Calvinists frequently cite two verses from the Old Testament—Habakkuk 1:13 and Isaiah 59:2—as the foundation for their belief that sin causes separation (in hellfire) from God, and thus, God had to punish Jesus as a substitution. For instance:
God is absolutely pure and holy, and even one sin — just one, no matter how minor it might seem to us — would be enough to banish us from His presence forever. The Bible says of God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13)
BGEA
Habakkuk 1:13 employs a metaphor rather than asserting that God possesses physical eyes incapable of beholding evil or evildoers. This interpretation avoids contradiction with other scriptural accounts, like the Book of Job, where God is depicted as engaging in direct conversation with Satan.
The key to understanding Habakkuk’s complaint is found in the Hebrew parallelism of the poetry. “To look on” is parallel with “tolerate.” Habakkuk points to God’s holiness and practically says, “God, you are too holy to ignore or tolerate evil. No way you can accept such evil in your nation Israel!
Isaiah 59:2
The opening statement answering the question “What are the consequences of sin?” in the popular Calvinist website ‘GotQuestions’ reads:
Eternal separation from God: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
GotQuestions Website
Likewise, according to Paul Washer:
God is morally perfect and separated from all evil. It is impossible for Him to take pleasure in sin or remain in fellowship with those who practice unrighteousness…. According to Isaiah 59:2, how does sin affect God’s relationship with man? Can God have fellowship with the wicked?
Paul Washer
Unfortunately, these serve as prime examples of what taking a verse out of context is like.
Context, context, context
Isaiah 59:2, however, has nothing to do with “eternal separation from God.” This is another classic example of eisegesis and taking a verse out of context.
First, the status of individual salvation cannot be drawn theologically from the state of affairs between the nation of Israel and God. Israel was a nation of sinners before and after Isaiah, yet it maintained a national relationship with God. Isaiah 59 is a national rebuke, not an individual being scolded by God. Individuals with eternal souls can theoretically be eternally separated from God in hellfire, not nations.
Second, the “separation” Isaiah writes about has absolutely nothing to do with eternity but reflects a temporary withdrawal of physical protection and blessings over Israel. According to Deuteronomy, God holds back His earthly blessings and physical protection from Israel when they fail to walk in His ways.
Third, the very existence of these verses proves the exact opposite of “separation,” as an active conversation takes place between the God of Israel and Israel. This shows that the “separation” is not a complete cut-off; otherwise, God wouldn’t have communicated at all.
Fourth, Isaiah, an Israelite himself, wrote, “For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). Not only did Isaiah — a sinner — see God, but the fact that God communicated through a prophet who is a sinner himself is a proof against the Calvinistic interpretation of Isaiah 59:2.
So, if it’s not about humanity’s separation from God, then what is this verse all about?
The true meaning of Isaiah 59:2
The context of Isaiah 59:2 is that God is answering Israel’s inquiry about why His blessings and protection have vanished. Israel has sinned before God and worshipped other deities (e.g., Isaiah 57:5-8), and in response, does God disappear? On the contrary, God is actively pursuing Israel through His prophets, communicating with them, and explaining the consequences of their sins. This has nothing to do with “eternal separation in hellfire.” If anything, it points in the opposite direction: the discipline and restoration of a loving Parent.
In verse 2, Isaiah explains to Israel that their hope for help and protection from evil (previous verse) is denied because they misbehave. Remember, God already warned Israel in Deuteronomy 28 – if you do not behave, God will not protect you from evil. That is the sense in which Israel is “separated” from God. He is unwilling to rescue and protect them from earthly evil (59:1).
Thus, Isaiah 59:2 has nothing to do with an individual’s spiritual/eternal condition or hellfire. Isaiah speaks merely about a temporary, physical, and natural consequence for his nation due to their actions. If God were to cut off Israel completely, they would cease to be His chosen nation and disappeared long ago. However, God promised Israel, “The Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6-8).
Consider the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). He departed from his father’s safeguard and endured the repercussions. However, this does not imply that his father ceased to be his parent. On the contrary, his father awaited his return daily, watching from outside his estate. It is we who distance ourselves, not God.
But What About God’s Holiness?
Psalm 99:5 proclaims, “He is holy.” Does that mean God can’t stand to look at us?
We always say the Cliché, “God Hates the sin, but he loves the sinner.” That’s nonsense! The Bible speaks of Him abhorring us, and that we’re loathsome in His sight, and He can’t stand to even look at us!
