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theology

Jan 13
0

God: The CliffsNotes

By | Cleric Listens | No Comments

Introduction

 

When I was in college, CliffsNotes were displayed behind the bookstore counter, covering all the books and topics students would be tested on in the coming semester. Now, far be it from me to consult one of these cheat sheets, but there they were. SOMEBODY must be buying them, having neglected to do their homework on a timely basis. The notion was this: you don’t have to read the whole text, read the CliffsNotes and get what is essential while avoiding what was optional. It strikes me that somebody needs to do this for the average man in the street, who knows nothing about the Bible or all that has been written about it. Where is theology that accords with Antoine de St. Exupery, who when contemplating his biplane observed, “perfection is achieved not when there’s nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing more to take away?”

The purpose of this exercise is to document the critical issue of how God deals with mankind, and what is expected of us by way of response. Folks, that’s all that really matters, and it isn’t that complicated. It’s rumored that Karl Barthe, no stranger to overkill in his own oeuvre, was asked towards the end of his career what he had learned about theology. His answer? He quoted the child’s ditty, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Just so. Short of wholesale reductionism like this, let’s see what can be said about God and his dealings with us that is essential, correct, and brief. Our audience, lost and hurting, deserves nothing less.

 

Question: How Does God Deal with Humanity?

 

How does God deal with man? In two ways: forensically and effectually. There is a logical priority here, so they should be dealt with in order.

 

By forensically I mean legally. Because God is moral, and because we’ve been created in his image, we exist in a moral relationship with him. That means that there is a hierarchy in our relationship: he is in a position of authority, and we are in a position of subservience. These are not popular notions, but that doesn’t detract from their veracity. God’s position of moral superiority is inexorable and immutable, and is characterized by a divine sovereignty of volition. God can and does do what he wants, when he wants, and there’s not much we can do about it, not that we should want to.

 

This is what allows us to talk about what is right and wrong. Things are right or wrong to the extent that they coincide with this divine will. To be right, you must be in accord with divine will. Anything else is to be wrong. Thus, right and wrong are discovered only by revelation; they are received by us as subjects in God’s creation. Want to know right from wrong? Read the Bible. From its stories we can infer all we need to know of God’s moral requirements.

 

So we find ourselves in a moral relationship with God whether we like it or not. It follows that that relationship can go one of two ways; well or poorly. The Bible is a story about how it went well for a chapter or two, then went poorly, and then, through God’s persistent and patient work, started to go well again. When our representative, Adam, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he caused two problems for himself and all his children. First of all, he brought moral guilt upon all humanity. On account of his disobedience, God was now at enmity with man. He was mad at us. The second problem Adam caused was that his actions killed the spirit of man, and we lost our ability to be in touch with God. As Jesus says, God is spirit, and those who would worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The symptom of this spiritual death is that we are incapable of doing right, and are only capable of doing wrong. We are weak, we lack power to do anything worthwhile from a moral or divine perspective. When we try to do right, we fail, and we blame God for exposing our error because it stands in stark contrast to his abiding holiness. So not only are we guilty in God’s sight, we are also hobbled in actual fact. We are at enmity with God. We are mad at him.

 

Now God has a dilemma on his hands. What to do? First of all, he can start over with a better cast of characters. This is what he did in the flood, when he decided that only Noah had anything on the ball. Yet in the end, starting over changed nothing, and that approach was forever abandoned; God gave us the rainbow. Secondly, God could simply go over the rules again, and hope that the trouble was caused by an information deficit. This is the story of the Old Testament. On the off chance that the Jews simply needed some guidance and encouragement, he gave the Law through Moses and correction through the Prophets. Needless to say, nothing changed here either. Even though the Jews had all the information they needed, and rituals that addressed their moral quandary, they continued to evince the guilt and powerlessness common to man as a result of the Fall.

 

Our problems with God have consequences in our relationships with the rest of Creation as well; we fight one another, the created order, and ourselves. Sickness, death, estrangement, violence; all are symptoms of a prior schism with our Creator.

 

Finally, God can undertake reform on his own, unilaterally. If man’s the problem, by leaving him out of the process perhaps an effective remedy can be found. This is the story of the New Testament. Here we have God getting to the root problems of moral guilt and powerlessness, not patching things up with a band-aid. The way he does this is through his Son, Jesus of Nazareth. As Paul says in Romans 5:9,10, he justifies us by the death of Christ, and he saves us by his life. Redemption involves not one but both of these activities.

 

In order to solve the problem of our moral guilt, God came up with a plan called the substitutionary atonement. It’s based on the principle that when a law is broken, the guilty party must pay with their life. As Scripture says, “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” It works in this manner: God selects somebody who is without sin, who is not guilty, and assigns to them the guilt or responsibility for the crime that has been committed. The punishment that is due the guilty party is put on this innocent party. The grace or freedom that was due the innocent party is then transferred to the guilty party. A great exchange takes place, whereby the innocent pays the price owed by the guilty, and the guilty are accorded the liberty due the innocent. Hardly fair for the innocent, but who are we to complain? The only problem with this plan is that nobody on earth could be found to function as an innocent sacrifice. All people, imbued with sin, fail on the first requirement that the victim be themselves innocent. For this plan to work, somebody had to be found who was not subject to the hereditary sin that bedevils all mankind. This is where Jesus of Nazareth comes in. Not having a human father, he doesn’t have the heredity of sin the rest of us do. He, alone, of all people born on this earth, qualifies to function as the scapegoat in this plan of redemption. Just as God provided a ram for Abraham so he didn’t have to sacrifice Isaac, God provides his own son to take our place as the intended sacrifice. As Abraham said to Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” By offering himself in our place, Jesus upholds the perfect holiness of God, while enabling sinners to have communion with God once again.

 

This tells us something about God’s nature. He is willing to pay the price for humanity to be redeemed through his own suffering. This magnanimity is why we worship God.

