Scripture Lady 09.01.25

January 25, 2009 at 7:39 pm (Scripture Lady)

For background on my weekly Scripture Lady posts, go here.

What God says about … SACRIFICE

Before Jesus came —

Moses said, “Take a lamb according to your families, and kill it as a SACRIFICE. … Mark the blood on the top and sideposts of your door. … Roast and eat it … and when I (the Lord) see the blood I will pass over you. … Your firstborn will not be destroyed. … And when your children shall say, “What is the meaning of this service?”, you shall say — “It is the SACRIFICE of the Lord’s passover.” And the people bowed the head and worshipped.      - Exodus 12:21-27

To obey is better than SACRIFICE, and to harken than the fat of rams.       - 1 Samuel 15:22

So they took the bull and killed and prepared it and called on the name of their god from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal hear us.” But no one answered. They cried aloud all afternoon and cut themselves with knives and lances, but there was no voice or answer.

Then God’s prophet Elijah built an altar of 12 stones, laid the wood and the slaughtered bull in order, surrounded it by a trench filled with 12 barrels of water, and he said, “Lord God, let it be known that You are God and I am Your servant.” And the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the SACRIFICE and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water in the trench.

So they seized the prophets of Baal and took them down to the brook Kishon and executed them there.      - 1 Kings 18:25

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After Jesus came —

Behold the Lamb of God!      - John 1:35

From the third hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.       - Matthew 27:45
Jesus cried, “It is finished!” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.       - John 19:30

Christ our Passover is SACRIFICED for us!      - 1 Corinthians 5:7

This Man, after He had offered one SACRIFICE for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God.      - Hebrews 10:12

If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more SACRIFICE for sins, but a certain expectation of judgment and fiery indignation.      - Hebrews 10:26-27

Our God is a consuming fire.      - Hebrews 12:29

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Scripture Lady 09.01.18

January 18, 2009 at 9:02 am (Scripture Lady)

For background on my weekly Scripture Lady posts, go here.

If I truly believe, will I perish?

Most assuredly I (Jesus) say to you, one who believes in Me has everlasting life.      - John 6:47

God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should NOT PERISH but have everlasting life.      - John 3:16

Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. And I give to them eternal life and they shall NEVER PERISH.”      - John 10:28

Many believed in His Name when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew everyone. … He knew what was in man.      - John 2:23-25

It is NOT the will of My Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should PERISH.      - Matthew 18:14

He is willing that all should be saved.      - 1 Tim. 2:4
He is not willing that any should perish.      - 2 Pet. 3:9

They shall be Mine says the Lord, in that day when I make up My jewels.      - Malachi 3:17

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T BELIEVE?

One who does not believe God has made Him a liar.      - 1 John 5:12

He who has the Son has life. He who has not the Son of God has not life.      - 1 John 5:12

Jesus said, “You do not believe because you are not of My sheep.”      - John 10:26

They are willingly ignorant.      - 2 Peter 3:5

But the fearful and the unbelieving … shall be cast into the lake which burns with fire … which is the second death.      - Revelation 21:8

The invitation -
Jesus said, “I am the Door. By Me if any one enters in HE SHALL BE SAVED”.       - JOHN 10:9

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Two takes on penal substitution

January 15, 2009 at 8:00 pm (theology)

Kim Fabricius has written a thoughtful and provocative post, hosted by Ben Myers, Ten propositions on penal substitution. He states his thesis in proposition 1:

The doctrine of penal substitution is one model [of the atonement], but it is not the only model. Indeed, without radical recalibration, it is a theologically repugnant model with potentially vicious and disastrous social and political implications. (emphasis in original)

Did I mention that the post is provocative?

In addition to providing rich food for thought, Kim’s post gives me an opportunity to say a few words in appreciation of Leon Morris, a scholar who was known for his spirited defence of the very doctrine that Kim is criticizing.

Leon Morris died, at 92 years of age, on July 24, 2006. According to Anglican Media Melbourne:

Leon Morris in academic gownLeon Lamb Morris was perhaps Australia’s most prolific biblical and theological author. He wrote over fifty books of theology and biblical commentary which have sold nearly two million copies worldwide and been translated into many languages. …Extraordinarily, Morris received no formal theological education, apart from two years of supervision for his doctorate in Cambridge.

I would describe Morris as a staunchly conservative expositor of scripture. Among other things, he is known for defending the word propitiation1 as an appropriate description of the death of Jesus, and thus the right translation of hilaskomai in Romans 3:25 (cf. RSV with ESV) and 1Jn. 2:2 (RSV; ESV).