R.C. Sproul, Calvinist theologian
In contemporary language, the term “holy” often conjures images of angelic figures in white robes with halos above their heads, epitomizing purity, innocence, or perfection. Yet, in Biblical Hebrew, “holy” means being “set apart,” emphasizing distinction and uniqueness. This uniqueness does not imply that what is not holy is evil. For instance, God sanctified the seventh day as holy, not due to any deficiency in the other days, but to dedicate it to a special purpose. God is also set apart from all other deities for various reasons, but more than anything—because He is the Creator.
Peter Gentry, Professor of Old Testament, examined the usage of the word “holy” in the Hebrew Scriptures and concluded:
The basic meaning of the word is “consecrated” or “devoted.” In the Scripture, it operates within the context of covenant relationships and expresses commitment.
Peter J. Gentry
If God’s holiness meant He hated sinners or “could not bear to look at sinners,” then it follows that God cannot be in the presence of sinners, thereby condemning them to eternal judgment and separation. But this view is clearly contradicted by the different manifestations of God throughout the scriptures, the promises of the scriptures, and the very manifestation of the Son of God who came to live among sinners. Furthermore, if God is omnipresent, He is always present in the fallen world. The universe continues to exist because the Creator’s presence preserves it. God is not separated from us.
Because God is distinct and unique (holy), the places He inhabits must also be. Just as a surgical room must be sterilized and maintained free of contaminants to be suitable for operations, so too, God’s dwelling place in the camp of Israel needed to be cleansed and made holy again after becoming defiled. In biblical times, this purification involved using the blood of offerings, symbolically serving as a form of spiritual antiseptic.
Unlike the restrictive religious “holiness” that kept religious people at bay, Jesus, who was also holy, did not isolate himself from sinners. Instead, he engaged with them directly—touching, loving, and caring for them. This illustrates that God’s holiness does not inhibit His ability to have a relationship with sinners; rather, it highlights His unique love for them, a love so profound that it was the very reason for Him to become one of us.
This truth challenges the false notion accepted by so many churches, which suggest God despises sinners, cannot bear to look at them, or have to damn them to eternal torture in hellfire due to their inherited finite and limited nature and imperfections.
Why Is This False Idea So Popular Among Evangelicals?
It’s no secret that Calvinism has had a significant impact on Evangelicalism. One of the most widely distributed evangelical pamphlets ever is one I utilized myself nearly two decades ago while serving with CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) in Israel under a reformed leader. Several times a week, we visited university campuses and employed this “bulletproof” method to spread the gospel. The pamphlet, titled “The Four Spiritual Laws,” was authored by Bill Bright in the early 1950s. During his late 20s or early 30s, Bright composed this tract to aid himself and his peers in evangelism. Within, Bright presented his understanding of the Christian gospel. The pamphlet’s second “law” declares:
Man is sinful and separated from God, so we cannot know Him personally or experience His love.
Bill Bright
CRU’s evangelistic pamphlets, targeted at non-believers, are quite subtle. One must delve deeper into the theology of fundamentalism—such as books and sermons—to fully understand the theology and logic beneath it. In essence, Divine Abuse posits that due to God’s holiness and perfection, He detests all that is flawed and imperfect, necessitating separation from such entities and their eventual destruction. For example, in his sermon “God Hates the Sin and the Sinner,” reformed Pastor Tim Conway explains:
What Scripture tells us is that all of mankind are children of wrath. We are objects of the hatred of God by nature. We don’t deserve His love.… God is not unjust to hate mankind because mankind is a hateful thing by nature. It ought to be hated.
Tim Conway
If you’re unfamiliar with Conway and question whether he’s a lesser-known, insignificant pastor, reconsider. His sermons are featured on the “I’ll Be Honest” YouTube channel, a well-known platform that showcases his and Paul Washer’s preaching (both are disciples of John MacArthur). “I’ll Be Honest” has amassed over 80 million video views, and their social media following approximates half a million, comparable to at least a dozen sizable megachurches!
According to Calvinism, God’s wrath and hatred for humanity demanded appeasement, either through the suffering and death of mankind or—as substitutionary—through the suffering and crucifixion of Christ. For instance, Nick Batzig, a Reformed pastor and member of The Gospel Coalition, explains:
Is it right, in any sense whatsoever, to say that the Father was angry with the Son when He punished the Son in our place and for our sin.… He made the Son the object of His just displeasure and anger as the representative who stood in our place to atone for our sin and to propitiate God’s wrath.
