Abstract

This dissertation is an investigation of Scripture in which the biblical data regarding godly human anger are collected and assessed. What makes this study unique is that it addresses the subject of anger from a theological point of view and formulates from a comprehensive view of Scripture a doctrine of godly anger. ;Chapter one begins by exposing the church's need for a doctrine of godly anger. This chapter is meant to alert Christians to the fact that some of our most prominent ideas about human anger derive from the secular sources of Stoicism and Aristotelianism and from the writings of Darwin and Freud. It is also intended to help Christians to see that because of God and His grace, believers are free to be honest about our feelings even if they are sinful. ;In chapter two, the discussion focuses on the definition of anger with attention given to the fact that one's theology of anger largely depends on one's definition of anger. This chapter thus explains why it is imperative for Christians to conceptualize human anger in the way that it is depicted in the Bible. ;In chapter three, consideration is given to the wrath of God insofar as Christian anger ought to mirror it. The emphasis here lies on God's jealousy for Himself and how it arouses Him to be angry and grieved by evil and sin. ;Chapter four is a more technical discussion in which word studies are done and Scriptures are carefully exegeted. With that, the biblical data is harmonized and found to show that the fount of godly anger is jealousy and zeal for God. In the end it is explained that the Bible upholds a paradox, viz., that godly human anger is a weapon that fights against the anger of sinful rebellion. ;In chapter five, a specific list of criteria for godly human anger is set forth and applied to the anger of Jesus Christ. From His example, it can be seen that the very same things that infuriate God also infuriated Jesus. The primary goal, however, of chapter five is to magnify the fact that in every explicit and implicit recording of Jesus' anger, His anger accords with His faith. ;Chapter six echoes the very same point--that the godly human anger of men and women in the Bible is always marked by faith. Indeed, the purpose of chapter six is to validate the fact that anger is either godly or sinful in its expression and in its feeling. For unless anger in the heart is spawned by faith in God, then anger in itself is sinful