Systematic Theology, Volume 2, Second Edition [2 ed.] 1498206603, 9781498206600

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Preface to the Second Edition
ABBREVIATIONS
PART VI THE WORK OF CHRIST
PART VII THE HOLY SPIRIT
PART VIII BECOMING A CHRISTIAN AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
PARTIX THE CHURCH
PARTX THE LAST THINGS
Index of Subjects

Citation preview

Systematic Theology Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical

Systeillatic Theology Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical

by

James Leo Garrett, Jr.

2 VOLUME Second Edition

IPF &

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Oregon

Wipf and Stock Publishers 199 W 8th Ave, Suite 3 Eugene, OR 97401 Systematic Theology, Volume 2, Second Edition Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical By Garrett, James Leo, Jr. Copyright©1990 by Garrett, James Leo, Jr. ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0660-0 Publication date 7/31/2014 Previously published by Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1990

Gratefully dedicated to my prefessorial colleaaues at Southwestern Baptist Theoloaical Seminary Southern Baptist Theoloaical Seminary Baylor University Hana Kana Baptist Theoloaical Seminary and in memory

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three beloved colleaaues, William Roscoe Estep, Jr.(1920-2000) John Paul Newport (1917-2000) Ephraim Jeremiah Vardaman (1927-2000) and

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my esteemed teacher, Georae Huntston Williams ( 1914-2000)

Contents Preface Preface to the Second Edition Abbreviations

IX XI Xll

VI. THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST 46 The Cross as Sacrifice, as Propitiation, and as Substitution and the Righteousness of God 47 The Cross and the Love of God; the Cross as the Historic Deed of the Eternal Son of God 48 The Cross/Resurrection as Ransom-Victory over Sin, Death, and Satan 49 The Extent of the Saving Work of Jesus Christ; Atonement and Bodily Healing; Jesus' Descent into Hades 50 The Resurrection of Jesus 51 The Ascension and the Heavenly Session of Jesus

59 81 115

VII. THE HOLY SPIRIT 52 The Holy Spirit and God 53 The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ 54 The Holy Spirit and the Christian 55 The Holy Spirit and the Church 56 The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts

133 155 175 195 215

Vil

3 33 47

CONTENTS VIII. BECOMING A CHRISTIAN AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 57 Repentance 58 Faith 59 Confession; Conversion 60 Justification 61 New Life 62 Adoption; Forgiveness; Reconciliation 63 Salvation; Redemption; Liberation 64 Union with Christ; Assurance 65 Discipleship 66 Sanctification 67 Stewardship 68 Prayer 69 Abiding in Christ 70 Election

241 253 273 285 301 313 335 357 377 387 405 429 449 471

IX. THE CHURCH 71 The Origin and Nature of the Church 72 Mission of the Church(es) 73 Baptism 74 Membership of Churches 75 Ministry of Churches 76 Polity of Churches; Churches at Worship 77 The Lord's Supper; the Unity of the Church 78 Church, State, and Society

499 527 549 589 603 639 659 689

X. THE LAST THINGS 79 The Christian Hope 80 Death and After-Death 81 Resurrection 82 The Second Coming of Jesus Christ 83 The Kingdom of God 84 The Millennium 85 The Last Judgment 86 Eternal Destiny: Hell 87 Eternal Destiny: Heaven

711 727 751 775 799 821 847 865 889

INDICES Subjects Authors Biblical References

905 911 935

Vlll

Preface The writing of volume 2 of my SystematicTheologyhas been extended over five years. During this time I have tried to listen to and, where possible, to heed the criticisms made by reviewers of volume 1: Gerald Bray, Ronald T. Clutter, Robert H. Culpepper, Gabriel Fackre, Stanley J. Grenz, William L. Hendricks, Fisher H. Humphreys, Phil Meade, David L. Smith, and J. Terry Young. I am deeply indebted to my colleague, Bert Buckner Dominy, for a heavy investment of time in reading every chapter of volume 2 and offering suggestions, criticisms, and recommendations. Also I am indebted to my aunt, Mrs. Gladys Jenkins Casimir, Calvert, Texas, who out of a lifetime of public school teaching and teaching adult women in Sunday School, has after her ninetieth birthday read every chapter and raised questions and offered comments. To numerous libraries of theological seminaries, divinity schools, universities, and colleges I would acknowledge my appreciation for their making available books and materials via interlibrary loan, and to the staff of Roberts Library of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary I am a grateful debtor. The pastoral readers for various portions of volume 2 have been Barry A. Stricker (Tiburon, Calif.), Calvin Miller (Omaha, Neb.), L. Joey Faucette (Forest City, N. C. ), and H. Stephen Shoemaker (Fort Worth, Tex.). For their comments I am indeed grateful. The adult men and women of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, in their combined summer Sunday church school attentively listened to the substance of the five chapters on the Holy Spirit in June 1991. Billy Mac (Kip) Ingram and Terrell Frank Coy have helpfully taught volume 2 in page proof form and elicited student comments. Finding the years of birth and death for authors quoted and cited has been an onerous task. In this I have been greatly assisted by Todd Still (Glasgow) and Teresa (Mrs. Robert) Ellis (Cambridge) for the British authors and Erich Geldback (Bensheim, Germany) for the German authors. Publishers and libraries also assisted. I wish to offer my very sincere thanks to the two secretaries who have processed the major portion of this volume: Lisa (Mrs. Tom) Watkins and Miss Amy Karen Downey. Also assisting in the typing of certain chapters have been Carol (Mrs. Steve) Lemke and Judy (Mrs. Max) Ates. Walter Stacey Boutwell, Robert Chance Stine, Robert Stanton Norman, Steven

lX

PREFACE Ray Harmon, Ronald Craig Etheredge, and Malcolm Beryl Yarnell, III, served ably as my research assistants. I wish to express appreciation for encouragement and help to James E. Carter, R. Bruce Corley, M. Vernon Davis, Russell H. Dilday, Jr., David S. Dockery, William R. Estep, Jr., W. Boyd Hunt, W. David Kirkpatrick, Dwight A. Moody, John P. Newport, Paul E. Robertson, Robert B. Sloan, Wayne E. Ward, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Bastien, Barbara Russell, and Michael Thomas Pullin. Others who have assisted at specific points of research are acknowledged in the footnotes. To numerous students and former students I am grateful for encouragement and expressed anticipation of volume 2. The subject index was prepared by Stephen L. Abbott (Siloam Springs, Ark.), the author index by Amy K. Downey, the Old Testament index and the Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha index by Chad Owen Brand (Fort Worth) and Robert C. Stine (Bluegrove, Tex.), and the New Testament index by Richard Andrew Rankin (Fort Worth). For these labors of love I am profoundly thankful. JAMES LEO GARRETT,JR.

X

Preface to the Second Edition The second edition of volume 2 constitutes an opportunity after five years and at the dawn of the new century and the new millennium to correct, update, and revise the first edition. I have attempted to listen to the reviewers of the first edition, to those professors and students who have utilized it in the classroom, and to pastors who encouragingly report its frequent use in their ministries. Because volume 2 of the first edition was more complete than volume 1 of the first edition and was issued five years later, the changes and additions to volume 2 of the second edition are less numerous than those in volume 1 of the second edition. I am deeply grateful to William R. Scott ofBIBAL Press for his commitment to this project and his expertise in computer technology and publishing; to Karen (Mrs. Paul M.) Varnedoe for excellent secretarial work, assisted by Shannon Miller (Mrs. Zane) Gilbreth and Jay Travis Collier; to my wife Myrta for her laborious proofreading; to Jim B. Gilbert for technological assistance; to R. Bruce Corley for invaluable counsel; and to my colleagues, Bert B. Dominy, W. David Kirkpatrick, Robert L. Williams, and Malcolm B. Yarnell, III, without whose cooperation this edition would not have been possible. Also I would register my profound thanks to Nancy Bedford-Stutz, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and to Ruben 0. Zorzoli, El Paso, Texas, translator and editor, respectively, of the Spanish translation of these two volumes. JAMES LEO GARRETT, JR. November 2000

XI

ABBREVIATIONS ACW ANF ASV CCL CLRC GCS JB KJV LCC LPT LXX N-A NASV NEB NIV NPNF PG PL

R RSV WA

Ancient Christian Writers Ante-Nicene Fathers American Standard Version Corpus ChristianorumLatinorurn Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics Die griechischenchristlichenSchriftstellerder ersten dreiJahrhunderte Jerusalem Bible King James Version Library of Christian Classics Library of Protestant Theology Septuagint Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament New American Standard Version New English Bible New International Version Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologiaecursus completus... Series Graeca J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologiaecursus completus... SeriesLatina Old Roman Symbol, or the Apostles' Creed Revised Standard Version D. Martin Luthers Werke (Weimar)

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PART VI

THE WORK OF CHRIST

CHAPTER46

THE CROSS AS SACRIFICE, AS PROPITIATION, AND AS SUBSTITUTION AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD Previously,1 in the differentiation of the "person" of Jesus Christ from the "work" of Christ, we said that the "work" centered in the death of Jesus, although never in such a way as to be separated from his resurrection or disjoined from his life and ministry. As a prelude to the study of the doctrine of the saving work of Jesus Christ it is appropriate to inquire about some of the possible structures or organizing patterns which have been or could be utilized in the explication of such a doctrine. First, the methods employed by New Testament theology constitute one possibility. Numerous authors of works about New Testament theology have treated the work of Christ, especially his death, under the various types of New Testament literature. 2 But it is also possible to discuss 1. See Vol. 1, ch. 39, introduction. 2. Weidner, BiblicalTheologyof the New Testament,1:65-66, 131, 157, 180-83; 2:131-139, 216-22, 250-51, 268-71; Beyschlag, New TestamentTheology, l:150-54,273-76, 311-14, 394-403; 2:133-67,319-28,384-86,445-50, 483-86, 507; Bernhard Weiss, BiblicalTheologyof the New Testament,trans. David Eaton and James E. Duguid, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1891, 1893), 1:101-3, 230-39, 419-37; 2:202-16, 357-62; Stevens, The Theologyof the New Testament,pp. 124-34, 260, 268-71, 294-95, 301-4, 403-16, 510-14, 536-38, 587-90; Conner, The Faith of the New Testament,pp. 169-80, 192-93, 213-14, 230-38, 311-24, 445-58; Bultmann, Theologyof the New Testament,1:292-306; 2:52-58; Ryrie, BiblicalTheologyof the New Testament, pp. 68-70, 110, 185-86, 249-53, 274-76, 337-40; Conzelmann,An Outline of the Theologyof the New Testament,pp. 69-71, 236-44, 347-49; Kilmmel, The Theologyof the New Testament,pp. 85-95, 116-118, 198-99, 296-98; Ladd,A

3

4

The Work of Jesus Christ

the work of Christ by allowing the major words, most of which are metaphors, applied to the death of Jesus by New Testament writers to be the organizing pattern: sacrifice, 3 propitiation, 4 justification or acquittal, 5 redemption, 6 ransom, 7 and reconciliation. 8 Wolfhart Pannenberg took not only words but also concepts when he identified seven New Testament topics expressive of the significance of the death of Jesus: 1) A deed comparable to "the rejection and murder of the prophets by the stiff-necked people" (Matt. 23:37; 1 Thess. 2:14-15); 2) An event foreordained by divine decree, including the rejection of Jesus by Jewish leaders (Acts 2:23; 4:28); 3) The expiation through vicarious suffering for the sins of human beings (Mark 10:45; 14:24); 4) An expiratory sacrifice (Rom. 3:25; Hebrews, passim); 5) The offering in death of the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Pet. l:18-19;John 1:29); 6) The sacrifice by which the new covenant is sealed (1 Cor. 11:25); 7) The means of Christ's becoming a curse for humankind, and thus the setting aside or bringing to an end of the indicting power of the law (Gal. 3:13; Col. 2:13-14; Eph. 2:14-15). 9 In the discussion that is immediately to follow, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh of Pannenberg's topics are especially relevant. Second, the method employed by historical theology could provide the organizing pattern for the explication of the doctrine of the work of Christ. This would mean that the several theories of the work of Christ set forth during the postbiblical history of Christianity, perhaps arranged chronologically, would provide the framework within which the doctrine would be discussed. Such a pattern is not without its values, for each of these theories tends to be developed from one of the concepts or themes that belongs to this doctrine. But neither the method of New Testament theology nor that of historical theology constitutes, strictly speaking, the method of systematic theology. Systematic theology can treat the work of Christ by relating the death/resurrection of Jesus to the nature or attributes of God (righteousness, holiness, love, mercy, grace, etc.), to the universality and conseTheology of the New Testament, pp. 181-92, 423-36, 574-75, 578-84, 599; Guthrie, New TestamentTheology,pp. 431-81; Morris, New TestamentTheology, pp.66-68, 71-74, 181-90,269-74,288-89,293-94,305-8,317-19. 3. thusia 4. hilasmos,hilasterion 5. dikaiosis,dikaioma 6. lutrosis 7. lutron 8. katallage 9. Jesus: God and Man, pp. 246-51.

The Cross as Sacrifice, as Propitiation, and as Substitution

5

quences of human sin, to the interfacing of time and eternity, and to the suprahuman, specifically demonic, powers. Under such categories the biblical and postbiblical historical materials can be subsumed, and hence such a method will be pursued throughout Part VI.

I. THE CROSS AS SACRIFICE, AS PROPITIATION, AND AS

SUBSTITUTION: THE BIBLICAL MATERIALS A. THE CROSS AS SACRIFICE

In the study of the universality of sin 10 reference has already been made to the widespread occurrence of sacrifice among human beings. "All over the world, and throughout history, wherever mankind has worshipped divine beings, we encounter the practice of sacrifice." 11 Yet the offering of literal sacrifices is far less common in modern urban, technological societies. "In our modern world sacrifice has become a mere figure of speech . . . . In the ancient world sacrifice was no figure of speech, but stark fact." 12 Although sacrifice was by no means peculiar to ancient Israel, sacrifices in Israel are of special importance for the Christian doctrine of the cross as sacrifice. 1. Sacrifice according to the Old Testament a, Origin(s) and Purpose(s) of Sacrifices

For centuries Christians interpreted the sacrifices of the Old Testament with little regard for the occurrence of sacrifices in nonbiblical religions. Hence the question of the origin of sacrificeswas rather an Old Testament question per se. When, for example, the sixteenth-century Lutheran theologian David Chytraeus wrote on sacrifices, he defined sacrifices as being instituted by God and setving to honor God. There were limits to sacrifices as "God-pleasing," and they did not per se merit the remission of sin. 13 Certain latter nineteenth-century authors maintained similar views. Johann Heinrich Kurtz (1809-90) concentrated on classifying Old Testament sacrifices and gave no serious attention to the question of origins. 14 Alfred Cave 10. See Vol. 1, ch. 36, I, A, 2, b. 11. Helmer Ringgren, Sacrificein the Bible,World Christian Books, no. 42 (London: Lutterworth Press, 1962), p. 7. 12. John S. Whale, Victorand Victim:The ChristianDoctrineof Redemption(Cambridge: University Press, 1960), p. 42. See Frances M. Young, Sacrificeand the Death of Christ(London: S.P.C.K., 1975), pp. 3-17. 13. On Sacrifice:A ReformationTreatiseon BiblicalTheology,trans. John Warwick Montgomery (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1962), pp. 40, 66-73. First published in 1569. 14. SacrificialWorshipof the Old Testament,trans.James Martin (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1863; rpt. ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), esp. p. 64.

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The Work ofJesus Christ

(1847-1900) traced sacrifices to the Garden of Eden and, dismissing "rationalistic" views, focused on the differences between the "allegorical" approach to sacrifices and a more "biblical-theological" approach. 15 For Archibald Scott (1837-1909) sacrifices had been divinely instituted, not by an external command but by a "primeval revelation." He recognized both "honorific" and "piacular" sacrifices. 16 But two developments during the nineteenth century altered the study of ancient sacrifices: the impact of the pentateuchal documentary hypothesis in Old Testament studies, especially in Julius Wellhausen; and the preoccupation of scientific anthropologists with the question of the origin and meaning of sacrifices. Wellhausen 17 concluded that expiatory (or propitiatory) sacrifices were not offered among the Israelites or Jews until the exilic period. With the advent of the anthropologists numerous theories as to the origin and purpose of sacrifice were advocated. 1) Gift theory:Traced by some to Philo of Alexandria 18 and by others to John Spencer (1630-93), 19 this theory regarded sacrifice as a gift offered by humans to a god with implications of homage or reverence or thankfulness. Its advocates included Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917), 20 an anthropologist, Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), 21 sociologist, and Samuel Ives Curtiss (1844-1904), 22 theologian. George Buchanan Gray (1865-1922), an Old Testament scholar, laid emphasis on sacrifice as gift but allowed for other purposes. 23 For Charles Harold Dodd, a New Testament scholar, sacrifice as gift was central. 24

15. The ScripturalDoctrineof Sacrifice(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1877), pp. 32-33, 221-57. 16. Sacrifice:Its Prophecyand Fulfilment(Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1894), pp. 17-18, 29. 17. Prolegomenato the Historyof Israel, trans. J. Sutherland Black and Allan Menzies (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1885), pp. 61-82. 18. Robert J. Daly, S. J. (1933 - ), The Originsof the ChristianDoctrineof Sacrifice (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), p. 6. 19. Scott, Sacrifice:Its Prophecyand Fulfilment,pp. 19-20. Spencer was the author of De legibusHebraeorumritualibuset earum rationibus(Cambridge, 1685). 20. Primitive Culture:Researchesinto the Developmentof Mythology,Philosophy,Religion, Language,Art and Custom,2 vols. (5th ed., London: J. Murray, 1913), 2:375-80. First published in 1871. 21. The Principlesof Sociology(3rd ed.; New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1896), 2 vols. in 4, pp. 257-61. For Spencer funeral gifts had led to religious sacrifices as gifts. 22. PrimitiveSemiticReligion Today:A Recordof Researches,Discoveriesand Studiesin Syria, Palestineand the SinaiticPeninsula (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1902), pp. 221-22. But Curtiss allowed for substitutionary sacrifice, pp. 224-28. 23. Sacrificein the Old Testament:Its Theoryand Practice(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925), pp. 2, 55-95. 24. Benefitsof His Passion(New York: Abingdon Press, 1956), pp. 32-33.

The Cross as Sacrifice, as Propitiation, and as Substitution

7

2) Communiontheory:Preceded by the covenantal view of Arthur Ashley Sykes (1684?-1756), 25 William Robertson Smith (1846-94) was the celebrated exponent of the view that sacrifice originated as a communion meal in which humans by eating the sacrificial victim ingested their god and were thus united with him as well as with one another. Smith built upon North American Indian totemism. 26 Frank Byron J evons ( 1858-1936), a historian of religion, adopted the same theory. 27 3) Gift and communion theories:Others, chiefly biblical scholars, espoused both the gift and the communion views of the origin of sacrifice: Marie-] oseph Lagrange ( 1855-1938), 28 Friedrich Heiler (1892-1967), 29 and Gerardus van der Leeuw (1890-1950). 30 Walther Eichrodt held to "petitionary"and gi,ftsacrifices. 31 4) Vitalitytheory:Others, especially anthropologists, posited that sacrifice originated as a means of preserving or restoring life. For Edward Alexander Westermarck (1862-1939) it meant finding substitutes for those whose lives were in danger. 32 Edwin Oliver James (1886-1972), a historian of religion, saw in the sacrificial offering to a god the destruction of life in order that others may be restored, whether from illness, from an enemy, or from defilement. Sacrifice, therefore, set free life.33 According to Rene Dussaud (1868-1958), who found four purposes for sacrifices, sacrifice was both for the setting free of life, especially by bloodshedding for offense, and for the prolongation of the life of the offerer by possessing the life of the sacrificial victim. 34 5) Language supplement theory:Other authors set forth the view that sacrifice originated as a natural supplement to the limitations of lan25. Scott, Sacrifice:Its Prophecyand Fulfilment, pp. 20-21. Sykes wrote An Essay on the Nature, Design, and Origin of Sacrifices(London: J. and P. Knapton, 1748). 26. Lectureson the Religion of the Semites:The FundamentalInstitutions (New York: Macmillan, 1927), pp. 216-17, 236-68. Gray, Sacrificein the Old Testament, pp. 11-12, concluded that Smith's theory was not applicable to Israel. 27. An Introduction to the History of Religion (London: Methuen and Co., 1896), pp. 223-25,285-86. 28. Etudes sur les religionssemitiques(2d ed.; Paris: V. Lecoffre, 1905), pp. 24 7ff., cited by W. 0. E. Oesterley, Sacrificesin Ancient Israel: Their Origin, Purposes, and Development(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1937), pp. 18-19. und religionspsychologischeUntersuchung 29. Das Gebet:Eine religionsgeschichtliche (Munich: Ernst Reinhardt, 1921), pp. 71-80. 30. Religion in Essenceand Manifestation, trans. J. E. Turner and Hans H. Penner (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 356-60. 31. Theologyof the Old Testament, 1: 146-48. 32. The Origin and Developmentof the Moral Ideas, 2 vols. (London, New York: Macmillan 1906, 1908), 1:61-66; 2:612-26. 33. Origins of Sacrifice:A Study in ComparativeReligion (London: John Murray, 1933; rpt. ed.: Port Washington, N. Y.: Kennikat Press, 1971), pp. 255-57. 34. Les originescananeennesdu sacrificeisraelite(Paris: E. Leroux, 1921), p. 27, cited by Oesterley, Sacrificesin Ancient Israel, pp. 19-20.

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guage by use of symbolic action: William Warburton (1698-1779); 35 John Davison (1777-1834); 36 and Karl Christian Wilhelm Felix Bahr (1801-74). 37 6) Magic theory:Still other anthropologists and biblical scholars have held that sacrifice originated as the instrument of magic: James George Frazer (1854-1941), 38 Wilhelm Max Wundt (1832-1920), 39 Alfred Firmin Loisy (1857-1940), 40 and Gustav Holscher (1877-1955). 41 7) Compositeview: Other scholars, resisting all efforts to posit a singular origin and purpose for ancient sacrifices, have insisted upon a plural or composite view. Mention has already been made of Rene Dussaud. William Oscar Emil Oesterley (1866-1950) advocated three purposes in the Old Testament: gift, communion, and life. 42 According to Helmer Ringgren, the three were gift, communion, and expiation or substitution. 43 Frances Margaret Young listed three purposes or kinds of sacrifices: communion, praise and thanksgiving, and sin. 44 For Robert J. Daly there were five: gift, homage, expiation, communion, and life, but even here the gift motif was said to be central in the Old Testament. 45 In addition to continuing reassessments of these theories there have been specific refutations of the views of Wellhausen and W. Robertson Smith by

35. The Divine Legationof MosesDemonstrated... , 2 vols. in 3 (London: Fletcher Gyles, 1738-41), bk. 4, sect. 4; bk 9, ch. 2, cited by Scott, Sacrifice:Its Prophecyand Fulfillment,p. 21. 36. An Inquiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice.. . (London: John Murray, 1825), p. 19, cited by Scott, Sacrifice:Its Prophecyand Fulfilment,p. 21. 37. Symbolikdes Mosaischencultus, 2 vols. (Heidelberg: J.C. B. Mohr, 1837-39), bk. 2, cited by Scott, Sacrifice:Its Prophecyand Fulfilment,p. 21. 38. The GoldenBough, 1 vol. abr. ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1923), passim. Eine Untersuchungder Entwicklungsgesetze von Sprache,Mythus 39. Volkerpsychologie: und Sitte, 6 vols. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1910-15), 6:463ff., cited by Oesterley, Sacrificesin Ancient Israel, p. 21. Wundt also allowed for the gift and communion theories. 40. Essaihistoriquesur le sacrifice(Paris: E. Nourry, 1920), esp. pp. llff., cited by Oesterley, Sacrificesin Ancient Israel, p. 22. 41. Geschichteder israelitischenund judischen Religion (Giessen: A. Topelmann, 1922), p. 28, cited by Oesterley, Sacrificesin Ancient Israel, pp. 21-22. Holscher also allowed for the gift and the expiation theories. 42. Sacrificesin Ancient Israel, p. 23. 43. Sacrificesin the Bible, pp. 8-9 and chs. 1-3. 44. Sacrificeand the Deathof Christ,pp. 25-30, 61-63, 80-82, 111-31. 45. The Originsof the ChristianDoctrineof Sacrifice,pp. 4-5.

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William Lang Baxter (1841-1937) 46 and by Robert John Thompson ( 1924- ),47 and the reassertion of the expiatory or propitiatory aspect. 48 The proliferation of theories as to the origin and purpose of sacrifice with its consequent deemphasis on the propitiatory or expiatory aspect of sacrifice has had its effect upon the modern Christian doctrine of the saving work of Christ, namely, by the tendency to advocate themes other than propitiation or expiation when setting forth the saving work of Christ. h. Varieties of Old Testament Sacrifices

In Leviticus the variety of Old Testament sacrifices becomes evident: the burnt offering of an animal (1:1-17; 6:8-13), the grain offering (2:1-16; 6: 14-23), the fellowship offering of a lamb or goat, whether as a "thank offering" or "the result of a vow" (3: 1-17; 7: 11-21 ), the sin offering of an animal (4:1-5:13; 6:24-30), and the guilt offering of a ram (5:14-6:7; 7:1-10). c. Effectiveness of Sacrifices vis-a-vis the Forgiveness of Sins: Two

Differing Views 1) Some authors have interpreted such sacrifices as humanly declarative and retentive. According to John S. Whale,

Old Testament sacrificesdid not secure God's grace; they declared it and assured men of it without in any way condoning or making light of sin. Sacrificeswere not offered to attain God's mercy but to retain it; and to do this, not casually, but with an awed thanksgiving .... 49 2) Others have interpreted such sacrifices as being the divinely chosen way of removing the barrier of sin and of restoring the covenant. According to Robert H. Culpepper, "atoning sacrifices" were "Yahweh's appointed way of removing the sin barrier, of restoring the covenant. .. , not so much man's gift to God as God's gift to man." 50 "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life" (Lev. 17: 11, NIV). Millard Erickson has asserted that the Old Testament sacrifices "were necessary ... to atone for the sin, which was inherently deserving of punishment." The "sacrifice had an objective effect" and "was offered as a substitute for the sinner. It bore the sinner's guilt." 51 46. Sanctuaryand Sacrifice:A Reply to Wellhausen(London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1895). 47. Penitenceand Sacrificein Early Israel outsidethe LeviticalLaw:An Examinationof the FellowshipTheoryof Early IsraeliteSacrifice(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963). 48. Frank Derek Kidner, Sacrificein the O/,dTestament(London: Tyndale Press, 1952). 49. Victorand Victim,p. 52. 50. InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 24. 51. ChristianTheolop;y, pp. 804-5.