 

Viewed this way, we understand the cosmic significance of certain events in history. Specifically, we see that as of Good Friday, judgment has been passed on human sin for all people, in all places, and for all time. There is no limit to the power of the blood of Jesus. As Scripture says, he died for the sins of the whole world. As Jesus further says, all sins and blasphemies uttered against the Son of Man will be forgiven. We will never be judged for the wrong we do, our sins of commission. No longer need we be ashamed for our nakedness, as Adam was, for we are now clothed with Christ, to use Paul’s expression. In a very real sense, God is no longer at enmity with us; he is no longer mad at us. The curtain separating God from man is torn in two, and we can boldly enter God’s presence as children.

 

Good Christian ministry stresses the effectiveness of God’s actions on Good Friday. As of then, our sins are washed away. It is important for people to know this. This is why we baptize infants who are oblivious to their spiritual condition. All people, infant and adult, stand justified by that one-time, unrepeatable, forensic transaction whereby the Father judged sin in the person of his Son without reference to our knowledge or participation.

 

Easter, therefore, is derivative in its importance. It is significant not just because Jesus is found to be alive, but because of WHY he’s alive. The Law prescribed death as a punishment for moral transgression. When Jesus died for our sins, the Law was satisfied. Having been satisfied for all time and eternity, it ceased to exist; it was fulfilled. When it ceased to exist, the penalty it prescribed, death, was also vitiated. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that the whole of mankind is now rehabilitated in God’s eyes. We are in Christ, as both relational metaphor and legal reality.

 

One problem solved, one to go. If divine intervention on our behalf stopped with Good Friday, we would be abandoned to an endless cycle of spiritual tumult. Moral effort would lead to failure, failure to guilt, guilt to confession, confession to forgiveness, forgiveness to renewed effort and subsequent failure. God, in his love, for us, knows that we need not only legal forgiveness but also effectual help. We need to be changed in reality as well as exonerated legally. To do this, he again turns to his son Jesus. He forgives us through his death, but to use Paul’s terminology in Romans 5:9,10, he saves us through his life.

 

Paul makes a clear distinction between these two activities, justification and salvation, as does the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. This distinction is also implicit in all of the parables and in the words of John the Baptist. What we gather from Scripture is that in addition to the judgment passed on sin on Good Friday, there will also be a judgment leveled on fruitlessness at the consummation of the age. Matthew 25 portrays this as a separation of the sheep from the goats, and the distinguishing criterion will not be sin committed, but rather righteousness squandered. Nobody is judged for wrongs done, but all will be judged for the good not performed. John the Baptist refers to this when he says that the axe is already laid to the root of the tree that does not bear fruit. Jesus, in his parable of the wedding garments, states that all are invited to the wedding feast, both good and bad (universal justification,) but the guest who is found to be without wedding garments is cast out, for he does not have the fruit that is expected of those who would put themselves in the Spirit’s service.

 

Many attribute the Pauline distinction between justification and salvation to Hebrew parallelism. This is wrong. Until the reality of TWO judgments for different problems is realized, Christian soteriology makes no sense. Once you do make the distinction, then everything falls into place. The idea of salvation is that we have been put in Christ’s position legally, but our nature is unchanged. Only when the Spirit of Christ enters us effectually does that essential nature change, and we can have the power to do right. In addition to being in Christ, we need Christ in us. This is the normative expectation of the Bible story, yet it’s not widely understood by Christians. Many act like Mary Magdalene, who recognized Jesus after his resurrection. In her enthusiasm she clings to him, not wanting to let him go. Yet Jesus chastises her, saying that to cling would be wrong, as he must return to the Father to complete his redemptive work. Should he not ascend, he would not be accorded the authority to shed his Spirit abroad over all humanity as happened on Pentecost. Uninformed Christians, many of whom appreciate their justification, nevertheless do not know that God has done more for them than merely forgive them. He has also made it possible to recover their spiritual capacity lost at the Fall and be a successful spiritual creature once again.

 

The experience of trying to live without a personal Pentecost is called back-sliding, and results in that spiritual treadmill described earlier. People who have this experience usually do one of two things. Either they persist in trying to please God with their own efforts and become neurotic, unattractive religious humbugs, or they can give up and reject Christian morality as impossible, and become religious liberals.

 

Question: What Does God Expect from Us?

 

The experience of spiritual renewal being described here has been given many names: being born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, regenerated, being saved or being converted. They all attempt to describe the same reality, that the individual, born a two part person with a body and a soul, is as of salvation a three part person, with the addition of the Holy Spirit of the risen Lord Jesus entering into their being. The details of the experience vary as gifts of the Spirit vary, and it is a mistake to make some aspects of the experience normative for all. What is normative, however, is that the conscious mind will have a new awareness of God’s moral authority, as well as a new capacity for obedience to that authority. Evangelical denominations tend to associate this experience with adult baptism, while churches with historical consciousness tend to associate it with Confirmation. Because individual experiences vary, some conclude that this whole process of personal regeneration is optional. This is a grave mistake, and lies at the root of the incapacity of the Christian Church we see today. Again, the Bible suggests the following bilateral symmetry:

 

 

Actor Man’s Problem Attitude as of the Fall Solution Historic Event Extent Our Position Relative to Christ Associated Sacrament 2

Judgments

 Role of Christ Event in Theological Terms
God Guilt Enmity with Man Blood of Christ Good Friday Universal Us in Christ legally Baptism On Sin Savior Justification
Man Power-

lessness

 Enmity with God Life of Christ Pentecost Particular Christ in us effectually Eucharist On Fruitless-ness Lord Salvation

 

We see that two actors have two perspectives that lead to two problems requiring two solutions, both involving the Son of God. One solution does not involve our participation, just our appreciation. The other solution, because it impinges on our will or volition, DOES involve our participation. To the extent that we accept the idea that we must cede our will to God, all will go well. To the extent that we take umbrage at God’s requirements, we will not be allowed to participate in God’s salvation. Thus, the seemingly random experience of spiritual regeneration is not due to God’s caprice or “election,” but rather our willingness to acknowledge our position of moral servitude. To be more specific, God links the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to our attitude towards that document written by that same Spirit, the Bible. If we go to God and say, “I want your spiritual blessings in the here and now, but I’m going to argue with what the Spirit has caused to be written in the past,” then I’m pretty sure God’s going to withhold further spiritual revelation until that attitude changes. He doesn’t, as Jesus said, cast his pearls before swine. This reality makes it hard for people-first types to get anywhere with God. If we cling to our liberal notions about freedom of the will in all its permutations, we will find ourselves bereft of true revelation.

