As I observed my last conversation with someone who agrees with Dr. Damina’s legless heresy, I saw a strong assumption that anger is evil and must not be found in a holy God. These assumptions are rift in other heresies by the dangerous preacher. For example, he assumes that the Lion Is aggressive and dangerous, and thus Christ cannot be referred to as the Lion of Judah. His own doctrine, basically, not the Bible. When the Bible says a thing and you discredit it based on your self-constructed assumption, you are the problem. Let’s not drift.
Does the Bible indicate in any way that anger is a work of darkness? Because that is one of the arguments I heard. The brother said, God is light and there is no darkness in Him, thus anger cannot be found in God. Now, this is how to discover the deception.
Does the Bible say God is light? YES.
Does the Bible say there is no darkness in Him? YES.
Does the Bible say anger is darkness? NO.
Does the Bible say God doesn’t get angry? NO.
Does the Bible say God gets angry? YES.
So why are you failing to call Damina a false teacher, especially when he has a fleet of heresies?
Let us go on to prove that the Bible does not say that anger is a work of darkness. I will first define anger and then we go into what the Scripture says about it.
Anger is an emotion of displeasure, disappointment and disapproval. Unlike the docile emotion of simple unhappiness, anger is more eager. Anger is more forceful, with the potential of motivating corrective or punitive action. That is, I may simply be unhappy about a situation without being too angry. This is so for powerless, less powerful and/or less interested victims or spectators. I may not like the shirt you are wearing, but I would not be angry at you for wearing it. If I was going to a business meeting with you and demanded that you dress officially, and you dressed casually instead, I could feel an emotion stronger than simple dislike for your choice. I would feel disappointed and displeased. I may want to confront you, question or chastise you if I can. My interest in your dressing and power over you would greatly influence the degree of emotion that your indiscretion produces. That emotion is what is referred to as anger.
Now, what do we learn of God in the Bible when it comes to anger?
GOD IS INTERESTED IN HIS CREATION.
If we pretend that the Bible is not clear enough on the possibility of God being annoyed, let us start to rebuild the argument for a God who is right to be angry.
Like my ‘good’ self in the example above, I can become angry at the wrongly dressed fellow because of my interest in his outfit for the occasion. I wouldn’t be angry if he wore the same dress in his bedroom. God is emotionally interested in His creation. We read this in many places about the Biblical God. He is grieved about our sins and excited about our salvation.
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.6. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.7. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:5-8, NKJV)
I will deal with the question on God’s REACTION as an all-knowing Being later on. But what we see here is God reacting to man’s wickedness. We see God expressing disappointment and deciding to take a punitive action against mankind. This is possible because God is personally interested in mankind. We do not think that God punishes the fish in the ocean or the birds in the sky for how they behave. God is personally and emotionally interested in mankind for one reason: we were made in His image. More has been given to us and more is expected. When we fail, God is displeased and disappointed in our actions. But is God’s dissatisfaction with our sins a simple unhappiness or an eager emotion of anger?
At least, we have established God’s clear displeasure for sin. Does it stop there? Does God simply feel sad about our sins or He does feel angry? Let’s continue.
GOD HAS POWER OVER HIS CREATION.
God does not look upon our sins helplessly because He has the power to chastise us and punish our actions.
“God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.” (Psalms 47:8, NKJV)
“The LORD has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all.” (Psalm 103:19, NKJV)
Like my example above, if I had no power over the fellow, I may still be angry but there may really be no point. What can I do? It is not so with God. God is not our tenant or employee. God exercises power over His creation. He has the right to be angry and the room to be angry.
GOD CHASTISES THOSE HE LOVES.
We have established that God is interested in His creation. So concern or interest is established. We have also established that God is the Boss and not an employee. His emotions can be freely bold, just like His expressions. A good boss may not be a bully but he won’t also be bullied. He won’t be a crying baby. Those who say God cannot be angry imply that He is merely displeased with sin and does not act against it, or He does so emotionlessly. Because the only reasonable emotion with which a displeased God will deal drastically with the sinful is anger.
