Fundamentalists often seem like angry people, don't they? That's certainly the steriotypical perception, and I'm afraid I've met some who reinforced that steriotype.
In fact, some of us are even proud of our anger. We call that good kind of anger "righteous indignation."
We're righteously indignant about the President wanting to use our tax money to murder babies. We're angry about the Muslims and their thousandth mosque in the U.S. We're angry about the New Evangelicals being willing to compromise the identity and work of Christ in the name of Christ. We're righteously indignant about the drug dealers and the pornographers and... well, pretty much anything that makes us mad, so long as we can justify the anger by saying the other person or group is sinning. If they're sinning in what they're doing, it's okay for us to be angry about it. Hey, God gets angry at sin, so shouldn't we?
Sometimes I think our movement's key verse is Ephesians 4:26a, "Be ye angry, and sin not." So long as we don't actually punch someone in the snoot or blow something up, isn't it okay to be angry, especially over sin? To listen to our preaching, sometimes, you'd think we actually have an obligation to be angry.
There's a tiny problem with all this anger that's flying around: the Bible. In our rush to excuse anger we think is justified, we've grabbed a magnifying glass and expanded Ephesians 4:26a so large we can't see the rest of the page.
What's on the rest of that page? Ephesians 4:31-32. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Wait... we're supposed to put ALL wrath and anger away from ourselves? Yup, that's what it said.
Is that an aberration we should explain away, doing a little exegetical gymnastics to reinterpret it? Um, nope. Psalm 37:8 says, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." In the preceding verse, it even tells us not to fret about people who bring wicked devices to pass. Rats... guess it's not okay for me to vent in anger over people, even if what they are doing is wrong.
In fact, as I perused the Scriptures, I couldn't find any situation in which God commanded an individual to be angry, nor could I find a case in which He commended a person for being angry, let alone acting in that anger.
Time and again, God warns against being hastily angry, acting in anger, or staying angry (that's the point of Ephesians 4:26 - we all feel anger sometimes, but we shouldn't let it linger or cause us to sin.) Yes, God acts in anger - God also enacts vengeance and seeks worship, neither of which belong to us.
Anger is fundamentally wanting to right a wrong, I think. It's being upset the world didn't work the way we thought it should, that someone didn't act the way we knew they should. But I'm not sure we have a "right" to that. Yes, people wrong us, sometimes. But ultimately, every sin is against God. He's the one who established the order of creation and gave the dictates of morality, not us. He has the right to be angry, to set right the wrongs, to expect the world to work as He desires. We don't. It's not our job to set things right - it's our job to do right.
We may experience anger as an emotion - but we ought not live in it or act on it.
God told us in James 1:20, "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Yet I hear sermon after sermon that seems fueled by anger and wrath, rather than by compassion and love. Is it any wonder that people don't seem moved by the preaching at times, despite the energy poured into it and the eloquence exercised in it? When the energy is man's, the work accomplished is rarely God's.
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I want to print this one out, remind myself of the wisdom in it on a regular basis. I'd tatoo it if I weren't so nervous of the needles. Excellent article!
ReplyDeleteHmmmm......In general I agree with your post. In fact, I regularly quote to myself James 1:20 as a means of defeating this particular temptation.
ReplyDeleteBut I think you may have gone too far in stating that God has never commended someone for their anger. Exodus 32:19-25 records Moses' anger at the incident with the golden calf and the Levites rallying to him and killing his "brother and friend and neighbor." About 3,000 people died. Yet in the aftermath, God said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name." This seems like a commendation for acting on his "righteous indignation" to me.
Nor can it be said that this is an isolated incident. In the parable of the great banquet (Luke 14), the head of the household (God the Father) becomes angry at those who refuse to come. In Mark 3 Jesus becomes angry with the Pharisees when they failed to show compassion on the man with the withered hand.
This small synopsis is in no way intended to provide an excuse for people to harbor anger. Again, I've got James 1:20 memorized because I need it so often.
But it does seem to me that when God, who is the standard by which perfection is measured, becomes angry, a blanket condemnation goes too far.
I think the telling line in your post is "We may experience anger as an emotion - but we ought not live in it or act on it." To this I say "Amen!"
