Having a Righteous Anger Against Evil — B.B. Warfield

“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.” — Ephesians 4:26-27

Warfield,

There is a righteous anger, as well as an unrighteous. Else we would not read, “Be ye angry, and sin not.” If to be angry were already sin, we could not be exhorted not to sin in our anger. God is angry. He is angry with the wicked every day. His wrath is revealed from heaven against all that work iniquity. If it were not so, He would not be a moral being: for every moral being must burn with hot indignation against all wrong perceived as such. That is precisely what we mean by a moral being: a being which knows right and wrong, and which approves the right and reprobates the wrong. If we do not react against the wrong when we see it, in indignation and avenging wrath, we are either unmoral or immoral.

Therefore also, Christ was angry. The Gospels are filled with instances of the manifestation by Him of the emotion of anger in all the varieties of this emotion: from mere annoyance, as when He rebuked His disciples for forbidding the children to be brought unto Him, to burning indignation, as when the unfeeling Scribes would not permit Him to heal the suffering on the Sabbath day—yes, even to what the Evangelists do not scruple to call outbreaking rage which shook with its paroxysm His whole physical frame, as when He advanced to do battle with death and sin—the destroyers of men—at the grave of Lazarus. Even the Lamb feels and shows wrath. Christ is our perfect example. And if we are to be His perfect imitators, we not only may, but must, be angry; we not only may, but must, exhibit wrath—whenever, that is, good is assaulted and evil is exalted. We too, must be found, on proper occasion, with the whip of small cords in our hands; we too, must not draw back when righteousness is to be vindicated or when the oppressed are to be rescued. In this sense too, the wrath of man is to God for praise. We please Him when we are righteously angry. He who never feels stirring within him the emotion of just indignation is not like God in that high element of the image of God in which he was made—His moral nature. Indignation is an inevitable reaction of a moral being in the presence of wrongdoing, and it is not merely his right, but his duty to give it play when righteousness demands it.

No doubt we are to seek peace and ensue it. But this is the peace not of the condonation of evil, but of the conquest of it. We are to conquer evil in ourselves. We are to know no inordinate anger. We are to be slow to anger and quick to put it aside: we are not to let the sun go down upon our wrath. We are to remember that anger is a short madness, and not trust ourselves too readily in wreaking it on others—even when we think it righteous: not avenging ourselves, but giving place to the wrath of God, knowing that in His own good time and way He will avenge us. We are to conquer it in others: by the soft word which takes away anger, by the patient endurance which disarms it, by the unwearying kindness which dissolves it into repentance and love. Love is the great solvent; and love is the bond of peace. Where love is, there wrath will with difficulty live, and only that wrath which is after all outraged love can easily assert itself. But so long as there is wrongdoing in the world, so long will there be a place in the world for righteous indignation.

taken from: Warfield, B.B.. Faith and Life. 1916. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1990. pp. 28-30

Benjamin Breckenridge (B.B.) Warfield (1851-1921) “The Lion of Princeton” held The Chair of Didactic and Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1887 until his death in 1921. To this day, Warfield’s work The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible is considered the standard on the subject of the Bible’s inerrancy and authority.

C.S. Lewis’s Argument Against the Strange Idea that You Should Read Only Modern Books

From C. S. Lewis’s introduction to a new translation of Athanasisus’ On the Incarnation (originally written in the fourth century):

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. . . .

Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why—the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity (“mere Christianity” as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions. We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.

How the Battle Against Evil Is Transformed

Joy changes everything, including our battle against evil.

Christian Hedonism changes our combat with evil. Jeremiah 2:13 — the Christian Hedonist definition of evil — "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

What's evil? The suicidal preference of empty wells over the river of delights flowing from heaven. That's evil!

So the battle against evil is not to constantly say "No, no, no. Bad, bad, bad." There's no power in that. The power of the flesh is coming at you, the power of the devil is coming at you, and you're going to [muster] up your willpower and make that the victory? You're not. You're not.

One thing will give you the victory: Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. And faith is a being satisfied in all that God is for us in Jesus Christ. You've got to stoke that engine every morning so that the evils that are clawing at you lose its fangs. You can't have me, I've seen Jesus this morning. Lust, you can't have me. Greed, you can't have me. Fear of man, you can't have me. Bitterness and anger, you can't have me. I've seen Jesus this morning.

The battle against evil is totally transformed by Christian Hedonism.