 

Here it’s appropriate to address the attention paid by many Christians, notably Protestants, to the terms election and predestination. Reading the Bible from a Western, or Greek perspective, these terms seem to suggest that God chooses some for salvation and others for damnation without regard to individual volition or behavior. Although this conclusion does uphold God’s sovereignty, it does violence to his character as a loving Creator. It is helpful to note several things about how the Bible uses these terms. First of all, it can be argued that they are used exclusively when addressing Gentile readers, or speaking of God’s treatment of Gentiles. Rather than argue that God is arbitrary, the terms suggest that God, in his eternal counsels, knew of the spiritual needs of Gentiles and in his love included them in his plan of redemption. Until the coming of Christ, the revelation of God was limited to Jews. With the coming of Jesus, however, that revelation was opened up to Gentiles as well, in what Paul calls the “mystery of God.” By using the terms foreknowledge, choice and election, the Biblical authors are assuring their Gentile readers that they, too, are objects of God’s love and eligible for inclusion in his plan of redemption. Further, these terms should be understood in the light of Eastern or Jewish intent. Typically, Easterners do not think in terms of individuals, but rather in terms of families, tribes, nations or other groups; types if you will. What these terms really state is that ALL those who submit to God’s plan of redemption, without regard to race, are eligible for eternal felicities. The idea of double predestination, wherein God damns some arbitrarily as individuals is a pernicious and false reading of Scripture. The term predestination never refers to assigning some to heaven and some to hell, but rather to stipulating that benefits will accrue to believers in this life, and not just in the life to come. We are predestined, for example, to conformance to the nature of Christ or adoption as sons, while we yet live. This is not to suggest that God’s plan of redemption cannot be frustrated. God does allow us to damn ourselves. In the words of Oswald Chambers, “The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation.”

 

Christians are forever fighting about whether or not we can “lose our salvation.” Certain terms, not found in the Scriptures, such as “eternal security,” have been coined to introduce the notion that “once saved, always saved.” These conundra have their root in poor Biblical exegesis. As said before, justification is universal, while salvation is particular. It’s not so much that one “loses” their justification, but that the introduction of a second judgment renders acquittal at the first nugatory. It is entirely possible to experience the joy of forgiveness and moral justification, and eventually be cut off and burned as a fruitless branch. The branches that are burned in John 15:2 were originally, in Jesus’ words, “in me.”

 

So if God doesn’t save or damn as individuals arbitrarily, what does he look for? Roman Catholics typically have answered ritual fidelity, fundamentalists have responded by saying the avoidance of certain attractive sins, and dispensationalists have said God looks for knowledge. None of these is correct. Technically speaking, God’s not looking for anything positive at all, but rather something negative. He doesn’t want us to do anything, but to stop doing something. He wants us to exhibit two qualities, both of which are negations. First of all, he wants us to be honest; honest about our inability to do anything morally good or correct on our own. He wants us to stop protesting our innocence. Then, he wants us to be humble. Humility is a willingness to accept his intervention and aid. Lacking the power to do any good thing ourselves, as Paul laments in Romans 7, we invite him to come and do in us what we can’t do ourselves, and to give him all the credit for it. God doesn’t want to improve us, he wants to replace us; a very different thing. All this comes back to our perception of God’s moral authority. Do we grant him all authority, or do we reserve moral authority for ourselves?

 

Perhaps it’s best to go back to the beginning to discover what God is looking for by way of response from us. When Adam ate of the tree in the garden, he saw that he was naked and ashamed, and ran from God. He was mad at God. As of Good Friday, however, we are “clothed with Christ,” and no longer stand naked nor in need of being ashamed. Therefore, what God’s now looking for from us is that we accept this new legal standing, and stop running from him. When he offers us the Spirit of his son Jesus as a gift, we should accept it in trust that it’s a good thing, and not judge, whine or run away as if we believe it to be an evil trick. To run from the Spirit is to commit the one sin that will not be forgiven, which is described as blaspheming the Holy Spirit. When you refuse the offer of a personal Pentecost, or reject the words of the Bible that were written by the Holy Spirit, you recommit Adam’s sin, nail Christ to the cross all over again, and cut yourself off from spiritual power and the possibility of bearing fruit. We may exist, but we are not alive.

 

Jesus has two titles: Savior and Lord. He is the Savior of all, no matter what you know or acknowledge. He is your Lord only by a matter of moral transaction: will I do what my Lord says?

 

What we’ve shown so far is that God deals with man in two ways and only two ways. There is no mystery, no fuzziness, no vagueness about his dealings with man. Although our experiences of God differ and he defies being placed in a box according to our wishes, nevertheless God’s plan of redemption is as consistent and immutable as he is. From his dealings with us, we can conclude what he expects from us. Specifically, he doesn’t expect from us things we cannot do ourselves. He doesn’t expect us to be perfect or even good. He doesn’t expect us to come to him with works, but only true, solid sin. He doesn’t expect us to change things we cannot change. What he does expect, as stated before, is honesty and humility. All who submit to God’s plan of redemption are predestined to new life now and elect to participate in the life to come. Those who reject the plan as onerous, too degrading or whatever, are in effect arguing with God and will find themselves deprived of his plan’s benefits. As John 5:22 says, you cannot honor the Father without honoring the Son, and as John 12:48 says, you cannot honor the Son without honoring the Word he speaks as Lord. If a person is not in touch with God, it’s because they have put conditions on their submission to his Word.

