When did we start psychoanalyzing God? In trying to rationalize why God “needed” to exert His wrath against a perfectly innocent victim in order to be able to express His graciousness to sinners, theologians have wandered far astray from their honest calling and the beaten path of apostolic explanation. For their part, the apostles taught that for his sinless, faithful obedience, Jesus was worthy only of God’s stupendous graciousness (instead of wrath) when he voluntarily surrendered (as per the divine Plan) to the envious hatred and fury of his foes, and was deserving only of God’s exaltation for that outrageous humiliation. We’re talkin’ justice here–premial justice, nothin’ penal about it! God’s wrath did show up, however, after a lapse of one generation, upon the city of Jerusalem, who had consigned God’s Anointed to a miserable cross. [4/18/12; 2/7/26]
The modern nation of Israel, which we should recognize as the prophesied Counter-Messiah, was a creation of Zionism and Dispensationalism. The latter Christian movement, under the influence of conventional secular chronology that displaces and “replaces” Biblical chronology at key points, miscalculated a host of important events in Old Testament and New Testament prophecy. Having been misled from the authentic apostolic view concerning many decisive prophecies long ago fulfilled in Christ’s career and the the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, they have spun out volumes of vain speculations that obscure the true Gospel message of the apostles, which fundamentally universalized the application of the blessings of Abraham and required Jews to get reconciled with Gentiles by seeing incorporation into one body as the consummate goal of the Savior–a joint body!
Ironically, these modern fabricators of a counter-Messiah (antichristos) dare to label the apostolic message of trans-racial unification in Jesus Christ as “replacement theology,” AS IF THEY THEMSELVES WERE NOT GUILTY OF REPLACING BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY WITH THE SELF-AGGRANDIZING ARTIFICE CALCULATED BY A NATIONALISTIC PAGAN PTOLEMAIC-ERA (305 B.C.-30 B.C.) EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOOD! But more on that another time. [4/19/12; 2/6-7/26]
The point of Christ’s abuse-taking and curse-taking is not that he “bore what we should have borne,”* but much rather that he bore what he should not have borne. Yet happily, that very injustice supplied the grounds for God to turn around his condemnation to death into a justification of life via resurrection from the dead, whereby much, much more was returned to Christ than he lost to Satan’s savage assault.
*Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 3rd ed. (Eerdmans 1965) p. 61. [4/20/12]
Faustus Socinus SHOT PENAL SUBSTITUTION ALL TO HELL, WHENCE IT HAD COME. [4/30/12]
It is LOVE that sacrifices whatever is necessary to conciliate enemies so as to make peace and re-unify those who had become estranged. [5/2/12; 2/7/26]
SCRIPTURE + GOOD SENSE
Faustus Socinus (along with several generations of his Polish successors) approached theological, ethical, and ecclesiastical issues with an explicit and honest combination of Scripture plus good sense (mostly). Wielding this double-barreled weapon with strategic skill, he levelled devastating fire against Calvin’s theory of penal substitution. That he did not happen to rediscover the correct alternative is hardly a fault peculiar to him. It was scarcely possible to get this right until Christ’s resurrection came back into prominence (since apostolic days!) as a theological locus of decisive significance, i.e., until the late 20th century. Yet, however that may be, it should be clear that holy Scripture + good sense trumps Scripture + traditional dogmatic prejudice, in principle, every time. The Holy Spirit has weighed in decisively on this controverted matter. It is not hard to guess which of these couplets is an unholy alliance. [5/7/12]
Calvinism is like a dandelion. Although you may pull up all visible flowers, leaves, and stems (the “five points,” “original sin,” “predestination,” “sovereign decrees,” “imputation of Christ’s righteousness,” “eternal conscious punishment,” etc.), unless you manage to pull up the toxic root—”penal substitution“—this ‘lion will come roaring back, in due time, with all its well-known visible appendages bristling. Penal substitution harbors, at root, every distinctive of Reformed soteriology (especially in its more complete and thorough post-Reformation guise). No superficial pruning will eradicate these outgrowths that reside implicit in a rigid adherence to and elaboration of the penal/economic logic of this artificial core doctrine. One of the most striking and instructive examples of inner contradiction on this topic is the greatly enlarged second edition of the monumental study by Laurence M. Vance intended to refute the Five Points of Calvinism, The Other Side of Calvinism, revised edition (Orlando, FL: Vance Publications, 1999) 800pp: the author remained an undaunted, if foolhardy, champion of penal substitution (esp. pp.414-32)! [5/24/12; 2/5/26]
“T U L I P” Some playful toying with the Five Points of Calvinism (which so many painstaking students of Scripture have found hard to take seriously, as well.) Obviously these whimsical takes are not intended to represent their adherents’ own too-sober exposition of the points at issue!
1. “Total Depravity“—Theology in general has become depraved in many respects, but Calvinism is a textbook example of total depravity at work—every one of the Five Points is a corruption of Gospel truth, accordingly attended by psychological malaise and behavioral deviance, as candid observers have repeatedly noted.
2. “Unconditional Election“—God chooses everyone who believes the Gospel without any conditions attached! However, He rejects those who distrust the News about His Son.
3. “Limited Atonement“—Christ’s atonement is strictly limited to Adam’s descendants—human beings. Angels are not included in its benefits.
4. “Irresistible Grace“—God’s graciousness is almost irresistible. Sadly, many people do manage to resist the Holy Spirit of grace and hence eventually suffer the wrath of God and get destroyed forever. Moral: Don’t resist the drawing power of the gospel story!
5. “Perseverance of the Saints“—People must persist in faith in order to remain holy (wholesome), i.e., “saints.” [5/24/12; 2/5/26]
The Premial Atonement 