"There must be some sense in which God is praised for his wrath.

If I began this essay by intimating that the wrath of God is a "problem" in certain respects this intimation must be seen as an exercise in  misdirection. God's wrath is a "problem" in that people withdraw from the catagory and often refuse to face realistically its prevalence in Scripture. But the biblical writers are not embarressed when they treat the theme. This is surely because, for them, the wrath of God is an entirely just and therefore admirable display of holiness as it confronts sin. To be embarressed by what Scripture so clearly and repeatedly sets out as belonging to the chacracter of God when he deals with rebels is not the stance of sophistication and moral superiority. Rather, it is the stance of arrogant disbelief. What right does the creature ever have to be embarressed by the Creator? To disown the theme of judgment is to slouch toward the very first reported instance of doctrinal disavowal--the insistance of the serpent, "you will not certainly die." Far better and wiser is it to see that the theme of God's wrather provides, inter alia, another angle into who God is, into the blinding brillance of his holiness (Isa. 6). And this must end in worship."