So my series of posts on Facebook about Dr. Abel Damina yesterday was because a respected Christian radio personality promoted him. I thought it responsible to leave some warnings below the post in order to prevent innocent believers from falling for heresies.
Here again, is a summary of my experience. Particularly on the false claim that God has no wrath, his argument was basically premised on this: Love cannot be angry.
So I shared at least two verses with him that clearly stated that God can get angry and that did not cancel His love. In one of the verses, the Psalmist extols God’s love and mercies, and then says that He is slow to anger. Clearly, the loving God also gets angry. (Psalm 145:8)
Well, he tried to change the meaning of that part of the verse by confusing the Hebrew meaning of the phrase. When I decided to correct him on his Hebrew, he said I could not build doctrine from one verse. I told him that the unfairness said a lot about his position.
Then I referred him to Hebrews 4:3 where he said that no matter what the verse says about God’s anger, the chapter speaks about His mercy and thus the verse cannot hold. I asked him whether the verse was relevant at all and what the verse meant. He has not returned.
I also pointed to him that the argument that God is love and therefore cannot be angry is external to the Word of God. I dared him to produce one verse out of the thousands in the Bible which either means that God has no anger or that Love must not have the ability of getting angry. I asked for one verse from him which could either destroy my argument or support his claim. Brethren, he gave none.
Here is my sincere observation. The doctrine that God has no wrath because He is loving is based on a misunderstanding of love. The whole argument is based on the wrong notion that “love cannot be angry.” If that notion were founded in the Bible, they would be right. But since that notion is nonexistent in all the pages of the Bible, they are imposing a false notion of love on God. And it’s very unnecessary, considering the clarity with which Scripture communicates on God’s anger or wrath. It’s extremely unnecessary to conclude as such by any stretch of interpretation that the biblical God has no anger. Where from the idea that a loving God must not get angry? Very strange!
Why must we insist on a God who has no anger despite all the black-and-white evidence in His Word? Do you realize that Dr. Damina had to attack the inspiration of Scriptures to explain this unnecessary lie? He had to discredit the inspiration of the Old Testament.
Okay. Granted that the Old Testament is faulty and Christ is the only revelation of God, did Jesus Christ ever get angry in His earthly life? Did that mean He sinned? Would that make Him less God or no God? Please pay close attention.
If anger is sinful, then an angry Jesus in the Gospels is enough to make the conclusions that Jesus is not God, was not holy and cannot be the Savior. Now, lets check. Was Jesus ever angry?
In John 2:13-22, Jesus shows great emotion against the merchandise that was going on in the temple. I doubt that Damina himself, in his right senses, would think or suggest that Jesus was not or could not have been angry in that episode. But if we want black-and-white evidence, let’s look at verse 17. Jesus’ “display” called a prophecy to the memory of His disciples. That is, ‘ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.’
Jesus zealously drove out the merchants. He made a whip and overturned their tables. He did not go crazy. But the zeal for God’s house included anger at the defilers. Shouldn’t it? Didn’t it?
For those who still follow and promote Damina, I don’t know why you want God to have no anger. But anytime you read about His wrath in the Bible, remember the Bible is inspired and Damina is not. How dare y’all?
Hebrews 1 tells us that God spoke through the prophets. Damina says that when God spoke through Moses clearly about His wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah, Moses did not hear Him well. In other words, God wanted to tell us that He has no wrath, but all the prophets He spoke through told us that He does get angry. God failed to communicate? God is that reckless? Damina’s god, I guess. Not the Christian God.
The Christian God communicates clearly. And in all the complications that may come with God-Man communication in the Christian context, it is absurd to think that despite all the literal references to God’s anger in the inspired Bible, God actually has no anger. It is just nonsense!
We must really check our hearts and ask, “Why do we want God to be incapable of anger?” I pose the challenge to anyone reading this who will still say they agree with Damina.
SHOW ME ONE VERSE OF THE BIBLE THAT EVEN SUGGESTS THAT GOD MUST HAVE NO ANGER IF HE IS LOVING. JUST ONE VERSE. ONE. ONE. ONE. ONE. JUST ONE.
We must get serious!
Pious D. Serwonu
December 6, 2023.