"If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. 'But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rom 12:18-20 NIV)
Just my 2¢
Hey, you disagreeing with me makes me mad, um, I mean "righteously indignant." That does it - better get ready to be drinking heavy metal dusts in your water supply! I mean, clearly, you are in unrighteousness and deserve my righteous and wrathful judgment for disagreeing with any point upon which I take a stand. *rereads own post* Um, never mind.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, thanks for the well-thought and articulate response, Bruce.
It's most certainly true that God, both in the Old Testament and in the person of Jesus Christ, exercised anger. However, I'd maintain that just because God does something doesn't mean we automatically have the right to do it. In the post, I gave the examples of taking vengeance and seeking worship. There are some things I think God reserves to Himself, as only He has the right to do them - and I think acting in anger is one of them.
The case of Moses that you brought up is very interesting, and it's an excellent case in point. I'd note that first, the passage is descriptive, not prescriptive - it's telling us what happened, not saying what we should do. Over the course of his life and ministry, Moses did several things that we, with our full knowledge of Scripture, would say to be wrong, yet did not meet with God's specific disapproval.
Next, in the passage surrounding the event itself, God never commends Moses for his actions taken in wrath. (I do concede that God never specifically condemns him for them either. But then, I've never said that we shouldn't judge sin, when it is our responsibility to do so - church discipline comes to mind - simply that it shouldn't be done in anger.)
The verse you bring up is Exodus 33:17 - "And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken [which had nothing to do with the incident with the idol, but was rather a request that God would go with them as they journeyed]: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name." That's some time after the incident with the golden calf (it's hard to say how long, but it's after God plagued the people Himself at the end of chapter 32, after the order to march, after the relocating of the tabernacle and some span of time in which people went there - could have been a day or two, and it could have been months), and it neither expresses approval nor disapproval of Moses' specific actions in the incident with the calf. Moses had remained faithful to the Lord, he had pled for mercy for the people, and he had sought the abiding presence of God among His people and the glory of God before the rest of the world. It's no wonder that he found grace in the eyes of God, even if under extreme duress he acted in anger in one situation.
If we are to consider the life of Moses and the subject of anger, don't forget the time he blew it. It sure looks like Moses' temper that led to him striking the rock the second time, and thus to God's judgment on him - even if anger is understandable at times, it's a terribly dangerous thing to allow to drive ministry decisions.
In short, when I've got a prescriptive passage that gives a particular command (e.g. Ephesian 4:31, telling us to let all wrath and anger be put away from us), I give that precedence in interpretation over a descriptive passage, especially if in the immediate context of the descriptive passage there is nothing to contradict the plain understanding of the prescriptive one.
Thanks again for your post; it's certainly possible that I've expressed the point too strongly. Balance is crucial in the Christian life and in understanding the Scriptures. However, judging by your last couple paragraphs, I suspect we're coming out at about the same place on this, even if the theological underpinning is a little different.
LOL! I love it when someone puts the "fun" in "fundamentalism."
ReplyDeleteI do think we're close on this. I think the telling statement in your response is "There are some things I think God reserves to Himself, as only He has the right to do them - and I think acting in anger is one of them." I agree. ACTING in anger is something I'd be hard pressed to defend.
On the other hand, sin is defined (theologically) as "any lack of conformity to the character of God." If that is correct (as I believe it is) then anytime we act, speak, think, or even feel something that God wouldn't, we are in sin. Conversely, if we fail to act, speak, think, or feel something that God would we are also in sin. Since God becomes angry in certain situations, it is appropriate for us to become angry as well. I would argue that NOT becoming angry at the things God becomes angry at is sin.
That being said, how does this work out in practice? I think the imprecatory psalms are a good example. In these psalms, the author calls down a curse on those that have done evil. The pattern is the law of retribution. They acted this way, so bring down on them the same actions. Compare Ps 109:6-15 with 109:16-20.
Some feel that the imprecatory psalms have been superseded by the ethics of the NT, but that comes perilously close to signaling a shift in God's moral attitudes between the testaments.
Instead, I believe the imprecatory psalms may be prayed by believers today. After all, in these psalms, all the psalmist is asking for is God's justice in an unjust world. And who wants injustice to flourish or go unpunished?
The key element, however, is that the author prays....he doesn't act. He leaves vengeance to God. His prayer is that God will act. This follows exactly the portion of Romans 12 quoted above. Faith to overcome evil with good is only possible knowing that God reserves vengeance for himself and will, in his own time and own way, right the wrongs that cry out for justice.
