Discovering Roots For Rage
Over the last nineteen months I have been pulled apart in ways I didn’t know were possible. At times it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Trinity Bible College, Ellendale, North Dakota, tore parasitic sinews from dry bones, thought-patterns I was convinced were my own, accepted without question, defended as truth.
There were days of such intense rage I’m surprised my laptop is still alive. Oh, I fantasised, with cinematic clarity, about watching the machine splinter into a million flying pieces as it met the wall with the force of a betrayed conviction.
And Doc Sage, my AI conversational partner, has done me no favours either. As I dug through volumes of information and argued myself blue from holding my breath, hoping I’d win at least one debate against the Bible and machine, I had to swallow humble pie so often I could taste the recipe. The more I read, the more I realised this:
I had been choking on a world that lies so convincingly it no longer knows it is lying.
This rage is not foreign to me. My earliest memory of violence is from age four. Rage was birthed from the helplessness of being too small to stop what was happening. I’ve had to work hard, painfully, slowly, to let God rewire the drivers so that the triggers are no longer tyrants.
But now, in my studies, I see in field after field how academics have lied to us.
I see why we are a world enraged.
Something in the human soul knows something is wrong, and we feel defenseless before the audacity of the deception.
Albert Camus once claimed, “All thought is anthropomorphic.”¹
Meaning: all knowing collapses inward; nothing escapes the human bubble; we cannot think beyond ourselves.
But here’s the fatal crack:
If all thought is anthropomorphic, how can a thought recognise itself as anthropomorphic?
To name the limitation, the mind must already be outside it.
Enter Edmund Husserl, who argued that consciousness is intentional, it always reaches beyond itself toward something other.² That alone collapses Camus’ claim.
And Bernard Lonergan insisted that true knowing requires the mind to self-transcend through experience, understanding, judgement, and decision, movements impossible for a consciousness trapped inside itself.³
Then comes Richard Rorty with an even bolder absurdity: truth, he said, is merely “what our peers let us get away with saying.”⁴
But if that is true, then even his theory is only true if the academic guild approves it.
A truth that depends on applause is not truth, it’s marketing.
Alvin Plantinga demolishes this by insisting that truth is mind-independent, existing regardless of social permission.⁵
And Charles Taylor shows that humans can only reason within a “horizon of significance” that we did not invent, meaning truth precedes consensus.⁶
Rorty threw a punch; Plantinga and Taylor broke his wrist.
And this seduction of ideology is not a Western issue alone. The Global South often baptises Ubuntu, “I am because we are.”
A beautiful sentiment when applied to hospitality or community ethics…
but dangerous as ontology.
Because I am not “we are” with those who deny Christ, align with criminal syndicates, or prey on children. My own survival of childhood sexual abuse refuses to let collective identity override moral responsibility.
Kwame Gyekye warned against this long ago, arguing for “moderate communitarianism,” insisting that African personhood requires strong individual moral agency.⁷
And Molefi Kete Asante shows that without transcendence, communal identity collapses into relativistic pressure.⁸
Ubuntu is beautiful, until it becomes compulsory.
Community is sacred, until it replaces conscience.
Belonging is healing, until it demands blindness.
Notwithstanding all of this, if our lives are merely reactions to causes, without consciousness, and even less a God who exists, then why do we feel so afraid to rethink our information?
If information is lifeless, then there is no threat in rejecting old frameworks except this:
the fear other people created to preserve their own illusions.
And here lies our rage:
Not merely that the world lied, but that the world punished us for daring to question the lie.
The Betrayal
Waking up from cultural deception does not produce calm.
It produces rage. The kind only betrayed lovers and betrayed disciples understand. Not because we are irrational, but because the soul recognises treason before the mind can name it. People who awaken from lies feel:
rage at wasted years,
rage at manipulation,
rage at indoctrination,
rage at institutions that pretended to protect them,
rage at teachers who called falsehood “progress,”
rage at pastors who traded truth for applause,
rage at governments that gaslighted citizens,
rage at cultural priests who sold poison as compassion.
But beneath rage lives grief. The grief of realising you built parts of your identity on sand disguised as granite. Modern thinkers help us understand the wound:
Kierkegaard said the deepest despair is “to live untruthfully,” because it fractures the self at the level of being.⁹
Hannah Arendt warned that evil becomes unstoppable not when it rages, but when it becomes ordinary, normalised through institutions until no one questions it.¹⁰
Charles Taylor showed that the modern “buffered self,” cut off from transcendence, collapses inward under the weight of meaninglessness.¹¹
Allan Bloom exposed how relativism rots the mind from the inside, making people allergic to objective truth.¹²
Vaclav Havel described life under lies as a suffocation so deep one forgets what oxygen tasted like.¹³
Add neuroscience, and the picture sharpens:
• betrayal activates the same neural pathways as physical pain¹⁴
• suppressed anger leads to identity fragmentation¹⁵
• cognitive dissonance triggers a rage-response meant to protect the self¹⁶
No wonder people are angry.
