, proclaim the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and deny your former unbelieving self, you will not face the wrath due to, say, Hollywood.
In Amos, God does not save his chosen from justice. He does not move these people and then destroy the land in which they lived. Because they are his people, they are even more deserving of his wrath. We’ve covered the Oracles Against the Nations. The foreign nations are doomed, no doubt. But Israel, the nation God selected to fulfill his will, faces a lengthier and more painful fate than its neighbors.
Let me clarify that I am not arguing Amos is an apocalyptic book. Its focus does not lie in the end of the world. But it reveals an interesting aspect of God’s character that you will not hear about in the church. God does not overlook the sins of those who recite a statement of faith. Because they are committed to him, and yet continue to stray from his commands, they stand in greater judgment than those who do not know him or reject him.
Open your eyes to the evil of the modern evangelical church. The sex abuse scandals rocking the Southern Baptist Convention (which it tried to hide), the abuses of power and bigotry from Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church, the corruption in the Catholic Church that has defined it for centuries. And the list goes on and on. The church is supposed to be a safe haven, a reflection of what heaven is like. But every church I have attended is marred with scandals. And it isn’t just my luck.
A Timeless Warning from Amos
In the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, we find a time in history where God’s chosen were defined by their sin. And God does not rapture them. Consider what Amos prophesies for Israel:
“Now then, I will crush you
as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.
The swift will not escape,
the strong will not muster their strength,
and the warrior will not save his life.
The archer will not stand his ground,
the fleet-footed soldier will not get away,
and the horseman will not save his life.
Even the bravest warriors
will flee naked on that day,”
declares the Lord.
Israel will be crushed. The swift cannot escape. The archer will falter. And the bravest of the brave, the strongest of the strong will flee naked. They do not escape the wrath of God; they are at the very center of it all.
In the preceding verses (2:9-12), God reminds the nation of how he has cared for them. He destroyed their enemies. He orchestrated the exodus. He gave them prophets. He saved the nation from the punishment they deserved. But they continue to neglect him; and this time, he will not revoke the punishment due to them. Shalom M. Paul words this concept with great precision in his commentary: “The acts of kindness of God stand as a stark antithesis to their persistent deeds of disobedience.”1
Like the previous oracles, we must interpret the oracle against Israel within a military context. The crimes for which the first six nations will suffer are war crimes; the crime for which Judah is indicted is theological. We find a sense of synergy in the oracle against Israel; because they are God’s chosen, the oppression and injustice the nation has caused will result in military defeat. God is not going to simply wipe Israel off the map with natural disasters; he is going to use its enemies to destroy it, and he will weaken the nation to ensure their defeat.2
What does this mean? Imagine you are an Israelite in the sixth century BCE hearing Amos’ proclamation. Surely, you would want to deny this impending doom. A nation is going to overtake us? Well, we have a great army, so good luck! But Amos does not simply say a nation will rise up against them. God, their God, will weaken their strongest warriors. As Tchavdar Hadjiev argues, “Under divine pressure human skill loses its usefulness.”3 And thus, Amos’ message challenges the idea that somehow, some way, Israel will avoid God’s wrath.
Let us return to the present. We hear that the church will avoid God’s wrath at the tribulation. Where do you find this in the Bible? Can you? Not without taking select passages out of context, as the church does with great ease. The church is hardly innocent. They bear the special status of God’s chosen, as Israel did in Amos’ day.
Does this mean the church will avoid God’s wrath? I believe Amos would agree that, no they would not. In fact, they should expect to face the brunt of it all.
Personal Reflection
Not all churches are bad. Not all pastors are scandalous liars. But can we say the global church is innocent? Look at its history. Look at the controversies going on in the present day. I do not think anyone can argue that the church is without sin. If and when the end comes, will the church avoid God’s wrath? A biblical answer would not support the idea of the rapture. A biblical answer would say that the church is due for an even greater punishment than those who do not know God.
I have spent the better part of my life attending church. For a few years, I even worked for a Southern Baptist megachurch. Regardless of denomination, the church concerns itself with lesser things. It’s all about attendance. It’s all about a show. It’s all about convincing the audience to overlook the crimes of the church and support its cause (especially financially!). The church is a business. It is not what the early Christians created, a haven of hope and justice.
It is characterized by rampant injustice. And maybe I’m just crazy, but I believe God will not save the church from what it deserves. I believe the God of the Bible, the God of Amos, the God of the church, will ensure that even the most prominent pastors flee naked on that day of judgment.
1. Paul, Shalom M. Amos: A Commentary on the Book of Amos, edited by Frank Moore Cross Fortress Press, 2016, 87
2. Hadjiev, Tchavdar S.. Joel and Amos : An Introduction and Commentary, InterVarsity Press, 2020, 114.
3. Ibid