Nick Batzig
Likewise, New York Times bestseller and reformed-Baptist pastor David Platt, in his sermon titled, “God hates sinners, not just their sin,” says:
So, does God hate the sin and love the sinner? Well… sure… in a sense… But does God hate the sinner as well? Yes!”
David Platt
As far as Divine Abuse theology is concerned, because all humans are sinners, God harbors hatred towards all of humanity. This necessitates His separation from and destruction of them, which is purportedly why…
God’s anger at sin and hatred of sinners causes him to pour out his wrath [on Jesus]
Mark Driscoll
This, in the mind of the Christian fundamentalist, is what the “grace” of God was through Jesus—a divine abuse, torture, punishment, hatred, and wrath that the Father unleashed on the Son. This was not the gospel Jesus and his Jewish disciples preached here in Israel two thousand years ago. Unfortunately, preachers such as John MacArthur, whose books have been translated into Hebrew by Messianic ministries, and Paul Washer, who they invite to preach at conferences annually, are extremely popular within the Messianic movement in Israel, a community I was once part of. In fact, hundreds of millions are being directed yearly towards evangelical ministries in Israel to promote this “gospel” to the Jewish people, which is largely met with rejection by Israelis. If you want to learn more, consider my book, “Why Don’t Jews Believe in Jesus: A Jewish-Christian Unfolds the Great Mystery.”
Nevertheless, consider the spiritual, emotional, and mental harm this doctrine may cause believers who are told that their heavenly Father simultaneously detests them and yet loves them enough to torture, abuse, and kill Christ in their place. This conflicting message can lead to confusion and a distorted understanding of God’s character, creating an internal struggle between fear and trust in God’s love. Such a perspective may erode a believer’s sense of security in their relationship with God.
To me, this resembles a deity with a split personality or bipolar disorder. Divine Abuse’s perception of God is akin to a physician who despises his patients—infants included—simply because they are ill, particularly if they suffer from multiple ailments. Such a doctor would prefer to avoid his patients entirely unless he could eliminate them. Similarly, if followers of Divine Abuse despise not just the sin but also the sinner, wouldn’t they ultimately despise everyone, including themselves?
Regrettably, these troubling views have permeated much of the Western church.
Debunking Divine Abuse’s “Separation” Logic
God made man finite, with extremely limited knowledge, understanding, and mental and emotional capacities. Yet, He is allegedly so furious by our flaws and shortcomings that He cannot maintain a relationship with us or even bear to look at us, or else He’ll kill us. David Platt suggests this is because God “could not bear to see your sin,” while Philip Ryken believes God “could not bear to look at the sin” and “had to shield His eyes.”
Ironically, we are told to regard God as our “heavenly Father.” I cannot fathom what sort of fathers these Calvinist gentlemen had, but their description does not seem to mirror my God—the God of Israel.
Nonetheless, in the past, whenever I shared the four spiritual laws with Israeli Jews, we often encountered resistance to the second law. Why? Because, as Jews in Israel, we are steeped in Old Testament narratives through our education and culture from the day we are born, which challenge Bright’s second “law.” Undoubtedly, I am a flawed human being, incapable of earning salvation through my deeds. Salvation, therefore, comes solely by grace. Yet, the claim that sinners are beyond experiencing God, that He detests them or cannot bear to look at them simply because they are not perfect like their Creator is nonsensical and directly contradicted by both the Old and New Testaments. In fact, the majority of narratives in the Pentateuch demonstrate the opposite: a holy God who engages even with the gravest of sinners.
Throughout the Bible, many individuals had a close, unique relationship with God. Abraham had dinner with God and conversed with Him face-to-face (Genesis 18). Moses spoke with God “as one speaks to a friend” and encountered Him in the burning bush (Exodus 3, 33:11). David declared that God’s Spirit dwelled within him, guiding his life and reign (Psalm 51:11). Elijah experienced God on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:11-13). Isaiah had direct communication and visions from God’s throne and received direct prophetic revelations (Isaiah 6). Jeremiah was called by God before birth and communicated His words to the people (Jeremiah 1:5-9). Moreover, it is clear that God’s purpose in coming into the world through Jesus was to live among sinners.