 

Why all this effort of God’s part? For two reasons. First of all, man was destined for holiness, not destruction. God intends to put creation back on the right footing it was on in the beginning. But now it is not based upon something as ephemeral as man’s ability to understand and obey. The new Kingdom of God is based upon resolute and absolute obedience of the Son of God who redeems all by his death and animates all by his Holy Spirit. The second reason the Father goes to all this trouble is that a bride must be found for the Son. Just as Abraham sent his servant back to his homeland to find a bride suitable for his son Isaac, and Isaac for his son Jacob, so, too, the heavenly Father sends his Son to earth to find a suitable bride. One who is chaste, spotless, responsive and obedient. This can only be a bride who has been purified by the blood of the Cross of Good Friday and animated by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.   Like all good stories, the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is at its root a love story. The object of love gets into trouble, but through the perseverance of the lover, all obstacles are overcome, the marriage takes place, and they live happily ever after.

 

Question: Is All This Doctrine Important?

 

Now why all this effort to establish doctrine with regard to what’s known as soteriology, the doctrine of how we’re saved? The last time people fought about this was 400 years ago. Weren’t all the salient issues resolved then? Actually, no. And all the vituperation that’s flying around today about what constitutes Christian behavior is a direct result of having either forgotten received truth or having new, unresolved doctrinal issues.

 

Perhaps the most pernicious result of doctrinal laxity is the notion that there is no role for humans to play in their own redemption. John Calvin and his acolytes went so far as to say that we have no control over our eternal destinies; it’s decided by God, and arbitrarily at that. Therefore, when ethical questions arise, it’s hard for Christians to say what right behavior is, or that there’s a standard for morality at all. The answer to this quandary is to remember that there are two judgments, one for sin and one for fruitfulness. The former is taken care of by God unilaterally on the Cross on Good Friday. In spite of what Calvin said, there is no limited atonement regarding sin. On the other hand, something is expected of us by way of response to that reality, and that is a negation of our freedom so powerfully exercised at the time of the Fall. We are expected to recognize the incompatibility of our moral freedom and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and to cede that freedom to him as Lord. This is not a pleasant process, and is therefore one that many, indeed most, shy away from. This explains why justification can be universal, but salvation is not; most lack the moral character necessary to stop running from God and let the Holy Spirit have his way with us.

 

If this is true, the consequences for our approach to pastoral ministry are legion. Everything we do as Christians should be directed towards helping others come to a right conclusion about the deleterious effects of moral free agency, that they might consciously place themselves under the moral authority of the risen Lord.               Listen to what an astute pastoral counselor, Bill Gillham, has said.

 

“Biblical counseling seeks to lead the believer to the end of his strength – regardless of how productive (or nonproductive [sic]) such ‘strength’ may have proven to be – and into the certainty of Christ’s strength through him! The Holy Spirit, often through the school of adversity, always works against the believer’s dependency upon the flesh. Ultimately his flesh becomes nonproductive [sic] by Supernatural design at which time many seek counseling. The counselor who uses techniques generated by lost men to help such a believer cut his losses is interrupting God’s process of bringing that Christian to the end of his personal resources. The more ‘skilled’ and ‘effective’ the counselor, the more he sets God back to square one, having to begin the breaking process all over again.”

 

The same note is echoed by Oswald Chambers, who writes:

 

“One of the severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say – He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not. You put your hand straight in front of God’s permissive will to prevent it, and God says, – ‘What is that to thee?’ If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise.”

 

This perspective runs completely counter to what many consider “Christian” behavior and proper “pastoral” care. When we are asked to minister to the homeless, alcoholics, drug users, sexually promiscuous, serial adulterers, or what have you, relief of their immediate suffering may be exactly what God does NOT want you to do. When symptoms of spiritual death are removed, there is little incentive to go to the root problem, which is organic separation from the Holy Spirit. Bad soteriology leads to bad pastoral theology, each and every time. The debates that rack the Church today are unmistakable evidence that theology was neglected yesterday.

 

Answer

 

Although I would never have depended upon a CliffsNotes while in college, I do believe there was a disclaimer somewhere in each volume that said something to the effect that reading the Notes was not a substitute for reading the actual work. It was intended, it said, to complement the original work to enhance understanding of what you’ve already read. I echo that, perhaps vain, entreaty, with regard to the Bible. Is this a comprehensive summary of the contents of the entire Bible or the self-revelation of God? Of course not. But just like the CliffsNotes, this summary may just serve to help you pass the only test that counts, the test of your response to the love of God as found in the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s a test for which there is no make-up, no retest, no recovery. But tests are only bad when you’re not prepared. If you’re prepared, they’re a chance to show what you know: that God is love, and has already done all that is needed to solve our two problems of moral guilt and powerlessness. That, if you ask me, is pretty good news.

 

CliffsNotes is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and is used without permission.

Jan 13
0

500 Years and Counting: Is This The Best We Can Do?

By | Cleric Listens | No Comments

Introduction

 

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines soteriology as “the section of Christian theology which treats of the saving work of Christ for the world.”  I would dilate on that definition by adding, “It’s also the section of theology where there is the least agreement with the worst consequences.”  Freud once famously remarked, “The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?'”  In a similar vein, I would rejoin, “The great question that has never been answered, and which the Church has not yet been able to answer, despite its 2,000 years of research into the mind of God, is ‘What does God want?'”  Important as it is to know what women want, it’s even more important to know what God wants.  Yet if the last 500 years are any indication, there are many obstacles to figuring this out.