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Blood sacrifices, however, were only "for sins against the covenant," "since they can restore the harmony which has been disturbed by an infringement of the law," not for "voluntary sins, [or] sins with a high hand." For the latter only death could atone. 52 d. Termination of Old Testament Sacrifices

The Jewish practice of offering sacrifices came to an end with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. 53 This was a significant historical event in Jewish history. But the Christian practice of not offering to God animal or grain offerings, whether of the Jewish or the pagan kind, 54 grew out of theological considerations which were rooted in another significant historical event, the death of Jesus Christ. 2. The Death ofJesus Christ as a Sacrifice according to the New Testament a. Synoptic Gospels

In the words of institution at the Lord's Supper (Mark 14:24; par. Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; cf. l Cor. 11:25), "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," the term "blood" is used, but not the term "sacrifice." b. Pauline Epistles

Christ, as "our paschal Lamb," "has been sacrificed" (entythi, from thyein) (1 Cor. 5:7). Christ "gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice (thusian) to God" (Eph. 5:2). As to Paul's numerous references to the "blood" of Jesus (Rom. 3:25; 5:9; Eph. 1:7; 2:13; Col. 1:20), George E. Ladd 55 has argued that Jesus physically shed little blood prior to dying, and Millard J. Erickson 56 has concluded that "blood" means that his death was a sacrifice for our sins. c. Petrine Epistles

Christ's blood is like that of a "lamb unblemished and spotless" (1 Pet. 1:19). d. Epistle to the Hebrews

The theme is most elaborated in chapters 7-10.Jesus is both high priest (9:11-14; 10:21; also 4:14-16) and offering or victim (7:27; 8:3; 9:14, 26). He has offered one sacrifice "once for all" (7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:10, 12, 52. G. Nagel, "Sacrifice-Old Testament," in Jean-Jacques von Allmen, ed., A Companionto the Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), p. 379. See Vol. 1, ch. 34, IV, B. 53. Ibid., p. 380. 54. On the early church's rejection of both kinds of sacrifices, see Young, Sacrifice and the Death of Christ,pp. 47-53. 55. A Theologyof the New Testament,p. 424. 56. ChristianTheology,p. 809.

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11

14). His sacrifice is that of the sinless Son of God (4: 15; 7 :26, 28), not of sinful, mortal priests. e. Gospel of John

This author seems to be the only major New Testament writer who does not "assign an important position to the death of Jesus Christ understood as sacrifice." 57 Yet he refers to the lifting up of the Son of Man (3:14; 12:32), the death of a "grain of wheat" (12:24), and the glorification of the Son of Man (12:23; 13:31). 58 Markus Karl Barth (1915-94) has contended that the concept of Jesus' death as "the sacrifice" "shows in a unique way the necessity, cost and character of relationship between God and man," makes clear that redemption "is not a work of Jesus alone" but of the triune God, demonstrates "what is true man and true humanity," identifies Jesus' death and resurrection as the "One True Sacrament," and is a reminder "that there is an unbreakable community and continuity between God's chosen people Israel and the Church." 59 B. THE CROSS AS PROPITIATION

1. Occurrences and Importance The noun hilasmos,"propitiation," is used only twice (1 John 2:2; 4: 10) in the New Testament, and hilastirion, also occurring twice, is normally translated "propitiation" in Rom. 3:25 and "mercy seat" in Heb. 9:5. Nevertheless "propitiation" has been reckoned as one of the principal terms employed in the New Testament for the explication of Jesus' death. 60

2. Meaning a. Classical Greek Literature and the Septuagint

In order to determine the meaning of "propitiation" one should begin with classical Greek literature. Therein the verb hilaskomai, "to propitiate," and its cognates carried the meaning of appeasing, placating, or rendering favorable the gods. In the Septuagint hilaskomai was sometimes used to render the Hebrew kaphar, "to cover over," both in and apart from the context of worship. Although C.H. Dodd and Leon Morris differed as to the meaning of "propitiation" in the New Testament, Morris agreed with Dodd that "in the Old Testament [i.e., Septuagint] 57. M. Carrez, "Sacrifice-New Testament," in von Allmen, ed., A Companionto the Bible, p. 382. 58. The "Lamb of God" texts (1:29, 36) have been treated under "Jesus as the Servant of the Lord" in Vol. 1, ch. 41, II, C, 5. 59. Was Christ'sDeath a Sacrifice?Scottish Journal of Theology Occasional Papers, no. 9 (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1961 ), pp. 48, 50-55. 60. Samuel Rolles Driver (1846-1914) considered "propitiation" to be "one of the three main categories," the other two being "ransoming" and "reconciling." "Propitiation," A Dictionaryof the Bible, ed. James Hastings, 4 vols. (New

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there is not the usual pagan sense of a crude propitiation of an angry deity," for such is "not possible with the God oflsrael." Indeed, for Morris, the "usage [of hilaskomai]with God as the subject of the verb, the paucity of examples of its use with Him as the object, [and] the study of the Hebrew words translated by hilaskomaiand its cognates all alike draw us to this conclusion .... " Morris proceeded to conclude that in the Septuagint "hilaskomai and its cognates include as an integral part of their meaning the turning away of [God's] wrath" but without "a process of celestial bribery." 61 But for Dodd hilaskomai in the Septuagint meant "performing an act whereby guilt or defilement is removed." 62 Moreover, one should remember that the translators of the Septuagint surely chose with some deliberateness the word hilaskomai, thereby enlisting some of the meaning basic to the term. b. New Testament

The verb hilaskomaiappears only twice in the New Testament, once in respect to Jesus as high priest (Heb. 2: 17) and also, surprisingly, in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, wherein the publican's petition may be literally translated, "O God, be propitiated to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Thomas Walter Manson 63 and Karl Barth 64 sought to establish that, since hilastirion is usually translated "mercy seat" in Heb. 9:5, it ought to be translated "mercy seat" and given local significance in Rom. 3:25. Morris, on the other hand, has argued convincingly that "the Epistle to the Romans does not move in the sphere of Levitical symbolism" and that the verb protithemi,"meaning "put forth" in Rom. 3:25, connotes "a public setting forth" rather than the hidden activity characteristic of the tabernacle and later of the temple. 65 c. Twentieth-century Debate

The meaning of hilaskomaiand its cognates in the New Testament was the focal point of the disputation during the middle third of the twentieth century between Dodd and Morris. Dodd insisted that hilastirion and hilasmos should be translated "expiation" rather than "propitiation," 66 and his influence upon the New English Bible helped to determine that the NEB would render the term by the English "expiation." But one wonders what Dodd gained by the translation "expiation" inasmuch as "expiation" is derived from the Latin words ex, "out," and piare, "to seek

61. 62. 63. 64. 65.

York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902), 4:132. One could add "sacrifice" and "acquittal." Morris, The ApostolicPreachingof the Cross(London: Tyndale Press, 1955 ), pp. 136-38, 142, 155-56, 160. Dodd, "L:1AI:KEI:0AI, Its Cognates, Derivatives, and Synonyms in the Septuagint," journal of TheologicalStudies 32 Guly 1931): 359. "Uaa"tT}p1ov,"Journal of TheologicalStudies46 Ganuary-April 1945): 1-10. The Epistleto the Romans, re 3:25-26. The ApostolicPreachingof the Cross,pp. 170-72.

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13

to appease, to purify with sacred rites." His rejoinder would seemingly have to rest on modern connotations. Furthermore, Dodd insisted that, as with the Septuagint, the New Testament used hilasterion to mean the annulment of guilt, not the removal of divine wrath. For Dodd, the term "wrath" in Rom. 1: 18 is "an archaic phrase" that "suits a thoroughly archaic idea." Paul used it not as an attribute of God but as "an inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe." 67 Hence, according to Dodd, wrath is to be removed from the attributes of God. On the contrary, Morris insisted upon wrath as a valid attribute of God. Not to be "confused with ... irrational passion" common to pagan religion, the term meant in the Bible "the stern reaction of the divine nature to evil in man." 68 Divine wrath, according to Henry Maldwyn Hughes, is genuine because there must be "an eternal recoil against the unholy on the part of the all-holy God." 69 Likewise, H. Wheeler Robinson declared: But this wrath of God is not the blind and automatic working of abstract law-always a fiction, since "law" is a conception, not an entity, till it finds expression through its instruments. The wrath of God is the wrath of divine Personality and does not exhaust the activity of that Personality. 70 According to Eugene H. Peterson (1932- ), Those who would bowdlerize the Bible by expurgating all references to God's anger hardly know what they are doing. They have not thought through the consequences of their "improvements." The moment anger is eliminated from God, suffering is depersonalized, for anger is an insistence on the personal-it is the antithesis of impersonal fate or abstract law.71 Numerous modern Christians, Morris concluded, had drawn "a false antithesis between the divine wrath and the divine love," and hence wrath could not be included in the doctrine of the saving work of Jesus Christ. But, Morris countered, "divine love and the divine wrath are 66. "IaAI:KEI!0AI," p. 360; Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, Moffatt New Testament Commentary (London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1932), p. 55. Dale Moody, The Word of Truth, pp. 330, 377, favored "expiation." 67. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, pp. 54, 20-21, 23. See Vol. 1, ch. 16, V, C, for a discussion of the wrath of God as a divine attribute. 68. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, pp. 130, 131. 69. What Is the Atonement? A Study in the Passion of God in Christ (London: James Clarke, 1924?), p. 55. 70. Redemption and Revelation in the Actuality of History (London: Nisbet and Co., Ltd., 1942), p. 269. 71. Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1980), p. 106. Per Barry A Stricker.

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Christ

compatible aspects of the divine nature." 72 Emil Brunner confirmed: "This revelation of the divine mystery oflove in the midst of the reality of wrath is the 'propitiation' (hilasmos)."73 Indeed the biblical concept of the wrath of God is a higher, rather than a lower, concept in relation to Greek philosophy. Morris paraphrased and leaned on Edwyn Robert Bevan's (1870-1943) contention that "the idea that God cannot be angry is neither Hebrew nor Christian, but something borrowed from Greek philosophy." 74 Bevan had insisted: The idea of the Divine anger was not something which penetrated into Christianity from its pagan environment: it was something which the Church maintained in the face of adverse pagan criticism. 75 William L. Hendricks likened the love/wrath issue to God's wearing "fur-lined boots," soft and warm on the inside and "weather resistant" on the outside. 76 Despite all these considerations A. T. Hanson and R. P. C. Hanson continue to claim that we "must not indeed represent God as being personally angry with us" and to argue that the concept of God's wrath ought to be retained for two reasons: to describe "those who are not under grace but under law" and thus punish themselves, and to safeguard "the fact that sin must have disastrous consequences, both for the sinner" and for society. 77 Contemporary Christians need to take seriously the concept found in Paul and in John that the death of Jesus is in some meaningful sense the "means ofpropitiation" 78-the removal of wrath and the manifestation oflove. 79 72. The ApostolicPreachingof the Cross,pp. 181, 158. 73. The Mediator, p. 520. 74. The ApostolicPreachingof the Cross,p. 184. 75. Symbolismand Belief(London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1938), p. 210. 76. A Theologyfor Children,pp. 80-82. 77. ReasonableBelief, pp. 124-28, esp. 125. The Hansons also have declared that "the New Testament never brings the wrath of God into connection with Christ's atoning work." Are Rom. 1:18, 2:5,8 and 5:9 unconnected with Rom. 3:24-25? But A. T. Hanson in his more extensive earlier study, The Wrath of the Lamb (London: S. P. C. K., 1957), pp. 178-79, had said: "The Wrath is connected with the Cross-only occasionally in Paul, more clearly in Hebrews, by implication in the J ohannine writings, and most essentially in Revelation." 78. Morris, The ApostolicPreachingof the Cross,p. 172. Frances M. Young, Sacrifice and the Death of Christ,who has difficulty with propitiation (pp. 120-22), defines the "sacrifice of Christ" as "a sort of 'self-propitiation' offered by God to God to make atonement for the existence of evil in his universe" (p. 93). 79.George Eldon Ladd,A Theologyof the New Testament,pp. 429-31, and Millard J. Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 809-11, have agreed with Leon Morris's basic argument.

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C. THE CROSS AS SUBSTITUTION

The primary issues here are twofold. Was the death of Jesus Christ as presented in the Bible merely representative (that is, "for us"), or was it also substitutionary (that is, "instead of us")? If substitutionary, how ought we to understand the meaning and import of such substitution?

1. The Suffering of the Servant of the Lord J. S. Whale, who himself has made little place for penal substitution in twentieth-century theology, nevertheless emphasized the penal aspects of the fourth of the Servant songs (Isa. 52:13-53:12). 80 The more pertinent portions of the passage are the following (RSV): [4] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows .... [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.

our iniquities; upon

[6] ... and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[8] ... stricken for the transgression of my people? [10) ... he makes himself an offering for sin ...

[11] ... by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities. [12) ... he ... was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Whale held that the fourth song "brings together and blends" the metaphors of "sacrifice" and "penalty." He found sacrifice only once (v. 10) but located twelve allusions to the Servant's suffering "the penaltyof other men's sins," especially in verses 4-6. 81 Robert H. Culpepper has agreed with Whale's observation as to the blending of metaphors and has concluded: The Old Testament ideal of the Suffering Servant shows us that sin can be expiated only as it is borne in vicarious suffering. The Old Testament itself, however, provides no fulfillment of the Suffering Servant ideal. 82

2. Aspects of Substitution in the New Testament If the fourth Servant song clearly depicted his suffering as penal or substitutionary, do the New Testament writings so interpret the death of 80. Victorand Victim,pp.67-70. 81. Ibid., p. 69. 82. InterpretingtheAtonement, p. 38. As to the identity of the Servant, see Vol. 1, ch. 41, II, A, 3.

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Jesus? It is not to a single word or term that one must turn but rather to a concept expressed in various ways. a. The Preposition anti: The Greek preposition anti can mean "instead of' and not merely "for." This preposition is used in Jesus' saying as to the Son of Man's giving his life "a ransom for" (or "instead of') "many" (Mark 10:45). According to A. T. Robertson, the context demands the translation of anti as "instead" in Mark 10:45. 83 Culpepper, upholding the genuineness of this saying, would interpret it "against the background of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 49:7-8." 84 b. The Preposition hyper:

The Greek preposition hyper, meaning "in behalf of' or "for," does not itself connote substitution. The contexts, however, in which hyper is used in the New Testament may indeed convey the concept of substitution. 85 Jesus' "'blood of the covenant"' is '"poured out for (hyper) many"' (Mark 14:24, RSV, JB, NIV). Christ "gave himself for (hyper) our sins" (Gal. l:14a), "having become a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13b RSV), and Paul declared that he "gave himself for (hyper)me" (Gal. 2:20, KJV, RSV, NIV). He "died for (hyper) our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3b, KJV, NIV). Indeed "one died for (hyper)all" (2 Cor. 5: 14b, ~. NIV; compare 5:15), and "God made him who had no sin to be sin for (hyper) us" (2 Cor. 5:2la, NIV). This same Christ "died for (hyper)the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6b, KJV, RSV, NIV) and "for (hyper)us" (Rom. 5:8). God gave up his Son "for (hyper)us all" (Rom. 8:32, KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV), and likewise Christ "gave himself as a ransom for (hyper) all men" (1 Tim. 2:6a, NIV). Jesus tasted death "for (hyper) everyone" (Heb. 2:9c, RSV, NIV), and as high priest he "offered for all time one sacrifice for (hyper) sins" (Heb. 10:12a, NIV). His death was that of "the righteous for (hyper) the unrighteous" (1 Pet. 3:18, RSV, NIV). According to Culpepper, the statements concerning Jesus' dying "for our sins" are theoretically capable of being variously interpreted. They could mean "that our sins were responsible for [or led to] his death." They could mean thatJesus submitted to the divine judgment upon our sins. They could mean that he "died in order to deliver us from our sins." Regarding the first as an unlikely meaning, Culpepper inclined to the second or the third meaning or a combination of these. 86 The latter meanings are consonant with penal substitution. Culpepper 83. A Grammarof the GreekNew Testamentin the Light of HistoricalResearch(2d ed.; New York: George H. Doran Co., 1915), p. 573. See also Erickson, Christian Theology,pp. 813-14. 84. Interpretingthe Atonement,pp. 60-61. 85. Robertson, A Grammarof the GreekNew Testament,p. 631, also cited the use of hyper in the sense of "instead of' in the papyri and the ostraca. 86. Interpretingthe Atonement,p. 65.

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concluded that, although texts such as 2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:13, 1 Pet. 3:18, using hyper, and 1 Pet. 2:24 "may be subsumed under the category of [mere] representative atonement ... , they more naturally fall into the category of substitutionary atonement. "87 c. Jesus' Quotation from Isaiah 53

In his two-swords statement, made at the Last Supper and recorded only by Luke (22:37), Jesus quoted from Isa. 53:12 (NIV), "And he was numbered with the transgressors," or "criminals" (TEV) or "outlaws (NEB), and declared its fulfillment to be in himself. Hans Conzelmann has denied that Jesus ever applied Isaiah 53 to himself, 88 whereas Oscar Cullmann, 89 Martin Hengel, 90 and John R. W. Stott 91 have affirmed such. d. Jesus' Cry of Dereliction on the Cross

The cry of dereliction (Mark 15:34, NIV, and par.), "'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"' being a quotation of Ps. 22:la, if taken as indicative of Jesus' genuine Godforsakenness, bears witness to Jesus' experiencing the separation from God the Father which constitutes the most awesome penal aspect of death. The cry, however, has been given several alternative interpretations, as John R. W. Stott' s review92 of these makes clear. First, some have reckoned the cry to be one of unbelieving "despair" and in taking such a view have impugned unbelief to the Son of God. 93 Second, others such as Terrot Reaveley Glover (1869-1943) 94 have held that, whereas Jesus felt forsaken, he was not in reality forsaken by the Father. But does not Ps. 22: 1 suggest more than feeling? Third, still others have regarded the cry as one of "victory" inasmuch as Psalm 22 ends (vv. 22-31) on a note of victory. But why did Jesus quote v. la and not from vv. 22-31? These interpretations seem to be much less convincing than that which takes the cry to reflect a genuine dereliction, or

87. Ibid., p. 71. 88. An Outline of the Theologyof the New Testament,p. 85. 89. The Christologyof the New Testament,pp. 68-69. See also James E. Tull (1913-89), The Atoning Gospel(Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1982), p. 136. 90. The Atonement:The Originsof the Doctrinein the New Testament,trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), pp. 33-75, esp. 57-60. 91. The Crossof Christ(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1986), p. 147. 92. The Crossof Christ,pp. 78-84. 93. Robert H. Culpepper, "The Atonement Reconsidered," unpublished faculty lecture, 12 November 1987, p. 14, has cited the view of Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) that the cry was that "of despair" by a "zealot who has failed in his mission" and that of Albert Schweitzer that it was "the despairing cry of a deluded apocalyptist." 94. TheJesus of History (New York: Association Press, 1918), p. 181.

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Godforsakenness, as Robert William Dale (1829-1895), Stott, 96 and Jurgen Moltmann 97 have forthrightly held.

95

John R. W.

e. Substitution and the Metaphors for Jesus' Death

The theme of substitution in the New Testament actually involves a drawing together of four of the New Testament metaphors used in reference to Jesus' death: ransom (from the battlefield or the slave market), sacrifice (from worship in the Temple in Jerusalem), redemption (from the slave market), and acquittal (from the law court), the fourth being the effect for believers. The New Testament evidence for Jesus' death as his punitive substitution for the death due to be suffered by sinful humans is less pervasive than some of its modern defenders have claimed, but such evidence is not completely absent from or of limited significance in the New Testament. Hence substitution is so much to be found in the New Testament that it must be taken seriously by any theologian who would interpret Jesus' cross on the basis of supremaScriptura. From the consideration of the biblical teachings relative to Jesus' death as sacrifice, as propitiation, and as substitution we now turn to two topics, one primarily biblical and the other chiefly systematic, before subsequently considering the so-called "objective" theories of the saving work of Jesus Christ set forth during the postbiblical history of Christianity.

II. THE CROSS AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD A. GOD'S "RIGHTEOUSNESS" ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT

In the previous study of the attributes of God 98 three meanings were found for "righteous" or "righteousness" in reference to God within the context ofYahweh's covenant with Israel: the mandatory, the punitive or retributive, and the redemptive. As to the mandatory,Jesus by his sinless life and perfect obedience to the Father's will fulfilled the righteous demand of the law (Matt. 3:15; Heb. 7:26-27a; 10:5-10). As to the punitive, Jesus in and by his death bore or endured the punishment which the righteous Father rightfully expected guilty human beings to bear or endure (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 3:24-26; Gal. 3:13). As to the redemptive, 95. The Atonement(11th ed.; London: Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1888), pp. 60-62. 96. The Crossof Christ,pp. 81-82. 97. The CrucifiedGod:The Crossof Christas the Foundationand Criticismof Christian Theology,trans. R. A. Wilson and John Bowden (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), pp. 145-53. Moltmann contrasts the deaths of Socrates, the Zealot martyrs, the Stoic martyrs, the early Christian martyrs, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the death of Jesus. See also Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, pp. 77-80. 98. See Vol. 1, ch. 17, I, B, 2.

The Cross as Sacrifice, as Propitiation,

and as Substitution

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Jesus by his death and resurrection exhibited and effectuated the gracious saving or liberating nature and purpose of the righteous Father vis-a-vis human sin and death and the suprahuman powers of evil (Rom. 8:1-4; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 2:1-2). B. THE PAULINE AND JOHANNINE DOCTRINE OF "THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD" AND GOD AS "RIGHTEOUS"

Earlier 99 attention has been given to the fact that in the Epistle to the Romans Paul used the term hi dikaiosuni theou both in reference to God's gift or deed (3:21-22) and to an attribute of God himself (3:25). Indeed both meanings are to be found in 3:26. Both meanings are related to Jesus' death. There are also two important polarities within the Pauline use of "righteousness of God" and the J ohannine use of God as "righteous." One is that by Jesus' death God's righteousness as moral demand is vindicated or satisfied (Rom. 3:26). Human sin is exposed and condemned in the death of Jesus but condemned savingly. Forgiveness of sin is granted but through repentance (death to sin) and regeneration (life from and to God). In Jesus' cross God's grace is costly, but man's salvation does not deprive God of his righteous nature. The other is that by Jesus' death God's righteousness as gracious gift is made known. Hence God is "faithful and dikaios" to forgive the sins of those, even believers, who confess them and to cleanse those persons of "all adikias" (I John I :9). God, therefore, does not justify or save or forgive human beings through the death of his Son in spite of the fact that he is "righteous," as some theologians have seemingly concluded through a one-sided doctrine of God's righteousness, but rather he does so becausehe is righteous, as the New Testament teaches.

III. THE MORAL NECESSITY OF THE CROSS By the "moral necessity" of Jesus' death we mean that which, humanly speaking, it is possible properly to think and to articulate about the reason or reasons why Jesus should have died in the manner and for the purpose he did die. A. NEED FOR STATEMENT OF THE MORAL NECESSITY

We need to interpret the inner moral necessity of the death of Jesus Christ-what the Gospels mean by the use of dei100 or "must" in respect to Jesus' going to and suffering in Jerusalem-without positing a determinism which would bind the voluntaristic character of Jesus' offering of himself in death and would rob God of the freeness of his grace and yet in such a manner as to show why his death was essential and not accidental. 99. See Vol. 1, ch. 17, II, B. 100. Mark 8:31 and par.; Luke 13:33.

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B. FACTORS LEADING TO THE MORAL NECESSITY

Here the emphasis falls not on those human beings (Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, Roman soldiers, Jewish high priests, Jewish populace) who were principals in the legal drama of the arrest, trials, and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. 101 Rather the focus is those factors in the broad theological spectrum which, taken together and interrelated, make necessary the death of Jesus. W. T. Conner identified these factors as being three: the fact and prevalence of human sin, God's holy aversion to such sin, and God's gracious purpose to save or deliver or reconcile human beings, who are sinners. 102 C. MANNER OF KNOWING THE MORAL NECESSITY

The moral necessity of Jesus' death is not something which human beings could have anticipated or which they can calculate apart from the actual event of Jesus' death on the cross. The topic is instead the product of reflections on the interrelatedness of the aforementioned factors in their bearing upon Jesus' death. To affirm such moral necessity is not to remove the particularity of Jesus' death or even the "scandal" ofparticularity. 103 D. THE MORAL NECESSITY IF HUMANS HAD NOT SINNED

For centuries theologians have debated the issue as to whether the incarnation and death of Jesus as the God-man would have been necessary in the purpose and plan of God if human beings had not sinned. Athanasius, 104 Thomas Aquinas, 105 and John Calvin 106 answered in the negative, holding that the coming and saving death of Jesus were due to the human sinful plight. John Duns Scotus 107 and Andrew Osiander (1498-1552), 108 on the other hand, answered affirmatively, holding that the incarnation would 101. Such persons are treated by Stott, The Crossof Christ,pp. 47-58. 102. The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 90-92. But more specifically, Stott, The Crossof Christ,pp. 29-32, cited three reasons for the "inevitability" of Jesus' "violent, premature, yet purposive death": "the hostility of the Jewish national leaders," Old Testament teachings about the Messiah, and "his own deliberate choice." 103. Emil Brunner, The Scandalof Christianity(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1951 ), chs. 1, 4; Whale, Victorand Victim,pp. 80-97. 104. On the Incarnationof the Wordof God, 9; Defenseof the Nicene Definition, 14. For Athanasius the purpose of the incarnation was more the incorruption and deification of human beings than remission of sins. 105. Summa Theologica,3. 1. 3. 106. Institutesof the ChristianReligion, 2. 12. 4-7. 107. In sent. 3, dist. 7, q. 3, 3, Opera, 14:354ff., as cited by Peter Barth and Wilhelm Niesel, eds.,joannis Calvini opera Selecta,5 vols. (3d rev. ed.; Munich: Christian Kaiser, 1967), 3: 443, n. 2. 108. An filius Deifuerit incarnandus ( 1550), K 2a, 2b, as cited by Calvin, Institutes of the ChristianReligion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, p. 467, n. 3.

