Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Can a Perfect God be Angry? (part 1)

Doesn't God's anger contradict His supposed omnipotence and omniscience? Isn't it belittling of a perfect God to assume that He would ever become angry with His creation? For, if God is all-knowing, why should any disobedience anger Him? He should already know it is going to occur. Since He is all-powerful, He could simply cause the situation to reverse for His pleasure rather than allow Himself to get angry.

Over the next several posts I will provide an abstract (influenced by my own thoughts as well) of "A Treatise on the Anger of God" by Lactantius (A.D. 260-330). Read the whole thing if you wish, you won't be disappointed.

There are four possibilities regarding the affections of God.

1. God is angry and never kind.
2. God is never angry or kind.
3. God is kind and never angry.
4. God is kind and angry.

The first option is not really an issue because no one claims this of God. For if it were true, He would necessarily be our enemy and unworthy of our worship. The second option was popularized by Epicurus. He determined that God could not contain anger because it would be inconsistent with his character. He rightly determined that he must also remove from God his kindness. God cannot be moved by anything if He cannot be angry because any affection could be seen as a weakness. The third option does not make sense. If God loves righteousness He must also hate wickedness. If God were never angry with wickedness, He could never appreciate righteousness. The last option is obviously correct of the Christian God. He must either be both kind and angry or neither. Scripture clearly points to the former.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Atheism is on the decline

According to an article in Washington Times, atheists are beginning to doubt their "non-belief." The article states:
British philosopher Anthony Flew, once as hard-nosed a humanist as any, has turned his back on atheism, saying it is impossible for evolution to account for the fact that one single cell can carry more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Mr. Flew still does not accept the God of the Bible.
But he has embraced the concept of intelligent design — a stunning desertion of a former intellectual ambassador of secular humanism to the belief in some form of intelligence behind the design of the universe.
Studies are beginning to prove over and over again that there is some "correlation between faith, prayer and recovery from illness." In fact, the article states that some 1,200 studies are confirming the phenomenon. It goes on to mention that as atheism is on the decline worldwide, paganism is at an ever-increasing high.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Debating Atheism (part 5)

This is a continuation from the comments in the previous post.

We must first understand that God’s anger is nothing like man’s anger. It is a common misunderstanding that when God is portrayed as angry or “intolerant” that he has somehow taken on a character flaw. If anger is seen as a flaw in humans, then God must either not experience anger or, if He does, He is not perfect. Due to this misunderstanding, many Christians will steer away from bringing up this idea of God’s wrath. As I pointed out with Romans, and any Bible concordance will show, this theme is a very central and consistent message throughout Scripture.

The passage of Romans 1:21-32 is a description of evil that is very present in society today. John Murray defines wrath as, “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness.” What I believe Paul is saying in Romans is that God’s wrath is revealed in the manifestation of evil present today. A very good and basic interpretation of the passage is provided by James Boice in his commentary on Romans. He says,
“Paul speaks of a downward inclination of the race by which the world, having rejected God and therefore being judicially abandoned by God, is given up to evil. It is set on a course that leads to perversions and ends in a debasement in which people call good evil and evil good. Human depravity and the misery involved are the revelation of God’s anger.”
In other words, when God allows mankind to do as they wish, wickedness results. This is apparent when reading the newspapers, watching television, or reading the blogosphere. Wickedness is apparent everywhere, whether the Christian or secular community. The problem is not whether or not someone is wicked but how they will defend their wickedness before a perfect and holy God.