A Critical Glance at a Few of Leon Morris’s Sources

LEON MORRIS—WORTHY QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER SCHOLARS

The following quotations are cited from Leon Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans/London: The Tyndale Press, 1960.

The outcome of the judgment is a veritable liberation for the one who has been the object of a declaration of innocence, since He is not only reinstated in His right, but by the operation of the power of which He has been the beneficiary His LIFE-POTENTIAL IS IN SOME WAY AUGMENTED; the mishpat of the judge “establishes the one in the reality of His right, the other on the contrary in the reality of his wrong’. (E. Jacob, Theology of the Old Testament [London, 1958], p. 97; the last words are cited from A. Neher. Quoted in Morris, p. 17, note 2, all emphases added.) [9/13/07]

God maintains mishpat, and where any relation within the covenant is disturbed, He is concerned to recreate and restore it….Men are endued with the Spirit in order that they may establish order and harmonious relations within the covenanted community. (F. W. Dillistone, The Holy Spirit in the Life of Today [London, 1946], p. 72. Quoted in Morris, p. 20, note 1, emphasis added.) [9/13/07]

All salvation is to be related to God alone, not to man. Therefore judgment is also salvation, for judgment is restoration of the honour and holiness (heiligkeit) of God. These are injured and diminished by the sin of man. The end judgment has in view is the full restoration of these two things, so that really the whole earth is full of His glory, Isa. 6.3, and the name of the Great King is terrible among the Gentiles, Mal. 1.14. (L. Köhler, Old Testament Theology [London, 1957], p. 218. Quoted in Morris, p. 21, note 1. Except for the first sentence in italics, emphasis added.) [9/14/07]

LEON MORRIS—UNWORTHY QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER SCHOLARS

Baptism is “a willing acceptance of the verdict on sin, in union with Christ, whose perfect obedience to the sentence [sic!] has been vindicated and crowned by the resurrection” Baptism “is essentially pleading guilty, accepting the verdict.” [sic!] “Emphatically, therefore, the Eucharist is an occasion of judgment—either of voluntary self-judgment, in acceptance of God’s verdict on fallen man, or else of unwilling liability to God’s judgment.” C. F. D. Moule, “The Judgment Theme in the Sacraments,” in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed., W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge University Press, 1956, 464-81), 466, 467, 472. Quoted in Morris, pp. 56-7; all emphases added—R.L.R. These are remarkable words (and troubling) in view of Moule’s otherwise excellent article contesting prevalent evangelical opinions concerning God’s punitive judgments. [8/26/08]

A few pages later:

The full weight of God’s judgment and wrath has fallen on Christ (Rom. iii.24 ff.; 2 Cor. v.21; I Jn. iv.10).⁴

__________

⁴Cf. A. Richardson, An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, London, 1955, p.77:

“The cross of Christ is the visible, historical manifestation of the οργη του θεου [wrath of God]: it is the supreme revelation of the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” [Morris, p. 71, emphasis added.]

Morris continues,

It is precisely in the context of judgment that the atonement is to be understood. And if Christ bore such a heavy judgment ‘How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?’ (Heb. ii.3). [Morris, p. 71, all emphases added.]

However, the author of Hebrews contrasts such a salvation as follows: “For if the word spoken through angels became confirmed and every transgression and disobedience obtained a fair reward, how shall we…?” Morris thus indulges in a bit of Scripture twisting. [9/15/07] For the author of the epistle to the Hebrews has only fair rewards in view, not any conjectured “heavy judgment” upon the perfectly faithful Savior, worthy only of ultra-fair compensation for all his trouble on our behalf! [12/13/15]

Karl Barth cites the Heidelberg Catechism, “‘What comfort hast thou by the coming again of Christ to judge the quick and the dead?’ Answer: ‘That in all my miseries and persecutions I look with my head erect for the very same, who before yielded himself unto the judgment of God for me and took away all malediction from me,…to come Judge from heaven…’.” (Dogmatics in Outline, London, 1949, p. 134). [Morris, p 72, note 1, emphases added—R.L.R..]

However, baptism and communion are “emphatically” not, as C. F. D. Moule asserts, “willing acceptance of the verdict on sin, in union with” Christ’s “perfect obedience to the sentence,” nor “essentially pleading guilty, accepting the verdict,” nor “an occasion of judgment…in acceptance of God’s verdict on fallen man….” (“The Judgment Theme in the Sacraments” in The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology, pp. 461, 466, 472. Quoted in Morris, pp. 56-57.) Much rather, they signify our identification with and participation in the heinously unjust human condemnation of the sinless Lamb of God and in the supremely just divine vindication of his innocent blood via his glorious resurrection. [9/15/07]