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have ocrurred even if humans had never sinned. Such an issue is so hypothetical as not to be capable of being answered clearly. E. LANGUAGE CONCERNING THE MORAL NECESSITY

James Denney ( 1856-191 7) distinguished between the cross of Christ as "inevitable" (outward constraint) and his cross as "indispensable" (inward constraint). He allowed for both but insisted that for Jesus the inward constraint was primary. 109 Yet W. T. Conner did not hesitate to use the term "inevitable" to express the moral necessity amid the collision of human sin and the holy God. 110

IV. SO-CALLED "OBJECTIVE" THEORIES CONCERNING THE SAVING WORK OF JESUS CHRIST In the patristic era various biblical metaphors or themes associated with Jesus' death and resurrection were employed and explicated, but there were no fully developed theories which attempted a full-scale rationale of his saving work. Not until the second millennium of the history of Christianity were any such theories developed and defended. Sometimes those theories have been classified under either of two categories: the objective theories, which find the necessity for Jesus' death in the nature or functions of God, and the subjective theories, which find the necessity for Jesus' death in the situation of human beings. In the present chapter, wherein sacrifice, propitiation, substitution, and the righteousness of God are being treated, it is fitting to examine the so-called "objective" theories. A. THE SATISFACTION THEORY OF ANSELM OF CANTERBURY

1. The Anselmic Theory Stated

Anselm of Canterbury at the end of the eleventh century was the first Christian thinker to frame "a theory,both of the necessity of the appearing of the God-man, and of the necessity of his death," in his WhyGod Became a Man. 111 Human sin, according to Anselm, is failing to render God his due or robbing God of his honor, and hence humans are debtors to God (1.11). Humans were created by God for blessedness, which is unattainable in this present life and apart from the forgiveness of sin; hence the remission of sins is necessary for the attainment of blessedness (1.10, 19, 21, 24). Sinful humans need to make "satisfaction" for their sins to the offended God ( 1.11, 15), for God justly maintains "his honor in regard to the governance of things" (1.13). Yet humans are unable to 109. The Deathof Christ:Its Placeand Interpretationin the New Testament(3d ed.; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1903), pp. 29-31. 110. The Crossin the New Testament,ed.Jessej. Northcutt (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1954), ch. 6. 111. Harnack, Historyof Dogma, 6:56.

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make such satisfaction, for what is owed is proportionate to guilt ( 1.1920,25). Various alternatives are not viable: satisfaction cannot be made by a sinless human specially created by God ( 1.5); God cannot compassionately forgive without any satisfaction ( 1.12); the opposite of satisfaction is punishment, and that would prevent blessedness (1.13,15). Only God can make the needed satisfaction, and yet only humanity heeds to make it; hence only the God-man can do so (2.6). This means a God-man born of one of the Adamic race (2.8) and having two perfect and united natures (2.7). The God-man voluntarily lays down his life (1.8, 10; 2: 16), yet such voluntarism has the marks of obedience (1.9). In dying he gives himself to God's honor, which he does not owe (2.11 ). His death makes "recompense for all the debts ofall men" (2.18). For this he deserves a reward (2.18). Since, however, he needs no such reward, it can be bestowed on sinful humans (2.19), presumably the elect. 112 2. The Anselmic Theory Evaluated

On the positive side Anselm's theory attempted to deal seriously with human sin, to correlate the incarnation and the death of the God-man, and to bring his death "into the forefront of theological consideration." 113 It "starts from the objective fact of guilt" 114 and emphasizes the God-man's "obedumce unto death."115 But its several weaknesses have drawn the attention of modern theologians. First, Anselm pursued a rational, non- exegetical approach in which he tried to provide a rationale for the incarnation and the crucifixion without any direct reference to the historical person, Jesus Christ. Such an approach, Sydney Cave declared, was "doomed to failure." 116 George Cadwalader Foley (1851-1935) found Anselm not only to have been silent on the pertinent biblical texts but also to have been "aloof from Biblical ideas." 117 Second, the satisfaction theory can be faulted for its doctrine of God. It presents God more as a feudal lord than as the Father of Jesus Christ. 118 It neglects to emphasize the love of God. 119 It tends to posit a conflict between God's justice and his mercy and to set in divergence the 112. Anselm of Canterbury,3:49-137. 113. Culpepper, Interpretingthe Atonement,p. 85. 114. Brunner, The Scandal of Christianity,p. 87. 115. George Cadwalader Foley,Anselm's Theoryof theAtonement(New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1909), pp. 139-40. 116. The Doctrineof the Work of Christ (London: University of London Press, 1937), p. 132. 117. Anselm's Theoryof theAtonement, pp. 143-45. 118. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement, p. 87. 119. William John Wolf (1918- ), No Cross,No Crown:A Study of theAtonement (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1957), p. 108. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,pp. 85-86, held that the logic of the Anselmic view of the non-frustration of God's purpose in creation ultimately leads to eschatological universalism.

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23

Father ("rigorous creditor") and the Son ("generous benefactor"). 120Third, Anselm, building upon a Nestorian separation of the two natures of the God-man, 121interpreted the atonement as being offered to God via the humanity of the God-man. 122Fourth, the theory fails adequately to correlate Jesus' death with other Christian truth. It has no place for revelation in the incarnation itself.123It makes no emphasis on the role of Jesus' resurrection. 124It does not indicate how the satisfaction by the God-man is to be appropriated by individual human beings. 125Finally, Anselm's theory bears the marks of its cultural and ecclesiastical context. It was steeped in Roman law with its concepts of punishment and debt. Anselm used a term, sat:isfactio, which Tertullian had introduced to the Christian vocabulary, and drew upon the developing sacrament of penance, including the commutation of penitential acts by the payment of money. Moreover, the German criminal code included the Wergel,d,the monetary compensation which a murderer could pay for his crime. 126

B. THE PENAL SUBSTITUTION THEORY OF JOHN CALVIN

1. The Substitutionary Theory of Calvin Stated Calvin's theory centered in the concept that Christ's saving work was his punitive substitution for or instead of sinners. Calvin did at times write about "satisfaction," but it was never the satisfaction of God's honor and always the satisfaction of God's justice or judgment. 127Christ's mediatorial and intercessory functions are the exercise of his priestly office.128As righteous judge God "does not allow his law to be broken without punishment."129By his death Jesus bore the punishment that was due to sinful human beings 130on account of their sins, 131rendered favorable or propi120. Foley, Anselm'sTheoryof theAtonement,pp. 173-78. 121. Ibid., pp. 179-81. 122. Aulen, ChristusVictor,pp. 83, 91; Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ p. 132. 123. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 86. 124. Wolf, No Cross,No Crown,p. 107. 125. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,pp. 86-87. 126. Foley, Anselm'sTheoryof theAtonement,pp. 103-12. 127. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.), 2.12.3; 2.16.10; 2.17.4. 128. Ibid., 2.15.6. On the threefold office of Christ according to Calvin, see John Frederick Jansen (1918-87), Calvin'sDoctrineof the Work of Christ (London:James Clarke and Co., Ltd., 1956). 129. Calvin, Institutesof the ChristianReligion, 2.16.1, trans. Ford Lewis Battles. 130. The question as to whether Calvin limited the effects of Jesus' death to the elect will be treated below; see below, ch. 49, I, B, 4. 131. Calvin, Institutesof the ChristianReligion 2.16.2,10.

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tious to them God the Father, 132 and appeased God's wrath. 133 "This is our acquittal: the guilt that held us liable for punishment has been transferred to the head of the Son of God." 134 The human "burden of condemnation" was "laid upon Christ." 135 Jesus' death, for Calvin, was also an "expiatory sacrifice," 136 motivated by God's prevenient love. 137 His saving work was "achieved" "by the whole course of his obedience," 138 not by his death alone, and he acquired merit not for himself but for sinful humans in a manner consonant with free grace. 139 Calvin interpreted the "descent into Hades" as the spiritual, more than bodily, nature of his death wherein he "grapple[ d] hand to hand with the armies of hell and the dread of everlasting death" and suffered "the terrible torments of a condemned and forsaken man." 140 Moreover, the "victory of our faith over death lies in his resurrection alone." 141

2. Later Expressions of the Substitutionary Theory The penal substitutionary theory was commonly accepted within the Reformed tradition, although its leading confessions of faith and catechisms tended to express it mildly or obliquely. 142 Later Calvinism tended to emphasize retributive justice more than love or mercy, holding the former to be required and the latter to be optional in God. 143 A succession of Anglo-American Protestant theologians expounded and defended penal substitution during the nineteenth century, and it was one of the leading "points" affirmed and defended by American Fundamentalists at the beginning of the twentieth century. 144 Millard Erickson 132. 133. 134. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 141. 142.

Ibid., 2.15.6; 2.16.4. Ibid., 2.15.6; 2.16.2,10; 2.17.4. Ibid., 2.16.5, trans. Ford Lewis Battles. Ibid., 2.17.4. Ibid., 2.15.6; 2.16.2,6. Ibid., 2.16.3. Ibid., 2.16.5. Ibid., 2.17.1-3,6. Ibid., 2.16.10, trans. Ford Lewis Battles. Ibid., 2.16.13. French Confession of Faith, arts. 17, 18; Scotch Confession of Faith, art. 9; Belgic Confession, arts. 20, 21, which is more explicit; Heidelberg Catechism, qq. 17, 37-40, 44; Irish Articles of Religion, art. 30; and Westminster Confession of Faith, 8.4, in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3, passim. 143. Culpepper, Interpreting the Atonement, p. 103. According to Foley, Anselm's Theory of the Atonement, p. 241, "The Protestant scholastics of the seventeenth century, lJohn] Gerhard, [Peter?] Mastricht [1630-1706], lJ. A.] Quenstedt, and [Francis] Turretin, carried the Calvinistic doctrine to its farthest extreme." 144. George Smeaton (1814-89), The Doctrine of Atonement, as Taught by Christ Himself (Edinburgh; T. and T. Clark, 1868); idem, The Doctrine of Atonement,

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has taken penal substitution to be the "central" theme or theory of the saving work of Christ and has concluded that the other theories have validity "only on the basis of the substitutionary view." 145

3. The Substitutionary Theory Evaluated Calvin's theory has been said to be more explicitly biblical in content and in method, more emphatic on the love of God, more inclusive of Jesus' obedient life and resurrection, and more specific as to individual appropriation by faith of the benefits of his saving work than Anselm's theory.146The critics, however, have been at work to point out defects in the theory of penal substitution. They have faulted its idea of quantitative equivalence in punishment, especially from the stance that there could have been no equivalence in remorse. The theory, especially in its post-Calvin phase, has been charged with introducing a hiatus between the Father and the Son and unresolved conflict between the justice and mercy of God in which justice outweighs love. Furthermore, terms such as "debt" and "penalty" have been interpreted literally when they should have been seen analogically. Penal substitution, according to Sydney Cave, is "a clumsy rationalization of a real experience." 147 It speaks to the sinner's awareness of the need of divine pardon and release and to the Christian's experience of the same. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain He wash'd it white as snow. 148 as Taught by theApostles(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1870); Thomas Jackson Crawford (1812-75), The Doctrineof Holy ScripturerespectingtheAtonement (Edinburgh, London: W. Blackwood, 1871); R. W. Dale, The Atonement (1875); Charles Hodge, SystematicTheology,2:464-543; W. G. T. Shedd, DogmaticTheology,2:378-489; and Denney, The Deathof Christ(1902). See Laurence William Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement (Manchester: University Press, 1920), pp. 307-20. On Fundamentalism, see George Mish Marsden ( 1939 - ), Fundamentalismand AmericanCulture: The Shaping of Twentieth-CenturyEvangelicalism,1870-1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 117, and n. 30 on p. 262, and the present author in Garrett, Hinson, and Tull, Are SouthernBaptists "Evangelicals"?,pp. 48-49. Karl Barth, ChurchDogmatics,IV/I, pp. 211-83, entitled his treatment "The Judge Judged in Our Place." 145. ChristianTheology,p. 819. 146. Culpepper, Interpretingthe Atonement,p. 102. 147. The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 175-76. Fisher Humphreys, The Deathof Christ(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1978), p. 60, has criticized Calvin for teaching "that the Father punished Jesus" in an act of disapproval that would not be consonant with the Father's approbation of him by his resurrection. 148. Elvina M. Hall.

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But Stott in The Cross of Christ has so powerfully restated the penal substitutionary view as to warrant its careful consideration. C. THE GOVERNMENTAL THEORY OF HUGO GROTIUS (1583-1645)

1. The Governmental Theory Stated In 1617 Grotius, a Dutch international jurist with Arminian sympathies, published his Defenseof the CatholicFaith on the Satisfactionof Christagainst FaustusSocinus.Designed to refute Socinus's example theory, 149 this book, while using the terms employed by Calvin and seeming to defend Calvin, actually set forth another theory that stood between Calvin and Socinus. For Grotius "Catholic" meant "universal," not Roman Catholic. 150 His governmental theory has also been called the "penal example" theory. 151 "The concern of this theory is not the expiation of the divine justice, but its manifestation; its interest is prospective, not retrospective." 152 According to Grotius, God is to be conceived primarily as the benevolent Ruler (Rector)or Governor of the universe, not as judge or creditor or as a private person. As in the case of a father in a family or a king within a kingdom, God only has the power to punish, but punishment is to be for the sake of the community. It is possible for God as Ruler to relax the law and do so without compromising his immutability. If, however, sinful humans had been simply given over to eternal death, both their piety and the witness of God's beneficence to them would have perished. God, who desires to bless human beings and make them happy, cannot do so because of eternal punishment due on account of sin. Since being punished for another is not unjust, there was no injustice in God's using the "torments" and death of Jesus "'to establish a weighty example against the immense guilt of us all."' Impunity on God's part would cause sin to be "less regarded." God gave his Son to suffering and death so as to show humanity that he is not indifferent to sin. 153 The death of Jesus Christ, therefore, is the great and necessary deterrent to human sinning. 154

2. Later Exponents of the Governmental Theory The theory of Grotius was embraced by the Arminians, both Dutch and English. Among the latter were Daniel Whitby (1638-1726), an Anglican 149. See below, ch. 47, II, B, 2. 150. Culpepper, Interpretingthe Atonement,pp. 105-6. 151. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 181; R. S. Franks, A Historyof the Doctrineof the Work of Christin Its EcclesiasticalDevelopment,2 vols. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1918), 2:67. 152. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 177. 153. Grotius, Defense,trans. Frank Hugh Foster (Andover, Mass.: Warren F. Draper, 1889), chs. 2-6; Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 177-80. 154. Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 296; Robert Mackintosh, HistoricTheoriesof Atonement(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920), pp. 171-72.

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turned Unitarian, Samuel Clarke (1675-1728), who was accused of Arianism, and Richard Watson ( 1781-1833), a Methodist. 155 Among the New England theologians Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (1745-1801), fully embraced the governmental theory. 156

3. The Governmental Theory Evaluated Some values have been identified in the theory of Grotius. According to Laurence William Grensted (1884-1964), this theory has the "great merit" of a concept of God as "benevolent Ruler of the Universe" which is superior to the concepts of God set forth by Anselm or by Calvin. 157 It stresses "that God who is holy love so forgives as in forgiveness to make sin abhorrent to us." 158 Grotius rightly retained the ideas of substitution and of Christ's willingness to suffer. 159 He rightly abandoned, at least by implication, in the view of Robert Mackintosh (1858-1933), the idea "that God and conscience establish an exactly measurable responsibility for sins, and an exact order of demerit among wrongdoers." 160 On the other hand, the criticisms of the Grotian theory have been numerous. First, it has been said to put expediency above justice. Hence this theory has been caricatured "by describing it in terms of Caiaphas' statement that it is expedient that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation should not perish Uohn 11:50)." 161 Similarly, "moral necessity" is sacrificed for "administrative expedience." 162 Second, the Grotian theory has been understood to make divine sovereignty more important than divine love, and this political-legal dimension is reckoned as a weakness. 163 Third, Grotius depended on the Thomistic philosophy of law but applied such a philosophy to the work of Christ in a way that Thomas Aquinas had not. 164 Fourth, the theory fails to explain how the death of Jesus frees human beings "from the objective power of guilt." 165 Fifth, it fails to allow for retributive punishment but majors on deterrence and allows for punishment only because of the "demands of moral government." The governmental theory, wrote Millard Erickson, 155. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 107; Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement,pp. 301-2. 156. Grensted, A Short Historyof the DoctrineofAtonement,pp. 302-3; Foley, Anselm's Theoryof theAtonement,pp. 240-42; Mackintosh, HistoricTheoriesof Atonement,pp. 174-75. 157. A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 305. 158. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 181. 159. Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement,pp. 294, 295. 160. HistoricTheoriesof Atonement,p. 181. 161. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,pp. 107-8. 162. Mackintosh, HistoricTheoriesof Atonement,p. 183. 163. Foley, Anselm's Theoryof theAtonement,p. 239. 164. Franks,A Historyof the Doctrineof the Workof Christ,2:67-73. 165. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 107.

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although it has "an objective element," is chiefly "a subjective theory," because "the chief impact was on man" by means of deterrence. 166 Sixth, the theory "lacks explicit scriptural basis," 167 although Grotius did cite biblical texts 168 and other exponents have quoted Isa. 42:21. 169 D. THE VICARIOUS CONFESSION THEORY OF JOHN MCLEOD CAMPBELL (1800-72)

1. The Vicarious Confession Theory Stated Campbell in The Nature of theAtonementand Its Relation to Remissionof Sins and Eternal Life (1831) rejected the theory of penal substitution. It wrongly makes central a "legal standing" rather than a "filial standing." Jesus did not die to meet the demands of divine justice, and the atoning element in his death is not "pain and agony aspain and agony."170 In seeking to develop his own theory Campbell, a Scottish pastor, examined and adopted an alternative which had been posed by Jonathan Edwards, Sr. 171 For God to be able to vindicate his justice and to pardon human sinners, Edwards had declared, there must be "either an equivalent punishment, or an equivalent sorrow and repentance." 172 Whereas Edwards himself had concluded that the "equivalent sorrow and repentance" was unavailable and hence had taught "equivalent punishment," Campbell reckoned that in the work of Christ there was "equivalent sorrow and repentance." 173 The work of Christ has both a "retrospective" aspect, which relates to the remission of sins, and a "prospective" aspect, which relates to the gift of eternal life. 174 Jesus as the incarnate Son of God offered a perfect and vicarious repentance and confession vis-a-vis human sins to God the Father. This confession ... must have been a perfectAmen in humanity to thejudgment of Godon the sin of man .... [Indeed,] that response has all the elements of a perfect repentance in humanity for all the sin of man,-a perfect sorrow-a perfect contrition-all the elements of such a repentance, and that in absolute perfection, all-excepting the personal consciousness of sin;-and by that Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 790-91. Ibid., p. 792. Grotius, Defense,chs. 7-10; Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 180. Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 792. 5th ed. with introd. by Edgar P. Dickie (London: James Clarke and Co., 1959), pp. 69, 133, 116. 171. Ibid., p. 137. 172. Edwards, Satisfactionfor Sin, 2.1-3. 173. Campbell, The Nature of theAtonement,pp. 137-39. 174. Ibid., chs. 6-7. Campbell said that "forgiveness must precede atonement, and the atonement must be the form of the manifestation of the forgiving love of God, not its cause" (p. 18).

166. 167. 168. 169. 170.

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response in Amen to the mind of God in relation to sin is the wrath of God rightly met, and that is accorded to divine justice which is its due, and could alone satisfy it. 175 According to Campbell, Jesus' continuity with the Father was unbroken on the cross, and his vicarious penitence embraces his intercession as well as his death. 176 2. Later Exponents of the Vicarious Confession Theory

Robert Campbell Moberly (1845-1903), an Anglican theologian, affirmed that "effectual atonement for sin requires at once a perfect penitence and a power of perfect holiness." Sinful humans can supply neither, but both of these "were attained ... in the life and in its climax, which is the death, of the Son ofMan,Jesus Christ." 177 Moberly criticized Campbell for his understanding of Jesus' cry of dereliction on the cross as a statement of trust and for his neglect of the Holy Spirit and of the Eucharist in relation to the work of Christ. 178 Moberly's view has been called a "manward" theory that attempted to correlate the "objective" and "subjective" aspects by means of "mysticism."179 Mackintosh found that Moberly had altered Campbell's theory in three ways: by an inclusive view of personality, by joining sacramentalism to the theory, and by making forgiveness '"provisional"' rather than absolute. 180 Moberly has been faulted for interpreting the work of Christ in terms of penance (poenitentia)rather than repentance (met,anoia ).181 Eugene Garrett Bewkes (1895- ?) wrote sympathetically of the life and thought of Campbell. 182 3. The Vicarious Confession Theory Evaluated

For Cave, Campbell's theory has the great value of treating the atonement "in its own light" and "not through the distorting media of ideas derived from alien sources." 183 Mackintosh 184 and Franks 185 commended 175. Ibid., pp. 135-37. 176. Ibid., pp. 218, 287-89. 177. Atonementand Personality(London:John Murray, 1901), pp. ll0, lll. 178. Ibid., pp. 407-10. 179. Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement,pp. 370-72. 180. HistoricTheoriesof Atonement,pp. 219-25. 181. Ibid., pp. 227; Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 239. 182. Legacyof a ChristianMind:]ohn McLeod Campbell,Eminent Contributorto TheologicalThought (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1937). Bewkes labelled Moberly's view that of "vicarious penitence" (p. 296) and implied that Campbell's was that of"vicarious confession" (pp. 181-88). Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,pp. 115-18, has made the same distinction. 183. The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 233-35, based on Campbell, The Nature of theAtonement,ch. 5. 184. HistoricTheoriesof Atonement,p. 126. 185. A Historyof the Doctrineof the Work of Christ,2:397-98.

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Campbell for stressing the fatherhood of God. The Scottish theologian regarded God's wrath and man's guilt as real. 186 On the negative side, Campbell's treatment of Jesus' cry of dereliction as a statement of trust has been said to contradict the perfection of his manhood. 187 Furthermore, "sorrow for another's sin and that realization of its heinousness possible only to the sinless cannot really be described as repentance." 188 Indeed "the New Testament does not present Christ as repenting for men's sins." 189 Must we completely renounce the penal element in Jesus' death? 19° Culpepper has asked: "Can one who knows no sin give a perfect confession of man's sin or express a perfect repentance for sin?" 191 E. THE SACRIFICIAL THEORY OF FREDERICK CYRIL NUGENT HICKS (1872-1942) AND VINCENT TAYLOR

1. The Sacrificial Theory Stated Although the concept of sacrifice is to be found in other theories of the saving work of Christ, it is central to the sacrificial theory. Hicks, an Anglican bishop, affirmed: "Life-its recovery, uplifting, and communication-is the ruling conception of sacrifice .... " First, life had to be "surrendered" in death both by Jesus and by his disciples. Second, life was not only surrendered but also "offered," "accepted," and "lifted" to the heavenly, and hence disciples were "transformed." Third, life is maintained by being communicated or "shared" through the Messianic meal. Sacrifice is not to be joined only to death but indeed to life. 192 Taylor, an English Methodist, after rejecting the moral influence theory 193 as having no basis in Jesus' passion-sayings, after allowing for Mackintosh, HistoricTheoriesof Atonement,p. 218. Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof the Atonement,p. 354. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 233. Humphreys, The Deathof Christ,p. 64. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 117. Ibid. On the similarities with and differences from the penal and moral influence theories, see Culpepper, pp. 116-17. On the similarities and differences between Campbell and Schleiermacher and Ritschl, see Franks, A Historyof the Doctrineof the Work of Christ,2:400, and Bewkes, Legacyof a ChristianMind, pp. 275-86. 192. The Fullnessof Sacrifice:An Essayin Reconciliation(London: Macmillan, 1930), pp. 177, 148-49, 175, 187, 180-84, 351. Hicks, pp. 255-353, proceeded to trace historically and to defend theologically the concept of the Eucharist as "a true and proper sacrifice, or, ... as an integral part, for us on earth, of the One Sacrifice in its fulness" and to identify "the Body and the Blood of the Eucharist" as "the Body and Blood of the glorified, not the crucified, Christ" (pp. 346, 347). Such Eucharistic theology, however, is not essential to the sacrificial theory, as an examination of Vincent Taylor's writings makes clear. 193. See below, ch. 47, I, B.

186. 187. 188. 189. 190. 191.

