God’s anger is fully compatible with his love

[Michie]

It is not uncommon to hear reassurances — sometimes in the face of Scriptural witness to the contrary — that God is not an angry God. God the Father, revealed to us in Christ, is a loving and merciful God. Sometimes this even takes the form of Marcionism, an ancient heresy that taught that the God revealed by Jesus was not the same God as the Jewish God. In this version, the God of the Old Testament might have been angry, or at least misperceived as such by the Scriptural authors, but Jesus reveals to us the true face of God, the face of love.

While it is true that Jesus does reveal God’s love in a final and irrevocable way, it is not the case that he reveals a different God. Marcionism will not do. In addition to going against the constant witness of the Church, it is also a dangerous step on the road to antisemitism. Positing two different Gods, or even two different conceptions of God, will not square this circle. Moreover, this solution imagines that all the references to God’s anger in Scripture are found in the Old Testament. But this is simply not the case; as we know, Jesus himself gets angry.

Anger isn’t the opposite of love​

Continued below.

God's anger is fully compatible with his love

Does God get angry? Yes, but not in the way that fallen human beings do.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

 

[narnia59]

Jesus experienced anger because he had a human nature.

God does not experience human emotions nor does He go through changes in state, like becoming angry over something. When Scripture speaks to God experiencing human type emotions they are anthromorphic, just like when it speaks of God having physical human attribues (the right hand of God, God's mouth etc). They are metaphors describing how we relate to God, not how God relates to us.

I think that article is misleading at best. I think this is a better understanding

Does God Have Emotions?

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and atheist whose writings are very critical of Christianity. In her essay “God’s Emotions” in the anthology The End of Christi...

www.catholic.com

 

[RileyG]

Jesus experienced anger because he had a human nature.

God does not experience human emotions nor does He go through changes in state, like becoming angry over something. When Scripture speaks to God experiencing human type emotions they are anthromorphic, just like when it speaks of God having physical human attribues (the right hand of God, God's mouth etc). They are metaphors describing how we relate to God, not how God relates to us.

I think that article is misleading at best. I think this is a better understanding

Does God Have Emotions?

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and atheist whose writings are very critical of Christianity. In her essay “God’s Emotions” in the anthology The End of Christi...

www.catholic.com

That’s my understanding as well.

 

[fide]

It is not uncommon to hear reassurances — sometimes in the face of Scriptural witness to the contrary — that God is not an angry God. God the Father, revealed to us in Christ, is a loving and merciful God. Sometimes this even takes the form of Marcionism, an ancient heresy that taught that the God revealed by Jesus was not the same God as the Jewish God. In this version, the God of the Old Testament might have been angry, or at least misperceived as such by the Scriptural authors, but Jesus reveals to us the true face of God, the face of love.

While it is true that Jesus does reveal God’s love in a final and irrevocable way, it is not the case that he reveals a different God. Marcionism will not do. In addition to going against the constant witness of the Church, it is also a dangerous step on the road to antisemitism. Positing two different Gods, or even two different conceptions of God, will not square this circle. Moreover, this solution imagines that all the references to God’s anger in Scripture are found in the Old Testament. But this is simply not the case; as we know, Jesus himself gets angry.

Anger isn’t the opposite of love​

Continued below.

God's anger is fully compatible with his love

Does God get angry? Yes, but not in the way that fallen human beings do.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

I commend this article, and conclude that he did a very good job of analyzing anger - when it is appropriate and when it is not. It is a difficult subject for fallen human persons to analyze without falling into error one way or another because we are fallen. But our restoration toward God's original creation, in His "image and likeness", does invite us to explore the issue and discern the fact of anger in us personally: where is it sin, and where, righteousness? Yes, the Spirit did move Paul to write "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil." (Eph 4:26-27)

A key here was explored by St. Augustine. (What did he NOT in his vast legacy of wisdom?!). This, on the subject of "perfect hatred":

Wherefore the man who lives according to God, and not according to man, ought to be a lover of good, and therefore a hater of evil. And since no one is evil by nature, but whoever is evil is evil by vice, he who lives according to God ought to cherish towards evil men a perfect hatred, so that he shall neither hate the man because of his vice, nor love the vice because of the man, but hate the vice and love the man. For the vice being cursed, all that ought to be loved, and nothing that ought to be hated, will remain.

