Reallocating the Locus and Role of God’s Wrath in History and Soteriology

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 Antitype Exceeds the Type: The Fulfillment Surpasses the Prophecy

The New Covenant Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, as the fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecies, in reality filled to overflowing the mere letter of those prophecies.  That is, the actual fulfilment in Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, had more glory than hinted at in the Hebrew Scriptures themselves!  This is one reason why the New Testament use of the Old Testament often looks so strange to us.  A Jew of Jesus’ day, reading the Hebrew Scriptures, was not thereby prepared to see, hear, or understand Jesus.  In fact, their antiquated, labored interpretations actually blinded them to the Truth when he appeared!  They only expected mere literality (this method was at the heart of Zionistic Judaism and has been adopted with no better, but only bitter, results by its Christian counterpart and clone, Dispensationalism).  What Jesus proclaimed was superabounding spirituality—the very power of the age to come!  Jesus was actually equipped with life superabundant and free for all who trust him as God’s appointed and anointed Son, the inheritor of the universe (not merely a plot of ground in the Near East)!  Jesus exploded the eentsy weentsy, teeny weeny notions of the scribes and Pharisees and their pitiful expectations.  They hated him for puncturing their parochial hopes, popping their bubbles of bigotry, and skewering their self-important aspirations.  The antitype exceeds the type by far, through God’s power!  [9/10/97]

Every miracle, every divine healing, is a proof of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Every sign, every wonder, is an ally of the Proclamation of God’s  Kingdom.  Every such act of God in current history is a testimony that the resurrected Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living and true God.  “Is healing in the Atonement?”  No, if we must answer such a question; much rather, “atonement” is in the healing!  Since, “that you may know that the Son of Mankind has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, ‘Rise!  Take up your bed and walk!'”  (Mt. 9:6, Mk. 2:10, Lk. 5:24)  The association is unmistakable; healing and pardon are two fruits of the very same powerful operation, the first visible (thus its probative function to certify the other), the second  invisible (hence, otherwise doubtful to sinful mortals, thus requiring an external sign).  The supreme sign of the Resurrection of Christ is thus refracted in every other exertion of divine power on behalf of redemption, however nuanced.

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God’s only-born Son, in combination with the Resurrection that immediately followed, constitute proof that God is the kind of person Who is both able and desirous of absorbing the cost of personal injury against Himself without demanding repayment or satisfaction of any kind.  Such stupendous grace/favor toward us obligates us, much rather, to ebullient  gratitude toward Him and repentance for our injuries (for injuries they remain!).  There is no greater demonstration imaginable of the true contents of the loving heart of the invisible God—namely, favor—than to send His only-born offspring in visible flesh and blood, to surrender himself to the viciousness of sinful humans and their corrupt justice, and then to radically and totally and overwhelmingly reverse their fatal judgment by the counter-verdict and rightful award of agelong life via Resurrection from among the dead and exaltation to His own right hand!  For by so doing God, in effect, remitted the avenging due his murderers (for so they were, and not mere executioners), proclaiming, instead His favor to all who merely repent of their sins (that Big One included!) and trust Jesus as the Messiah/Christ.

Thus we can visibly behold what otherwise, even using the “best” of Old Testament shadows and types, we can yet barely visualize—indeed, that which was routinely misunderstood and unrecognizably twisted.  The only “satisfaction” God desires is the satisfaction of seeing His highest creature turn away from destructive sins and start growing into the image and likeness of Himself as seen clearly in His Son Jesus.  So by instructing His faithful Son to sacrifice himself, including his royal rights as the authentic King of the Jews, God was preparing to exhibit openly and unmistakably on the public stage of eye-witnessed history, what had always been and would always be unalterably true: Jehovah God does not demand or require or desire payment or recompense or compensation or sacrifice to Himself by anyone in the universe (neither sinners nor His Son) for sin.  Much rather, He forgives or pardons sins gratuitously, for free, and “demands” or “requires” that we do likewise, on penalty of our own sins remaining ominously unforgiven by Him!

This is the most startling, life-transforming truth of the Proclamation of God’s Kingdom, and we all have far to go to absorb its full force.  It should “extort” from us superabundant and never-ending praise and thanks.  Not for a moment should such a staggering revelation of God’s self-sacrificing character, conduct, and disposition motivate us to dishonor or trample His explicit desire for our obedience.  Our obligations toward Him are nothing less than that we behave ourselves toward one another as He has behaved toward us, i.e., that we become like Him, as exhibited in the conduct of Jesus Christ His uniquely-begotten Son, for this is our very destiny if we seriously believe his words: all who trust Christ are destined by Old Testament Scripture to become sons of God, morphing into His likeness and image.  Good gracious!

The Mosaic law was but a shadow of this desire for us.  Jesus was the Light that cast Moses and his Torah in the shadows forever.  Jesus was greater than Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon combined!  The Old Covenant has all but evaporated for those who are in Christ.  The grace that Christ received from his Father for obeying Him even to the death of a cross burst into history for our human appropriation and enjoyment at Pentecost, if we do not resist it as the Jews did in Jesus’ day.  For our resistance to the Wholesome Spirit of God’s favor will win for us later generations the same just deserts (dikaioma) that God poured out on the stubborn generation of vicious Jews who perished under His wrath when the “abomination of desolation”—the Roman legions of Titus—surrounded and besieged Jerusalem, the “Holy City,” and vaunted temple in 70 A.D., exactly 40 years to the week, one generation, after they viciously dispatched their Messiah.  The judgment of “Gehenna,” the Valley of Hinnom where Titus cast the bodies of the dead during Jerusalem’s self-destruction and subsequent cleanup, is the repulsive foretaste of what awaits all who, like those perfidious Jews, remain stubborn to the Son (see Psalm 2), refusing to repent of their sins and acknowledge their rightful Master and royal superior.  Thus those who harden themselves to the outpouring of God’s favor are only setting themselves up for the outpouring of His indignation.  Our choice is between a baptism of Spirit or of fire.  For God delays His anger, not desiring any to get destroyed, yet prolongs His kindness so that many may repent and be saved.  He appeals to us, “Now is the day of salvation, repent and trust Me!”

Thus it is clear that no “payment of sin” is even conceivable in Biblical terms!  God Himself “pays for sin” (an expression never actually used by Scripture) if in any sense, by absorbing the “cost” into Himself and countering with a gigantic donation back!  Furthermore, God proclaims such a great salvation even to His bitter enemies so that even they may get conciliated to Himself!  He chose Saul of Tarsus as the great exemplar of such receipt of favor.  No wonder that Saul—now Paul—agonized over his remaining stubborn co-Christ-persecutors and fellow-Messiah-murderers.  For he now knew that even they could be saved if they would!  Jesus himself prayed outright for the forgiveness of his Roman executioners while he was still on the cross, while they were still enemies:  “Father forgive them, for they are not aware what they are doing!”  (Luke 23:34)  How much more had he longed to gather Jerusalem under his wings of protection, but they would not consent (Matt. 23:37-38; Luke 13:34).

God has lavished demonstration upon display, exhibit upon example, proof upon parable, that nothing from His side prevents or ever has prevented or ever will prevent or ever can prevent the superabundant expression of His favor to any and every sinner who only believes His explanations and acts accordingly in consequence, confessing before humans the favor and truth of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.  [9/27/97]