 

The Problem

 

The first obstacle appears to be that the Protestant Church thinks the answer to this question was discovered 400 years ago in Holland.  The Synod of Dort, in the aforementioned country, pitted the adherents of John Calvin against those of Jacobus Arminius.  What the Calvinists proposed was that God followed a policy of double predestination when dealing with his children.  Some he elected or predestined to salvation in order to show his mercy.  Others, however, he preterated or damned to perdition to manifest his justice.  Arminius, though dead by the time of the council, had already gone on record as objecting to this model, based on the argument that for God to mandate rebellion in his eternal councils, he would be making himself the author of sin.  Despite the validity of this argument, the followers of Calvin prevailed and double predestination became the law of the land for most Protestant traditions.  To be sure, Calvin and his sycophants can be excused for arguing for God’s sovereignty, considering the prevailing Roman doctrine that man can manipulate God through sacramental observance.  Nevertheless, by saying that the individual cannot have anything to do with their election or preteration, Calvin undermined the power and appeal of the Gospel.  If God’s decisions are arbitrary, the most we can do is search for “signs of election” in our own lives, and steer clear of those around us who do not have such signs.  Christians are left in doubt, appeals for morality are labeled Pelagian, evangelism is stultified, and Church schism is ensured.  Although fellowship with the East had been abandoned centuries before, and Rome had responded to the Reformation with the Council of Trent, the Protestant Church had now painted itself into a theological corner out of which is could not logically emerge.  Those who objected to this harsh double predestination either reverted to Rome, traveled to the East, or simply ignored the issue.  The last time the Protestant Church met in ecumenical council to resolve its problems, the wrong side won.  Welcome to the present day.

 

The second obstacle to developing a functional soteriology is that double predestination and the corollary of five point Calvinism appear to have the warrant of Scripture.  A brief review of the basic terms of elect, election and predestination will show this to be true.  It is a gross simplification to focus on only these three words, but they do embody the basic ideas Calvin and his adherents used to refute Roman arguments limiting God’s sovereignty on the one hand, and Arminius’ allegedly Pelagian claims on the other.

 

What are those verses?  The  terms elect, election and predestination appear in the Greek a total of 28 times in the New Testament.  The instances that interest us in terms of context number fifteen for elect or election, and four for predestined; a total of 19 occurrences.   Elect and election are both nouns, referring to the subjects of the process of election and the process itself, respectively.  The former is used six times in the Gospels, three each in Matthew and Mark and are attributed to Jesus himself.  The remaining 13 occurrences are in various epistles of Paul and Peter.

 

In the Gospels the word translated elect is attributed to Jesus by both Matthew and Mark in what’s known as the Olivet Discourse or the Little Apocalypse (Mt. 24, Mk 13.)  Jesus has been questioned by his disciples about his statement that all the Temple buildings will soon be torn down.  He replies with a deeper explanation about the events that would characterize the Roman invasion to take place in AD 70, in which Titus and his engineers would in fact dismantle the entire city.  Jesus uses the term elect to describe those who would be spared the destruction that would come upon Jerusalem and most of its inhabitants.  The Markan and Matthean accounts are essentially identical, with it being probable that Matthew simply copied Marks prior account.

 

The words elect or election next appear in Paul’s letter to the Romans (11:7, 9:11, 11:28.)  What could be more clear?  These verses state in plain words that God chooses some people for good things and others for bad. Whether Ishmael, Esau or Pharaoh, each in turn is passed by, at God’s sovereign discretion, in favor of others who are children of promise.  

 

Elect and election are subsequently used by Paul in the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy (I Ti 5:21, 2 Ti 2:10) and Titus (1:1).  In the first instance he appears to suggest that angels, in addition to people, are subject to election.  This may be what he believes, or is merely a figure of speech to emphasize the obvious validity of what he’s saying.   Apart from this mild departure, Paul uses the term the way Jesus does, to refer to those under the spiritual care of Timothy and Titus who have escaped the delusions of whatever they believed before they became Christians.  Peter continues this usage, by addressing his audience in his first epistle, as elect, chosen by God according to His foreknowledge (1 Pe 1:10.)  His use of the term election departs from this pattern, and I’ll address this in a moment.

The term predestined is only found four times in the New Testament, twice in Romans and twice in Ephesians (Ro 8:29, 8:30, Eph 1:5, 1:11.)  In Romans 8 Paul appears to use the terms foreknew, predestined, and called almost synonymously, and adds the notions of justification and glorification.  What he seems to be getting at is that redemption is a linear process, but one that begins and ends with God, and one that has actual, concrete results.

 

So these are the 19 times these seminal terms appear in the New Testament.  Again, to the Calvinist, nothing could be more clear, or simple.  So a third obstacle to developing a functional soteriology is that the doctrine of double predestination is simple to promulgate.   Any competing theory would have a hard time matching it for parsimony.  It solves a great number of problems with one response, “God decided it from before time and forever, and you needn’t bother yourself with asking why.”  The acrostic TULIP has been developed to summarize the five simple points of Reformed doctrine.  How much simpler can it get?  It even reduces to a cute word, and one with Dutch associations, no less.

 

The careful reader of the Scriptures, however, will be troubled by a review of the linguistic evidence for double predestination.  First of all, 19 occurrences in the whole of the Bible are hardly comprehensive.  Secondly, there are many verses that seem to contradict the notion that all is determined by divine fiat and nothing is left to humans by way of volitional response.  What of Paul in Romans 10 saying there is something to believe and something to confess?  What about Peter, while using these very terms urging “make your calling and election sure,” and “exert yourselves to clinch God’s choice and calling of you?”  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says plainly in chapter 6 that it is possible for those who have been enlightened and filled with the Holy Spirit to fall away.  Paul, in Galatians 5:4, points out that his readers may have “fallen away from grace.”  Is there anything that these 19 passages share in terms of Biblical Introduction that would help explain what they are trying to say, if not a virulent doctrine of double predestination?  A comparison of the texts reveals that there in fact may be a concern shared by the authors that explains this limited but consistent choice of these particular words for a particular purpose.