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the validity of "penal suffering" which is "ethical and spiritual" rather than "legal," and after declining to adopt the eternal atonement theory, 194 set forth the sacrificial theory as one that "binds together the several ideas which are implicit in the Passion-sayings." 195 The aim of sacrifice is a restored fellowship; its medium is a representative offering; its spiritual condition is the attitude of the worshipper; its rationale is the offering of life; its culmination is sharing in the life offered by means of the sacred meal. These ideas form a natural background against which the Passion-sayings can be readily understood. 196 The Suffering Servant of Isaiah, not ''the sacrificial system of Judaism," was, according to Taylor, the primary source of Jesus' self-understanding of his passion.Jesus' sacrifice has an unparalleled "moral and spiritual value" and is not "limited ... in respect of time or place." Jesus' "self-offering" includes three aspects: "His perfect obedience to the Father's will," "His perfect submission to the judgment of God upon sin," and, following Campbell and Moberly, "His perfect penitence for the sins of men." 197 This offering, when received by faith, becomes the vehicle of the sinner's approach to God. It does not render his obedience unnecessary. Rather it makes it possible. 198 According to Taylor, Jesus' death can be properly identified as "vicarious, representative, and sacrificial." 199

2. The Sacrificial Theory Evaluated Taylor himself thought that his theory was valuable in that it unifies "the various elements of New Testament teaching," closely connects "the representative ministry of Christ" with the believers' appropriation of its benefits by faith, and well "serves the needs" of Christian preaching, worship, devotion, and service. 200 By rejecting penal substitution 201 while trying to retain "penal suffering," however, Taylor has actually eliminated one strand of New Testament teaching. Moreover, it seems that Hicks was more intent upon vindicating the concept of Eucharist as sacrifice than of explaining how by virtue of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ human beings are made right 194. See below, ch. 47, II, B, 1. 195.Jesus and His Sacrifice:A Study of the Passion-Sayingsin the Gospels(London: Macmillan, 1937), pp. 299-303, 285-90, 294; TheAtonementin New Testament Teaching(2d ed.; London: Epworth Press, 1945), pp. 92,214. 196. Jesus and His Sacrifice,p. 295. One sees here the communion theory of sacrifice discussed above, I, A, 1, a, 2. 197. Ibid., pp. 295-96, 295, 307-10. 198. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 119. 199. Ibid., based on Taylor, TheAtonementin New TestamentTeaching,pp. 28-30, 49-53, 173-79. 200. The Atonementin New TestamentTeaching,p. 9. 201. Ibid., pp. 85-90.

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with God. Culpepper is doubtful that the sacrificial theory "alone is adequate to express the richness of the meaning of the atonement. "202 We have found that the New Testament interprets the death of Jesus Christ as sacrifice, as propitiation, and in terms of substitution and, especially in Paul and in John, reckons his death to be not only consonant with but also reflective of God as righteous. We have probed the question of the moral necessity of Jesus' death. We have examined five of the postbiblical theories concerning the saving work of Christ, which seek to offer a God-oriented rationale for his cross in terms of satisfaction of God's honor, penal substitution for the sake of God's justice, governmental deterrence of human sinning, vicarious confession of human sin, and obedient, sacrificial offering of life. It is now necessary to examine Jesus' death in relation to the love of God.

202. Interpretingthe Atonement,p. 119.

CHAPTER47

THE CROSS AND THE LOVE OF GOD; THE CROSS AS THE HISTORIC DEED OF THE ETERNAL SON OF GOD In the preceding chapter we considered the death of Jesus in relation to the righteousness of God and/or its allied attributes so that we saw both the biblical categories of sacrifice, propitiation, and substitution, treated in the context of the universality of human sinning, and the so-called "objective" theories concerning the saving activity of Jesus Christ to be addressed to such attributes of God. In sum, Jesus died either to satisfy or to reflect that aspect of God's very nature. Jesus' death, however, must also be viewed in relation to other attributes of God, especially the self-giving love of God. His death likewise needs to be related to the intersecting of time and eternity. These topics are to be pursued in the present chapter.

I. THE CROSS AND THE LOVE OF GOD A. NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING

Although Paul connects the mercy (eleos)of God directly with Jesus' resurrection (Eph. 2:4-5) and God's grace (charis) to that same resurrection (2 Tim. 1:9-10), it is God's self-giving love (agape"") that in the Pauline and J ohannine writings is identified as the impelling motivation for the death of Jesus on the cross. In contrast to the occasional instance wherein a human being would die for a "righteous" or "good" fellow human, "God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8, RSV).

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The Work of Jesus Christ For God so loved (igapisen) the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NIV) This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved (egapesen) us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice [propitiation, KJV] for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10, NIV)

In these texts the love of God is essentially related to Jesus' death on the cross. His death "grew out of' and "expresses God's love for us." To deny this is to teach contrary to the New Testament. The love of God is the motive for the saving work of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Jesus did not die to purchase, obtain, or secure the love of God, but in dying for the salvation of human beings Jesus revealed or demonstrated the self-giving love of the Father. "The death of Christ was the love of God in action." His death is essentially an act of God resulting from and expressive of the grace and holy love of God. As holy love, this divine love is eternally set against sin. It is not mere amiability or moral indifference but rather love with moral integrity and evocative of the amazement of those who gratefully receive its benefits. 1 And can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me ?2

B. THE MORAL INFLUENCE THEORY I. Leading Exponents of the Moral Influence Theory a. Peter Abelard

Without completely divesting himself of the ideas of ransom, sacrifice, and merit, Abelard set forth a new theory of the death of Christ. In his cross he demonstrated the divine love. The locus classicus is John 15:13 (NIV), "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Jesus came to deliver humankind from bondage to sin, and hence there necessarily "should be both preaching by words and exhibition by works." 3 1. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 108, 111-12. 2. Charles Wesley 3. EpitomeChristianaetheologiae,ch. 23, Migne, PL (1855 ed.), 178: 1730-31, as summarized by Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 133-35.

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In commenting on Rom. 3: 19-26 Abelard interpreted "the righteousness of God" as love and concluded concerning Jesus' death that through his unique act of grace manifested to us ... he has more fully bound us to himself by love; with the result that our hearts should be enkindled by such a gift of divine grace .... Yet everyone becomes more righteous-by which we mean a greater lover of the Lord-after the Passion of Christ than before, since a realized gift inspires greater love than one which is only hoped for. Wherefore, our redemption through Christ's suffering is that deeper affection in us which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also wins for us the true liberty of sons of God, so that we do all things out of love rather than fear-love to him who has shown us such grace that no greater can be found .... 4 "It is the divine love manifested in the suffering of Christ and enkindling ours which Abelard most movingly depicts in sermon, letter, and hymn. "5

4. "Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans," in Eugene R. Fairweather, ed. and trans., A ScholasticMiscellany:Anselm to Ockham,vol. 10, LCC (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956), pp. 278-80, 283-84. The Abelardian theory found some expression in a Spanish poem written by an unknown sixteenth-century Spanish poet, translated by Allison Peers, and quoted by John A. Mackay, The OtherSpanish Christ:A Study in the Spiritual Historyof Spain and SouthAmerica(New York: Macmillan, 1933), p. 126. I am not moved my God to love of Thee By heav'n which Thou didst pledge me as reward. I am not moved to cease to grieve Thee, Lord, By thoughts and fears of Hell which threaten me. Thou mov'st me, 0 my God. Mov'd sore am I To see Thee nailed upon that cruel tree, The scorn of men, wounded despitefully. Mov'd am I: Thou dost suffer and dost die. Mov'd am I thus, my Lord, to love Thee; yea, Were there no Heav'n at all, I'd love Thee still, Were there no Hell, my due offear I'd pay. Thou need'st not make me gifts to move my will, For were my hopes ofHeav'n quite fled away, Yet this same love my heart would ever feel. 5. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 137. F. D. E. Schleiermacher is not included as one of the exponents although Strong, SystematicTheology,p. 734, and Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 113, have so classified him and]. K. Mozley, The Doctrineof theAtonement(London: Duckworth, 1915), p. 165, hinted at such. Schleiermacher, The ChristianFaith, pp. 458-59, did briefly allude to Jesus' "suffering unto death" as manifesting "to us an absolutely self-denying love," but he did not couple with such the enkindling or evoking of the love of Jesus on the part of believers.

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b. Horace Bushnell (1802-76)

A Congregational pastor in New England, Bushnell set forth "vicarious sacrifice" as the key concept for understanding the suffering and death of Jesus. For him "vicarious" did not mean that Jesus bore our sins in our place in fulfillment of God's justice but rather that he engaged in enormous self-giving as he, identifying sympathetically with human beings, suffered "their adversities and pains" and took "the burden of their evils." He therefore bore our sins very much as he had borne the infirmities of those whom he physically healed. "Love is a principle essentially vicarious in its own nature," and thus the cross shows that God the Father suffered, for "there is a cross in God before the wood is seen upon Calvary. "6 c. Hastings Rashdall

An Anglican tutor and dean, Rashdall held that the Apostle Paul taught that human beings are justified through the death of Jesus Christ via penal substitution. On the basis of I Cor. 15:3b he argued that such an objective view of Jesus' death had been held by the primitive church prior to Paul's conversion, probably because Isaiah 53 had been applied to Jesus the Messiah, though Peter's sermons in Actswere resurrection-centered. But, Rashdall contended, the teaching of Jesus contained no such understanding of his death, and neither did the other New Testament books. Even Paul did not reckon Jesus' death as placating the Father's anger, and in Paul's later epistles there is more emphasis on the cross as exhibiting divine love.7 Rashdall alleged that Paul's doctrine is contrary to our modern "moral consciousness" and hence should be rejected. Praising Abelard's theory and tracing it to the Johannine writings and to Origen, he espoused the view that Jesus demonstrated both by his life and by his death the love of God-this being the "fullest ... revelation of God that has ever been made" and the embodiment of the "moral and religious ideal." He also concluded that the love shown by Jesus by its "regenerating effect" awakens a human "answering love."8 d. Robert S. Franks Franks, finding Abelard's theory to be "the explanation of the Atonement which goes to the very heart of the matter" and tracing that theory to its 6. The VicariousSacrificeGroundedin Principlesof UniversalObligation(London: Alexander Strahan, 1866), pp. 5-9, 7, 23, 35. Later in Forgivenessand Law, Groundedin PrinciplesInterpretedby Human Analogies(New York: Scribner, Armstrong and Co., 1874), Bushnell modified his position somewhat by insisting that in addition to divine sympathy there must be costly or propitiatory suffering if forgiveness is to be granted. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 222-23. 7. The Idea of Atonementin ChristianTheology(London: Macmillan, 1919), pp. 83-98, 75-83,45-49, 150-89, 100-101. 8. Ibid., pp. 98, 357-62, 448,450. For a critique ofRashdall's position, see]. P. Wroe, The Atonementand the Modern Mind (Rome: Typis Pontificiae Universitatis Gregorianae, 1939).

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roots in the New Testament (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:19) and in Augustine of Hippo, 9 sought to utilize the method of Anselm of Canterbury in WhyGod Becamea Man for the restatement and improvement of Abelard's theory, which he preferred to label "experiential" rather than "moral." From Anselm Franks would learn that the theological question centers in faith, or authority, and reason, that tradition should be subject to the criticism of reason, that "theology must find a standing ground justifiable by reason," and that Christian theology needs a "metaphysical basis." But Franks's post-Enlightenment posture found the center of Christianity in experience, not, as did Anselm, in law and metaphysics. 10 He undertook then to provide a better statement of the Abelardian theory. The "essence of Christianity is the revelation of the love of God through Christ to the moral personality." "Such is the nature oflove: love kindles love." Moreover, "so far as man knows and rejects the love of God, so far he is sinful." "We are guilty before God, as He accounts us rebellious against His love," and the judgment "that annuls the guilt of sin is forgiveness." Laying aside as unnecessary any strict "expiation or satisfaction" and regarding "payment" and "forgiveness" as mutually exclusive, Franks insisted: "We castno slightupon the morallaw, when we acceptforgivenessat the hands of God.Wesimply recognizelove as the highestmoralprinciple." There was "the Divine initiative in the Cross." Jesus' sufferings were "not purificatory, or expiatory, or satisfactory" but "revelatory." His death "brought to a focus that whole energy oflove"; unlike other martyrs, Jesus "exclusively" "lived" "in the power of the divine Love." But Franks stopped short of affirming that God suffered, speaking rather of Jesus' "human revelation of the Divine Love." Jesus' death "makes the sinner forgivable just because it creates penitence and trust." 11

2. Evaluation ofthe Moral Influence Theory The strengths of the moral influence theory are chiefly two; one pertains to the divine love and the other to nature of God. First, the theory does uphold and emphasize the truth that the death of Jesus occurred because of God's love for sinful humans and is a revelation of that divine love. The saving work of Jesus Christ reveals God's love, and "the love of Christ is [indeed] the love of God." 12 Second, the theory rightly presents

9. On the Catechisingof the Uninstructed4.7. 10. The Atonement(London: Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 2, 6, 3-4, 6-26. 11. Ibid., pp. 152, 153, 155, 156, 158, 157, 166, 167, 168, 169, 166. 12. Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,pp. 254-55. See also Culpepper, Interpreting theAtonement,p. 90, and Mozley, The Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 133.

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God as Father-the term and concept central to the teaching of Jesus, not as Deceiver of the devil, feudal Lord, or governingJudge. 13 The weaknesses are more numerous. First, the moral influence theory, especially as set forth by Bushnell and Rashdall, denies any objective basis for the atonement-whether through ransom, satisfaction, or expiation-and hence undermines thereby its own validity.14 The love demonstrated by Christ is not related significantlyto human guilt. 15Jesus' death must necessarily have been "more than a moving spectacle addressed to men." The theory is like a father who seeks to prove his love for his child by "thrusting his hand" into a fire when the child is not in real danger. 16 Indeed, the "subjective appropriation of the atonement depends upon the objective fact of the atonement." 17 Second, the theory ignores the holiness and the justice of God and "unfairly appropriates" the term "vicarious."18 Third, the theory, especially as framed by Rashdall, disconnectingJesus' cross and forgiveness, tends to shift the center of focus from Jesus' death to his teaching and example. 19 Fourth, the theory tends to neglect and to offer no explanation of Jesus' agony in Gethsemane and his cry of dereliction on the cross.2°Fifth, the theory seems open to the charge of having a Pelagian view of human beings and of salvation. Bernard of Clairvaux was probably the first to make this accusation. 21 According to Alan Richardson, the theory makes salvation dependent upon what man does (that is, upon his own efforts after repentance and amendment) as much as upon what God does: man saves himself by looking upon the Crucified .... [A]nd thus, in the long run, God's attitude towards mankind-whether he is able to forgive them or not-depends upon their attitude towardsJesus. 22

13. Alan Richardson, Creedsin the Making: A Short Introductionto the Historyof ChristianDoctrine(2d ed.; London: Student Christian Movement Press, 1941), p. 110. 14. Culpepper, Interpretingthe Atonement,p. 91. 15. Wolf, No Cross,No Crown, p. 150; Mozley, The Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 133. 16. Mullins, The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,pp. 308-9. 17. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement, p. 91. 18. Strong, SystematicTheolog;y, pp. 735-38. 19. Humphreys, The Death of Christ,pp. 71-72; Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 252. 20. Mullins, The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,p. 309. 21. Grensted, A Short Historyof the Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 107. For Grensted, Abelard as "an individualist" failed to recognize "either the solidarity of mankind in sin, or the solidarity of the redeemed in Christ." 22. Creedsin the Making, p. 110.

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The moral influence theory, therefore, clearly conveys truth about the death of Jesus Christ, 23 but it seems not to be able to stand alone as a rationale for that death. It rightly points to the importance of the experiential appropriation of the benefits of Jesus' death. Yet this subjective aspect derives its significance from the fact that there is also an objective or transcendent aspect of Jesus' saving work-that is, it has significance in respect to God's nature-righteous and loving-and purpose. Other dimensions of truth are needed for a full-orbed understanding of the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection. Even Rashdall found the crucial question for the moral influence theory to be not its "truth" but its "sufficiency. "24

II. THE CROSS AS THE HISTORIC DEED OF THE ETERNAL SON OF GOD Ought the death and resurrection of Jesus to be related meaningfully not only to time, or history, but also to eternity, and, if so, how? Is the relation to eternity to be found only in the eternality of Jesus' person, or also in the eternality of his saving deed? To answer such important questions, we must turn to the New Testament and then to two more of the theories. A. NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING

I.Jesus' Redemptive Work There is a specificity or historical particularity about Jesus' death in the New Testament. In or by his death he did something on which human redemption or salvation depends. He gave "his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45, NIV). Jesus declared: "'I have overcome the world"' (John 16:33) and "'It is finished"' (John 19:30). According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, "now he has appeared once for all (hapax) at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself' (9:26). Moreover, "he entered the Most Holy Place once for all (ephapax) by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption" (aionian lutrosin) (9: 12). After Jesus had offered his "single sacrifice for sins" ( 10: 12, RSV) or "made purification for sins" (1:3), he sat down at the Father's right hand (1:3; 10:12). According to Revelation, "'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, 23. In ibid., p. 109, Richardson declared concerning the theory: "Calvary is thus the school of penitence of the human race, for there men of all ages and races have learned the depth and power of the love of God.Jesus finally brought home to men by his death what he had never quite succeeded in imparting by his teaching, that the greatest thing in life is self-giving love, and that true greatness consists in the ability to become the servant of all." 24. The Idea of Atonementin ChristianTheology,p. 438. See Culpepper, Interpreting theAtonement,p. 90. On the confusion of the moral influence and the example theories, see below, II, B, 2, b.

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because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation"' (5:9, NIV).25

2.Jesus as the Only and Eternal Son of God The one who died for humankind on the cross is the only and eternal Son of God who became man. 26 The Roman centurion declared at the time of the crucifixion, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Matt. 27:54, RSV).27 According to Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ. ... and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). "For if while we were sinners we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life" (Rom. 5: 10). In the great self-emptying passage (Phil. 2:5-8) which climaxes in the cross the term "Son of God" is not employed, but reference is made to his "equality with God." "He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1: 13-14). According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, it was God's "Son" who "made purification for sins" ( I :2,3). "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him ... " (5:8-9). In First John the one who is "the propitiation for our sins" (2:2, KJV) is the Father's Son ( I :3; 2:22-24; 4: 14-15 ). How ought the death of Jesus as an historical event to be understood in relation to the eternal nature and activity of God? How do the nature and identity of Jesus himselfaffect the significance of his death as an historic event or deed? These two questions can best be explored by examining two additional theories of the saving work of Christ. B. TWO THEORIES OF THE SAVING WORK OF JESUS CHRIST

1. The Eternal Atonement Theory The question as to the relation of the temporal to the eternal in the death of Jesus may arise from a New Testament text, namely, Revelation 13:8b, concerning the worship of the beast "rising out of the sea" (RSV). The KJV translates as follows: "whose names are not written in the book oflife of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Phillips and NIV also take "from the foundation [or creation] of the world" as modifying "slain." ButJB, NEB, and TEV take "since the foundation of the world" to modify "written." Only with the former translation does the text have possible import for the question being discussed. The question of the relation of the temporal to the eternal in Jesus' death may also arise from 25. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 77-79. 26. On the unique sonship of Jesus to God the Father, see above, ch. 42, I; on the eternal preexistence of the Word or Son of God, see above, ch. 43, IL 27. JB, NEB, and Phillips render it "a son of God."

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the context of dealing with the theological-philosophical question of time and eternity. It may likewise arise partly from considering the relationship of believers under the Old Covenant to the death and resurrection and hence the saving efficacy of Jesus Christ. a. Leading Exponents of the Eternal Atonement Theory

1) Augustus Hopkins Strong Strong espoused what he called the "ethical theory of the atonement," which grounds the necessity for Jesus' death in God's holiness and calls for substitutionary punishment. But he joined to such a theory a qualifying concept that constitutes essentially another theory. Assuming that Christ as the pre-incarnate Word had united himself with humankind, 28 Strong located the atonement beyond the historical death of Jesus.

The historical work of the incarnate Christ is not itself the atonement,-it is rather the revelation of the atonement. The suffering of the incarnate Christ is the manifestation in space and time of the eternal suffering of God on account of human sin. Yet without the historical work which was finished on Calvary, the age-long suffering of God could never have been made comprehensible to men. The life that Christ lived in Palestine and the death that he endured on Calvary were the revelation of a union with mankind which antedated the Fall. Being thus joined to us from the beginning, he has suffered in all sin .... 29 Strong then concluded: Christ therefore, as incarnate, rather revealed the atonement than made it. The historical work of atonement was finished upon the Cross, but that historical work only revealed to men the atonement made both before and since by the extra-mundane Logos. 30 2) Donald M. Baillie Baillie expressed sympathy for the eternal atonement theory:

To reduce the importance of the historical event would be contrary to every instinct of Christian faith; and yet it seems impossible to say that the divine sin-bearing was confined to that moment of time, or is anything less than eternal.

28. Carl F. H. Henry, PersonalIdealismand Strong'sTheology(Wheaton, Ill.: Van Kampen Press, 1951), pp. 61, 84, 85, 95, 126-28, 176-77, found that Strong's emphasis on the uniting of the extra-mundane Word with humankind was not a part of Strong's earliest theology but came only after he embraced "ethical monism," i.e., philosophical personalism, c. 1894. 29. SystematicTheology,p. 715. 30. Ibid., p. 762.

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The Work of Jesus Christ As God was incarnate in Jesus, so we may say that the divine Atonement was incarnate in the passion of Jesus. There has never been an age when it would have been true to say that God was not carrying the load of the sins of His people and thus making atonement and offering forgiveness. 31

Baillie cited Revelation 13:8b, noted that the participle estauromenos is perfect, not aorist, in Paul's expression "Christ crucified," and quoted from Blaise Pascal: "Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world. "32 b. Evaluation of the Eternal Atonement Theory

The eternal atonement theory has the value of attempting to relate Jesus' death to the sequence of time or to eternity as well as to the moment of his death. It does not allow his death to become isolated from the rest of the history of redemption. There are, however, some significant weaknesses. First, the New Testament texts relative to Jesus' death and saving work, with the possible exception of Revelation 13:8b, seem to understand that he accomplished or completed atonement or sin-bearing by and in his dying and being raised from the dead and do not suggest that his cross was only an aperture through which by faith an eternal process of atonement was made known. Second, in Strong's formulation of the theory its cogency seems to rest on the presumed union of the pre-incarnate Word of God with humankind long before his incarnation. We must ask whether this is a biblical idea or has been derived from an extra-biblical source or sources. Third, it would seem better to connect God's purpose to save humanity with transtemporal concepts than to de-historicize the saving work of Christ with possible Gnosticizing tendencies. Vincent Taylor, while acknowledging his "fascination" for this theory, yet concluded that "it needs to be supplemented by another solution of the mystery, which accepts the truth of the Eternal sacrifice, but gives a greater place to the exercise of faith in Christ and reliance on His redemptive ministry in time and in eternity. 33 From a theory that focuses on the relationship between time and eternity we turn to a theory which allows its view of Jesus' person to shape its understanding of his work in our behalf. 31. God Was in Christ,pp. 190, 191, 192. 32. Ibid., pp. 192, 194. Baillie actually paraphrased Pascal, Thoughts,553. Baillie quoted from Emil Brunner, The Mediator:A Study of the CentralDoctrineof the ChristianFaith, trans. Olive Wyon (London: Luttetworth Press, 1934), pp. 504-5, as if to gain support, but Brunner was not dealing with time and eternity but rather with two concepts of history, Historieand Geschichte. 33. The Atonementin New TestamentTeaching,p. 214.

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2. The Example Theory a. Leading Exponents of the Example Theory

1) Faustus Socinus (FaustoSozzini) Socinus, who took ideas from his native Italy and its Renaissance to Poland's antitrinitarian, anabaptist, immersionist community known as the Minor Reformed Church, with which, despite some theological differ34 ences, he became identified, published in 1594 Dejesu Christoservatore. He wrote to refute Calvin's penal substitionary theory as it had been set forth by the French Protestant, Jacques Couet (1546-1608). Socinus's Christology included the denial of the divine nature and unique sonship of Jesus Christ. Socinus recognized his virginal conception, holy life, and rulership over all things and considered Jesus as "the second" "cause of our salvation." Although only a man, Jesus was nevertheless to be worshiped. Socinus emphasized Jesus' prophetic and kingly offices and deemphasized the priestly. 35 According to Socinus, ... Jesus Christ is our Saviour because He announced to us the way of eternal salvation, confirmed, and in His own person, both by the example of His life and by rising from the dead clearly showed it (i.e., eternal life), and will give that eternal life to us who have faith in him. We who have eternal life have received it since "the punishment of eternal death, which we have merited by God's free will and decree, is forgiven us through God's ineffable mercy, and in its place is given the reward of eternal life." 36 God's mercy is confirmed to human beings by Jesus' miracles, his death for the establishment of the new covenant, and his resurrection. 37 Jesus is our Mediator "not because He placates a God angry with men, but because God uses Him as an announcer and interpreter. "38 Furthermore, "faith is not the belief that by the death of Christ our sins are blotted out; it is rather to obey Christ and God and to believe what Christ taught .... "39 34. The Latin text may be found in Socinus, opera omnia, 2 vols., Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum (Irenopolis, 1656), 2: 115-246. 35. Otto Zockler (1833-1906), "Socinus, Faustus, Socinians," The New Schaff-HerzogEncyclopediaof ReligiousKnowledge,10:491-92; Racovian Catechism,5.1., ET (1818), p. 196. I am indebted to Robert L. Phillips for assistance concerning Couet. 36. Dejesu Christoservatore,1.2, as transl. and quot. by Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. I 71, 172. 37. Ibid., 1.3, as interp. by Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 172. 38. Ibid., I. 7, as transl. and quot. by Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 172. 39. Ibid., 4.11, as interp. by Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 174.

