Was Jesus unrecognizable to the Emmaus road disciples (Luke 24:13-35) and, indeed, to the rest of his gathered disciples (Luke 24:36-53) because he was healed (although not yet glorified) beyond his “deformity” alluded to in the great Messianic passage of Isaiah 52:13-53:4? [4/19/06]
We could save ourselves a lot of trouble and grief by not trying to save ourselves from trouble and grief. [4/19/06]
If “God sacrificed His Son in order that the divine law should be upheld…despite mankind’s infinite offence,” as some theologians venture to allege (e.g., Sydney E. Ahlstrom, in the Introduction to the 1975 reprint edition of Horace Bushnell’s The Vicarious Sacrifice, Grounded in Principles of Universal Obligation, 1865), then how can Paul be so cavalier about the Law in 1 Timothy 1, Galatians 2-3, Romans 3-8, as well as Jesus’ one-upmanship in the “Sermon on the Mount” and his controversies with the Jews? One would have to distinguish Jesus’ honoring another “divine Law” than the one Moses had given and which the Jewish teachers were custodians of. Yet if this distinction is conceded, then Jesus must himself have been the revealer of that more “divine” Law. But why would he have to sacrifice himself to “uphold” it or honor it (unless to “uphold” it against the lesser authority of Moses…and his hypocritical custodians)? [4/19/06; 12/25/25]
Shalom is the state of affairs where all accounts have been squared—all outstanding debts paid up, all rightful obligations fulfilled, and ALL INJUSTICES OVERCOMPENSATED according to divine law and equity.
War is the diametric opposite of this, where wrongs are tragically overcompensated, instead, by devastation and desolation. War is hence an overreaction in the opposite direction from fruitfulness and joy. It is the incursion of wrath and correlative loss and destruction. [4/20/06]
The Premial Atonement 