How does God’s wrath fit into Universal Reconciliation?

Sometimes it seems as though God was angry with Israel more than He wasn’t. They no sooner left Egypt when they began to murmur about what they would eat and drink and in no time at all they were making a golden image to worship. You will recall that God’s wrath was kindled hot against the people, but they were still the children of Abraham – the children of the covenant.

God’s wrath is always mistaken for perdition. The passages that speak of His wrath cannot be interpreted to mean eternal punishment in hell. Take Zephaniah 3:8-9 for instance (offered here from the NIV):

Therefore wait for me,”

declares the Lord,

“for the day I will stand up to testify.

I have decided to assemble the nations,

to gather the kingdoms

and to pour out my wrath on them—

all my fierce anger.

The whole world will be consumed

by the fire of my jealous anger.

“Then I will purify the lips of the peoples,

that all of them may call on the name of the Lord

and serve him shoulder to shoulder.

In the same passage of scripture, God is pouring out His wrath upon the nations and the kingdoms. In His fierce anger He is consuming the whole world by fire. However, this is not a punitive act on the part of God, but the chastisement of a loving Father as verse 9 points out. It is the work of a refiner’s fire seen here in the fact that the hearts of the peoples (the nations and the kingdoms mentioned above) are purified that all of them may call upon the Lord and serve Him in total agreement.