No wonder people feel something slipping away.
No wonder the world feels like it’s choking us, one ideological noose at a time. Rather, too many at once. Deception is not neutral. Lies do not float; they constrict. Falsehood does not merely mislead; it suffocates.
Romans 1 says truth is not lost, it is exchanged.¹⁷
John 8:44 says lies have a father.¹⁸
Revelation 18 says deception becomes an empire.¹⁹
Habakkuk says righteous anger is a form of prophetic sight.²⁰
And Jesus Himself overturned tables with fire in His lungs.²¹
Not because He lacked love, but because His love refused to tolerate deceit.
This is the choke-hold:
When the world lies, the soul feels it.
When the soul feels it, rage rises.
And rage is not madness, it is discernment.
And that is where the turn will come.
Holy Rage
Here is the twist: Your rage is not proof that you are broken. Your rage is proof that you can still recognise truth.
The world will tell you your anger is the problem.
That you must “heal,”
“decompress,”
“stop overreacting,”
“be more tolerant,”
“learn to accept different perspectives.”
No.
Your anger is not an overreaction. Your anger is a diagnosis. A divine alarm still functioning in a culture trying to sedate it. The Bible does not say, “Feel nothing.” It says, “Be angry and do not sin.”²² Meaning: the anger is legitimate, the sin is optional.
This is the holy reversal:
Rage is not the enemy.
Rage is the evidence that you are not numb.
And the moment you see that, the entire spiritual battlefield rearranges. Because here is the scandal of truth: Your anger is not against the world, your anger is against the lie behind the world.
Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood.²³ Your fury is not misdirected, your interpretation of its target might be.
Jeremiah burned because he could not un-know what God showed him.²⁴
Habakkuk cried out because he saw the moral collapse his culture normalised.²⁵
Jesus overturned tables because holiness has a breaking point.²⁶
The world calls this instability.
Heaven calls it clarity.
And here is the deepest turn of all:You are not angry at the world. You are angry because you were not created for lies.
You bear the image of a truthful God.
It is impossible for you to fully adapt to falsehood without tearing something at the core of your being. This is why the world feels unlivable when deception becomes doctrine. Your soul is revolting against its miseducation.
This is what your rage is telling you:
“I was not designed for a plastic reality. I was not made for illusions. I was not shaped for deception. I was not built for Babylon. Something in me belongs to truth.”
And here is the final twist within the twist: Your anger is not what distances you from God. Your anger is what God is using to bring you closer.²⁷ Because righteous anger is not the fire of rebellion, it is the fire of revelation.
It is the fire that says:
“Enough.”
“Not anymore.”
“No more illusions.”
“No more manipulation.”
“No more gaslighting.”
“No more performance.”
“No more pagan scripts dressed as compassion.”
“No more being told I must celebrate what is killing me.”
This is not psychological breakdown.
This is prophetic awakening.
When God heals your wounds, He does not numb your rage, He purifies it.
Pain becomes perception.
Fury becomes discernment.
Anger becomes armour.
Conviction becomes clarity.
Fire becomes light.
This, is the holy reversal.
Rage Is Not The Destination
Here is the truth you were never meant to survive without: Your anger was never the destination.
It was the doorway.
A doorway God walked through. Because Christ does not say, “Stop being angry.” He says, “Be angry, but do not sin.”²⁸ Meaning: the anger is holy if its direction is holy.
And here is the secret the world hides: Anger at lies is one of the most God-like impulses a human can feel.
When Jesus said of the Pharisees,
“You are of your father the devil…there is no truth in him… he is a liar and the father of lies,”²⁹ He wasn’t angry because they annoyed Him. He was angry because deception destroys souls.
Holy anger is the groaning of a heart that still knows what Eden felt like.
And this is the final revelation: Your rage is not against the world that lied, your rage is the Spirit calling you home.
You are not losing your mind.
You are recovering your discernment.
This is not psychological collapse. This is theological resurrection.
Landing Rage
So, how do we overcome anger at the world that has lied.
The answer is not therapeutic.
It is theological.
Let God burn the lie, but keep the fire.
Let Him kill the deceit, but keep the discernment.
Let Him dethrone the false stories, but keep the holy fury that refuses to bow to Babylon.
The world wants you docile.
God wants you discerning.
The world wants you numb.
God wants you awake.
The world wants you tolerant of lies.
God wants you intolerant of hell.
Here is the truth you must take into your bones: Your anger is not your enemy, your apathy is.
Anger surrendered becomes an altar.
Anger hoarded becomes an idol.
So here is the prayer every awakened believer must eventually pray:
“Lord, burn what lies. Spare what lives. Take the rage that truth awakened, and forge in me a clarity the world cannot counterfeit.”