If indeed God could not be around sin, how do we explain the Book of Job? In Job, we read that God welcomes Satan (the father of all sinners: John 8:44) into his company and negotiates with him. If it was true that God cannot look at us and must be separated from us because we sin, then the incarnation never could have been possible. But the whole point of the prophets and the New Testament is to tell us that God came down to earth, manifested in the flesh, for the sake of pursuing sinners. In Jesus, God spent time with the sinner (Matt 9:10-17, Mark 2:15-22, Luke 5:29-39). Does that sound like a God who is angry and unwilling to be in touch with sinners? On the contrary, God comes near sinners and loves them. He even “became sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Contrary to the fundamentalist’s image of an angry God ready to punch us all in the mouth and into damnation, Jesus portrayed the Father as loving, compassionate, caring, forgiving, and gracious. He is a Father who not only beholds sinners but actively seeks to reach out, deliver, and save them. God does not shy away from sinners for fear of contamination; rather, His touch brings healing and purification.
The Holy Spirit resides within sinful individuals (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Sin corrupts and harms us, not God. Moreover, sin poses no threat to His Spirit, as if our sins could contaminate it. Instead, God’s touch brings healing and purification to sinners and the unclean. God does not distance Himself from us because of our sins. Rather, the very reason His Spirit inhabits us is our need for guidance and support due to our sins. If we were perfect, we wouldn’t need His Spirit. Fortunately, God’s Spirit specializes in transforming even the worst sinners—adulterers like David and murderers like Paul—into spiritual leaders. To be able to mend people, they must first be broken. Moses, David, and Paul were all once murderers whom God reshaped into some of the most influential spiritual leaders in history.
Thus, our sinfulness does not prevent us from experiencing God’s love; rather, it is because we are sinners that we get to experience His love. If we were perfect, we would not be able to experience and understand love, grace, and forgiveness. It is due to our imperfections that we get to learn and appreciate what true love is.
Imagine an advocate of Divine Abuse severing ties with their child “because they are sinners.” How, then, could the parent teach, educate, train, guide, and discipline their child? A good parent would use their child’s missteps not as a reason to disown or harm them but to foster character development. Similarly, God uses our sins not to abandon us but to shape our character. A loving parent, faced with his children’s transgressions, will not abandon them in wrath nor cease to be their parent and expel them from the home. Such behavior would deem a parent unsuitable for parenthood. Yet, this is the perception so many Christians have of God.
Did Jesus Separate Himself from Sinners?
On the contrary! God chose to dwell among sinners, living with them in the most profound way. The righteousness and holiness of Jesus did not deter him from mingling with sinners and the impure. Was He unable to “bear the sight of their sins”? Imagine Jesus’ almighty Father cautioning him, “Jesus, they are a negative influence! I don’t want you mingling with them!”
However, their sinfulness did not lead to separation from God. Christ reached out to the unclean (Matthew 8:3) and specifically shared meals with sinners despite the scorn of the religious legalists (Luke 5:30-32). In Jesus’ time, religious figures questioned, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?!” (Mark 2:16). Today, some preachers echo this sentiment, exclaiming, “God cannot bear to look at sinners!”
Do you perceive the irony? The fundamentalists of the first century embraced the notion that the righteous should never mingle with sinners—an idea that persists among 21st-century fundamentalists today and has become a “Christian” doctrine.
Does God Must Punish Before He Can Forgive?
Jesus did not instruct his disciples to retaliate against sin before forgiving, nor did he teach that God’s forgiveness is contingent upon vengeance. However, this does not prevent preachers such as the reformed pastor Stan Mast from asserting that God is reluctant to forgive sinners without first administering punishment:
His holiness is so pure that he cannot forgive without punishing.
Stan Mast
The notion that God cannot bear to see you due to sin and only approaches to punish contrasts sharply with the God of Scripture, who repeatedly forgives sinners without first seeking retribution. This view resembles an abusive psychopath rather than the forgiving Father depicted in the gospels:
She has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Luke 7:46-48
This woman was no exception. Jesus taught his disciples that just as the Father is merciful and forgiving towards their wrongdoing, so they must forgive those who sin against them—without needing to punish first:
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your divine Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:14
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Matthew 18:21-22
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Luke 6:37
Jesus encouraged us to exhibit qualities like freely forgiving, which reflect his Father’s nature. Paul, like Jesus, thought the same:
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32
Forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Colossians 3:13
Conclusion
The only thing separating you from God is the religion-made belief that you are separated from God.
This article is a copy-paste from my book, ‘The “Gospel” of Divine Abuse,’ available on this Amazon page.
A free sample is available here.