Augustine, City of God, Book XIV, Chapter 6.--Of the Character of the Human Will Which Makes the Affections of the Soul Right or Wrong.

Our works can be mixtures - even our intended "good works of love/charity" - as our love for God can be a mixture, of the purity of love possible in a human person (i.e. the Blessed Mother), sadly reduced and corrupted in us personally because of disordered self-love remaining in our hearts. Divine anger serves as a scale of intensity, it seems, of the corruption - the wrongness - in the work, of the offence against God. "No" can be whispered, and it can be shouted "NO!" When it needs to be shouted for our self-defensive ears to be opened to hear Him, please God have mercy and be angry! Holy fear of God can be salvific.

 

[Bob Crowley]

When I was going to my original Presbyterian Church, we had a gym downstairs. I used to go a couple of times a week.

But on one occasion, when I was still a new Christian, I was driving to the gym under the church when I got a bit "pally" and condescending to God in my thoughts.

The next thing I knew this sense of anger descended on me. I felt like I was literally going to disintegrate. It was very unpleasant.

I had to pull over into a side street. I parked there for a while while I waited for this sense of anger to dissipate.

Then I drove home. I was too shaken to continue down to the church.

That personal and unpleasant experience told me that God does get angry.

At any one time He is going to have a whole range of emotions - anger at someone's perfidy, pleasure at someone else's charity, humour at something funny, cynicism at the know-it-all attitude of some highly educated humans and all at the same time.

The terrifying scenes of the Final Judgement as rendered in Revelation speak to me of Wrath with a capital W.

As my old pastor said to me once, "Love and judgement are two sides of the same coin".

God gets angry.

He's also got a side splitting sense of humour to put things in perspective.

Whether we want to call God's emotions anthropromorphic is splittng hairs in my opinion - our own anthropromorphic experience is the ONLY term of reference we've got, and since we're made in His image, then our emotions reflect HIs in some way.

 

[narnia59]

When I was going to my original Presbyterian Church, we had a gym downstairs. I used to go a couple of times a week.

But on one occasion, when I was still a new Christian, I was driving to the gym under the church when I got a bit "pally" and condescending to God in my thoughts.

The next thing I knew this sense of anger descended on me. I felt like I was literally going to disintegrate. It was very unpleasant.

I had to pull over into a side street. I parked there for a while while I waited for this sense of anger to dissipate.

Then I drove home. I was too shaken to continue down to the church.

That personal and unpleasant experience told me that God does get angry.

At any one time He is going to have a whole range of emotions - anger at someone's perfidy, pleasure at someone else's charity, humour at something funny, cynicism at the know-it-all attitude of some highly educated humans and all at the same time.

The terrifying scenes of the Final Judgement as rendered in Revelation speak to me of Wrath with a capital W.

As my old pastor said to me once, "Love and judgement are two sides of the same coin".

God gets angry.

He's also got a side splitting sense of humour to put things in perspective.

Whether we want to call God's emotions anthropromorphic is splittng hairs in my opinion - our own anthropromorphic experience is the ONLY term of reference we've got, and since we're made in His image, then our emotions reflect HIs in some way.

If your interpretation of those events are correct, it would mean two things.

First, it would mean that God changes. He moved from a state of being not angry with you, to a state of being angry with you. But God is immutable and does not change. James referred to Him as one " with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change". Vatican I calls Him "unchangeable".

Second, it would mean God's "mood" can be impacted by what we do. We my friend do not have that kind of power over God.

Rather, I would suggest what you experienced was within yourself and caused by your moving away from Him in your thoughts and feelings. We need him for our very sustenance, and when we move away from him there can be a noticeable change in us. But not in Him.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I know my own mind thanks! I can tell the difference between my own thoughts of anger and something that is imposed on me.

