I've been reading The Attributes of God (by Arthur W. Pink) for school this term. I can't say that I love it, but the theology seemed fine until I ran into this quote, in the chapter on the Wrath of God:
'If we rejoice not "at the remembrance of His holiness" (Psa. 97:12), if we rejoice not to know that in a soon-coming Day God will make a most glorious display of His wrath by taking vengeance upon all who now oppose Him, it is proof positive that our hearts are not in subjection to Him, that we are yet in our sins, and that we are on the way to everlasting burnings.'
We should rejoice in the justice of God, and in the fact that all things will one day be put right, but nowhere that I know does the Bible call for us to rejoice in God's destruction of sinners. (Does God Himself rejoice when He wreaks vengeance upon His perverted creation?) Most importantly, the passage seems to be basing the issue of salvation on this one theological point. Not good.
But the stranger part came when I was reading One Blood (Ken Ham et al.) two days later (another book I can't say I love):
'All humans are sinners: "For we have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
Sin is transgressing God's law and includes such things as lying, lusting, cheating, deceit, anger, evil thoughts, and more.'
I was startled to see anger listed among the other sins. They may be taking their cue from the Bible ("...hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies..." - Gal. 5:20) but just plain "anger" among the others is misleading, particularly in a chapter intended for non-Christians. And how do they reconcile that with Psalm 4:4, "Be angry and do not sin"?
What's strange, though, is that the two passages are contradictory. God cannot be a God of wrath if wrath is a sin. (The way I see it, anger--like hatred--is a part of our character that was made in the image of God. It has a right purpose (we should be angry when we hear about evil deeds) but it is too often used wrongly.)
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