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2) Left-wing Ritschlians 40 Adolf Harnack, by summarizing the teaching of Jesus as "the kingdom of God and its coming," "God the Father and the infinite value of the human soul," and "the higher righteousness and the commandment of love," so focused on Jesus as teacher as to deemphasize the distinctive Messianic mission of Jesus and thereby removed from the center of Christian belief Jesus' death. "The Gospel, as Jesus proclaimed it, has to do with the Father only and not with the Son." 41 Wilhelm Bousset, playing down the idea that Jesus "assigned any special purpose and significance to his death," inclined to the conclusion that Jesus saw his death in the tradition of prophetic suffering. As the Jewish tradition made the martyr-brothers of the Mac-

cabean rising repeatedly express in their prayers the thought that their unmerited suffering must appease the wrath of God against his people, so Jesus may have caught at this idea and have expressed the hope that through his suffering the wrath of God against the multitude (oflsrael) might be appeased. And indeed a deep and eternal truth lies hidden in this faith in the vicarious suffering of the righteous and the infinite value of martyrdom. . . . One thing only is certain, that Jesus never conceived or expressed the thought that God's forgiveness of sins depended absolutely upon his own sacrificial death or upon the vicarious atonement rendered by his death. The parable of the Prodigal Son and the unqualified certainty with which he constantly proclaimed the omnipresent, merciful, and sin-forgiving God emphatically protest against such a view.42 If in Socinus the focus was on Jesus as teacher, miracle-worker, and announcer of divine mercy and of eternal life, in the left-wing Ritschlians Jesus was seen as believer in God the Father and martyr for his people. If Jesus died as a martyr, then presumably human beings are saved by following his example of obeying the will of God even unto death. Not only the left-wing Ritschlians but also Liberal Protestantism in general tended to stress the life of Jesus and to minimize the saving aspect of his death, whereas more conservative Protestants have tended to stress the death of Jesus and to minimize his life. According to Vincent Taylor, the attempt to return to "'the simple teaching of Jesus,' 40. Not all left-wing Ritschlians were favorable to the Socinian theory; see Wilhelm Herrmann, The Communionof the Christianwith God:A Discussionin Agreementwith the Viewof Luther, trans. J. Sandys Stanyon, Theological Translation Library, vol. 4 (London: Williams and Norgate, 1985), pp. 103-5, 110. 41. What Is Christianity?trans. Thomas Bailey Saunders, Theological Translation Library, vol. 14 (London: Williams and Norgate, 1901), pp. 51, 158-59, 144. 42.Jesus, trans. Janet Penrose Trevelyan and ed. W. D. Morrison, Crown Theological Library, vol. 14 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1906), pp. 205-8.

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consisting in the principle of self-sacrifice, is a modernist myth," not even to be found in the Epistle of James. 43 b. Evaluation of the Example Theory

The example theory, on the positive side, does give emphasis to the death of Jesus as an example for Christians, which is a motif to be found in the New Testament. But it is imperative to differentiate clearly between a legitimate emphasis on example as found in 1 Peter and the less than adequate employment of the exemplary motif within the example theory. Peter admonished his readers to follow the example of Christ in innocent suffering, Christ having suffered as one "who did no sin" (1 Pet. 2:21-22, KJV). Hence the Christians were not to resist when faced with persecution. Thus the New Testament's employment of the death of Jesus as an example is not so much the central meaning of his cross as it is the consequence of his cross. The example motifis basic to Christian ethics, but not an altogether adequate single interpretation of the theological significance of the cross. "The cross cannot be my example unless it is first my redemption. "44 The very exemplary value of the cross is dependent on the fact that the cross is more than an example. The weaknesses or deficiencies of the example theory have often been identified. First, it normally denies the deity or the divine nature of Jesus Christ, including his preexistence. 45 "Socinus's own attitude to Christ was an impossible compromise. Christ was to be worshipped, and yet He was only a man." 46 The value of Jesus' suffering and death turns on the question of his person. If the death of Jesus were only the decease of a human martyr, like Socrates or one of our astronauts, then the cross does not embody the redemptive activity of God. "His death could have exceptional value for us because he was an exceptional Person. "47 But the example theory has been held without a denial of the deity of Christ. 48 Second, it denies the substitutionary aspect of the saving work of Christ and tends not to explain how human beings are delivered from the guilt of sin. 49 Third, it neglects the holiness and the righteousness of God and fails to relate God's mercy, which it does stress, to these. Fourth, it shifts the focus on the saving work of Christ from his death to his teaching, his miracles, and/or his resurrection. 5°Fifth, it fails to provide an adequate 43. The Atonementin New TestamentTeaching,p. 43. 44. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 86. 45. Cave, The Doctrineof the Personof Christ,pp. 155-56. 46. Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 175. 4 7. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 87. 48. Frank Stagg, "The Mind in ChristJesus: Philippians 1:27-2:18," Reviewand Expositor77 (Summer 1980): 333-47. Stagg found the example theory in Phil. 2:5-11. 49. Strong, SystematicTheology,pp. 730-31; E.G. Robinson,ChristianTheology, pp. 276-77. 50. Strong, SystematicTheology,p. 733.

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explanation for the awesome sufferings and agonizing death of Jesus. "The unmartyrlike anguish cannot be accounted for, and the forsaking by the Father cannot be justified, upon the hypothesis that Christ died as a mere witness to truth." There have been martyrs who have had no Gethsemane. 51 Some theologians 52 have mistakenly confused or identified the moral influence and the example theories. Not only are the central ideas, namely, the drawing power of divine love and example and annunciation of divine mercy, different but also the example theory normally involves a denial of the deity of Christ and the moral influence theory does not. From the relation of Jesus' death to the love of God, the correlation of it with time and eternity, and the correlation of it with his person we turn now to the conjoint treatment of his death and resurrection as God's victory over sin, death, and Satan.

51. Ibid., p. 731. 52. Robinson, Christian Theology, pp. 273-78; Roark, The Christian Faith, pp. 152-53; Hoekema, The Four Major Cults, p. 209.

CHAPTER48

THE CROSS/RESURRECTION AS RANSOM-VICTORY OVER SIN, DEATH, AND SATAN The correlation of Jesus' death with the righteousness of God has led to a consideration of the various objective theories of his saving work. The correlation of his death with the love of God has led to a study of the so-called subjective theories. The correlation of his death with eternity as well as time has led to an examination of two other theories. Now the correlation of Jesus' death and resurrection with the forces of moral evil, human and superhuman, and with death as the consequence of moral evil will cause us to reckon with another of the historic views in its two, ancient and modern, expressions.

I. NEW TESTAMENT TEACHING Previously 1 we have dealt with Mark 10:45 and par. with special reference to the phrase "for" or "instead of many." Now the noun, lytron,"ransom," in that same sentence becomes our focus. The self-giving, serving Jesus as the Son of Man gave "his life as a ransom for many" (RSV,JB, NEB). Modern scholars are not certain whether lytronderived from the battlefield or from the slavemarket, 2 but not a few writers during the early centuries of Christianity took the term lytronas their point of departure for speculation as to Jesus' payment of the ransom. The cognate verb lytroun,translated "to ransom" or "to redeem," was used in Tit. 2: 14 (RSV) to refer to Christ's giving of himself for us "to redeem us from all iniquity" and in 1 Pet. 1:18-19 (NIV) to his redeeming persons "from the empty way oflife handed down from" their "forefathers," not by "perishable" "silver or gold," but with his own "precious blood." 1. See Vol. 1 , ch. 41, II, C, 1, a; above, ch. 46, I, C, 2, a. 2. Whale, Victorand Victim,pp. 37, 47.

47

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The verb agorazein, derived from the Roman agora, or marketplace, and translated "to purchase" or "to ransom," appears in Rev. 5:9c (NIV), wherein the Lamb with his blood is said to have "purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." The compound verb exagorazein,also translated "to redeem," was employed by Paul to refer to Christ's redemption from "the curse of the law," that is, death (Gal. 3: 13) and to his redeeming those "under the law" so that they "might receive adoption as sons" (Gal. 4:5, RSV). In none of these texts is Satan specifically mentioned. In most of them sin is either specifically mentioned or implied. Other texts in the New Testament, wherein neither lytroun nor agorazein is used, allude to Christ's rescuing (erysato)humans "from the dominion of darkness" (Col. 1: 13)3 and to his becoming fully human "so that by his death he might is, the destroy (katargisel him who holds the power of death-that devil-and free (apallaxelthose who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Heb. 2: 14-15 ).

II. POSTBIBLICAL VIEWS AS TO CHRIST'S RANSOM-VICTORY A. THE RANSOM MOTIF AMONG THE CHURCH FATHERS

Church Fathers, especially those who wrote in Greek, were prone to give attention to and develop the language of ransom in interpreting the saving significance of Jesus' death and resurrection. Inasmuch as ransom was understood as the price paid for the release of a captive or slave, they asked to whom the ransom was paid and often answered by identifying the recipient as Satan. These same Church Fathers at the same time utilized other motifs, metaphors, or concepts in their total interpretation of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Consequently it seems best to label their teaching concerning ransom a "motif' rather than a comprehensive "theory."

1. lrenaeus For the bishop of Lyons the deliverance of humankind from Satan occurred by means of persuasion, not by violence or deceit. 4 The devil was "fairly vanquished" by one who was born of a woman even as the devil's initial taking advantage of human beings came through a woman. 5 Humankind was indebted not to Satan but "to Him whose commandment we had transgressed at the beginning. "6 Hence 'Justly indeed is he led captive, who had led men unjustly into bondage." 7 John Lawson 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

In Col. 1: 14 apolytrosinis used. Against Heresies5.1.1 (ANF). Ibid., 5.21.1. Ibid., 5.16.3. Ibid., 5.21.3.

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separated Irenaeus's teaching about Christ's persuasion of the devil to release humankind from his teaching about Christ as the Victor or "Champion" who through obedience, both in life and by death, "recapitulated"8 differently from disobedient Adam. 9 Gustav Aulen, on the other hand, saw Irenaeus as having had a more unified doctrine of atonement, that is, one in which the "Divine victory in Christ stands in the center of Irenaeus's thought, and forms the central element in the recapitulatio." For Irenaeus "the thought of sacrifice passes immediately to that ofransom," and Jesus' death is intimately connected with his "life-work" and his resurrection and ascension. Hence Irenaeus becomes key evidence for Aulen's thesis, namely, that the Christ as Victor view is the "classic idea of the Atonement." 10

2. Origen Origen's use of the motif ofransom was only one aspect of his doctrine of the work of Christ, for his role as teacher and as example and his death as a sacrifice were quite prominent. 11 In response to Celsus (latter 2d cent.) he wrote: And there is nothing absurd in a man having died, and in His death being not only an example of death endured for the sake of piety, but also the first blow in the conflict which is to overthrow the power of that evil spirit the devil, who had obtained dominion over the whole world. 12 As an exegete writing on the Gospel of Matthew, Ori gen found concern-

ing 17:22 that by his resurrection Jesus "abolished" "death and overcame the devil" 13 and asked concerning 20:28, after denying that the ransom could have been paid to God: Could it be then to the evil one? For he had us in his power, until the ransom for us should be given to him, even the life [or soul] of 8. See especially ibid., 5.21.2; 3.23.1; and 3.18.7: "God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man .... " 9. The BiblicalTheologyof Saint Irenaeus (London: Epworth Press, 1948), pp. 197-98, 140-54. Lawson also found in Irenaeus the motifs of divinization, incorruption, representative sacrifice, and moral influence (pp. 154-97). 10. ChristusVictor:An HistoricalStudy of the ThreeMain Typesof the Idea of the Atonement,trans. A.G. Hebert (London: S. P. C. K., 1931), pp. 33-38 (esp. 37), 47, 48, 20-23. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 79-88, was sympathetic to Aulen's interpretation of Irenaeus. 11. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 94-98; Grensted, A ShortHistoryof the Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 86; Mozley, The Doctrineof theAtonement,pp. 102-5. 12. Against Celsus7.17 (ANF). 13. Commentaryon Matthew, 13.9 (ANF).

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The Work ofJesus Christ Jesus, since he (the evil one) had been deceived, and led to suppose that he was capable of mastering that soul, and he did not see that to hold Him involved a trial of strength (basanon) greater than he was equal to. Therefore also death ... no longer lords it over Him, He (Christ) having become free among the dead, and stronger than the power of death, and so much stronger than death, that all who will amongst those who are mastered by death may also follow Him [i.e., out of Hades, out of death's domain], death no longer prevailing against them. 14

Origen, then, according to J. K. Mozley, was the first Christian theologian to teach clearly that the death of Christ is a ransom paid to the devil in exchange for the souls of men, forfeited by sin; that the devil overreached himself in the transaction owing to the perfect purity of the Soul of Christ, which it was torture for him to try and retain; while Christ, both for Himself and for all who will follow Him, triumphed over the devil and death. 15 For Cave, Origen probably meant to teach "that the Devil was overcome by deception." 16

3. Cappadocian Fathers For Basil of Caesarea the delivery of an "ordinary human being" to the devil for the release of human captives would not have "induced" the devil to release them. Nothing less than the delivery of the God-man would suffice. 17 Gregory of Nyssa pressed the concept of ransom and utilized a striking metaphor in relation to it. By the fall humankind had been in the power and under the control of the devil. God must deal fairly with the devil in order to emancipate his human captives. Looking upon Jesus as a virginally conceived miracle worker, the devil presumably decided that it was advantageous for him to accept an "exchange" or "ransom" for his captives. But the devil did not discern that deity was joined to Jesus' humanity. Hence in order to secure that the ransom in our behalf might be easily accepted by him who required it, the Deity was hidden under the veil of our nature, that so, as with ravenous fish, the hook of the Deity might be gulped down along with the bait of flesh, and thus, life being introduced into the house of death, and light 14. Ibid., 16.8, trans. by Rashdall, The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology, p. 259. 15. The Doctrine of the Atonement, p, 102. 16. The Doctrine of the Work of Christ, p. 97. 17. Hom. in ps. 7.2, cited by Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, p. 383.

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shining in darkness, that which is diametrically opposed to light and life might vanish .... 18 In a different vein Gregory of N azianzus questioned the whole idea of the rights of the devil in holding humanity. If the ransom were offered to the devil, then "God Himself' would be the ransom and the ransom would be too "illustrious payment for his tyranny." If the ransom were paid to God the Father, God would not have delighted in the blood of his Son when he had not chosen to receive Abraham's offering oflsaac (Gen. 22: 1-19). The Father did not demand but did accept the death of his Son for the sanctification of human beings through the Son's incarnation, and the devil was overcome "by force." 19

4. Augustine of Hippo It seems to be clear that there were several strands in Augustine's doctrine of the saving work of Christ, especially mediation, 20 sacrifice and substitution, deliverance from the devil, moral influence, and divinization. 21 Augustine's doctrine, according to W. G. T. Shedd, "is essentially that of the Fathers who had preceded him." 22 Augustine wrote no monograph on the saving work of Christ. 23 But how precisely did Augustine understand Christ's redemption vis-a-vis the devil? Eugene Portalie ( 1852-1909) contended that "Augustine's theory on the overthrow of the devil positively excludes any idea of ransom," though it does include enslavement by and deliverance from the devil. 24 On the contrary, Eugene Arthur TeSelle, Jr. (1931- ) has concluded that "Augustine clearly holds to the ransom theory of redemption" and even rethinks the patristic teaching. 25 All humankind as a consequence of the fall came under the power of the devil, but the devil was under the power of the 18. Great Cathechism22-24 (NPNF). 19. Orations45.22; Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,pp. 383-84. 20. Walter D. Draughon, III (1955- }, "Atonement Motifs in Augustine," Historical Theology 471-764 Seminar Paper, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, May 1983, pp. 5-16, has persuasively argued for the primacy of mediation in Augustine. 21. Jean Riviere, The Doctrineof theAtonement:A HistoricalEssay,trans. Luigi Cappadelta (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1909), pp. 288-303; Portalie,A Guideto the Thought of Saint Augustine, pp. 162-73; Mozley, The Doctrineof theAtonement,pp. 121-23; Eugene TeSelle, Augustine the Theologian(New York: Herder and Herder, 1970), pp. 165-76; Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,pp. 390-95. 22. A Historyof ChristianDoctrine,2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887), 2:253. 23. Mozley, The Doctrineof theAtonement,p. 121. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 119, has differentiated Augustine's "formal teaching" from his "popular preaching." 24. A Guideto the Thought of Saint Augustine, pp. 169, 168. 25. Augustine the Theologian,p. 165.

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omnipotent God. This subjection of humankind to the devil was just. 26 The devil was overcome not by the power of God but rather by the righteousness of Christ. 27 Christ's overcoming of the devil was also just. 28 Sometimes Augustine referred to the conquest of the devil with no mention of ransom. 29 At times he referred to the blood of Christ as the "price" paid, either with no indication as to whom the payment was made 30 or with an indication that thereby "the devil was not enriched, but bound. "31 In a sermon he used the analogy of a mouse-trap, reminiscent of the hook-bait analogy of Gregory of Nyssa and implying both ransom and trickery: 32 What did our Redeemer do to our captor? As our price, He held out His cross as a mouse-trap and set as bait upon it His own blood. 33

5.John of Damascus Although he retained the metaphor of hook and bait, John of Damascus, often reckoned as the last of the Greek Fathers, insisted that humanity was in captivity to death, not to the devil. Hence the blood of Jesus was not offered to the devil, but instead death swallows up Jesus' body as bait and perishes, giving up its human captives. 34 Before an attempt is made to evaluate the ransom motif in the patristic era we should examine the later Christ as Victor view.

B. THE CHRIST AS VICTOR MOTIF IN THE REFORMATION AND MODERN ERAS Among the Church Fathers, as should be evident, the motif of ransom was a recurrent means of interpreting the death and resurrection of Jesus. Beginning with Martin Luther and occurring again in twenti26. Augustine, On the Trinity 13.12.16. 27. Ibid., 13.14.18. 28. Ibid., 13.16.21; idem, On Free Will 3.10.31; idem, Enchiridion49. According to Jean Riviere, Le dogrnede la redemptionchezsaint Augustin (3d ed.; Paris: J. Gabalda et Cie, 1933), pp. 127-54, the devil improperly used his rights in an abus de pouvoir, but the abuse of power and the ransom are "logically distinct" theories (p. 153). 29. On the Trinity 4.13.17. 30. Expositionson the Book of Psalms 96.5. 31. On the Trinity 13.15.19 (NPNF) 32. Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 795, has denied that Augustine even hinted "that Christ's deity had been veiled in order to trick Satan" and has concluded instead that "Satan was a victim of his own pride." 33. Sermon 130.2, trans. by Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 119; see also Sermons263. l; 134. 6. 34. Expositionof the OrthodoxFaith 3.27. See Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 110-11.

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eth-century Protestantism, there has been a later employment of the Christ as Victor motif without any accompanying use of ransom. I. Martin Luther

Twentieth-century scholars, including those who are Lutherans, have not agreed as to the proper focus for interpreting Luther's doctrine of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Paul Althaus, building on the late nineteenth-century treatise by Theodosius Harnack (1817-89), 35 asserted that Luther's primary focus had been on the work of Christ in relation to God's righteousness and wrath and he had majored on law, guilt, satisfaction, and remission of punishment. Althaus allowed for Christ as Victor as a subordinate motif in Luther's theology. "Luther combines the classical and the Latin concepts ... but in such a way that he decisively follows the Latin line." 36 Gustav Aulen, deploring that Luther's doctrine had characteristically been viewed as of "the Anselmian type," contended instead that "Luther's teaching can only be rightly understood as a revival of the old classic theme of the Atonement as taught by the Fathers, but with a greater depth of treatment." This meant that Jesus by his death and resurrection triumphed over the "tyrants": sin, death, Satan, the law, and the wrath of God. According to Aulen, even when Luther used the language of merit and satisfaction, he was relating these to the victory over the tyrants. 37 Sydney Cave espoused a mediating position, finding in Luther both Christ as Victor and "interpretations of Christ's work of which the Penal theory is a rationalization" and holding that Luther did not attempt a "unified" doctrine of the work of Christ. 38 Philip Saville Watson (1909-83), basically agreeing with Cave, held that in using contemporary "terms such as satisfaction, merit, and sacrifice" Luther was free from the legalism which he found objectionable in the Roman Church, but Watson tilted toward Christ as Victor. 39 35. Luthers Theologie,mit besondererBeziehungauf seine Versohnungs-und Erlosungslehre,2 vols. (Erlangen: Blaesing, 1862-86; 2d ed.; Munich: C. Kaiser, 1927). 36. The Theologyof Martin Luther, trans. Robert C. Schultz (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), pp. 201-23, esp. 222. 37. ChristusVictor,pp. 117-38, esp. 117, 118, 135. 38. The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. 150-58, esp. 154, 157, 158. 39. Let GodBe God!An Interpretationof the Theologyof Martin Luther (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1947), pp. 116-25, esp. 120. Karl Ray Minor (1960- ), "The Relationship of the Penal Satisfaction Motif to the Victory Motif in the Writings of Martin Luther," Historical Theology 471-764 Seminar Paper, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, April 1988, esp. pp. 1-2, 38-43, has concluded that the two motifs in Luther are "independent" yet "blend together," like "two lenses of a pair of binoculars," "to give Luther's Atonement a power and a completeness lacking in the theologies of such men as Anselm and Aulen."

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But one does not have to resolve finally the disputed issue as to the focus in Luther's teaching on Christ's saving work to be able to recognize that he did express the Christ as Victor motif. In The Small Catechism( 1529) he declared that Jesus Christ "has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, delivered me and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with silver and gold but with his holy and precious blood and with his innocent sufferings and death. "40 In The Large Catechism(1529), in explaining how Jesus Christ "has become my Lord," Luther declared: "It means that he has redeemed from sin, from the devil, from death, and from all evil. Before this I had no Lord and King but was captive under the power of the devil .... "41 In commenting on Gal. 3: 13, Luther asserted: "Christ the power of God, righteousness, blessing, grace, and life, overcometh and destroyeth these monsters, sin, death and the curse, without war or weapons, in his own body and in himself." 42 Luther's most celebrated hymn alludes to the conflict and the victory: The Prince of Darkness grimWe tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. 43 The Reformer of Wittenberg even referred to the deceit or trickery of the devil, using the analogy of fisherman, hook, and worm and asserting that the devil choked himself on Christ, was "slain," and was "taken captive by Christ. "44

2. Gustav Aulen Aulen, as we have seen, became the major exponent of the Christ as Victor motif in the present century, labelling it the "classic" or "dramatic" view and reckoning it as "the main line," not a "side-track," in the history of Christian doctrine. He was trying to open a "door" which had "been closed for centuries." For my own part, I am persuaded that no form of Christian teaching has any future before it except such as can keep steadily in view the reality of the evil in the world, and go to meet the evil with a battle-song of triumph. 45 40. 2.2, in The Bookof Concord:The Confesswnsof the Evangeli.col LutheranChurch,trans. and ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), p. 345. 41. 2.2, in The Book of Concord,p. 414. 42. A Commentaryon St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1531), rev. of trans. by Erasmus Middleton in 1575 and ed. Philip S. Watson (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1953), p. 273. 43. "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" 44. Werke, W. A., 20:334-35, as quoted by Aulen, Christus Victor,p. 120. 45. Christus Victor,pp. 20-31 (esp. 31), 162, 176.

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over Sin

3. Sydney Cave Considerably influenced by Aulen but unsure as to the existence and activity of a personal Satan, Cave saw in the Christ as Victor motif a means of dealing with "corporate evil" and of expressing "the victory of His [God's] love and power." He acknowledged that "an examination" of the patristic, the penal, and the moral theories "suggests that the true approach to the doctrine of the Work of Christ will embody elements of value which all of these types have sought to conserve." Yet he concluded: Christ's work was the irruption of the eternal into time; in Him were manifest the resources of the unseen, and the Cross speaks not of defeat but victory. The sin of men was not only exposed but overcome. The resurrection was God's seal on all that Christ had done .... Christ's work for men is not only a revelation of God's love. It was that love in decisive and victorious action. 46

4. Walter T. Conner After having set forth a view principally dependent upon the penal substitutionary theory in an earlier book,4 7 Conner in 1945 commented concerning the ransom motif. "Crude as this view was, it truly represents sin and salvation as a conflict between God and the devil." Citing Aul en and Cave, he wrote of the "inevitable conflict" between man's sin and God's holiness and righteousness. Jesus' cross was "the climax of this conflict." "Jesus did not die as a victim; he died as a victor." "The cross and resurrection ... constitute the ground of victory over evil on a cosmic scale." 48 In a posthumous monograph Conner elaborated upon the nature and inevitability of the conflict inasmuch as Jesus "came into head-on collision" with "the world's best religion." 49 C. EVALUATING THE RANSOM AND THE CHRIST AS VICTOR MOTIFS

Although the differences between ransom and Christ as Victor are not to be obscured, it seems best to evaluate both in a single discussion.

1. Strengths First, the two motifs make the atonement to be essentially the work of God. That atonement is "from start to finish, the costly but victorious conflict of God Himself in Christ, with the forces of evil. "5 Christ's work "is regarded as God's movement towards men." 51 If the subjective theories locate the atonement in the human faith-response and if Anselm

°

46. The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,pp. v-vi, 256-57, 267. 4 7. A Systemof ChristianDoctrine,pp. 380-94. 48. The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 112-19 (esp. 113, 114, 117), 120, 125. 49. The Crossin the New Testament,passim, p. 164. 50. Baillie, God Was in Christ,p. 200. 51. Cave, The Doctrineof the Work of Christ,p. 261.

