Where is Calvary, Golgotha, the Cross ever declared in Scripture to be an exhibit of God’s judgment? “Var står det skrivet?“—in the words of the famous slogan of Paul Peter Waldenström (1838-1917), leader of the Swedish free church movement and theologian of the Atonement (somewhat more accurately understood, Acts 18:24-26)—”Where stands that Written?” in covenantal Scripture. Answer: nowhere at all. [4/17/06; 11/14/25]
What’s the purpose, for Heaven’s sake, of letting sin (and its consequent evils) linger interminably on planet earth? Why has God allowed it…allowed for it…designed it into the very nature of interpersonal relations as a possibility…even a virtual certainty? Is it not so that we have room to learn to hate it and avoid it and seek a solution to it? God’s ultimate intention for human beings is our maturation, and that necessitates voluntary keeping of His directions to maturity. Sin has its own built-in evil consequences within the created order. Why need God superadd more ‘penalties’ onto the shoulders of Jesus at the Cross in order to “pay for sin“—something never even attributed to Christ’s crucifixion? Sins need to be forgiven, pardoned, released, washed away, cleaned off, erased, etc. But “paid for”? “Where stands that Written?” Wasn’t the deadly-‘successful’ crucifixion in itself a demonstration of pardon, whereby God relinquished his divine right to avenge His beloved Son’s unjustified execution? How much more so was it a sign of Heaven’s forgiveness back to back with the decree of resurrection that magnanimously paid back His viciously victimized Son with super-compensating life in tandem with absolute sovereignty over the created universe! Such an incomparably exalted destiny far more than reverses—indeed, thereby truly and satisfactorily avenges with ultra-compensation—the crime of the cross. [4/17/06; 11/14/25]
Furthermore, if sin got “paid for at the Cross,” then what do words like pardon and forgiveness even mean? REPAYMENT AND PARDON COUNTERMAND ONE ANOTHER! So if God forgives because He got ‘repaid’ by the death of His Son, we have a problem! As God is our model for righteousness, we too would be justified in forgiving a debt ONLY AFTER REPAYMENT! [4/18/06; 11/14/25]
Why has the so-called Second Coming (παρουσια—“Presence”) of the Lord been delayed? In light of the “CROSSURRECTION” dyad that spelled the arrival of the Kingdom at Pentecost, A.D. 30, the answer becomes clear. The Messiah had a right to fellow-heirs in his Kingdom-come on the new earth. But it takes time to raise quality sons. They have to be tested for faithful obedience to the royal directives so that they become mature and qualified to manage a whole planet. This process is not the work of a day or a year or a century or even a millennium. This day of salvation and graciousness has been prolonged…yet not interminably. We individually must endure to the end…and will all together graduate to inherit our joint allotments with Christ when he appears in his Presence. (Heb. 11:39-40) [4/18/06]
According to the apostolic understanding of Jesus’ resurrection, that pivotal event was not the outcome of his ‘being divine’ but rather the award for his being obedient and subordinate to his Father’s desire for him at every point, every stage, through every trial of his human life and career, in light of the radically unjust deprivation of its mounting, natural, rightful outcome: the crown and throne of Israel. This wrongful reversal cried out to Heaven for a SUPERVENING REVERSAL BY WAY OF RIGHTFUL OVERCOMPENSATION, in line with the logic of Israel’s Old Covenant with the Lord. God had made irreversible, inalienable pledges and promises and oaths to Abraham and Jacob and David. These must be fulfilled at all costs, for the reputation of Jehovah Himself was at stake…as well as the credibility of Scripture.
Thus Jesus was recalled from the Unseen in a stupendous climactic coup that left everyone gasping with astonishment and wonder! Jesus was alive again! He was back! And he was…mad?! HEAVENS NO! He was brimming with the vibrancy of celestial power, demurely veiled, but not without evident tokens of the supernal realm of which he was the very first citizen and forerunner. He was HAPPY! He was back to make the joy of others complete! He commissioned the Proclamation of human emancipation from demonic thralldom! We were to start exerting the rights of our newly unveiled image of sonship—the character of nobility, the regal bearing of heirs apparent to the universe!
And we were to herald—shout!—this Proclamation of God’s Kingdom having descended in the tangible power of God’s super-abundantly granted Spirit of graciousness to every nation. For Messiah had won GRAND PRIZE: THE NATIONS, FOR HIS INHERITANCE! (This special offer not good where forbidden or otherwise restricted…Not!…subject to all applicable local laws…Not!)
None of the above makes good sense merely as ‘proof’ of Messiah’s ‘divinity.’ To be sure, he could not have achieved these without having been, in truth, the only-born God, Jehovah in-the-flesh for our salvation. [4/18/06; 11/14/25]
The Premial Atonement 