So the bottom line is we act with good toward those who do us evil, while seeking after God to make right the wrongs, either through repentance and forgiveness, or by strict retribution, either in this life or the next.
I know that sounds harsh, but I don't know how else to read it.
Thanks for letting me think this through with you.
Hey, I'm really enjoying the conversation. It reminds me of seminary, when we would sit around at the lunch tables after class batting things around. *grins* And "Putting the fun in Fundamentalism" is another of the subtitles I use for the blog sometimes. (You only need to worry when I go to "Putting the mental in fundamentalism.")
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, back to the discussion. I'm fine with your theological definition of sin, but we have to be careful how we apply it, because part of God's character is an accurate recognition of who He is and the implications of that understanding. Thus, God can seek worship for Himself, because in His accurate understanding, He knows Himself to be the only deserving recipient of worship. We cannot seek worship, because in our accurate understanding of ourselves, we know ourselves to be undeserving of worship, which only belongs to God. I think anger at sin is another of those things that God has a "right" to (*nods in the general direction of your sharp post on the subject of "rights") and we don't. All sin is against God, and none of it is against us. It affects us and it hurts us, but it is not a violation of our law - we have no right to give law. (Hence, right before David said to cease from anger and forsake wrath, he said "Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.")
Not only that, but have you ever noticed that when you fully know the circumstances of someone's actions or the motives underlying them, your anger sometimes evaporates? Circumstances and motives never justify sin, but they sometimes rightly affect our response to it. God, in His perfect knowledge and wisdom of heart and situation, is the only one who knows in which situations and to what degree anger is warranted. Jesus sometimes expressed sorrow at sin and sometimes anger - He knew what was at the heart of those sins, so He knew the appropriate emotional response. We don't always have the knowledge. But He did tell us what He desires of us in regard to anger.
So once again, I'm brought back to the simple statements of Scripture, the commands that actually govern how we should reflect the character of God. They include, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath." And, "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger... be put away from you." If I am to interact with the examples of Moses, Jehovah, and Jesus in explaining why I think anger is never the best response for a believer, then those who believe that it is warranted, even expected, need to interact with those Scriptures. *winks*
I notice also that believers are repeatedly called to think soberly. Being angry interferes with that. We can't think clearly when we're mad.
-- Breaking because of post length... tbc... --
...continued from previous post...
ReplyDeleteLastly, by way of mitigation of all these forceful statements... I see a certain inevitability to human anger in Scripture. We're told to "cease from anger and forsake wrath," both of which imply that it's already present. We're to let all wrath and anger be put away from us, which implies that it's present with us. We're to be slow to anger and slow to wrath, which implies that under sufficient duress, we'll probably get there, willingly or not. (Perhaps this is a place where we are to reflect God's character in that arena? God is repeatedly called slow to anger/wrath and swift to mercy. I mean, He gave the Amorites 400 years, and His longsuffering toward Israel endured for generations. If we got angry as slowly as God frequently does, we'd never be angry in our lifetime on earth!) We're told to be angry and sin not, to not let the sun go down on our wrath.
Thus, I can't say that it's categorically wrong for a Christian to "feel" angry - God seems to regard that as an inevitable fact of the human condition. However, we should never consciously choose to be angry, remain in anger, or act on that anger, and we should consciouly choose to delay anger as long as possible and to recover from it as quickly as possible, while not acting upon it while it lingers.
You bring up a great point with the imprecatory psalms, by the way. They've always been a challenge for me, even before I started to crystalize my thinking on anger. (Heh. The day I claim to have all the answers on something like this is the day someone needs to put heavy metal powders in MY drinking water!)
I really like your application of those, and I too would be very leery of saying God's outlook on right and wrong changed between the Testaments. I think a tremendous parallel in the New Testament is found in II Timothy 4:14-15, where Paul warns Timothy about Alexander the coppersmith. He does not seek justice himself, and he doesn't urge Timothy to avenge him. He simply prays for God to judge equitably. I'm struck, though, by his prayer of the next verse that God would not hold it against the people who forsook Paul in his hour of need.
Thanks again for a great discussion! I wish more Fundamentalists were able to sit and talk or write each other with this degree of respect and courtesy. I hope folk like us with that desire will help it become more of a reality, setting an example even in quiet corners like this.