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tended to stress the manhood of the God-man in his making satisfaction, these motifs clearly set forth a divine atonement. Second, the two motifs present sin and salvation as a cosmic conflict between God and evil powers. God's atonement is "a drama of a world's salvation." 52 Here we find that limited dualism 53 which is necessary if the reality of Satan be acknowledged. Here not only personal sin but also corporate evil is overcome. 54 Third, the two motifs relate more intimately Jesus' cross to his resurrection and his incarnate life and ministry than most of the theories. In the words of Cave: "His death marked the consummation of His struggle with evil. Evil seemed victorious, but God raised Him from the dead .... "55 John R. W. Stott has identified "six stages" in Christ's "conquest" of Satan: "the conquestpredicted" (Old Testament), "the conquest begun in the ministry of Jesus," "the conquestachievedat the cross, "the conquest confirmed and announced" in his resurrection, "the conquest . . . extended"with the church on mission "in the power of the Spirit," and "the conquestconsummatedat the Parousia" (second coming). 56 Fourth, the two motifs bridge the chasm between the objective and the subjective theories. They are objective in that the atonement is not directed to humankind. 57 They are subjective in affording believing human beings the opportunity to participate in Christ's victory over the powers. 2. Weaknesses

First, the ransom motif, as employed in the patristic age, involves what many modern Christians regard as "grotesque" and unacceptable "imagery."58Second, the ransom motif, as spelled out by certain of the Fathers, poses an ethical problem by teaching that the devil was deceived or tricked. Is God the author of deceit? 59 Third, the ransom motif presses unnecessarily upon Mark 10:45 the question as to whom the ransom was paid, thus failing to acknowledge properly the figurative function 60 of the term "ransom." Fourth, the Victor motif, especially as developed by 52. Aulen, ChristusVictor,p. 22. Robert S. Paul, The Atonementand the Sacraments (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960), p. 257, has noted: "Aulen not only revived the note of victory in the ancient images, but he liberated theology from the categories of logic and unimaginative reality in which the doctrine of the Atonement had often been incarcerated and showed that the Church has been most reasonable and most logical when it has expressed the drama of the work of Christ in the pictures and images of the drama itself." 53. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 120. 54. Cave, The Doctrineof the Workof Christ,p. 266. 55. Ibid., p. 260. 56. The Crossof Christ,pp. 231-39. 57. Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 796. 58. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 77. 59. Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 793, interprets Origen as having taught that the devil deceived himself. 60. Baillie, God Was in Christ,p. 200.

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Conner, so magnifies the inevitability of the cross as to jeopardize the freeness of God's grace and Jesus' laying down his life. Fifth, the two motifs do not really specify how the believer is to appropriate Christ's victory while celebrating that he does. Sixth, the Victor motif as explicated by Aulen excludes other biblical metaphors and concepts from what is a singular and exclusive interpretation of the work of Christ. 61 Watson protested against Theodosius Hamack's "unnecessary and, indeed, a false antithesis" between victory over the powers and penal substitution in Luther's theology. 62 The same type of protest may be offered to Aulen. There need not be "mutually incompatible alternatives. "63 In chapters 46, 4 7, and 48 we have considered the cross of Jesus Christ in relation to the righteousness of God, the love of God, the intersecting oftime and eternity, and the triumph over sin, death, and Satan. Therein we have explicated the principal post-biblical motifs or theories concerning the saving work of Christ. Such motifs/theories have often been classified in a threefold manner. Peter Taylor Forsyth identified them as the "triumphant aspect," the "satisfactionary aspect," and the "regenerative aspect." Each of these was then correlated with the patristic age, the medieval and Reformation eras, and the modem age. 64 John Stott, setting forth a similar threefold classification, declared that the chief difference between them is that in each God's work in Christ is directed towards a different person. In the "objective" view God satisfies himself, in the "subjective" he inspires us, and in the "classic" he overcomes the devil. Thus Jesus Christ is successively the Saviour, the Teacher and the Victor, because we ourselves are guilty, apathetic and in bondage. 65 It seems that in such a classification each of the three principal types has its own validity, presumably because each has its foundation in biblical language and thought. The validity of each does not require the equal importance of each. Moreover, it is not necessary to insist with Millard Erickson that "it is only on the basis of the substitutionary view that those other insights bear force" 66 or with John Stott that penal substitution is the "foundation" of all other theories or images, "without which each lacks cogency," and veritably is "the essence of each image." 67 Is it possible to think in terms of a composite exposition of the saving work of Jesus Christ? It is possible, but such an exposition would 61. Culpepper, InterpretingtheAtonement,p. 120. 62. Let GodBe God!p. 119. Seen. 39 above. 63. Stott, The Crossof Christ,p. 230. 64. The Workof Christ(2d ed.; London: Independent Press Ltd., 1938), pp. 199-235, esp. 199. 65. The Crossof Christ,p. 230. 66. ChristianTheology,p. 819. 67. The Crossof Christ,pp. 168, 202-3.

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likely embrace some other Christian doctrines, as the following attempt demonstrates: The atonement consists of the death-resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the twofold event which comprises the saving work of the eternal and incarnate Messianic Son of God, in its nature a historical act of eternal consequence-the penal substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice which is both consistent with God's righteousness and expressive of God's love and which demonstrates God's triumph over sin, death, and Satan, by means of which repentant, believing sinners are drawn through the forgiveness of sins to reconciliation with God and enter into the fellowship of Christ's death-resurrection, marked by the new life of crossbearing and following in His steps in the new community of the forgiven.

CHAPTER49

THE EXTENT OF THE SAVING WORKOF JESUS CHRIST; ATONEMENT AND BODILY HEALING; JESUS' DESCENT INTO HADES Questions pertaining to the necessity, the nature, and the effects of Jesus' death and resurrection are usually reckoned as primary questions for Christian theology. The question as to the extent or scope of Jesus' saving work, or atonement, is often not so classified. Yet since the postReformation era it has loomed large for many Christians, so as to become a classical issue, at least for the Reformed tradition, and we as contemporary Christians need to address anew this issue. The question concerning whether bodily healing has been obtained and is therefore available from the atonement of Jesus Christ is a twentieth-century issue, whereas the history of the concept of Jesus' descent to Hades can be traced to the patristic age.

I. THE EXTENT OF THE SAVING WORK OF JESUS: PARTICULAR (LIMITED) OR GENERAL (UNIVERSAL)? Was the death of Jesus intended to be applicable only to the sins of elect human beings, or was it intended to be applicable to the sins of all humankind? Such is a concise statement of the issue. A. NEW TESTAMENT EVIDENCE

The doctrinal question now under consideration was not a major theme for the New Testament writers, but some texts in the New Testament have been cited in relation to this question, whether in support of one answer or the other, and seem to be pertinent to the question.

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1. Texts Cited in behalf of Particular Atonement Jesus, according to Matt. 1:21 (NIV), '"will save his people (ton laon autou) from their sins."' He declared: '"I lay down my life for the sheep"'(hyperton probaton)(John 10: 15b). Some scholars connect this text with 10:26 and also associate sheep with their antonyms, the goats (cf. Matt. 25:32-33). '"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his lifefor hisfriends"' (hyperton philon autou) (John 15:13). Paul alluded to "'the church of God (ten ekklisian tou theou),which he bought with his own blood"' (Acts 20:28b) and called upon husbands to love their wives ''.just as Christ loved the church (tin ekkl,isian)and gave himself up for her" (hyperautes)(Eph. 5:25). Other texts have been cited to show that God's electing or redeeming love has always been particular: Deut. 4:37; 7:7-10; Mal. 1:2-3; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; Rom. 1:7; 9:13; Col. 3:12; Jude 1. Paul's statement (Rom. 8:32a) that God "did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all" (hyper himon panton) has been taken to support a limited atonement inasmuch as the context (vv. 29-30) refers to predestination of elect persons. 1 2. Texts Cited in behalf of General Atonement a. The "All" and "All Men" Passages

Certain New Testament texts seem to connect Jesus' death with "all" or with "all men." According to Paul "one died for all" (hyper panton), and therefore all died" (2 Cor. 5: 14b, NIV). In contrasting the effects of Adam and of Christ, Paul declared that "the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men" (eis pantas anthropous) (Rom. 5:18b). Rom. 8:32a has also been cited in support of general atonement. Christ "gave himself as a ransom for all" (hyper panton) (1 Tim. 2:6a, RSV), and "the living God" is the one "who is the Savior of all men (sotir panton anthropon), especially of those who believe" (1 Tim. 4:lOb, c, RSV, NIV). Indeed "the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men" (pasin anthropois) (Tit. 2:11, NIV). Moreover, "he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone"(hyperpantos) (Heb. 2:9b). 2

1. Edwin H. Palmer ( 1922-80), The Five Points of Calvinism(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972), pp. 42, 44; Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 826-27; Rienk Bouke Kuiper (1886-1966), For WhomDid ChristDie?A Study of the Divine Design of theAtonement(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), p. 64. 2. Robert Paul Lightner ( 1931- ), The Death ChristDied:A Casefor Unlimited Atonement (Des Plaines, Ill.: Regular Baptist Press, 1967), pp. 64-67; Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 830-31.

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b. The "World" Passages

Other passages connect Jesus' death with "the world." 3 "'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"' (tau kosmou) (John 1:296, RSV). "For God so loved the world (tonkosmon)that he gave his one and only Son ... " (John 3: 16, NIV), and "we know that this man really is the Savior of the world" (taukosmou)(John 4:42). 4 According to Paul, "God was reconciling the world (kosmon)to himself in Christ" (2 Cor. 5: 19a). According to John, Jesus Christ "is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the wholeworld (periholoutau kosmou) ( 1John 2 :2, KJV), and "the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world" (tau kosmou) (1 John 4:146, NIV). 5 c. The "Many" Passages

Still other passages connect Jesus' death with "many." These may be rooted in the Servant song's declaration, "Yet He Himself bore the sin of many" (Isa. 53: 12e, NASV). The Son of Man came "to give his life a ransom for many" (anti pollon) (Mark 10:45, KJV, NIV). According to Jesus at the Last Supper, "'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many'" (hyperpollon) (Mark 14:24, NIV). Paul declared, "how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many" (eis tauspollous) (Rom. 5:156). Furthermore, "so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many (eisto pollon), will appear a second time ... " (Heb. 9:28a, RSV). B. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

I. Augustine of Hippo

Augustine was one of the earliest Christian writers to address the issue of the extent of the atonement. He interpreted the "all" and "all men" passages in the New Testament to mean "all ages, classes, and conditions" of humankind but "not every individual man." 6 Hence his position was that the death of Jesus as the Mediator was intended to be and actually or effectively was for the sins of the elect human beings. Augustine took the "all men" of 1 Tim. 2:4 to mean 3. William Hendriksen, Expositionof the Gospelaccordingtojohn, 2 vols., New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953), 1:79 (re John 1:10), has found six meanings of"world" in the Gospel of John: (1) "the (orderly) universe"; (2) "the human inhabitants of the earth"; (3) "the general public"; (4) "mankind alienated from the life of God"; (5) humankind with "no distinction" as to "race or nationality"; and (6) "the realm of evil." 4. SeealsoJohn3:17. 5. Lightner, The Death ChristDied, pp. 62-63; Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 829-30. 6. Hodge, SystematicTheology,2:559. See also Wiggers, An HistoricalPresentation of Augustinismand Pelagianism,p. 254.

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The Work of Jesus Christ the human race in all its varieties of rank and circumstances,kings, subjects; noble, plebeian, high, low, learned, and unlearned; the sound in body, the feeble, the clever, the dull, the foolish, the rich, the poor, and those of middling circumstances; males, females, infants, boys, youths; young, middle-aged, and old men; of every tongue, of every fashion, of all arts, of all professions, with all the innumerable differences of will and conscience, and whatever else there is that makes a distinction among men. For which of all these classes is there out of which God does not will that men should be saved in all nations through His only-begotten Son, our Lord, and therefore does save them ... ?7

Again, '"He wills all men to be saved,' is so said that all the predestinated may be understood by it, because every kind of men is among them." 8 In the same treatise the bishop of Hippo declared: "Through this Mediator God makes known that He makes those whom He redeemed by His blood from evil, everlastingly good. "9 We conclude that Augustine favored a limited atonement despite the fact that some statements in his writings 10 have been lifted out of context and taken as support for universal atonement and despite Eugene Portalie's claim that Augustine taught the universal view. 11

2. Prosper of Aquitaine (390s?-c. 455) The Call of All Nations (c. 450), a treatise which most scholars today attribute to Prosper, one of Augustine's defenders, dealt primarily with the question as to how God, who would have all human beings to be saved (general grace), does only bestow the necessary grace (special grace) upon the elect. Thereby Prosper stressed "God's universal salvific will ... incomparably more than it had ever been by St. Augustine." 12 He came to embrace universal atonement: There can ... be no reason to doubt that Jesus Christ our Lord died for the unbelievers and the sinners .... He did die for all men without exception. 13 7. Enchiridion 103 (NPNF); also Enchiridion97. 8. On Rebuke and Grace44 (NPNF). 9. Ibid., 30 (NPNF). 10. On Rebuke and Grace49; On the Cityof God 20.6. 11. A Guide to the Thought of Saint Augustine, p. 167. Draughon, "Atonement Motifs in Augustine," pp. 14-15, has answered Portalie's use of AgainstJulian 3.12.25 by asserting that that statement was Augustine's "sarcastic taunt" of the Pelagians, not his own teaching. 12. P. De Letter, S. J., "Introduction" to Prosper of Aquitaine, The Call of All Nations, ACW, no. 14 (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1952), pp. 15, 18. 13. The Call of All Nations 2.16 (ACW).

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In other writings Prosper balanced universal atonement with the need to "profit by His death" 14 and to receive baptism. 15

3. Peter Lombard This medieval theologian seems to have fathered the distinction, often used in the Reformed tradition beginning in the seventeenth century, between Christ's death as "sufficient" for all humankind and as "efficient" only for the elect. 16 4.John Calvin The question as to whether Calvin taught the doctrine of a limited or particular atonement is not so easily settled as some would claim. The principal twentieth-century monographs on Calvin's theology have been uniformly silent on this topic, 17 whereas those who have written oflate to expound and defend the so-called "five points" of Calvinism have either implied or stated that Calvin taught limited atonement. 18 Roger Robert Nicole 19 and William Robert Godfrey (1945- )20 have found limited atonement to be more compatible with Calvin's entire teaching. On the contrary, James William Anderson ( 1930- ) on the basis of Calvin's sermons has concluded that Calvin, despite the logical implications of his theology, was favorable to universal atonement, 21 and Robert Tillman Kendall ( 1935- ), using the entire Calvinian corpus, has found that 14. Answersto the Gauls 9 (ACW, 32). 15. Answersto the VincentianArticles1 (ACW, 32). 16. Peter Lombard, Libri quatuorsententiarum3.20.3 (Migne, PL, 192:799), quoted by William Robert Godfrey, "Tensions within International Calvinism: The Debate on the Atonement at the Synod of Dort, 1618-1619" (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1974), p. 76. 17. Adam Mitchell Hunter (1871-1955), The Teachingof Calvin:A Modern Interpretation (2d rev. ed.; Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1950); Fram;ois Wendel (1905-72), Calvin: The Originsand Developmentof His Religious Thought, trans. Philip Mairet (New York: Harper and Row, 1963) [French orig., 1950]; Wilhelm Niesel (1903- ), The Theologyof Calvin, trans. Harold Knight (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956); William James Bouwsma (1923- ),John Calvin:A Sixteenth-CenturyPortrait(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988). 18. Bastian Kruithof (1902- ), The High Points of Calvinism(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1949), pp. v-vii, 53-62; Kuiper, For WhomDid ChristDie?, pp. 62-77, esp. 62; Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism,pp. 5--6, 41-55; Duane Edward Spencer (1920-?), TULIP: The Five Points of Calvinismin the Light of Scripture(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), pp. 5-7, 35--43. 19. "Moyse Amyraut (1596--1664) and the Controversy on Universal Grace, First Phase (1634--1637)" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1966), pp. 13-21, esp. 21. 20. "Tensions within International Calvinism," pp. 77-80. 21. "The Grace of God and the Non-Elect in Calvin's Commentaries and Sermons" (Th.D. diss., New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1976).

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whereas Calvin inclined to universal atonement, he insisted that Christ's heavenly intercession is "for the elect only." 22 Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion yields little evidence for the settlement of the question, whereas his commentaries and sermons provide more data. Probably the most viable answer stems from the recognition that Calvin did not face this issue squarely and hence did not provide a definitive answer concerning it. Archibald Alexander Hodge acknowledged that "Calvin does not appear to have given the question ... a deliberate consideration, and has certainly not left behind him a clear and consistent statement of his views."23 According to Paul Matthews Van Buren (1924- ), "the tension arising from the fact that Christ died for all men and the fact that not all believe is left by Calvin as a tension, resolved neither in favour of universalism nor in favour of a limited atonement. "24 Robert Arthur Peterson (1948-) has concluded: It is a later discussion which belongs to the period of Reformed orthodoxy. Hence the question of Calvin's view of the extent of the Atonement is anachronistic. It is unfair to ask for a man's position on a matter which only became an issue after his death .... [His] commentaries contain some passages which favor unlimited Atonement, but again the data is [sic] insubstantial. It is in Calvin's sermons that one finds more information bearing on this question .... [Indeed] from the evidence available, which is not unambiguous, he presented in his sermons a doctrine of unlimited Atonement. 25

5. Theodore Beza (1519-1605) With Calvin's successor in Geneva came the explicit teaching of the doctrine of limited atonement. Beza connected Christ's death solely for the elect with the eternal decree of election and regarded his death as making efficacious the salvation of the elect. 26 6.James Arminius and the Remonstrant Articles (1610) As a part of his revolutionary rejection of Bezan and Perkinsian Calvinism, Arminius embraced the doctrine of general atonement. R. T. Kendall finds Arminius and Calvin having held "in common the belief that Christ died for all," but having diverged as to Christ's intercession 22. Calvin and English Calvinismto 1649 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 13-18, esp. 17. 23. The Atonement (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953), p. 388. First published in 1867. 24. Christin Our Place:The SubstitutionaryCharacterof Calvin'sDoctrineof Reconciliation (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), p. 50. 25. "Calvin's Doctrine of the Atonement" (Ph.D. diss., Drew University, 1980), pp. 130, 131. 26. Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinismto 1649, pp. 29, 31-32. William Perkins (1558-1602) of England also taught limited atonement, ibid., pp. 57-58.

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inasmuch as Arminius taught that Christ prayed for both elect and nonelect. 27 The second of the Remonstrant Articles, citing John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2, clearly affirmed that Christ died "for all men and for every man," thereby obtaining for them "redemption and the forgiveness of sins," yet only believers enjoy such forgiveness. 28

7. Synod of Dort (1618-19) The participants in the Synod of Dort, or Dordrecht, in framing their canons utilized Peter Lombard's distinction between sufficiency and efficiency. "The death of the Son of God ... is of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world." The perishing of nonbelievers "is not owing to any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross." It was the "willand purpose" of God the Father "that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift ofjustifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation."29

8. General Baptist Confessions of Faith The General Baptists in seventeenth-century England, whose name was derived from their espousal of a general atonement, affirmed in their confessions of faith that Christ died for all human beings. "Jesus Christ, through (or by) the grace of God, suffered death for all mankind, or every man (Heb. 2:9)." 30 "God out of his love sent his son into the world to be born of a woman, to die for the sins of all men under the first Covenant Gohn 3: 16)."31 Indeed "no man shall eternally suffer in Hell ... for want of a Christ that dyed for them," unbelief being the cause of the divine

27. Ibid., p. 149. Carl Bangs ( 1922- ), Arminius:A Study in the Dutch Reformation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971), pp. 332-55, in his review of the theology of Arminius did not treat general atonement. 28. Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,3:546. 29. 2.3; 2.6; 2.8, in Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,3:586-87. Another set of distinctions was made by the school of Scottish Presbyterian theologians known as the "Marrow Men," i.e., James Hog (1658?-1734), the author of Marrow of Modern Divinity (1646), Thomas Boston (1677-1732), Ralph Erskine (1685-1752), and Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754). "They said Christ did not die for all but he is dead for all, i.e., available .... They distinguished between his 'giving love,' which was universal, and his 'electing love,' which was special." A. A. Hodge, The Atonement,p. 417. 30. "The Faith and Practice of Thirty Congregations" (1651), art. 17, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 178. 31. "The True Gospel-Faith Declared according to the Scriptures" (1654), art. 4, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 192.

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condemnation of unbelievers. 32 "Christ died for all men, and there is a sufficiency in his death and merits for the sins of the whole world .... "33

9. Particular Baptist Confessions of Faith and Theologians English Particular Baptists, whose name was derived from their commitment to a particular or limited atonement, affirmed Christ's death for the elect through their first two confessions of faith and in the writings of two of their leading theologians. Christ died that "through the blood of that his Crosse in an acceptable sacrifice, [he] might reconcile his elect onely." Hence Christ "by his death did bring forth salvation and reconciliation onely for the elect .... "34 "The Lord Jesus by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself ... hath fully satisfied the Justice of God ... for all those whom the Father hath given unto him." "God did from all eternity decree to justifie all the Elect, and Christ did in the fulness of time die for their sins, and rise again for their Justification." 35 John Gill's London congregation declared that "the eternal Redemption which Christ has obtained by the shedding of his blood, is special and particular; that is to say, that it was only intentionally designed for the Elect of God, the Sheep of Christ •••. " 36 Andrew Fuller sought to retain particular atonement while emphasizing that the gospel is to be addressed to all human beings. The "application of redemption" is "the result of previousdesign." That which is actually done was intended to be done. Hence the salvation of those that are saved is described as the end which the Savior had in view... There is no contradiction between this pecularity [sic]of design in the death of Christ, and a universal obligation on those who hear the gospel to believe in him, or a universal invitation being addressed to them. 37

32."The Standard Confession" (1660), art. 5, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, pp. 225-26. 33. The Orthodox Creed" (1678), art. 18, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 310. A similar statement appeared in New England in "A Treatise on the Faith of the Free Will Baptists" (1834), art. 5, sect. 1, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 372. 34. "The [First] London Confession" (1644), arts. 17, 21, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, pp. 160, 162. 35. "The Assembly or Second London Confession" (1677, 1689), art. 8, sect. 5; art. 11, sect. 4, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, pp. 262, 266. 36. "A Declaration of Faith and Practice ... " ( 1764), art. 6, quoted by Olin C. Robison, "The Legacy of John Gill," Baptist Quarterly24 (July 1971): 114, 123. 37. The GospelWorthyof All Acceptation(1785), 3. (3), in The CompleteWorksof the Rev. Andrew Fuller, rev.Joseph Belcher, 3 vols. (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 2:374.

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10. Gennan Pietism Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-60) expounded the doctrine of universal atonement in a sermon on John 1: 11-12: For all at once all sin is atoned for on the Cross, the entire Fall is erased, and the whole obligation to Satan ... torn up, cancelled, and annulled by the nails of Jesus .... On the wood of the Cross the world was saved all at once, and whoever is lost loses himself, because he will not receive the Saviour, because he falls again and repeats the fall of Adam .... 38

11. Princeton Theologians Nineteenth-century Princeton theologians restated the Synod of Dort's distinction between sufficiency and efficiency. Charles Hodge, while positioning himself in the Augustinian tradition, wrote: "He [Christ] was a propitiation effectuallyfor the sins of his people, and sufficientlyfor the sins of the whole world. " 39 According to A. A. Hodge, there "is no debate among Christians as to the sufficiencyof ... [Christ's] satisfaction to accomplish the salvation of all men, however vast the number," but the "design of Christ in dying was to effect what he actually does effect in the result," that is, "the actual salvation of his own [elect] people, in all the means, conditions, and stages ofit." 40 James P. Boyce, following his mentor Charles Hodge, affirmed: "Christ did actually die for the salvation of all so that he might be called the Savior of all." "Christ died ... in a special sense for the elect, because he procured for them not a possible, but an actual salvation." 41 C. ARGUMENTS FOR PARTICULAR AND FOR GENERAL ATONEMENT

In addition to the delineation of the New Testament texts thought to be pertinent to the issue being discussed and the examination of the leading treatments of the issue during Christian history, we need to state some of the major arguments that have been offered for each position.

1. Arguments in behalf of Particular Atonement First, universal atonement, if true, would mean that "a great part of Christ's work has come to nought." This would mean the "waste" of divine energy. 42 Second, the atonement must be limited either "in its 38. Nine PublicLectureson Important Subjectsin Religi,on(1746), trans. and ed. George W. Forell (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1973), p. 68. 39. SystematicTheology,2:559. 40. Outlinesof Theology(rev. ed.; New York: George H. Doran Co., 1878), pp. 416,417. 41. Abstractof SystematicTheology,p. 340. Boyce's successor, E. Y. Mullins, however, taught universal atonement: The ChristianReligion in Its Doctrinal Expression,p. 336. 42. Kruithof, The High Pointsof Calvinism,p. 59; Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 829.

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extent" or "in its nature or power," for it "cannot be unlimited in both." One should posit a limit on its extent rather than on its power. 43 Third, Jesus' death as a "ransom" means deliverance from enslavement. Since many human beings have not been set free, we must conclude that the ransom has not been applied to all.44 Fourth, the "objects of Christ's death" and "the objects of the Father's love" must be the same; hence these are "particular, definite, and limited." 45 Fifth, there are at least seven different meanings of the term "world" in the Gospel according to John, and hence every usage is not to be taken automatically to mean all humankind. 46 Sixth, particular atonement is "a necessary corollary" of the biblical doctrine of election, for election and atonement must be coextensive. 47 Seventh, particular atonement integrates well with salvation by grace and "exalts the saving work of Christ. "48 Eighth, particular atonement, it has been argued, "follows from" the doctrines of substitution, satisfaction, and reconciliation and from the concept that faith is the gift of God. 49 Ninth, particular atonement is consistent with Christ's particular intercession, inasmuch as sacrifice and intercession are the two functions of his high priesthood. 50 Tenth, particular atonement is needed for the sake of a "consistent" Calvinism. 51 Eleventh, general atonement, it is alleged, can easily lead to eschatological universalism. 52 Twelfth, unlimited atonement would make hell to be unjust, for payment would be "exacted twice."53

43. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism,p. 48. 44. Kruithof, The High Points of Calvinism,pp. 55-56; Erickson, ChristianTheology, p. 828. 45. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism,p. 44; A. A. Hodge, The Atonement,pp. 408-9; Kuiper, For WhomDid ChristDie?, pp. 68-69. 46. Spencer, TULIP, pp. 35-37. See above, n. 3. 47. Kuiper, For WhomDid ChristDie?, pp. 67-68; C. Hodge, SystematicTheology, 2:547-48; Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 834. 48. Kuiper, For WhomDid ChristDie?, pp. 69-73. 49. A. A. Hodge, The Atonement,pp. 399-403; Terry L. Miethe, "The Universal Power of the Atonement," in Clark H. Pinnock, ed., The Graceof God,the Will of Man: A Casefor Arminianism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), pp. 76-77. 50. C. Hodge, SystematicTheology,2:553; A. A. Hodge, The Atonement,pp. 411-13; Kuiper, For Whom Did ChristDie?, p. 64; Erickson, ChristianTheology, pp. 827, 833-34. 51. C. Hodge, SystematicTheology,2:548; Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 828-29. 52. Loraine Boettner, The ReformedDoctrineof Predestination(6th ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948), p. 156; Kruithof, The High Points of Calvinism,pp. 53-54; Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 832. 53. Miethe, "The Universal Power of the Atonement," pp. 74-75.

