Christians are frequently berated for their allegiance to an angry fictional God. Surprisingly, these critics have to dabble in the dark supernatural arts in order to conjure Him up long enough for a good tongue-lashing. They wear their bitterness towards God like a postmodern merit badge, but then hypocritically turn around and accuse Him of being inappropriately angry. Ironically, the very anger that has become the cultural litmus test for the sincerity of ones tolerant beliefs is offered as prima facie evidence that God is intolerant.

Before we allow our friends to enroll God in a sensitivity training class lets take a look at how He actually worked His anger out. God patiently endured thousands of years of persistent philandering and rebellion until He couldn’t take it anymore. So what did He do? He emptied Himself, became a man, and took His wrath upon Himself. Instead of kicking Butt and taking names, He turned the other cheek and wrote us into the book of life; instead of castigating us, He forgave us for not knowing what we were doing; instead of putting us to death, He offered us eternal life. He came to the end of His rope and stunningly chose to hang Himself from it on our behalf.

The God that our critics find so petulant channeled His anger by humbling Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. So the next time you get indignant with another human being remember that you bear the image of the One who gave us the last WORD on anger management.