 

A Solution

 

Good exegesis requires that we start with the author.  Who were they, to whom were they writing, and what was the axe they were grinding?  What we see is that Mark, Paul and Peter all had a common interest in evangelism, specifically to the Gentile world.  Mark goes to great lengths to explain Jewish customs, translates Aramaic words, and otherwise evinces an awareness of the needs of a Gentile audience.  Paul, too, calls himself a minister to the Gentiles, and even Peter, the most parochial of the apostles, addresses his first letter to God’s scattered elect outside of Judea.  Though coming from varied backgrounds, they have a common passion for bringing their message to those outside the Jewish world.  Let’s review the manner in which Gentiles were treated by Jews in the early Church to see if it can shed any light on what these authors wrote.

 

As early as Acts chapter 6 we have problems between Jewish and Gentile Christians encountered in the ministry to widows.  By chapter 10 we have Peter having of vision enjoining the inclusion of Gentiles in the Church, and Cornelius’ household receiving the Holy Spirit.  What is the result of this expansion of God’s grace?  Peter’s criticized by what are described as circumcised believers (Judaizers) who persist in their former practice of not visiting or eating with Gentiles.  And whom does Paul teach in Pisidian Antioch, but “children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles?”  What were the disturbances Paul refers to in these letters other than the genealogies and arguments about the Law that Judaizers were using to bolster their own standing at the expense of Gentile believers?  Does Peter’s speech quell the disturbance?  Not at all.  In Acts 15 we’ve got the same Judaizers saying unless you maintain the customs of Abraham, “you cannot be saved.”   To resolve this issue, the first serious schism in the Christian Church, the first ecumenical council was held in Jerusalem.  This Council produced a letter to the Church in Antioch and any other Gentile believers, stating that all God requires of converts is abstention from sexual immorality and avoidance of dietary practices that are abhorrent to Jews.  Only in light of this early and persistent controversy can we understand the need to address the insecurities of Gentile converts.

 

Elect in the Gospels

 

Though Jesus was always careful to point out that he had been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, by the time we get to the Olivet discourse he’s drawing a distinction, much as he does for the woman at the well at Sychar, between the New Covenant and the Old.  Whereas he was sent to the Jews, he is now pointing out that it is not those who are Jewish racially who will benefit from his ministry, but rather those who are Jewish spiritually, those who submit to his authority as arbitrator of a new covenant based on allegiance to himself.  What he is saying is that in the coming dislocations, the Temple and its theological basis, the Law, will not suffice for personal redemption.  Those who survive will be chosen according to a new criterion, that of devotion to himself, not the outdated Temple.  Jesus describes these people as “those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead…”(Lk 20:35.)  He does not describe them as “those who are arbitrarily chosen by my father to exhibit his mercy or his justice.”  He does not stretch language to the point of being misleading.  Thus, Jesus is opening the hope of redemption to all people, regardless of race, which had theretofore been restricted to racial Jews.

 

But what about Matthew?  Didn’t he write to Jews, to prove that Jesus was their Messiah?  Indeed he did.  Literary criticism reveals that Mark is writing for a primarily Gentile audience, while Matthew is writing for Jews.   Yet even though this is true of Matthew, he also said some things to show that Jesus is also the Savior of the Gentile world as well.  He maintained a global, non-racial appeal in his account, for the field is “the world” and the Great Commission is without limitation.  Mark’s concern for the Gentile world can be established from the outset if his audience was in fact the Church in Rome, who needed Jewish customs to be explained and Aramaic terms translated.  If you accept the literary primacy of Mark with its clear attempts to be intelligible to a Gentile audience, Matthew’s inclusion of this passage verbatim can be easily understood.  Both quote Jesus as saying that the elect will be drawn “from the four winds,” and from “one end of the heavens to the other.”

 

Elect and Election in the Epistles

 

An even stronger case for believing Paul wanted to bring encouragement to Gentile believers is found in the Pastoral Epistles of 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus.  Paul is addressing first Timothy, who is half Greek, and then Titus, who is a complete Gentile.  Each has been left by Paul in charge of congregations consisting primarily of Gentiles in Gentile lands, who are facing the first problem to plague the Christian Church, and that is the proliferation of Judaizers.  The situation that Jesus had predicted had come true, in that membership in the Kingdom of God was already passing from a racial basis to a spiritual one, and the Church was having trouble adapting.  In addressing Timothy, who was left in charge of the church at Ephesus, a Gentile city, Paul points out that Timothy’s charges are “the elect” who must strive to “obtain” that which is freely provided in Jesus Christ, salvation.  It would be suitable in this usage to substitute “faithful” in place of “elect.”  Ditto with Paul’s letter to Titus, a Gentile in charge of a Gentile church in Crete, a Gentile island.  Here he greets his protégé with an exhortation to serve his parishioners, the “elect,” who are recipients of God’s promises made “before the beginning of time,” no less than Jews.  This theme of inclusion based on faith and response to the preaching of the Gospel continues in 1st Peter, where Peter identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ who is writing to “God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…”

 

