One of the glaring differences between the God and Jesus of the Churches of God and mainstream Christianity is the type of god they picture up in heaven looking down upon them.
Outside of far right fundamentalist/literalist churches, God and Jesus tend to be pictured more as a loving God that is the gentle watchful shepherd, the compassionate god that dines with the marginalized of society, slow to anger and walks alongside those with problems in life.
Then there is the god of the Church of God movement. A god that is eternally pissed at his creation even though he knew before the foundations of the world that they were going to sin , but he created them anyway so that they could die later. A god that is wrathful and filled with vengeance and is ready to strike down all who piss him off. A god that is going to wipe out a 1/3 of humanity, just because he needs to teach them a lesson. A god that needs to used massive earthquakes, devastating floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters to "spank" people that tick him off. A god that is going to gleefully destroy the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand and others, allowing them to die of starvation, disease, war and be placed in concentration camps or made as slaves to European citizens.
The Warrior God is essential to the Churches of God. Without the warrior god, Bob Thiel, James Malm, Rod Meredith, Gerald Flurry and Ron Weinland would not be able to exist. It is essential to these "men" that they scare people to death. Frightened people tend to look towards those who claim to be more enlightened and have the answers.
Fortunately most of us have realized that these "men" are morally and spiritual bankrupt and have no answers.