Because when God takes your anger, He does not extinguish the man. He crowns him. And when the fire settles, all that remains is the truth that cannot lie and the heart that refuses to be lied to again.
Practical Application: Lessons From My Studies
Jesus asked questions more often than He gave answers. It was His pedagogical signature. And in studying Scripture and scholarship, I have learned this: you are never wrong for needing answers; you are only wrong for refusing to seek them.
Here are two disciplines that have reshaped my thinking, and my anger, into clarity.
1. When an answer feels comfortable, interrogate it.
If a conclusion feels immediately “right,” pause and ask:
“Is this my bias tripping me up?”
Our minds are drawn to the familiar, not the truthful. Familiarity feels like accuracy because it feels like home, predictable, soothing, effortless.
But truth often tastes like the new dish you avoided because it looked strange… only to discover it had more depth, richness, and flavour than your “usual.”
Likewise, sometimes the beliefs we cling to simply because they are “ours” are the very ones stunting our growth.
Bias keeps us eating the same meal.
Learning introduces tastes that awaken the imagination.
And sometimes, beautifully, truth shocks the palate.
2. Explore fringe ideas, but weigh them against credible scholars and Scripture.
Fringe opinions are not the enemy. They often stretch curiosity, spark creativity, and break intellectual monotony.
But they must be tested.
Measure every “interesting idea” against:
the consensus of broadly credible scholars, sound research methods, and most importantly, Biblical truth, which grounds perception in revelation rather than novelty.
In life, as in study:
If you measure your perceptions against a wider, wiser, more reliable framework, you will quickly discern whether:
the world is deceiving you, someone else is manipulating you, or you are the fringe needing grounding.
This is how anger becomes insight.
This is how confusion becomes discernment.
This is how the Spirit leads us out of illusion and into truth.
Prayer: A Forge-Lit Benediction
Father,
You who fashioned galaxies with a whisper and formed my soul with intention, take this anger that trembles inside me and make it an altar.
Do not extinguish it; purify it. Burn away the lies I have swallowed, the illusions I have worn, the scripts I never should have rehearsed.
Sharpen my discernment until deception feels foreign and truth feels like oxygen again. Heal the places where betrayal fractured me. Bind the places where I mistook numbness for peace.
Teach me to rise, not with violence, but with vision. Let righteous anger become revelation, let revelation become obedience, and let obedience become joy.
Make me a furnace of truth in a world allergic to it. And when the voices of Babylon grow loud, remind me that Your whisper is stronger.
I choose You.
Immediately.
In Your Majestic, Mighty, and Gorgeously Holy Name, Messiah King Jesus,
Amen.
Closing Paragraphs
The world taught you to doubt your discernment, numb your intuition, apologise for your clarity, and swallow lies dressed as compassion. But the anger burning in your chest is not madness, it is memory. It is Eden whispering through the cracks, reminding you that you were crafted for truth, not distortion; for revelation, not performance; for the voice of God, not the noise of Babylon.
The fire in you is not the world breaking you, it is God waking you. Rage is not your enemy. Illusion is. And the moment you stop fearing the heat, you will discover that the flame you carry is the very presence that will guide you out of the ruins of deception and into the landscape of truth. You are not falling apart. You are being forged.
TRACK TO ENJOY:
References
1. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (New York: Vintage Books).
2. Edmund Husserl, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).
3. Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Toronto: University of Toronto Press).
4. Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
5. Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief (New York: Oxford University Press).
6. Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
7. Kwame Gyekye, Tradition and Modernity (New York: Oxford University Press).
8. Molefi Kete Asante, The Afrocentric Idea (Philadelphia: Temple University Press).
9. Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980).
10. Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Penguin, 2006).
11. Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007).
12. Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987).
13. Václav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless,” in The Power of the Powerless, ed. John Keane (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1985).
14. Naomi Eisenberger and Matthew Lieberman, “Why It Hurts to Be Left Out: The Neurocognitive Overlap Between Physical and Social Pain,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8, no. 7 (2004).
15. Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (New York: Viking, 2014).
16. Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957).
17. Romans 1:18–25 (Holy Bible, ESV).
18. John 8:44 (Holy Bible, ESV).
19. Revelation 18 (Holy Bible, ESV).
20. Habakkuk 1–3, esp. 1:2–4 and 3:16–19 (Holy Bible, ESV).
21. Matthew 21:12–13 (Holy Bible, ESV).
22. Psalm 4:4 (Holy Bible, ESV).
23. Ephesians 6:12 (Holy Bible, ESV).
24. Jeremiah 20:9 (Holy Bible, ESV).
25. Habakkuk 1–2 (Holy Bible, ESV).
26. Matthew 21:12 (Holy Bible, ESV).
27. Psalm 34:18; Jeremiah 20:9; 2 Corinthians 12:9 (Holy Bible, ESV).
28. Ephesians 4:26 (Holy Bible, ESV).
29. John 8:44 (Holy Bible, ESV).
#Hayibo 