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2. Arguments in behalf

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ofGeneral Atonement

First, to posit that Christ died for all humankind is more consistent with and is even demanded by the free and universal offer of the gospel to all human beings. 54 Second, the New Testament passages cited in favor of general atonement greatly outnumber those passages cited in favor of particular atonement. 55 Third, some New Testament texts (1 Cor. 8: 11; Rom. 14:15; Heb. 10:29; 2 Pet. 2:1) seem to indicate that "some of those for whom Christ died will perish," and therefore we must make "a distinction between those for whom Christ died and those who are finally saved." 56 Fourth, reversing the argument used by particularists, some have argued that biblical teachings as to redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation point to general atonement. 57 Fifth, limited atonement has been said to be a hindrance to the work of evangelism. 58 Sixth, only through unlimited atonement is God "fair" to all humankind. 59 Two contemporary Protestant theologians, both of whom evidence considerable respect for the Calvinist tradition, have opted for general or universal atonement. Donald George Bloesch has asserted: Needless to say there is truth on both sides of this controversy, but in our opinion those who emphasize the universal atonement of Christ are more faithful to the witness of Scripture .... Yet the Calvinists are right that the atonement not only makes salvation possible but also secures it, and in this sense it encompasses only those who respond in faith. Every human being is a bloodbought soul, as Wesley affirmed, but not all take advantage of their God-given opportunity. The truth in the doctrine oflimited or definite atonement is that its efficacy does not extend to all persons. It is universal in its outreach and intention but partiClllar in its efficacy.60 Millard J. Erickson has concluded "that the hypothesis of universal atonement is able to account for a larger segment of the biblical witness with less distortion than is the hypothesis oflimited atonement." 61 These arguments seem persuasive. 54. Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 831-32; Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism, pp. 50-52; Meithe, "The Universal Power of the Atonement," pp. 83-85. 55. Lightner, The Death ChristDied, p. 70. 56. Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 831. 57. Thomas Williamjenkyn (l 794?-1858), The Extent of theAtonement,in Its Relation to Godand the Universe(Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1859), 267-73; Lightner, The Death ChristDied, pp. 73-91. 58. Palmer, The Five Points of Calvinism,pp. 53-54. 59. Miethe, "The Universal Power of the Atonement," pp. 81-82. 60. Essentia/,sof EvangelicalTheology,1:165. 61. ChristianTheology,p. 835.

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II. THE ATONEMENT AND BODILY HEALING: A MODERN TEACHING AND ITS REFUTATION Since the latter nineteenth century some Protestants have affirmed and taught that the atonement wrought by Jesus Christ includes the gift or benefit of bodily healing, or deliverance from disease and/or infirmity. This teaching has been said to be based upon a proper interpretation of Matt. 8:16-17 and Isa. 53:4 and to afford to all Christians the promise and expectation of bodily health. Adoniramjudson Gordon (1836-95), a Baptist pastor, declared in 1882: In the atonement of Christ there seems to be a foundation laid for faith in bodily healing .... [Indeed] it is at least a deep and suggestive truth [in Matt. 8: 16-17] that we have Christ set before us as the sickness-bearer as well as the sin-bearer of his people .... Something more than sympathetic fellowship with our sufferings is evidently referred to here. The yoke of his cross by which he lifted our iniquities took hold also of our diseases; so that it is in some sense true that as God "made him to be sin for us who knew no sin," so he made him to be sick for us who knew no sickness .... [Thus] it would be natural to reason at once that he bore them [sicknesses] that we might not bear them. 62 Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919), the founder of what became known as the Christian and Missionary Alliance, advocated the same conclusion after having claimed that sickness derived from the fall and from Satan and that sickness must be overcome "by a higher spiritual force, and not by mere natural treatment." From Isa. 53:4 he concluded that "our healing becomes a great redemption right, which we claim as our purchased inheritance through the blood of His Cross." Furthermore, "it is the life of Jesus which supplies the source of health and life for our redeemed bodies." 63 According to James Henry Mcconkey ( 1858-193 7), there is healing in the atonement, but, in view of Paul's thorn in the flesh and other

62. The Ministry of Healing:Miraclesof Curein All Ages (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1882), pp. 16-1 7. Gordon also quoted Mark 16: 17-18; James 5:14-15; 1 Kings 9:3; and 2 Chr. 6:28-30; 7:13-14. 63. The Gospelof Healing (rev. ed.; Harrisburg, Pa.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1915), pp. 28-29, 32-33. 3d ed. publ. in 1888. See also idem, The Lordfor the Body: With Questionsand Answerson Divine Healing (New York: Christian Alliance Publishing Co., 1925), pp. 78-85, esp. 78-79, where Simpson insists that "griefs" is uniformly translated "sickness" in the Old Testament except in Isa. 53:4 and that "borne" (Isa. 53:4) "means substitution," "not mere sympathy."

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considerations, "it is not always God's will to heal." 64 Fred Francis Bosworth (1877-1958) stressed "Jehovah-Rapha" or "I am the Lord, who heals you" (Exod. 15:26, NIV) and insisted that "the expression 'thorn in the flesh' is never used in the Bible "except as an illustration" and never "as a figure of sickness. "65 Another Baptist pastor, John Roach Straton (1875- 1929), insisted that the Hebrew words IJ,ali(translated "griefs," KJV) and ma~Jo~ (translated "sorrows," KJV), used in Isa. 53:4-5, when used elsewhere in the Old Testament were translated "sickness" and "pain." According to Straton, even as "the hardest sinner makes the best saint," so also "the greatest sufferers often experience the most remarkable healing." 66 Thomas J. McCrossan elaborated on IJ,ali and ma~J6~ and contended, taking plirothi as an aorist tense with a future meaning, "that Matthew 8:16-17 is a predictionwhich will not be completelyfulfilled until the end of this churchage."67 According to Essek William Kenyon (1867- 1948) Isa. 53:3-5 means that "God laid" on Jesus "our diseases"-they being "spiritual" or "breaking fellowship with the Father physically." Thus "the Name of Jesus in our lips can conquer disease and sickness." 68 The same passage, for Kenneth Erwin Hagin (1917- ), "holds the key to both our spiritual and physical redemption." 69 But Charles Farah,Jr. (1926- ), while reaffirming on the basis oflsa. 53:4 that healing is not only promised but also obtained in the atonement, concluded that not all are actually healed and that this is a mystery. 70 Other authors have been equally insistent on the invalidity of the claim that bodily healing for all has been obtained through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Rowland Victor Bingham (1872-1942), founder of the Sudan Interior Mission, held that every use by Isaiah of terms such as "health" and "healing" points to spiritual, not physical, healing and hence also Isa. 53:4. The word "bear" (Matt. 8: 17), being a different verb from that used in Isaiah (LXX) and in 1 Pet. 2:24, connotes "sympathetic bearing," as in Gal. 6:2 and Rom. 15: 1. Christ, therefore, "was ... entering sympatheticallyinto the woes, sorrows, and sufferings of those to whom He

64. Prayer(Pittsburgh: Silver Publishing Co., 1921; c. 1905), pp. 104-15, esp. 106. 65. Christthe Healer:Sermonson Divine Healing (Racine, Wis.: author, 1924), pp. 5, 12-13,37-38,51,87-90, 118. 66. Divine Healing in Scriptureand Life (New York: Alliance Publishing Co., 1927), pp. 116, 125. 67. BodilyHealing and theAtonement (Seattle: author, 1930), pp. 17-33, esp. 24. 68.jesus the Healer (8th ed.; Seattle: Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, c. 1940, 1943), pp. 30-31, 51, 34. 69. HealingBelongsto Us (2d ed.: Tulsa: Faith Library Publications, c. 1986), p. 9. 70. Fromthe Pinnacleof the Temple (Plainfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1979), pp. 71-78.

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came to minister." Matthew was using the figurative language of Isa. 53 :4 to illustrate Jesus' ministry of physical healing. There is just the difference between bearing our sicknesses and bearing our sins that there is between Capernaum and Calvary. Christ bore the sicknesses and suffering of mankind in His life, but our sins He bore in His death. 71 A. C. Gaebelein agreed with Bingham concerning the fulfilment of Isa. 53:4 in Capernaum and concerning sympathetic bearing (Matt. 8: 17).

If He had atoned for our physical condition then death should also have been abolished .... [Moreover,] if it were true that Christ died for our sicknesses, then His atoning work in this respect is a failure. His people ever since these words were written have borne all manner of diseases and have died.

Quoting from Aimee Semple McPherson's (1890-1944) sermon, "A Double Cure for a Double Curse," in which she said of Jesus' being scourged, '"At the whipping post He purchased our healing,"' Gaebelein charged that McPherson was teaching "two separate and distinct atonements, a thing which is altogether unknown in Scripture." 72 William Edward Biederwolf (1867-1939) 73 and Waymon Doyne Miller 74 restated these same ideas. Millard Erickson has taken the IJ,aliand ma~Jo~ (Isa. 53:4) to be "actual physical sicknesses and mental distresses rather than sins" but goes on to reiterate the idea of "sympathetic bearing of the troubles of this life." Furthermore,Jesus' healings both during his public ministry and today have been miracles, not applications "of a vicarious bearing of our sicknesses in the same fashion that he bore our sins." 75 What, then, are the major considerations in support of the denial of the teaching that bodily healing is universally available through the atonement of Jesus Christ? First, as already noted, the fulfillment spoken of in Matt. 8: 17 can rightly be located at Capernaum rather than at Calvary. Second, one may ask whether the Bible itself specifically teaches that all disease, illness, and suffering are traceable to the fall and to Satan. Third, to affirm that Jesus atoned for our sicknesses is "to mix categories." As John Stott notes: "But what is the penalty of sickness? It has 71. The Bible and the Body:Healing in the Scriptures(London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, 1921), pp. 57, 55-56, 59, 57, 55, 108-9. 72. The Healing Question:An Examinationof the Claimsof Faith-Healingand Divine Healing Systemsin the Light of the Scripturesand History (New York: Our Hope, 1925), pp. 73, 74, 71. 73. Whipping-PostTheology,or DidJesus Atonefor Disease?(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1934), pp. 288-305. 74. Modern Divine Healing (Fort Worth: Miller Publishing Co., 1956), pp. 46-72. Miller concluded his discussion by asking eight probing questions about the doctrine of healing in the atonement (p. 72). 75. ChristianTheology,pp. 840, 841.

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none. Sickness may itself be a penalty for sin, but it is not itself a misdemeanour which attracts a penalty." 76 Fourth, physical infirmity will not finally be removed until eschatological resurrection. Such is not completely removable now because the body, although redeemed, remains subject to sin, the old nature, infirmity, sickness, pain, and death. These physical impediments will not be removed until the redeemed mortal body is glorified at the resurrection or the coming of the Lord. 77 Certain recent consenrative New Testament exegetes have insisted on a closer correlation between Jesus' healing (Matt. 8: 16-17) and his death but have stopped short of affirming present-day healing "on demand." For example, Donald A. Carson, commenting on Matt. 8: 16-17, seems to conclude that "Matthew holds that Jesus' healing ministry is itself a function of his substitutionarydeath, by which he lays the foundation for destroying sickness." He goes on to state: This text and others clearly teach that there is healing in the Atonement; but similarly there is the promise of a resurrection body in the Atonement, even if believers do not inherit it until the parousia [second coming]. Although the Cross is the basis for all the benefits that accrue to believers, ... this does not mean that all such benefits can be secured at the present time on demand, any more than we have the right and power to demand our resurrection bodies. 78

III. JESUS' DESCENT TO HADES A. NEW TESTAMENT

1. Miscellaneous Passages Theologians 79 discussing Jesus' descent into Hades have cited one Old Testament text and more than a dozen New Testament passages in relation to the descent. Of such texts the question must be asked whether they formally teach such a descent or whether they have merely been associated 76. Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 245. 77. Merrill F. Unger, "Divine Healing," Bibliotheca Sacra 128 (_July-September 1971): 243. 78. "Matthew" in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, 12 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976-92), vol. 8, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, pp. 205, 207. Per R. Bruce Corley. 79. Weber, Foundations of Dogmatics, 2: 102-4; Moody, The Word of Truth, pp. 387-88; Erickson, Christian Theology, pp. 773-76; Thomas C. Oden, The Word of Life, vol. 2, Systematic Theology (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989), pp. 429-50.

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with the concept of the descent by Christian exegetes and theologians. The one Old Testament text is Ps. 16: 10 (NIV), "because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay." From the parable of the house divided against itself (Mark 3:27) come the words: '"no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man."' After the analogy of Jonah '"the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth"' (Matt. 12:40). Jesus promised Peter, '"on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it"' (Matt. 16: 18b). The account of the raisings at the time of Jesus' death (Matt. 27:52-53) has been cited, as has Jesus' promise to the believer on the cross, "'today you will be with me in paradise"' (Luke 23:43b). Noted also has been Peter's sermonic quotation of Ps. 16: 10 and declaration that the promise of the enthronement of David's descendant had been fulfilled in Jesus' resurrection (Acts 2:27, 30-31). Unlike David, "'the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay"' (Acts 13:37). Paul discouraged the query, "'Who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)"' (Rom. 10:7). In relation to gifts Paul quoted Ps. 68:18 and asked: "What does 'he ascended' mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe" (Eph. 4:7-10). Furthermore, "having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Col. 2:15). Even those "under the earth" shall bow at Jesus' name (Phil. 2:10). Another text portion mentioned is the "seen by angels" (1 Tim. 3: 16d). Probably the locus classicus for the descent is 1 Pet. 3:18-22, esp. v. 19, even though the difficulty of its interpretation is well known. Finally, there is 1 Pet. 4:6 (RSV): "For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead, that thoughjudged in the flesh like men, they might live in the spirit like God." Of all these texts only Rom. 10:7 and Eph. 4:7-10 use the verb meaning "to descend" (katabainein),though 1 Pet. 3:19 does employ "to go" or "to depart" (poreuomai),and only in Eph. 4:7-10 is the descending specifically ascribed to Christ. In no text is the descent or the presence of Christ connected with "hell" (geenna).

2. 1 Peter 3:18-22, Especially 19 The locus classicus, 1 Pet. 3: 19, has been given numerous diverse interpretations by Christian exegetes 80 with the result that a consensus as to the true interpretation is lacking. Whether this text is to be integrally related to Jesus' descent depends upon the interpretation given to it. Four of the 80. For a chronologically arranged review of these interpretations, see Bo Ivar Reicke ( 1914- ), The DisobedientSpiritsand ChristianBaptism:A Study of 1 Pet. 3:19 and Its Context,Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis, no. 13 (Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1946), ch. 1.

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major interpretations separate this text from what happened between Jesus' death and resurrection; three of these understand it to refer to the preexistent Christ or to Enoch, and one understands it to refer to what happened after the ascension. First, some (Augustine ofHippo, 81 Thomas Aquinas, 82 William Kelly, 1821- 190683) have taken the text to mean that Christ as preexistent went and preached to the contemporaries of Noah. Second, the text has been understood (Friedrich Spitta, 1852-1924, 84) to refer to the preaching of doom by the preexistent Christ in the person of Enoch to the fallen angels who had married human women, following 1 Enoch's (chs. 6-8, 12-16) interpretation of Gen. 6: 1-4. Third, others (James Rendel Harris, 1852-1941, 85 James Moffatt,86 Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, 1871-1962 87), using an emended text, have taken the passage to mean that Enoch went and preached to the angels who had married human women. Fourth, yet others (Carl Gschwind, 1881- ? ,88 William Joseph Dalton, S.J.89 ) have found the passage to allude to the going by Christ during his ascension to the spirits in higher realms. On the basis of any of these aforementioned four interpretations 1 Pet. 3: 19 would have no connection with a descent by Jesus at or after his death, whereas virtually all other interpretations understand the text to apply to what 81. Letter 164 11, 18. 82. Summa Theologica3.52.2 reply obj. 3. 83. The Preachingto the Spiritsin Prison:1 Peter3:18-20 (Sunbury, Pa.: Believers Bookshelf, Inc., 1970), pp. 17, 56-57, 126. Originally published in 1900. 84. ChristiPredigtan die Geister(1 Petr. 3: 19.lf.):Ein Beitragzur neutestamentlichen Theologie(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1890), esp. pp. 34-37. 85. "A Further Note on the Use of Enoch in 1 Peter," The Expositor,ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, 6th series (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1901), 4:346-49; idem, "On a Recent Emendation in the Text of St. Peter," ibid., 5:317-20; idem, "The History of a Conjectural Emendation," ibid., 6:378-90. 86. A New Translationof the Bible, Containingthe Old and New Testaments(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1934 [1925?]), re 1 Pet. 3:19. 87. Problemsof New TestamentTranslation(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1945), pp. 195-98. 88. Die NiederfahrtChristiin die Unterwelt:Ein Beitragzur Exegesedes Neuen Testamentsund zur Geschichtedes Tau/symbols,Neutestamentliche Handlungen, vol. 2, nos. 3-5 (Munster i.W.: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1911), esp. pp. 119-23, 144. Gschwind connected 1 Pet. 3: 19 with 1 Tim. 3: 16 (p. 123) and looked upon Matt. 12:40, Acts 2:23-24, Rom. 10:6-7, and Eph. 4:8-9 as the New Testament witness to Christ's descent to Hades (pp. 157-74) and upon Matt. 27:52-53 as witness to the salvific role of Christ in the underworld (pp. 185-99). 89. Christ'sProclamationto the Spirits:A Study of 1 Peter3:18-4:6, Analecta Biblica, no. 23 (Rome: Pontificio Instituto Biblico, 1965), pp. 154-62. Dalton concluded that the preaching was "to the angels who disobeyed ... in the days of Noah" (p. 176) and that the preaching in 1 Pet. 3: 19 "has nothing to do with the Descensus"(p.8).

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happened at or after Jesus' death. Fifth, some (Clement of Alexandria, 90 Origen, 91 John of Damascus, 92 Edward Hayes Plumptre, 1821-1891, 93 Charles Bigg, 1840-1908, 94 Bernhard Weiss,95 Willibald Beyschlag, 18231900,96 Heinz-Jurgen Vogels, 1933- 97) have held that Christ went after death to deceased human spirits, of Noah's day or otherwise, and preached a hopeful message of salvation. Origen 98 connected the text with eschatological universalism. Sixth, others (Hippolytus, 99 Robert Bellarmine, S.J., 1542-1621, 100 Francisco Suarez, S.J. 101) have concluded that Christ went to the underworld to preach to once disobedient spirits who had been converted prior to his preaching. Seventh, according to Edward Gordon Selwyn ( 1865-1959), 102 Christ after his death proclaimed his sovereignty or doom to the fallen angels (Gen. 6: 1-4). Eighth, others (Abraham Calovius, 1612-86, 103 P.J. Spener 104) have reckoned the text to mean that Christ went and preached to the unconverted deceased a message of his victory and their doom. Stromateis6.6. On First Principles2.5.3; Against Celsus2.43. Expositionof the OrthodoxFaith 3.29. The Spiritsin Prisonand OtherStudieson the Life after Death (rev. ed.; New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1887), pp. 111-17. 94. A Criticaland ExegeticalCommentaryon the Epistlesof St. Peterand St. Jude, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1901), re 1 Pet. 3: 19-20. For Bigg the deceased spirits were those of the disobedient of Noah's day. 95. Biblical Theologyof the New Testament, 1:229-30. 96. New TestamentTheology,1:415-17. 97. ChristiAbstiegins Totenreichund das Lauterungsgerichtan den Toten:Eine bibeltheologisch-dogmatisch Untersuchungzum Glaubensartikel"descenditad inferos"(Freiburg im B.: Herder, 1976), pp. 5-6. Vogels posits a "purifying judgment" prior to the announcement of forgiveness. 98. Against Celsus2.43; On First Principles2.5.3; J. A. MacCulloch, The Harrowing of Hell: A ComparativeStudy of an Early ChristianDoctrine(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1930), p. 103. 99. Syrian fragment of an Easter homily, cited by Reicke, The DisobedientSpirits and ChristianBaptism, pp. 23-27. 100. Disputationesde controversiis(Ingolstadt, 1586-93), 2, De Christo,4, De anima Christi,chs. 12-16 (vol. 1, cols. 54lff.), as cited by Reicke, The Disobedient Spiritsand ChristianBaptism, p. 43. 101. Commentariaac disputationesin tertiampartem D. Thomae,disp. 43, sect. 3, opera omnia, 28 vols. (Paris, 1856-78), 19:733-40. According to Suarez, Christ by his descent did not free the souls of the damned or lead souls out of purgatory but conferred blessedness upon the souls of the "holy fathers," or redeemed of the Old Covenant. 102. The First Epistleof St. Peter (London: Macmillan, 1946), re 3: 19 and pp. 315-17,322-23,327-28. 103. Biblia Novi Testamentiillustrata(Dresden, Leipzig: J. C. Zimmermann, 1719; 1st publ. 1676), vol. 2, p. 1505. Per Timothy Allen Moore. 90. 91. 92. 93.

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To opt decisively for one of these interpretations with the idea that it is unquestionably true is most unlikely. The fifth interpretation connects with the theology of a much-disputed postmortal opportunity for repentance and faith. The sixth encounters the problem as to why the redeemed of the Old Testament should be called "disobedient spirits." The seventh faces the difficulty as to how its view could have much significance for Christians, whether in Peter's time or later. The eighth must reckon with the fact that kiryssein("to preach") is not normally used to convey doom. John Arnott MacCulloch (1868-1950) excluded altogether the first four interpretations: "No other interpretation than that of the work of the discarnate Spirit of Christ in Hades seems natural and self-evident here." 105 B. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

1. Creeds and Confessions of Faith Although passages in the writings of the Church Fathers that allegedly refer to Jesus' descent to Hades have been collected by modern authors, 106 the concept of the descent did not seemingly enter Christian creeds until the latter fourth century. The concept was expressed in Arian creeds adopted at Sirmium/Ariminum (359), at Nike (359), and at Constantinople (360). 107 One of the anathemas of the ecumenical Council of Constantinople (381) "condemned those who denied that the Logos in His 'reasonable soul' had descended to Hades." 108 At the beginning of the fifth century the Apostles' Creed as used by the church in Aquileia contained the words, "He descended to hell," but neither the church at Rome nor the "Oriental" churches had added the clause. 109 The sixth-century "Athanasian" Creed alluded to the descent, 110 and the final form of the Apostles' Creed, as given 104. EinfacheErklarung der christlichenLehrenach der Ordnung des Kleinen KatechismusLuther's (2d ed.; Erlangen: Palm'schen Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1833; first publ. 1677), p. 257. 105. The Harrowingof Hell, p. 61. 106. Frederic Huidekoper ( 1817-92), The Belief of the First Three CenturiesconcerningChrist'sMission to the Underwor/,d(New York: James Miller, 1876; c. 1854); Plumptre, The Spiritsin Prison, pp. 83-94; and Macculloch, The Harrowingof Hell, pp. 83-173, who traced such passages from Ignatius of Antioch to Cyril of Alexandria and cited such in the New Testament Apocrypha, especially the Gospel of Nicodemus. Moritz Lauterburg, "Descent of Christ into Hell," The New Schaff-HerzogEncyclopediaof ReligiousKnowledge, 3:411, noted that 1 Pet. 3:19 was only rarely cited by the Fathers in reference to the descent. 107. Socrates (c. 380-after 439), Ecclesiastical History 2.37; Athanasius, Councilsof Ariminum and Seleucia 1.8; 2.30; MacCulloch, The Harrowingof Hell, pp. 67-68. 108. MacCulloch, The Harrowingof Hell, p. 71. 109. Rufinus, A Commentaryon theApostles'Creed18. 110. Athanasian Creed 38. See Kelly, The Athanasian Creed,pp. 119-24.