Morris would certainly reject Kim Fabricius’s position on penal substitution. But there is one point at which the two writers are in agreement — and a very important point it is. The point is, Jesus did not die “to secure a change in God’s attitude” (Kim’s words).

Kim appeals to the doctrine of the Trinity and asks, “how can the Spirit-anointed Jesus of Nazareth, who rejected the way of violence and vengeance, have a violent and vengeful Father?” Morris makes the same point in a different way:

God provides the way [of reconciliation]. … It must never be forgotten that God says of atoning blood, “I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls” (Lv. 17:11). […] All [theologians] are agreed that the atonement proceeds from the love of God. It is not something wrung from a stern and unwilling Father, perfectly just, but perfectly inflexible, by a loving Son. The atonement shows us the love of the Father just as it does the love of the Son.2

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1Notably in the book-length treatment of redemption, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross. Morris championed propitiation in response to C.H. Dodd, who had earlier championed expiation: see John Stott, The Cross of Christ, pp. 170-71.

2New Bible Dictionary, second edition, “atonement”.

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An overlooked link to the historical Jesus

January 12, 2009 at 7:49 pm (Jesus)

How close can we get to the historical Jesus? The standard answer is, we can go back as far as St. Paul, but no further.

The Gospels are the primary source of information about Jesus, of course. The Gospels are biographies, even if they also sustain an evangelistic thrust.

Paul provides much less historical information than the Gospels. He alludes to Jesus’ teaching explicitly in 1Co. 7:10 (cf. Mark 10:11-12) and 1Co. 9:14 (cf. Luke 10:7). Elsewhere, Paul alludes to Jesus’ teaching without explicitly citing him (e.g., compare Rom. 12:14 with Mt. 5:44).1 But despite his interest in Jesus’ sayings, Paul doesn’t dwell much on the events of Jesus’ life, aside from the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Still, Paul’s letters are considered to be the earliest documents in the New Testament. Such historical details as we can glean from his letters2 get us within about 25 years of Jesus’ death.

Moreover, I think we can go one step further back, if we are willing to give credence to second-hand testimony. And I think the testimony is credible:  second-hand information is an extraordinary asset, given that the events took place 2,000 years ago!

I refer to an overlooked link to the historical Jesus:  James, the Lord’s brother. Paul refers to James in Gal. 1:19, 2:9, and 1Co. 15:7. The first two passages make it clear that Paul had met James:

  • Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas [Peter] and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (Gal. 1:18-19)
     
  • Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem … and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (Gal. 2:1,9)

Regrettably, Paul doesn’t supply any details about the meeting recorded in Galatians 1, and we know only the official business that was transacted at the meeting recorded in Galatians 2. It would be wonderful to know what conversation took place informally.

But even with such limited information, I think we can legitimately support two historical details about Jesus’ life from these references to James.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Eternal torment: theological considerations, pt. 2

January 7, 2009 at 9:11 pm (annihilationism, theology)

Fourth post in a series on annihilationism.

To recap what I said in the previous post:  Jesus bore the penalty for our sins in his own body. And the penalty was, he was put to death. That is exactly what we would expect, based on the apostle Paul’s clear statement: “The wages of sin is death …” (Ro. 6:23).

Jesus merely died for our sins; he did not suffer eternal torment. This fact was recognized as a theological problem in the Middle Ages. Anselm and Aquinas both tackled the problem. They argued that Jesus suffered relatively briefly because he is divine. To paraphrase them, Christ’s finite but divine suffering is adequate to offset the infinite but merely human suffering which would otherwise be our punishment.

In my opinion, the argument is both unbiblical and illogical. It is illogical because a finite amount of suffering cannot be equivalent to infinite suffering, even if the sufferer is God.

(If anything, I would expect the proportions to be reversed. The argument is akin to saying that if a rich man pays a small fine, that’s equivalent to a poor man paying a large fine. That can’t be right. But the fundamental difficulty is, the infinite cannot possibly be equivalent to the finite.)

The rationale is unbiblical because the Bible affirms that Jesus suffered as a human being:

… who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Php. 2:6-8)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death …. (Heb. 2:14)

God cannot die. Jesus had to become a human being in order to experience death. Thus the speculative explanation of Anselm and Aquinas is both illogical and unbiblical.

How did the Church start down this errant path? The answer is this:  the Church Fathers imbibed the dominant view of their culture. According to the ancient Greeks, the human soul is immortal and indestructible. Read the rest of this entry »

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