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Anger, Mercy and the Heart of GodWhen God shoots to killAnger, Mercy and the Heart of God Alex Buchanan is a 'teacher and prophet with a special burden to train leaders'. He asserts that the fear of God and the anger of God are biblical topics missing from much of today's preaching and teaching. The style of the book is unapologetically homiletical. He begins with a brief survey of popular views about God - sentimental, mystical, atheistic, agnostic, grotesque and bribable. Chapter two explores 'the accurate view of God revealed in the Bible'. The various 'aspects of God' such as his creative powers, his compassion, his love and his anger are explored. This leads him to focus the next chapter on the way in which we know God through Jesus: the one who loves righteousness and hates iniquity. The remainder of the book builds upon these views of God by focussing on the anger of God. Biblical passages on God's anger are then applied to the church and nation today. He rightly points out that while the Bible does say 'God is love' (1 John 4. 8), it never says God is anger. However, there are a couple of difficulties:First, I was not convinced that the author understood the biblical usage of 'the anger of God'. He does not explore the concept of 'the wrath of God'. Romans 1 speaks about two revelations going on at the same time - the revelation of his wrath (which is his settled hostility towards sin) and the revelation of righteousness. I am not sure that it is quite right to say that God's 'feelings are always in balance' (p.21). The anthropomorphisms which Buchanan refers to are not parts of God's human characteristics or aspects of God, but rather ways in which God accommodates his language so we can understand. Secondly, I am concerned at the way in which 'prophecies' have been included in the book and then interpreted with the words 'God likened, God said...' (p.41). The hermeneutics of this approach is especially worrying given that his prophecy applied the 'removal of landmarks' (Deuteronomy 27. 17) to the removing of God's law from the Church. Buchanan's book suffers from rather poor exegesis and a style which would be more at home in a pulpit than on paper. However the warning to take seriously the anger of God is timely. I endorse his desire that we intercede for the church and the nation asking God to be merciful to us, and take the challenge to be faithful in calling people to return to God's ways. Simon Vibert,
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