“For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:6, NKJV)
Thus by plugging anger from the concept of God, His hatred and punishment for sin must be touched too. We would be saying that the Judge of the Universe is so detached from His judgments. We would be saying that He behaves like an AI Robot. We would be calling Him impersonal and emotionless, or unconcerned about sin. This is the disaster of a single baseless heresy. God’s very nature is being miscommunicated. It is the height of heresies to suggest that God, though able to love, cannot also hate. Meanwhile, implicit in loving a thing is hating another. To love holiness is to hate sin. And to be pleased with kindness is to be displeased with wickedness. Will the Judge who rewards virtue not also punish vices?
Fortunately, God does not only love or hate. He reprimands those that He loves. And He does so in love. So relating it to my example above, I would not simply be scolding the brother’s dressing in anger. I would be doing so also in love. How is that possible? The very emotion of displeasure can be directed into disciplining him so he does better next time. That would be both love and anger at work. What is the anger? It is the strong displeasure. What is the love? It is why I don’t dismiss him in my displeasure. I don’t cut him off. But I choose a disciplinary action that deters him from repeating the wrong next time and expresses my displeasure still. I may rebuke Him in anger and in love. Anger? Yes. What’s wrong with that? You have not felt angry at someone you love before? Did it cancel the love? Or you actually felt angry because you love then?GOD HATES CERTAIN THINGS.
We have established that God is emotionally interested in mankind especially and not impersonal. We have also established that He exercises power over us and will most likely not helplessly feel displeased at our sins. He is not a tenant who will stomach displeasure at his landlord because he can do little about the landlord’s noise. Then we have seen clearly that God does not look the other way when His people sin. He actually chastises them in His love. So He is a disciplinarian. An emotionally interested Person will effect discipline with some emotion. It does not mean God has anger issues like one man kept twisting my point to mean. It means God is personal and expresses emotion in His relationship with us. If God can be pleased, then He can be displeased. If God can rejoice over us, can He not also be angry? Why are they painting God into a smiling AI robot?
“These six things the Lord HATES, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:16-19, NKJV)
Next, we see that the God of love also hates. God does not merely dislike. He hates – consider the strength of the H word. God is not emotionally disinterested in sin in general. But the Bible shows us specific sins that He HATES. It can be inferred that He expresses emotions in degrees. Just like we have things that really provoke us, God does. We are fallen men and women, but we still bear the likeness of God in some ways. God hates sin and is disgust by abominations. The theory Dr. Damina proposes is that God simply withdraws from our sinfulness and leaves us to the consequences. That is in sharp contrast with the God of the Bible who personally and actively punishes sinners, or shows them mercy, as He pleases. God’s hatred for sin does not make Him excuse Himself and let us be. Remember, He is the landlord and not the tenant.
“The LORD is known by the judgment He executes; The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah” (Psalm 9:16, NKJV)
CONCLUSION
For this discussion, let us put the clear mention of God’s wrath aside. Since Damina and his followers like complicated inference, let us assume that we don’t know clearly from Scripture that God gets angry. Let’s assume even though it’s difficult.
Now, we see a Personal God who is very interested in creation and powerful over it. We see a God who rebukes His own children when they do the wrong thing. We see a God who has strong disgust and hatred towards certain behaviors. With all reasonableness, can we conclude that this God cannot get angry? I leave you to decide. May God help us all.
Listen! We do not do this to appear more intelligent or learned. I would rather not. We do this in love, that perhaps, God will rescue some of those caught up in the claws of this deception. Ideas have consequences. We cannot just let everyone preach what they want. That’s not Christianity. Otherwise, lets hail the blasphemer who says that Christ was a bus conductor. Nonsense must be exposed as nonsense. And misunderstandings must be corrected. If it was about appearing good or better, maybe we would be silent, and we would avoid confronting our own friends when they are wrong. But we put in the effort so that truth can be preserved and the pulpit is rid of lies.
In our next section if God permits, we will go into what exactly God’s word says about anger. Does God’s Word say that anger is evil?
Pious D. Serwonu
December 7, 2023.