The Lord's Fierce Anger?

As I try to understand the character of God, and His son, Jesus Christ (because they are one in character, perfection, attributes, and will), I remember having to explain to a relative once that Jehovah (in the Old Testament) was not fierce and angry and a punishing God--although He could and can be seen that way.

I was reminded by a passage in the Book of Mormonv when Abinadi is preaching to the people under King Noah (or wicked King Noah if you'd like) when he reminds the people that if they do not start remembering the commandments and of God, that He will visit them in His anger; yea, His fierce anger.

So what does that mean? If, you remember what I was explaining to that relative-of-mine, Jehovah is simply the pre-earth name of Jesus Christ's spirit, and you also remember that God has been teaching His Son for a long, long, time and has been teaching, creating worlds with him, teaching other Earths (more than man can number...), that He has been a God for that long, long, time, you will also remember that He has had the same characteristics and attributes as God the Father (since He has always been tutored by Him), God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ are One. Jehovah wasn't a tyrant God. Jehovah did not punish the Israelites. Remember, Jehovah and Jesus Christ are the same person. If you think of Jesus Christ in the New Testament or in the Book of Mormon (or other Latter-Day scriptures...), you cannot reconcile those two actions coming from the same being.

What you're left with, is either a paradoxical conundrum or a lesson to be learned. When Abinadi tells the Nephites that God will visit them in His fierce anger, he is reminding them how much it hurts to fight against the good and the right. Like I have often told my sons, when they hit me or karate chop me, the pain that they feel isn't from me hitting them back (I haven't moved...), but it's the pain they similarly would feel if they were to try and karate chop a stone or a brick wall (not that I am telling you readers that I am built like a brick wall, but it doesn't hurt for my sons to believe that...). Both my sons and the disobedient Nephites are feeling the same pain--all attributable to themselves. They hurt themselves. They are fighting against an immovable object.

Jesus Christ, like His Father, loves us. Neither of them want to see us hurt or in pain. Their perfection, though, comes from not only having perfect attributes but from perfectly living God's life. They are Gods because They live God's lives. Just like I don't want to my sons to be hurt when they punch me, I can't change my body to make it softer and squishier--neither can God change His character, His laws, His attributes, His commandments. It will hurt when we try and fight against His immutable truths.

The trick, I guess, is to try to live in harmony with those perfect characteristics. Accept His love and accept His ways. That is the only way to not feel His wrath (and, it just so happens that, live in harmony long enough, and we will become like Him, just like His Only Begotten Son has done; perfectly, might I add...)

JPS