The fact that Christ gave his existence/soul as a ransom (lutron) for others to liberate (-lu-) them from bondage (–dei-/douleia), and can therefore correctly be said to have been “paid to the Devil” for that very purpose and objective, by no means should suggest that Satan, for his diabolical part, was doing anything other or less than his same old habitual criminal practices in the event. Yes, Jesus surrendered himself voluntarily to his enemies without “making a scene” or “trying anything funny,” in accord with his Father’s strategy, but the aim was hardly to “cooperate” with the Adversary, “friendly-like,” but to beat him at his own game and utterly route his schemes in “favor” of his Father’s. [12/22/09]
Jesus, by allowing himself to look like a fool and a failure, allowed his Father to look out for his interests instead. [12/22/09]
“…St. Maximus [the Confessor] categorically denied the penal character of Our Lord’s death and sufferings.” — Georges Florovsky, Creation and Redemption, Vol. 3 in the Collected Works (Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing Co., 1976), p. 281, note 9. [12/22/09]
Ironically, traditional Christian theories concerning sin provide some of the best evidence of its corrupting influence. [12/23/09]
THE INCORRIGIBLE ARE, IN THE END, DESTROYED BODY & SOUL ALONG WITH HADES
The so-called “intermediate state,” i.e., the Unseen (haides) is the only time when the soul exists apart from the body. For after the general resurrection (which itself is a redemptive fruit of Christ’s own victorious Resurrection), all who are conclusively condemned at the divine Judgment of the Great White Throne will be thrown, body and soul, along with the Unseen (“Hades”), that strange intermediate state, into the Lake of Fire (not made intentionally for human beings in the first place, but for the agelong torment of non-mortal beings—the sinning angels) there to be utterly destroyed—exterminated, obliterated, annihilated. [12/23/09]
THE POWER OF FUSION: PREMIAL JUSTICE + EVERLASTING LIFE
It appears to me that God’s mighty overruling Wisdom is amazingly evident in allowing even the Great Schism of the universal church into a Greek Eastern and a Latin Western component. For the key characteristic tendencies of each could hereby actually be reinforced, concentrated, and sequestered (even though thus deficient with respect to the traits that preoccupy the other). But such a divided condition could only be temporary. The peculiar stress of the Western church upon law and justice, once chastened and corrected by the emphasis of the Eastern church upon resurrection life, could yield a powerful compound of explosive impact. Iron has sharpened iron as the Catholic and Protestant West have rubbed each other the “wrong way” for five centuries–the heirs of the two iron legs of the Roman empire in Daniel’s vision. Yet heretofore, neither has grasped the actual (Hebraic) concept of premial justice. The Catholic or Augustinian view thought of righteousness as a medicine, infused into sinners at baptism out of the “merits” of Christ. The Protestant view conceived it as exclusively penal when considered as God’s trait, or as personal moral merit when regarded as Christ’s trait, and then as imputable to the moral account of the unrighteous who believe.
But when understood as God’s trait of justice-in-execution on behalf of those in covenant with Him who have been wronged by enemies, THEN A LINK BECOMES EVIDENT TO THE PREOCCUPATION WITH EVERLASTING LIFE VIA RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD THAT MARKS EASTERN ORTHODOXY. FOR SUCH A MAGNITUDE AND QUALITY OF LIFE, CONSIDERED AS THE PROPER DUE OF CHRIST ALONE, THOUGH DISPENSABLE OR DISTRIBUTABLE BY HIM TO WHOMEVER HE PLEASES, IS PRECISELY WHAT WE ARE LED TO EXPECT FROM SCRIPTURE AS THE PRODUCT OF GOD’S RESTORATIVE JUSTICE TO HIM IN EXCHANGE FOR THE CROSS!
However, even as the Western Latin-oriented church erred under the undue influence of Roman legal dominance, so the Eastern Greek-oriented church faltered under the mystical stream of pseudo-Dionysian progressive deification apart from the conditioning and governance of juridical rationale and necessity. Both wings of the universal body of Christ need each other as mutual correctives. The union of these dual “factions” will bring with it a nuclear explosion of spiritual power for evangelistic effects reaching into the last strongholds of resistance to God’s global reign through His anointed Son. [12/23/09]
The Premial Atonement 