Why would God be angry at people when he knows ahead of time what will happen?
Question:
The definitions of both anger and disappointment are emotions based on an unmet expectation by either a person or circumstance. There are numerous Bible verses that refer to God’s anger, wrath and disappointment. I don’t understand why God would be disappointed or angry if He knew in advance what the outcome would be. Also, as Christians we’re told that we were given free will but I was never given the choice to be a sinner. Adam and Eve made that choice for me. Now if we were to run our penal system the same way, everyone would be in prison. It doesn’t seem fair that God let 2 people determine for billions of people something they had no say or control in. I would expect this of mankind, but not from God.
Lastly, and this is the toughest one for me. I’m told we are to be Christ like. If I saw a baby being molested,or abused, as a loving human being and Christian I would do whatever it took to stop it. Unfortunately there are thousands upon thousands of children being abused and killed with no one, including Christ, intervening. So, should I be like Christ and let evil happen when I see it and leave it up to God/Christ to take care of it? Would I then be Christ like by doing nothing.? Christ/God chose to send an angel to Joseph to warn him about Herods plan of butchery and yet “the innocents” as they are referred to, were not protected nor were their parents warned. Is this Christ like? Should I protect my own and not warn or do anything to protect other people’s children if I knew they were in imminent danger?
Answer:
I get the feeling you are going out of your way to produce trick questions–to look for contradictions, not about God, but about people’s concept of God. Well, even if this is true, your questions certainly deserve a response, as they are legitimate question!
Clearly, if God is real and if God has his own equivalent of what we call anger, then that anger is not based on “unmet expectations.” God’s anger is a response to those who he has loved who, nevertheless rebel against him and commit acts which are evil, such as idolatry (loving a created thing more than him) or hatred of people or violating his plan for use of our sexual desires. Bottom line, willful sin causes God to respond with his wrath. He is almost infinitely patient, but his anger will ultimately be expressed because, not only is God a God of love, he is a holy God and a God of justice.
The fact that God is all-knowing, yet still is angry at those who sin may give us humans headache to think about it, but the fact that God hates sin is not changed by the fact that he knows we will sin before we sin. God exists outside of time, but this fact does not make it impossible for God to experience anger. Knowing in advance seems to be a logic problem to us humans who are bound in a linear sense of time, but this argument implies that God is like us. Bottom line he is not. There is no logical imperative that a time-independent being cannot experience anger for what happens.
Your second question assumes Calvinism and the false doctrine of Original Sin. This is not a biblical concept. We do not inherit sin from Adam. In Ezekiel 18:4 (and really the whole chapter) we are told that when it comes to our relationship with God, we are only responsible for our own actions, not those of others. I will admit that humans certainly have the tendency to sin and rebel, but every action I commit willfully I choose. If I get drunk, I cannot blame God for that. I chose to get drunk. If I view pornography, I cannot blame God, unless I want to blame him for giving me a choice. The problem with that is I am glad I was given a choice. Having a choice is a good thing. I am sure you agree. We have choice because God gave us choice and he gave us choice because he loves us and he wants us to love him. Love gives choice. In any case, your question is based on a false premise which is believed and taught by certain Christian groups, but it is simply not true. This is a theology known as Calvinism, after John Calvin, who believed in predestination. Predestination (at least the kind proposed by Calvin) is NOT biblical.
There are two possibilities: Either God gives us free will or he does not. Well, guess what, he gives us free will. If we have free will, then we have free will. If God were to intervene and force people not to sin, then he would violate his own nature. Apparently, we have choice. God gave us life and he gave us choice. You are proposing (I think) that God ought to prevent murder or warfare or stealing and lying. Well, I disagree, but in any case, whether you agree with God or not, it is his nature to allow us to rebel and to act sinfully. This is the God of the Bible. We are to be Christ-like, but we are not God. I think you are playing a bit of a rhetorical trick here. Being Christ-like is not being Christ. We are to be godly, but we are not God. For me to intervene to stop a rape is not the same as God intervening and stopping a rape because God is God and I am a human being. If I could prevent a robbery by knocking the robber down and holding him until the police arrive, I would do that. I have intervened more than once when a man was committing violence on a woman, even risking my life a couple of times. This does not mean that I am interfering in someone’s free will, because I am not God. I am trying to prevent suffering and evil. I do this kind of thing all the time. I try to help alcoholics overcome their sin. God uses me to do this, but if God were to FORCE someone to stop drinking, this would violate his nature. If, on the other hand, I love God, then I will try to, as a free agent, help a person to stop drinking. Again, the apparent “contradiction” is based on an assumption that acting godly is the same as being God. There are plenty of Bible verses I could give you if you like which allow or even strongly encourage humans to intervene to prevent evil. There are hard questions, such as whether we can use violence to prevent a criminal act. This is not a simple question, but there are many things we certainly should do, such as restrain a rapist or convince a liar to stop lying or help a drug addict to stop his or her addiction. None of these prevent us from being Christ-like, even if it is true that God does not intervene directly in such things, as he gives us free will.
So, yes, if you see someone in imminent danger, even though God may not intervene, he would like to use you to do what he will not because he gives us free will. Besides, God wants us to help those who suffer by showing compassion.
John Oakes