Whether It Is Possible for Anyone to Hate God?
Objection 1: It would seem that no man can hate God. For Dionysius
says (Div. Nom. iv) that "the first good and beautiful is an object
of love and dilection to all." But God is goodness and beauty itself.
Therefore He is hated by none.
Obj. 2: Further, in the Apocryphal books of 3 Esdras 4:36, 39 it is
written that "all things call upon truth . . . and (all men) do well
like of her works." Now God is the very truth according to John 14:6.
Therefore all love God, and none can hate Him.
Obj. 3: Further, hatred is a kind of aversion. But according to
Dionysius (Div. Nom. i) God draws all things to Himself. Therefore
none can hate Him.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ps. 73:23): "The pride of them that
hate Thee ascendeth continually," and (John 15:24): "But now they
have both seen and hated both Me and My Father."
_I answer that,_ As shown above (I-II, Q. 29, A. 1), hatred is a
movement of the appetitive power, which power is not set in motion
save by something apprehended. Now God can be apprehended by man in
two ways; first, in Himself, as when He is seen in His Essence;
secondly, in His effects, when, to wit, "the invisible things" of God
. . . "are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made" (Rom. 1:20). Now God in His Essence is goodness itself, which
no man can hate--for it is natural to good to be loved. Hence it is
impossible for one who sees God in His Essence, to hate Him.
Moreover some of His effects are such that they can nowise be
contrary to the human will, since _to be, to live, to understand,_
which are effects of God, are desirable and lovable to all. Wherefore
again God cannot be an object of hatred if we consider Him as the
Author of such like effects. Some of God's effects, however, are
contrary to an inordinate will, such as the infliction of punishment,
and the prohibition of sin by the Divine Law. Such like effects are
repugnant to a will debased by sin, and as regards the consideration
of them, God may be an object of hatred to some, in so far as they
look upon Him as forbidding sin, and inflicting punishment.
Reply Obj. 1: This argument is true of those who see God's Essence,
which is the very essence of goodness.
Reply Obj. 2: This argument is true in so far as God is apprehended
as the cause of such effects as are naturally beloved of all, among
which are the works of Truth who reveals herself to men.
Reply Obj. 3: God draws all things to Himself, in so far as He is the
source of being, since all things, in as much as they are, tend to be
like God, Who is Being itself.
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