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From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Dear Rev. Graham: It’s hard to accept the Christian faith when the Bible teaches about a God who hates. Christians speak out of both sides of their mouth when they say that God’s love is unconditional and then say that He also hates. How can these statements be reconciled? — G.H.

Dear G.H.A.: God is pure, righteous, holy, and sinless. Yet God does hate sin and He will judge it with the fiercenes of His wrath. The generations of today are schooled in the teaching about an indulgent, softhearted God whose judgments are uncertain and who coddles those who break His commandments. This generation finds it difficult to believe that God hates sin.
The Bible says that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We try to bring God down to man’s level, but one thing is sure: God hates sin just as a father hates a rattlesnake that threatens the safety and life of his child. God loathes evil and diabolic forces that would pull people down to a godless eternity just as a mother hates a venomous spider that is found playing on the soft, warm flesh of her little baby.
It is God’s love for mankind, His compassion for the human race that prompts Him to hate sin with such a vengeance. He gave Heaven’s finest that we might have the best; and He loathes with a holy abhorrence anything that would hinder our being reconciled to Him.
Sin’s masterpiece of shame and hate became God’s masterpiece of mercy and forgiveness. Through the death of Christ upon the cross, sin itself was crucified for those who believe in Him. To all who have not surrendered to Christ, the Bible says, “Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)