A Pregnant Woman’s Defense Against the Schemes of the Devil

If you are a pregnant mom, perhaps with your first baby, you may be reading these articles about Mommy Wars and shaking your head. As if you didn’t have enough on your mind already!

In the chaos of battles over things like bottle feeding, co-sleeping, and baby wearing, Carolyn has pointed out how the real Mommy Wars are primarily spiritual battles. The real battles are not against other moms who have different mothering preferences, but against our adversary the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

God has provided protection for the pregnant woman against the schemes of the devil.

The armor of God comes in maternity sizes.

For the next 42-weeks (or less) you have a unique opportunity to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might (Ephesians 6:10) even when you’re wearing support hosiery and your center of gravity has shifted to your navel.

When a pregnant woman wears the armor of God then she has every reason to estimate her potential for endurance based on “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:19).

When Paul said in Philippians 4:19 that he “can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” he wasn’t only talking about throwing a baseball or lifting weights. He was talking about learning contentment in the permanent circumstance of God’s sovereign goodness toward him. The power of God toward you is “according to the riches of his glory that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16).

Pregnant ladies, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, including fearlessly ground your faith in God’s sovereign goodness as the basis for your contentment. I know it is so hard to be content when you’re weary and feel you can’t go on, when your heart is distracted with fear for your baby, and when your emotions careen out of control. But God’s power is more than adequate for these things; his immeasurable greatness of power can overwhelm even the most powerful schemes the devil devises to steal your joy in God.

Scripture exhorts us to “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Even when the only pants and skirts that currently fit you are held up on your hips by a yard of elastic, the armor of God still fits you and you should wear it. By wearing the armor of God you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil as he tries to unsettle your faith with every wind of doctrine, encourages human cunning, and deceives you (Ephesians 4:14).

Here are a few things for pregnant ladies to remember about the armor of God:

The “belt of truth” encircles you with the confident protection of knowing who God is, what Christ has done for you, and who you are in light of your being “in Christ” through faith in him. You must take pains to hold up this belt of truth around you through whatever means necessary. Engage in spiritual disciplines like prayerful meditation on God’s word, commit Scripture to memory, and actively pursue fellowship with other women who will remind you of God’s truth in his word.

The “breastplate of righteousness” is one-size-fits-all-who-believe. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed by faith to sinners who deserve death and judgment for their sins. We understand that by “the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

Pregnant sister, you will be tempted by the adversary to put forward your own righteousness as a front when you’re feeling insecure. The devil will use everything from insecurity about your pregnancy to your prenatal care and your birth plan to your mothering potential. Guard yourself against the temptation to comfort yourself with self-righteous pats on the back. Arm yourself with Jesus’ warning against parading our own righteousness before others to gain rewards of smiles, admiration, and respect from them (Matthew 6:1).

As you have put on the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness then you can stand firm against the devil’s lies of inadequacy and failure. Wear the breastplate of righteousness Martin Luther-style:

So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”

Dear pregnant friends, the shoes of the armor of God not only fit you, but they make your feet move. You know how special this is when you’re already fatigued by 10 o’clock in the morning and you can watch your feet widening with every pregnancy. “As shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15).

The gospel of peace provides readiness by giving you the reason and the power to go wherever Christ would lead you for his sake. In this way the gospel empowers you to go into the fray of the Mommy Wars and announce to the contenders the victory of the cross, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”

The “shield of faith” is for your protection all day and into the sleepless nights. “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). It doesn’t matter if your faith is as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20) or the hCG hormones circulating through your blood right now. What matters is the greatness of the One in whom you have placed your faith.

As you get excited about the upcoming birth of your child, rejoice most of all in him who has caused you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3, 23). When you take up the shield of faith and watch as the devil’s flaming darts implode into little puffs of smoke, give thanks to God: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

In the weakness of your back pain and vulnerability of feeling nauseous remember your hope of salvation in Christ as you rely on Scripture, your offensive weapon against the enemy. “Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).

Don’t just not believe the lies of the devil, but speak God’s truth to yourself. Don’t just not dwell on your bloated appearance and spider veins, but talk to yourself of the beauty of Christ’s sacrificial love and how he gave his body up for us all. What a delight it is, then, for you to let your body serve the life of another.

And finally, purpose your mind, will, and emotions to submit to God’s good plans to glorify himself in all things. Be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

This is the power of God in a pregnant woman whose hope is in the victory of Christ Jesus over the schemes of the devil.