Socinus vs. Calvin on JUSTICE

Faustus Socinus (1539-1604) clearly knew what God’s justice isn’t, and he denounced its misrepresentation, especially by John Calvin (1509-1564), unsparingly.  But did he as clearly grasp what God’s justice is, and how it was manifested supremely at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ?  We may presume not.  However, his distinctive writings on the subject have never been translated into English in full.  What else might they actually reveal, apart from their Antitrinitarianism, of course, that could be so threatening to Satan’s kingdom that it would lead to the vicious persecution of Socinians and the suppression of their writings even to the present day?  [6/16/08]

THE GREAT REVIVALS ACCOMPANIED SERVICES OF THE LORD’S SUPPER!

The historic fact that God brought stupendous, unprecedented revivals of his people during services of the Lord’s Supper (annual events of the Scottish Presbyterians and Cambuslang, Scotland; the First Great Awakening, and especially the Second Great Awakening, in America) should have caused a rethinking of the theological dogma concerning the reception of the Holy Spirit at infant baptism or merely upon faith or profession of faith, etc.  For God Himself had acted from on high in undeniably extraordinary manifestations of healing, prophecy, conversion, etc., only in association with these historic events of Communion.  Perhaps it’s time we awakened from spiritual slumber, too.  [6/16/08]

GETTING OUR “BEARINGS” STRAIGHT

Penal Substitution champions talk much of “guilt,” much of “penalty,” much of “eternal punishment” (i.e., punishing), much of God’s wrath, much of “original sin,” much of “God’s hatred of sin,” but suspiciously and revealingly little about the bearing of SIN-AS-SUCH.  Yet this is what Isaiah 53 dwells on (along with echoes throughout the New Testament).  From its very extensive usage throughout the Old Testament, the Hebrew verb “bear” (nasah), along with its other grammatical forms, with perfect consistency makes clear that it means to “carry” the weight of a load imposed, taken up, or inflicted, not the “guilt,” not the “penalty,” not “wrath,” but sin—the sins that were being inflicted against Jesus between the garden tryst and the garden tomb (reminding us of the garden transgression at the garden tree…) and especially at the bare “cranial” (kranion—“skull”) site of the tree (xulon—“tree” in the Septuagint; “timber,” “wood,” “log” by New Testament times) on which he was hung by nails—Jesus was emphatically not bearing any human “guilt,” nor any divine “penalty,” nor any “infinite punishment,” much less the “wrath of God,” or “divine hatred of sin,” and nor was he “paying for sin.”  HE WAS DOING PRECISELY WHAT SCRIPTURE ALLEGES (with some considerable justification) HE WAS DOING:  BEARING (ENDURING) SIN!

If God’s “holiness” hates sin, what’s the solution?  TRANSFER HOLINESS to the sinner, somehow, AND THUS OUT OF JEOPARDY BY BEING MADE HOLY!  Duh.  Isn’t that what salvation is all about?  [6/16/08]

The inner disconnect of divine character in Evangelical atonement theory is reconnected by premial justice

Orthodox Evangelical atonement theory teaches perforce that the ultimate logic of the Atonement is the necessity of penal retribution—the logic of God the Father. Subordinate to that is the logic of the Son of God—forgiveness. The Son manifests God as love; the Father, as “holiness.” This inner disconnect in Deity is what necessitated the Cross, putting together again what all the king’s horsepower and all the king’s manpower were powerless to achieve, for they too “had a great Fall” (though winter came early…). To give us a choice of logics to emulate (being the sinners we are) is almost to guarantee a landslide victory for avenging, i.e., unforgiveness. For if this representation of ultimate realities is anywhere near accurate, God made a big boo-boo by revealing it to sinners.  [12/19/06]   Only the premial justice of God, showing up at the Resurrection to reverse the fait accompli, can set the record straight and make the Story come out right.

“IMPUTATION”: A SHORT CIRCUIT

The doctrines (there are three) of so-called “imputation” amount to short circuits—wayward alternative paths of access to the meaning and power of Messiah’s saving work. Following the rewirings by Augustine, Calvin, Ames, and Piscator, the pivotal significance of Pentecost was often shunted past so that the Holy Spirit’s role in the Atonement got bypassed. Historic attempts of the Holy Spirit to gently retake full and proper governance were bitterly accused of “irregularities” and viciously downgraded: Montanists, mystics, Anabaptists, Huguenot prophets, Quakers, Moravians, Cambuslang, Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, frontier Camp Meetings, Edward Irving, Charles Finney, Revivals, Faith Cure Movement, Scandinavian Free Church Revivals, Pentecostalism, Charismatic Movement, Third Wave, Toronto Blessing, Brownsville Revivals, etc. [12/20/06]  As if we should not expect Satan to be wily enough to insinuate occasional counterfeits especially in the midst of fresh manifestations of his Enemy’s Kingdom of authentic healing and restoration!  Now who’s being naïve?