Modern man . . . seems to hate God with a passion and fights him with fierceness. He seems to desire God's obliteration, to vanquish him, to kill him. But . . .  it is modern man's latest attitude of indifference or of emasculating God and making him an instrument for his diabolical, egotistical, antihuman and antidivine pursuits that clearly shows his hatred for God.
It is not a wonder that modern Western man hates God so passionately because the God he has known is detestable. The God whom Western man knows is horrific, capricious, atrocious, furious, and a hard and merciless tyrant, who torments and punishes harshly, even for the pettiest misdeed. He does not tolerate any objection or any opposition. He considers man's refusal to subject himself to his commandments as such a horrible insult against him that He demands an equally horrible revenge. This is why he is not satisfied even if he destroys the entire human race for man's disobedience. God wants to kill a god so that His revenge equals the insult. Therefore he kills his own Son to satisfy his vengeance. There was no other way for man to expiate God for his awful crime. Even if God wanted to release man of the punishment, He could not because he is compelled to satisfy his justice. The justice of God is the god of God, as destiny formerly was the god of the gods of the Greek pantheon. As those gods were prey to destiny, God is a prey to His justice. Western theology has presented God to modern man as such a detestable and monstrous being that He reminds him of the hideous and atrocious wooden statues with bloodstained teeth of the primitive gods.
Man was tyrannized for centuries by that monster. He endured without daring to show the slightest displeasure for the inhuman terrorism. How could he, a weak creature, stand up to an uncontested and omnipotent ruler, not only of earth but even of heaven, not only of this life, but even of life hereafter? The only thing man could do was to succumb, to yield, to conform to every wish of the tyrant and to pay unfailingly the tax of prayer. If he failed in this, the tyrant would send his heavenly guards with their swords of flame to torture him in this life with every kind of tribulation and, finally, to take him to eternal hell. . . .
But is that horrible monster of the scholasticism* of the West and of the pietism of the East, the God that Jesus Christ revealed to man? Definitely not! Therefore those who are really Orthodox do not regret the assassination of this monster, they do not try to save him and keep him on his throne, nor do they detest his assassins.  In reality, they should feel sympathy for them and see the torments and harassment behind their rage.
The God that Jesus Christ revealed is not just. "Do not ever say that God is just. Because if he was just, you would have been in hell. Only reckon on his . . . injustice, which is mercy, love and forgiveness," says Isaak the Syrian. He continues: "How can you call God just if you see the chapter which refers to the wage of the workers . . . How can man call God just when he sees the chapter referring to the Prodigal Son, who living a life of debauchery wasted his wealth and when he repented and went to his father with just the contrition he showed, he gave him a right on all his estate: Where is the Justice of God? Because we were sinners and Christ died for us?"
In the parable of the vineyard, Christ states emphatically that God is not the pawn of his justice. "I choose to pay the last man the same as you," he says to him who worked from the beginning and he adds, "am I not free to do what I want with my own possessions? Or are you responding to the fact that I am good by being wicked?" (Mt 20:14-15). John Chrysostom responds to this with the memorable expression, "The master being generous receives the last like the first. He gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has worked from the first hour. And he shows mercy upon the last and cares for the first and to the one he gives and upon the other he bestows gifts."
Jesus Christ said that his father does not judge the world and that he sent him not to judge the world but to save it (Jn 3:17). He also said that he is going to come again in glory to judge the world (Mt 25:31-46). But his judgment is not going to be like human judgment, that is, based on the human notion of justice and which does not know another way of defense against evil than revenge and retribution.
. . . If neither the Father nor the Son judges the world then "who is going to judge the world?" asks John Chrysostom. And he answers with the words of Jesus Christ, "the word that I spoke will be his judge" (Jn 12:48).

*Editor's note:  "Scholastic" refers to school or university. Therefore, "scholastisicm" refers to the philosophy and theology developed in medieval universities. They were largely influenced by Aristotle. Although philosophy used theology and theology depended on philosophy, each discipline had its own principles and methods. Their arguments took the form and strictness of laws. Theology and philosophy were taught by questions and answers ("the Socratic method). Logic was master.