Just prior to this event I was actually in an upbeat mood, and got a bit "pally' with God like I said.

That's when this thing hit, and it wasn't very pleasant.

It was IMPOSED on me, and I had to pull over into a side street, like I said, and wait until it abated. I literally felt like I was going to disintegrate.

Here are some verses to run your eyes over.

https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/library/verses/id/550/gods-anger-verses.htm

Rest assured when the tyrants - Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and all the rest - front up to God on the day of their death, they'll find out about God's anger.

His immutability is His essence - not every aspect of His being, otherwise He would have no more personality than a block of wood.

 

[RileyG]

If your interpretation of those events are correct, it would mean two things.

First, it would mean that God changes. He moved from a state of being not angry with you, to a state of being angry with you. But God is immutable and does not change. James referred to Him as one " with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change". Vatican I calls Him "unchangeable".

Second, it would mean God's "mood" can be impacted by what we do. We my friend do not have that kind of power over God.

Rather, I would suggest what you experienced was within yourself and caused by your moving away from Him in your thoughts and feelings. We need him for our very sustenance, and when we move away from him there can be a noticeable change in us. But not in Him.

I always love and appreciate your knowledge!

 

[RileyG]

When I was going to my original Presbyterian Church, we had a gym downstairs. I used to go a couple of times a week.

But on one occasion, when I was still a new Christian, I was driving to the gym under the church when I got a bit "pally" and condescending to God in my thoughts.

The next thing I knew this sense of anger descended on me. I felt like I was literally going to disintegrate. It was very unpleasant.

I had to pull over into a side street. I parked there for a while while I waited for this sense of anger to dissipate.

Then I drove home. I was too shaken to continue down to the church.

That personal and unpleasant experience told me that God does get angry.

At any one time He is going to have a whole range of emotions - anger at someone's perfidy, pleasure at someone else's charity, humour at something funny, cynicism at the know-it-all attitude of some highly educated humans and all at the same time.

The terrifying scenes of the Final Judgement as rendered in Revelation speak to me of Wrath with a capital W.

As my old pastor said to me once, "Love and judgement are two sides of the same coin".

God gets angry.

He's also got a side splitting sense of humour to put things in perspective.

Whether we want to call God's emotions anthropromorphic is splittng hairs in my opinion - our own anthropromorphic experience is the ONLY term of reference we've got, and since we're made in His image, then our emotions reflect HIs in some way.

Feelings come and go, my friend.

Trust in his mercy and goodness.

God bless

 

[fide]

I know my own mind thanks! I can tell the difference between my own thoughts of anger and something that is imposed on me.

Just prior to this event I was actually in an upbeat mood, and got a bit "pally' with God like I said.

That's when this thing hit, and it wasn't very pleasant.

It was IMPOSED on me, and I had to pull over into a side street, like I said, and wait until it abated. I literally felt like I was going to disintegrate.

Here are some verses to run your eyes over.

https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/library/verses/id/550/gods-anger-verses.htm

Rest assured when the tyrants - Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and all the rest - front up to God on the day of their death, they'll find out about God's anger.

His immutability is His essence - not every aspect of His being, otherwise He would have no more personality than a block of wood.

I believe you experienced a true blessing from God in the moment of fear:

Job 28:28 And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.'"
Psa 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who practice it. His praise endures for ever!
Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Pro 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Pro 15:33 The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor.
Isa 11:2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
Isa 33:6 and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
Mic 6:9 The voice of the LORD cries to the city—and it is sound wisdom to fear thy name: "Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!

 

[Bob Crowley]

I believe you experienced a true blessing from God in the moment of fear:

Thanks. It's good to know someone believes me - I get cynical when others who weren't there and didn't have the experience think they know my mind better than I do.

 

[fide]

Thanks. It's good to know someone believes me - I get cynical when others who weren't there and didn't have the experience think they know my mind better than I do.

Anyone who has heard God knows: it is something that cannot be forgotten or denied. Neither can God forget it.