Now to Romans, long considered by Calvinists to be the clearest exposition of double predestination in the whole of Scripture.  In order to understand Romans 11, however, you have to first read Romans chapter 9, and to understand Romans 9 you must first have read Romans 1. How does Paul start the epistle off?  The very first thing Paul does in chapter 1, apart from greeting his readers, is to set forth the mechanism by which men are damned, and by contrast, how they might be saved.  No election or preteration here!  What he points out is that worship is paramount.  Wrong worship leads to wrong thinking, a delusion if you will.  That delusion, in turn, leads to godless behavior that is subject, rightly, to God’s wrath.  People are not damned to show God’s justice, they are damned because they engage in wrong worship and subsequent wrong thinking and consequent wrong behavior.  By the time we get to chapter 9, Paul is arguing that it is possible to be a child of Abraham according to the flesh, and thus heir of all God’s promises, yet to persist in wrong worship and as a consequence experience eternal loss.  It is entirely possible, he points out, to be the rightful heir as being the first in line, as Esau was, yet to not be the child of promise as Jacob became.  Jacob and Esau are a metaphor for the spiritual reality that is to follow.  He is arguing that God has the right to change the rules of the game, from that which is arbitrary and ignorant of personal character, race or in this case being primogeniture, and substitute those qualities of honest self evaluation and correct worship.  Pharaoh was not damned because God wanted pull rank, he was damned because he constituted in his very person, as Pharaoh, the essence of wrong worship.  Those who interpret chapter 9 as a manifesto for double predestination are leaving a step out, and that is the step of worship: he hardens those who worship amiss with a delusion, which in turn leads to unrighteous behavior.  This is an eternal law of the Kingdom of God, now true for Jew as well as Gentile.  Paul seems to be saying that while God had indeed been arbitrary before in his choice of Israel, he’s now operating on a rational basis in a way that involves personal choice in worship; a very different thing.   Again, a touchstone of Reformed soteriology?

Remember Paul’s intent.  The argument of Romans, from beginning to end, is that all humanity is unrighteous, and that true righteousness comes from God and is imputed to mankind in a forensic transaction involving the death and subsequent rising to life of Jesus Christ.  The term election occurs in 9:11, the term elect occurs in 11:7, and the term election recurs in 11:28.  Like Jesus, Paul uses the term “elect” to refer to those who, in contrast to the Jews, escaped a hardening of their hearts and maintained God’s favor.  Election, according to Paul, is used in to denote the process by which the elect are determined.  In the first instance, election is contrasted with works and is equated with God’s calling, and in the second it is used to describe God’s promise to the patriarchs which preceded the disobedience of the Jewish nation when confronted with their Messiah.  In keeping with the general argument of the epistle, Paul concludes by saying that all men, Jew and Gentile alike, have been bound over to disobedience at some point or other, so that He might have mercy on them all.  To Paul, then, election means not an arbitrary choosing of some individuals to salvation and others to preteration, but rather God’s provision of a means by which a sinful humanity might be reconciled to himself.  Election, therefore, is constant.  Whether for the patriarchs and their children or for Christians, it is based upon faith in the mercy of the one who calls, not on works.  The fact that the Jews had lost track of this fact and had developed the Law into a system that rewarded religious works is not germane; God still calls even when that call is misunderstood.

 

In Romans 9, Paul goes into the greatest detail yet in order to confound the claims of Jewish superiority over the Gentiles, which is his major thrust throughout this sublime work.  He’s not saying God is arbitrary, but that Isaac’s children were a metaphor for the Jewish nation (the older,) and the Church, (the younger.)  God’s plan of redemption would deal with groups of people, or types.  Election here refers to a new Covenant, a new system, based not upon race and accidents of birth, but rather upon the content of a person’s character in terms of their response to God’s offer of new life in Jesus Christ.  Jewishness is no longer a matter of genetics, but of faith and behavior.  Election implies its opposite, preterition; just as it is possible to succeed it is also possible to fail.  God is not becoming arbitrary, but rather is stating that from this point forth, those judged acceptable to God will be those who fulfill a new criterion, based not upon race but upon character.  Remember that repentance is not a work, a positive action taken through human initiative.  Rather, it is a gift of God, freely offered to all but not accepted by all.  It is not a work, but the cessation of work; the willingness to accept a righteousness from God apart from any initiative of our own, and a new Spirit from God as well.  Thus, Pharaoh, Esau and Ishmael fall short, not because they’re not chosen, but because they’ve chosen to exploit a path to righteousness that involves their own power, not God’s.  They are not rejected because God is capricious, they are rejected because they tried to operate outside God’s one plan for human redemption that suffers no competition or emendation.  Paul closes chapter 9 by emphasizing that the Jews failed not because they were somehow rejected by God, but because they had rejected God and his perfect plan of redemption first.  This theme of God allowing humans to frustrate His plan of redemption is continued by Peter in his second epistle, where he points out that effort, resolve and personal application are required to make their “calling and election sure.”  Election is no sure thing apart from appropriate response on our part, something the Jews resent but Gentiles welcome.  The former object to the New Covenant because their place of privilege is being taken away from them.  The latter rejoice because what was previously out of reach, inclusion in the Kingdom of God, has now been opened to them through the vehicle of faith.

 

Predestined in the Epistles

 

A similar pattern appears when we study the four instances where the term predestined is used in the Scriptures.  Twice in Romans (Gentile audience) and twice in Ephesians (Gentile audience,) Paul uses the term to bring encouragement to his readers.  He leaves no verb unused in his effort to tell his readers that in all ways, they have been targeted by God’s love, communication and provision that they might find themselves full and complete members in the Kingdom of God being built upon the justification and salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ.  What he is saying to his Gentile hearers is essentially this, “In spite of the treatment you receive from Jews and Judaizers in your midst, God has known from before time and forever that you Gentiles would also need a Savior and Lord, no less than the Jews, and that the time has now come from the barrier wall of separation to come down, and for you to accept your citizenship in the new Kingdom of God.”  This is what he means when he uses the terms “foreknew, predestined, called.”  They, no less than Jews, are justified by the blood of Christ and thereby freed from moral guilt, and are also offered the gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might also be saved by the life of Christ from the coming wrath against fruitlessness.  In no detail are they second class citizens.  Same point in Ephesians, where Paul wastes no time in recounting God’s provision for the salvation of Gentiles as well as Jews.  Paul says “We, who were the first to hope in Christ” to refer to Jews, but then immediately adds “…you also were included in Christ.”

