Death is the natural consequence of sin that humanity reaps from willingly committing sin. In foolishness, humanity implanted itself into the cycle of death, and the loving God would not compel humanity to refrain from sin nor stop sin from taking its natural course.
In ancient times, the Gnostics were so offended by scripture passages that spoke of God being angry or repenting that they rejected the Old Testament altogether. But the real cause of their being offended was that they interpreted these passages literally rather than spiritually. Origen says that references to God that employ human analogies of God (anthropomorphisms) such as the wrath of God cannot be interpreted literally. “ If you hear of the anger of God and his wrath, do not suppose that anger and wrath are passions of God . The purposes of using this way of speaking are for converting and bettering the infant, since we also use a fearful expression with children, not from an actual state of mind but because of a purpose to cause fear. If we maintain what is kindly for the soul in our expression toward the babe, and we show the affection which we have for it, since we have not altered ourselves nor changed for the conversion of that one, we lose him and make him worse. So then it states that God is also said to be angry and wrathful in order that you can convert and become better. And he is truly neither angry nor wrathful, but you experience the effects of
anger and wrath when you are in unbearable pains because of evil, whenever he disciplines by what is called the anger of God.”678