 

An Alternative Soteriology

 

So if a virulent double predestination is not a legitimate result of this limited but telling exegesis, is there some other explanation that’s more credible?  Remember the attraction of Calvin’s interpretations: they are simple and seem to solve insoluble problems while preserving God’s sovereignty.  To come up with an alternative soteriology that is widely attested to, that reconciles the whole of Scripture, and that is relatively cogent and simple, you have to be on the alert for subtleties of language that Calvin and his adherents missed.  Specifically, you have to make sense of Romans chapters 5 and 10.  What Paul does in both is make a distinction between justification, the imputation of righteousness to a sinful humanity, which is universal, and salvation, the impartation of the life of Christ into the obedient believer that he might bear fruit for the Kingdom.  This latter is particular and by no means universal, because it involves the ceding of the will on the part of each individual.  This distinction, once made, allows for a simple typology of salvation that fulfills our requirements enumerated above.  A graph will help depict what I’m talking about.

 

Moral Actor Problem Judgment Solution Christ’s Role Sacrament
God Enmity with Man On Sin Death on the Cross Savior Baptism
Man Enmity with God On Fruitlessness Pentecost Lord Eucharist / Confirmation

 

There are two actors in the moral sphere, God and Man.  There are two problems, God is offended by human sin, and man is running from God.  This results in guilt on the part of man, and powerlessness to do anything about it.  God and man are at enmity with one another.  There are two solutions to these problems, both involving Jesus Christ.  His death on Good Friday removes our moral guilt by covering it with his sinless blood.  This applies to all people, in all times, and in all places.  Justification is universal; we do not participate in it in any way, shape or form.  That’s why we baptize infants; Jesus is Savior of all.  This is a first judgment, on sin.  The second problem is that of our powerlessness.  There is a second judgment, a coming wrath of God, recorded in the Scriptures, in Matthew 18 and 25 and Revelation 20.  This is a judgment on fruitlessness; on those who are forgiven, yet who blaspheme the Holy Spirit so that he cannot dwell in them effectually and bear fruit for righteousness.  These people are content to be in Christ, but do not want Christ in them.  The solution to this second problem is not Jesus’ death, but rather his life, as conferred on Pentecost.  He will come to those who ask, who stop running and cede their will to him as Lord, and bear fruit through them.  The only problem is that this second reality does in involve us, for it requires that we submit to Christ’s authority over ourselves: mind body and spirit.  Those who let him be Lord are the “elect” of these passages.  Those who refuse him as Lord are those who are preterit or lost.  References to God’s foreknowledge and choice are not referring to his attitude with respect to individuals, but rather his decision in his eternal councils that only those in whom Christ is found will be elect, whoever they may be.  The Book of Life contains the names of those in whom the life of Christ dwells.  Categories, classes if you will, not individuals.  Two problems, two solutions, two sacraments, a binary soteriology.  Two is better than five, don’t you think?

It’s difficult to argue from silence, but the lack of emphasis on election and predestination when addressing other churches in Gentile areas can easily be explained.  For one thing, not all churches were beset by Judaizers.  In fact, in the case of the church in Galatia, Paul’s audience was the Judaizers themselves!  Secondly, he still brings encouragement to Gentile Christians without resorting to these words per se.  This is certainly true of his letter to the Phillipians.  The other churches in Corinth, Colossae, and Thessasolica were all beset by behavioral problems Paul needed to address by means of reprimand, not encouragement.

 

Conclusion

 

In summary, we see that it would be an error to base one’s soteriology upon a limited number of passages without taking other passages, in the same book no less, into account.  The fruit of what has become orthodox Reformed soteriology is bitter indeed.  First, it defames God.  Jacobus Arminius was right in saying that for double predestination to be true, God would have to be the author of sin.  Secondly, Church health has been hopelessly compromised.  Christians are confused about the product they’re selling, with one communion or denomination saying one thing, while all others say something else.  As C.S. Lewis points out, the doctrine of predestination leads some to arrogance, and others to despair.  Bad soteriology also leads to organizational schism.  Which leads us to our third problem, and that is that theological inquiry has been thwarted.  Reformed soteriology, taken in a literal manner, simply states that God does what he does in his eternal councils and it is beyond questioning or knowing.  Pat excuses have been offered for legitimate questions, with the result that the Church is fractured with no hope of remediation.  Calvinists need to face a reckoning: John Calvin can in fact be wrong.  The Institutes of the Christian Religion is not the Bible, and JC doesn’t stand for John Calvin, it stands for Jesus Christ.  In his commentary on Romans Calvin completely missed the distinction between justification and salvation, ascribing the double verbiage to a desire to emphasize, not distinguish; perhaps parallelism but not discrimination.   Until we take him off of the throne Dort put him on, the Church will continue to be painted into a corner from which it is not able to extricate itself.  If the Reformation seeks to genuinely reform doctrine, it must not only criticize that which went before, it must offer an alternative that is synthetic and acceptable to Christians of all traditions, Eastern, Roman, and Protestant.

 

Further, if I were a professor of exegesis I would give John Calvin a D for doing much right, but also doing more wrong.  He had two handicaps we should not forget as we read him centuries later.  First of all, he was engaged in a polemic with Rome.  For an antagonist to overstate his case is understandable.  Perhaps if he shot for the moon, he might be happy if he got into low earth orbit.  Secondly, he approached a Hebrew canon with a Greek mindset.  Whereas the Scriptures were written by Jewish authors and inspired by a Jewish God, the western or Greek mind appreciates nothing of this.  In the place of synthesis the Greek seeks analysis, in the place of purpose he searches for process, in the place of meaning he settles for means.  More importantly, the Greek or Western thinker tends to focus on individuals rather than families, tribes, nations or civilizations, as the Easterner does.  The final faux pas is that Calvin failed to take the author’s perceptions of his intended audience into account, which is nothing less than bad exegesis.  As Will Durant says,

 

“…we shall always find it hard to love the man who darkened the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God in all the long and honored history of nonsense.”

 

The Rev. Robert McLeod is an Episcopal priest, canonically resident in the Diocese of Central Florida.  He is the author of Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Case for a New Reformation, and manages the website RogueCleric.com.  At present he resides in Colorado and attends an Anglican Church under the auspices of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.