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by Pirminius (d. 758), a Frankish missionary, contained the clause. 111 Certain Reformation confessions of faith contain references to the descent. 112

2. Principal Views From the history of doctrine derive the principal views as to the purpose or effect of Jesus' descent to Hades. First, many of the Latin Fathers and the medieval Scholastics held that the descent resulted in the deliverance or the transfer to heaven of the redeemed or believers of the Old Testament era (limbuspatrum).113 Second, Luther and Lutherans reckoned the descent as that of Christ, both body and soul, into hell as the abode of the damned to conquer the devil and make the benefits of that conquest available to believers (pronobis). Hence the descent was seen as "the first stage in his exaltation." 114 Third, Calvin and Reformed theologians taught that the descent consisted in Christ's endurance of God's "vengeance" and his own forsakenness as our substitutionary Savior.115 Fourth, Martin Bucer, Theodore Beza, and others regarded the descent as a synonym for Christ's burial. 116 Fifth, from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century there have been those who have taken the descent as the occasion for Christ's announcing the gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation to those "who had died without salvation." 117 C. CONTEMPORARY DOCTRINE

Multiple interpretations of 1 Pet. 3: 19 and multiple theological answers as to the purpose or effect of Jesus' descent into Hades have made it difficult 111. MacCulloch, The Harrowingof Hell, p. 72. 112. Huidekoper, The Beliefof the First Three Centuries,pp. 164-71. 113. Lauterburg, "Descent of Christ into Hell," p. 411. Pilgram Marpeck (c. 1495-1556), an Anabaptist theologian, not only retained the concept that the descent brought to fulfilment the salvation of the Old Testament redeemed but also held that the Christian is to identify with "both the victorious and the humiliating aspects of the descensus."William Klassen ( 1930- ), Covenantand Community:The Life and Writingsof PilgramMarpeck (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), pp. 52, 133-34, 184-85. 114. Lauterburg, "Descent of Christ into Hell," p. 411. 115. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.) 2.16.10. For James Arminius the descent "denoted the state of death regarded as an ignominous one for the Prince of Life," Lauterburg, "Descent of Christ into Hell," p. 411. The contemporary Health and Wealth Gospel has seemingly provided a deviation from the Calvinist view by teaching that Jesus in his incarnation assumed a sinful nature, died a death that was spiritual as well as physical, descended to "hell," where Satan controlled him, and was then "born again" through his resurrection. Henry Krabbendam, "Scripture Twisting," in The Agony of Deceit,ed. Michael Horton (Chicago: Moody Press, 1990), pp. 78-79; Walter Martin, "Ye Shall Be as Gods," in ibid., pp. 101-3; Rod Rosenbladt, "Who Do TV Preachers Say That I Am?" in ibid., pp. 117-19. 116. Lauterburg, "Descent of Christ into Hell," p. 411. 117. Ibid.

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for modern Christians to affirm or to clarify the doctrine of Jesus' descent into Hades. Those confused and uncertain about this doctrine should recognize in the outset that in the oldest recorded post-resurrection sermon by an apostle the preacher, relying partly on Ps. 16: 10, declared that Jesus' soul was not allowed to be "abandoned" (RSV,TEV,JB, NEB, NASV, NIV) or "left" (KJV) "to Hades" (RSV,JB, NASV)or "to death" (NEB) or "to the grave" (NIV), but not properly "in hell" (KJV), and that his "flesh" (KJV, RSV, TEV, NEB, NASV) or "body" (JB, Phillips, NIV) would not "see corruption" (KJV, RSV, Phillips) or "undergo decay" (NIV) (Acts 2:27,31) by virtue of God's raising of him from the dead (Acts 2:24, 32). Such a text clearly teaches that Jesus between death and resurrection was in Hades, the realm of the dead, but affords no indication of any activity of Jesus in Hades. 118 Jesus' presence in Hades seems to be the essential facet of this doctrine, though always related to his resurrection. 119 If one should choose so to interpret 1 Pet. 3: 19 as to posit a preaching mission of Jesus in Hades, 120 then the doctrine may be augmented, and some explanation seemingly must them be offered as to whom, for what purpose, and with what results he preached. Not every contemporary Christian will find such a supplement to be necessary. In this chapter we have reviewed the centuries-long debate, together with its New Testament texts, as to whether Jesus' death was intended to be for the elect or for all humanity and have, with qualifications as to its actual effects, opted for the latter. We have examined the modern assertion that Jesus' atonement necessarily entails the availability of bodily 118. David L. Miller (1936- ), Hells and Holy Ghosts:A Theopoeticsof Christian Belief (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), having rejected both Jesus' descent into Hades and his resurrection from the dead as "dead" beliefs in the "postmodern" age, has probed both the descent and the resurrection as "important postmodern metaphors" (p.8), tracing the former in laughter, in psychopathology, and in modern literature (pp. 65-95). There is indeed both an eerieness and an emptiness about reducing events to metaphors and separating metaphors from faith! 119. Byzantine art regularly depicted the descent of Christ to Hades in relation to his resurrection, the names of such frescoes or icons being heanastasis (the resurrection). Western art, on the other hand, normally depicted Jesus' resurrection from the grave. Reinhold Lange, The Resurrection,trans. Hans Hermann Rosenwald, Pictorial Library of Eastern Church, vol. 16 (Recklinghausen: Aurel Bongers, 1967). 120. Neither Werner Bieder (1911- ), Die Vorstellungvon der Hollenfahrtjesu Christi:Beitragzur Entstehungsgeschichte der Vorstellungvom sog. Descensusad inferos(Zurich: Zwingli Verlag, 1949), esp. pp. 207-9, nor Dalton, Christ's Proclamationto the Spirits, p. 8, has found 1 Pet. 3:19-20 to be the sure foundation for the doctrine of Jesus' descent to Hades. Nor can we accept the statement of Emil Brunner, The ChristianDoctrineof Creationand Redemption, pp. 364-65, that apart from 1 Pet. 3: 19 and 4:6 "the New Testament does not speak of the descent into Hades."

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healing for all Christian believers and have declined any unqualified acceptance of such teaching. We have studied the teaching as to Jesus' descent to Hades, especially in reference to the difficult passage, 1 Pet. 3: 19-20, and have cautiously affirmed for certain only his presence in Hades. Now we turn to a consideration of the resurrection of Jesus.

CHAPTER50

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS A full-orbed interpretation of the saving work of Jesus Christ necessarily entails a proper integration of his death and his resurrection. If the Resurrection be but an epilogue to the story of Jesus' earthly life and not an integral part of the drama of redemption, then there is the inescapable preis no atonement .... A theologiaresurrectionis supposition of a theologiacrucis,for without Easter the Cross looks only like the tragic and premature waste of a good life.1

Furthermore, Jesus' resurrection from the dead constitutes per se an essential doctrine for authentic Christianity. Indeed, "the distinctive attribute" of apostolic Christianity was not its doctrine of salvation from sin, its "personal ethics," or its hope of immortality but rather "the supernatural power of the living God, manifested historically by the resurrection of Christ from the dead." 2 The explication of this doctrine at the beginning of the twenty-first century, moreover, calls for both apologetic and theology, that is, for the consideration of both the event of the resurrection and the meaning of the resurrection.

I. THE EVENT: JESUS' RESURRECTION A. OLD TESTAMENT AND INTERTESTAMENTAL BACKGROUND

Greco-Roman culture, whether Greek mythology, the mystery religions, or Greek philosophers, did not provide an analogy for or "the matrix of' Jesus' resurrection. 3 Although it records three instances of resuscitation or restoration to life under Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17: 17-24; 2 Kings 1. Hugh Anderson ( 1920- ),Jesus and ChristianOrigins:A Commentaryon Modem Viewpoints(New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 185. 2. Merrill Chapin Tenney (1904-85), The Reality of the Resurrection(New York: Harper and Row, 1963), p. 16. 3. Ibid., pp. 20-24.

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4:8-37; 2 Kings 13:20-21) and employs the language of being restored to life (Hos. 6: 1-2) and of being reclothed with flesh and standing (Ezek. 37:10, 12-13) to refer to national renewal, the canonical Old Testament only occasionally (Isa. 26: 19; Job 19:25-26(?); Dan. 12:2-3) bears specific witness to future bodily resurrection from death, and these texts are not specifically related to the Messiah. But this Jewish expectation of resurrection constituted the conceptual matrix both for Jesus' resurrection and for the Christian hope of eschatological resurrection. In the pseudepigraphic 1 Enoch one finds two allusions (61:5; 62: 13-16) to the future resurrection of the righteous. In the noncanonical 2 Maccabees one finds the fourth martyr expressing the hope of being raised by God and denying such to his executioners (7: 14) and prayer for the deceased being grounded in the hope of their resurrection (12:43-44). 4 During the late intertestamental era the Sadducees rejected any expectation of resurrection, whereas the Pharisees held to future bodily resurrection (Mark 12: 18 and par.; Acts 23:8). 5 B. NEW TESTAMENT PASSAGES

1. Synoptic Gospels It will be helpful to locate the various texts related to Jesus' resurrection before giving more specific attention to those which are narratives. First, there are the records of Jesus' three raisings or resuscitations, two of which are in the Synoptics: the twelve-year-old daughter ofJairus (Mark 5:21-24, 35-43, esp. 41-42, and par.), the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17, esp. 14-15), and Lazarus of Bethany Gohn 11:144, esp. 43-44). Second, there are the predictions of his resurrection in Jesus' teachings: the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-40 and par.), emphasizing the Son of Man's being for three days and nights '"in the heart of the earth"' (NIV); the statement, following Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, that the Son of Man "must ... rise again" (Mark 8:31 and par.);Jesus' instruction after his transfiguration that his disciples keep silent about "what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead" (Mark 9:9-10 and par.); Jesus' instruction in Galilee about the rising of the Son of Man "'after three days"' (Mark 9:30-32 and par.); and Jesus' utterance en route to Jerusalem about the future rising after three days of the Son of Man (Mark 10:32-34 and par.). 6 4. Allusions to resurrection in the Messianic age and to the nature of the resurrection body in 2 Baruch 30:2-5 and 49:1-52:7 likely derive from the first century AD, and likewise the reference to resurrection after a 400-year Messianic reign and death in 4 Ezra 7:26-33 likely derives from the second century AD. 5. Tenney, The Reality of the Resurrection,pp. 24-30. 6. Ibid., pp. 41-44.

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The resurrection and appearances narratives are as follows: Mark 16:1-8; Matt. 28:1-20; and Luke 24:1-49. 2. Pauline Epistles In his earliest epistle Paul alluded to God's raising of Jesus "from the dead" (1 Thess. 1: 10) and to his rising again (4: 14). Paul was sent by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead (Gal. 1: 1). Such being raised by God will be followed by the resurrection of believers, and hence the bodies of believers ought not to be joined to a prostitute (1 Cor. 6:1415). Jesus' being "raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3-4, NIV) was an essential part of the kerygma (apostolic preaching). Paul referred to six of Jesus' appearances (1 Cor. 15:5-8) and used Jesus' resurrection in his apology for the future resurrection of believers (1 Cor. 15:12-23). Jesus "was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4). Believers in the line of Abraham trust "in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead," for Jesus "was raised to life for our justification" (Rom. 4:24-25). Such believers are "saved through his life" (Rom. 5:l0b), are "united with him in his resurrection," for he has been raised (Rom. 6:5,4) from a death that is not to be repeated (Rom. 6:9-10), and belong "to him who was raised from the dead" so as to "bear fruit to God" (Rom. 7:4b). If the Spirit of the God who raised Jesus lives in believers, they will be raised by God "through his Spirit" (Rom. 8:11). Jesus' resurrection isjoined not only with his death but also with his heavenly session and intercession (Rom. 8:34). Converts are to believe "that God raised him from the dead" (Rom. 10:9). The risen Jesus is "the Lord of both the dead and the living" (Rom. 14:9). God "exerted" his mighty power when he raised Christ from the dead (Eph. 1: 19-20; Phil. 3: 10). Believers have been raised by God with Christ in a present spiritual resurrection (Eph. 2:6) and are to "set" their "hearts" "on things above" (Col. 3:1-2). Jesus is "the first born from among the dead" (Col. l:18b), and his exaltation implies his resurrection (Phil. 2:9). He "appeared in a body" (1 Tim. 3:16b), having "destroyed death" and "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1: 10), and is truly to be remembered as "raised from the dead" (2 Tim. 2:8). 3. Acts of the Apostles Jesus "showed himself' to the apostles, giving "many convincing proofs that he was alive" and appearing to them during a forty-day period (1 :3). A newly chosen member of the Twelve must be a witness of Jesus' resurrection (l:22b). On the Day of Pentecost Peter proclaimed Jesus as having been raised from the dead by God in fulfillment of Psalm 16:8-11 (2:24-32). Subsequently Peter declared that God had raised "'the author oflife,"' his servantJesus (3:15, 26; 4:10). The apostles proclaimed "in

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Jesus the resurrection of the dead" (4:2) and "continued to testify" to his resurrection (4:33). Both Peter and the others reiterated what God had done (5:30). Jesus' appearance to Saul of Tarsus (9:3-6) presupposed Jesus' resurrection, and Peter in addressing Cornelius and company cited God's raising of Jesus and Jesus' appearance to "'chosen"' '"witnesses"' (10:40-41). In Antioch of Pisidia Paul preached that God had raised Jesus from the dead and that Jesus had been seen. Jesus did not experience bodily decay as did King David, and his resurrection was the fulfillment of Ps. 2:7; Isa. 55:3; and Ps. 16:10 (13:30-37). In Athens the same apostle announced "the good news about Jesus and the resurrection," his word being misunderstood as a reference to two "'foreign gods."' According to Paul, Jesus' resurrection was a "'proof" of final judgment, and some of his hearers were curious (17:18, 31-32). Governor Festus reported to King Herod Agrippa that Paul's Jewish accusers had declared that they and Paul differed '"about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive"' (25: 19b). Before the same Agrippa Paul asked, "'Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?"' Indeed "'the prophets and Moses"' had predicted that '"the Christ"' would be "'the first to rise from the dead"' (26:8, 22-23).

4. General Epistles Among the non-Pauline epistles only 1 Peter provides recurring allusions (1 :3, 21; 3: 18,21) to the resurrection of Jesus. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has only one clear allusion (13:20), although he does refer to Jesus' ascension (4:14), to his heavenly session (l:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2), to his unfailing intercession (7:25), and to resurrection in general (6:2; 11:19). James, Jude, and 2 Peter are silent concerning Jesus' resurrection, and the same is true of 1, 2, and 3 John, although 1 John 2: 1 does allude to Jesus' role as "advocate."

5. The Gospel according to John Jesus' saying, '"Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days,"' was understood by his disciples following his resurrection as having referred to his resurrection (2: 19-22).Jesus claimed to be able as the good shepherd not only to "'lay down"' his '"life"' but also '"to take it up again"' ( 10: 17-18). He declared after the raising of Lazarus, "'I am the resurrection and the life"' (l l:25a). The empty tomb and appearances narratives are found in John 20:1-21:23.

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6. Revelation Jesus Christ is "the firstborn from the dead" (1:5), '"the Living One"' who was "'dead"' but is '"alive for ever and ever"' (1:18), and he "who died and came to life again"(2:8). 7 C. RESURRECTION NARRATIVES AND NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM

I. Literary Criticism

Early in the twentieth century attention was given to the results of the application ofliterary criticism of the New Testament to the resurrection narratives in the four Gospels. Kirsopp Lake (1872-1946), holding to the dependence of Matthew and Luke upon Mark's Gospel, implied that the variants in the Synoptic resurrection narratives were due to "mythological embroidery." 8 James Orr, on the contrary, doubted the great dependence on Mark's Gospel, using the preface to Luke to argue against such, and concluded that the resurrection narratives, "while necessarily related, are yet independent, in the sense that no one of them is copied from or based on the others. "9 Thomas James Thorburn ( 1858-1923) utilized literary criticism in studying the narratives of the post-resurrection appearances. 10 He did so in order to refute the critical conclusions of Paul Wilhelm Schmiedel (1851-1935), who espoused a theory of hallucinations to explain the disciples' belief that Jesus had been raised.11 Percival Gardner-Smith ( 1888-1985) concluded that not only Matthew and Luke but also the Fourth Gospel "enlarged and modified" Mark's empty tomb narrative, "but without the addition of independent historical information." 12 Moreover, the appearances in the Fourth Gospel constitute important evidence of the state of the Galilean tradition at the end of the first century. 13 According to Maurice Goguel 7. For more detailed treatment of these New Testament texts, see ibid., pp. 40-90, and Samuel Herny Hooke (1874-1968), The Resurrectionof Christas Historyand Experience(London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1967), pp. 23-102. B. The HistoricalEvidencefor the ResurrectionofJesus Christ,Crown Theological Library (London: Williams and Norgate; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), pp. 44-109, esp. 79. 9. The ResurrectionofJesus (New York: Abingdon Press, 1908?), pp. 57-79, esp. 70-72, 74. 10. The ResurrectionNarrativesand Modern Criticism:A CritiqueMainly of Professor Schmiedel'sArticle 'ResurrectionNarratives'in the 'Encyclopaedia Biblica'(London: Kegan Paul, French, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1910). 11. "Resurrection- and Ascension-Narratives," EncyclopaediaBiblica,ed. T. K. Cheyne and]. Sutherland Black (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1914), cols. 4072-86. 12. The Narrativesof the Resurrection:A CriticalStudy (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1926), pp. 51-60, esp. 60. 13. Ibid., pp. 94-96, esp. 95. But Gardner-Smith's own conclusion stops short of affirmation of the historicity of Jesus' bodily resurrection (p. 190).

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(1880-1955), the earliest accounts concerning what happened to Jesus after death did not specifically record that he departed from his tomb but rather stressed that he was straightway exalted to heaven. Hence the empty tomb narratives, he argued, were subsequently invented to provide a more materialistic account. 14 Literary criticism, therefore, tended rather skeptically to concentrate on the empty tomb and the appearances accounts.

2. Form Criticism 15 Taking Jesus' resurrection to be a "mythical event," Rudolf Bultmann denied that it is "an event of past history" and affirmed instead that ''faith

in the resurrectionis reallythe same thing as faith in the saving efficacyof the cross,"for "the cross and the resurrection form a single, indivisible cosmic event."

16

For Bultmann, according to Grant R. Osborne,

Earlier stories simply said Jesus was alive and was the Messiah. The Emmaus pericope with its strong messianic teaching was the only primitive story, and the empty tomb narratives came later. 17 Martin Dibelius identified Mark's empty tomb narrative ending at 16:8, which he alleged that Mark substituted for an account of the appearance of the risen Jesus to Peter, as "Legend," but not as "myth." The latter term, he said, can be rightly applied to the Gospel of Peter 35-44. But the Emmaus story is "the only Easter Legend in the New Testament which has been preserved in an almost pure form." 18 According to Dibelius, "The term 'Legend' does not exclude historical traits, but only says that the main interest of the narrator lies elsewhere than in the historicity; it is directed to the religiousness and sanctity of the hero." 19 Moreover, Dibelius found it indicative of the "restraint" of the New Testament in developing legends that it contains "no Resurrection legend,

14. La Joi a la resurrectiondeJesus dans le christianismeprimitif: Etude d'histoireet de psychologiereligieuses(Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, 1933), pp. 213-33. Goguel's view has been summarized and defended by Anderson,jesus and ChristianOrigins,pp. 192-95. But in The Birth of Christianity,trans. H. C. Snape (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1953), p. 71, Goguel did not mention the later, more materialized account. 15. Here we depend upon the summary by Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives, pp. 25-29. 16. "New Testament and Mythology," in Bartsch, ed., Kerygmaand Myth, pp. 38, 42, 41, 38. 17. The ResurrectionNarratives, p. 26. 18. From Tradition to Gospel,pp. 189-92, 270-71. 19. A FreshApproachto the New Testamentand Early ChristianLiterature,trans. unspecif. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936), p. 43.

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but only accounts of the origin and spread of the Easter faith." "The two Easter-Legends . . . appear not to give us the oldest tradition of the appearance of the Risen Lord .... "20 Joachim Jeremias insisted upon a "great structural difference between the passion narrative and the Easter stories" inasmuch as respecting the former "all the gospels have a basic framework of common traditions," and the latter do not, having instead diverse "peopleinvolved" and a "variety of locations."Indeed "the Christophanies were a variety of events of different kinds which extended over a long period, probably over a number of years .... "21 C.H. Dodd likewise found the accounts of Jesus' appearances to be "more like a number of detached incidents." All "four gospels report that on the Sunday morning after the Friday on which Jesus had died his tomb was found to be vacant." There was a "tendency to shift the emphasis from the evidence of the empty tomb to the personal encounter with Jesus." For Dodd Jesus' resurrection "is not a belief that grew up within the church; it is the belief around which the church itself grew up." 22 Surprisingly form critics shed little light on the oral transmission of the resurrection passages. Their focus was either on legend and myth or on the multiplicity of accounts.

3. Redaction Criticism To be more precise, we must differentiate two disciplines which are often subsumed under the umbrella of "redaction research." One is "tradition criticism," "which studies the authenticity and development of [Gospel] stories," and the other is "redaction criticism" proper, "which traces the use of those stories by individual evangelists." Most redactional studies of the resurrection of Jesus have majored on tradition criticism, 23 but we should first seek the conclusions of redaction criticism. In his treatment of the Synoptic materials Norman Perrin, applying the term "myth" to the resurrection accounts, identified Mark's as "primordial myth," relatable to all humankind, and the redacted accounts of Matthew and Luke as "foundation myths," reflecting Jewish-Christian conflict. 24 Perrin explained the difference between the Matthean Galilean location of the appearances and the Lucan Jerusalem location as

20. The MessageofJesus Christ:The Traditionof the Early ChristianCommunities, trans. Frederick C. Grant (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1939), p. 181. 21. New TestamentTheology:The ProclamationofJesus, pp. 300-301. 22. The Founderof Christianity(New York: Macmillan Co., 1970), pp. 168, 163-64, 166, 163. 23. Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives,p. 33. 24. The Resurrectionaccordingto Matthew,Mark, and Luke (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977), pp. 9-13, 34-38, 55-58, 74-77.

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due to the "needs of the myth." 25 While deploring that in "the contemporary discussion of biblical texts ... the word myth has come to carry the negative connotation of something opposed to fact, something not true," Perrin also declared of the resurrection accounts: The hard-nosed historian will determine that they are a mixture of history, legend, and myth, or of mythicized history and historicized myth, and the proportions of one to the other will vary with the findings of the individual historian. 26 When applied to Jesus' resurrection, "myth" may pose even more problems than when applied to creation. 27 Grant Osborne as a redaction critic of a different sort has dealt with all four Gospels. "The entire Gospel of Mark leads to the resurrection as God's vindication of' his "suffering Son," and Mark was written to correct a "docetic tendency" in the Pauline churches and to assure "persecuted believers that suffering, doubts, and spiritual failures ... will in time result in victorious vindication through the Risen Lord." Adding to Mark's materials, Matthew wrote both with a "strongJewish flavor" and a "universalist emphasis" and as well "to instruct and encourage believers." For Luke, who stressed the reality of the resurrection, the resurrection has "soteriological significance" and is "a transition" to the mission of the church. Luke wrote in order "to tell about the continuing witness of the Risen One through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit." "John's resurrection narrative forms a kind of harmonious unity" by the assumption of a "post-resurrection viewpoint" and by leading into discipleship, mission, and martyrdom. 28 Perrin and Osborne differed thoroughly on their use of redaction criticism. How has tradition criticism dealt with the resurrection accounts? Osborne has provided a useful classification of recent works employing this method. First, some authors have concluded that "the Easter event was basically a subjective experience which inspired a triumphant faith in the disciples, and it is this faith which is objective." 29 For Willi Marxsen, the oral tradition can be reduced to Peter's having believed that he saw Jesus and the New Testament to Paul's vision of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:5, 8) with the result that historical agnosticism prevails concerning the facticity of Jesus' resurrection and the miracle lies in the faith ofbelievers. 30 According to Xavier Leon-Dufour (1912- ), no New Testament book 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Ibid., p. 76. Ibid., pp. 9, 11. See Vol. 1, ch. 24, I, A, a, 3). The ResurrectionNarratives,pp. 67, 69-70, 96-98, 144-46, 191-92. Ibid., p. 37. The ResurrectionofJesusof Nazareth,trans. Margaret Kohl (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970), esp. pp. 96-97, 98, 109-11, 115-29. German original, 1968.

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contains "any mention of a witness of the resurrectionas such," and our "historicalknowledgeis direct knowledgenot of Christ, returnedfrom the dead, but of the convictionof Paul who testifiesthat he has encounteredhim." Moreover, the evidence for the empty tomb is the terminus for historical inquiry, the words attributed to the risenJesus are not "ipsissimaverba of Jesus," and the "decisive event with which he [the believer] comes face to face ... is not the resurrection itself, but the apostolic faith in God who has raised Jesus from the dead." 31 Reginald H. Fuller, who has magnified "discrepancies" or "inconsistencies" among the resurrection accounts in the Gospels and explained them through tradition criticism and redaction criticism, has concluded that the modem Christian needs to rely neither on post-resurrection appearances nor on an empty tomb for the Easter faith. "Criticism ... relieves the preacher of the task of seeking to impose a historical faith on his hearers, and liberates him to invite them to a kerygmatic faith." Jesus' resurrection means that he was "translated" or "transformed" into "eschatological existence." 32 Second, there are those tradition critics who have concluded that the "visions" or appearances "were objectively valid." 33 Hans Grass (1909- ) has defended the "objective" character of the "visions" or appearances over against the subjective hypothesis, but he has also written of the "legendary character" of the empty tomb narrative in Mark and of the Emmaus account in Luke and has questioned the historicity of the empty tomb. 34 Christopher Francis Evans ( 1909- ) can refer to both "appearances" and the "empty tomb" as "events," while denying any possible harmonization of accounts. 35 Third, still other authors have "put more emphasis on the historical reality" of Jesus' resurrection. 36 According to Ulrich Wilckens (1928- ), the story of the empty tomb was not added to the Gospel of Mark but actually preceded its composition, and indeed the empty tomb is "extremely probably a fact." The appearances were not "testimoniesto the resurrection" but "rather credentials"for church leaders. The "New Testament mention of Jesus' resurrection" is not merely "one means of the experience of faith" or a part of the kerygma; rather the resurrection marks the effectuation of "God's creative omnipotence," the validation of Jesus' teaching and works, and the recognition of Jesus as "the Righteous One," the Messiah, and the 31. Resurrectionand the Messageof Easter,trans. R. N. Wilson (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975), pp. 204-15. 32. The Formationof the ResurrectionNarratives(New York: Macmillan Co., 1971), pp. 2-6, 168-88. 33. Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives,p. 37. 34. Ostergeschehen und Osterberichte (4th ed.; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1970), pp. 233-49, 20-21, 35-38, 183-186. 1st ed., 1956. 35. Resurrectionand the New Testament,Studies in Biblical Theology, 2d. ser., no. 12 (Naperville, Ill.: Alec R. Allenson Inc., 1970), pp. 130, 128. 36. Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives,p. 37.

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Son ofGod. 37 John E. Alsup (1941 - ) has undertaken "a history- of-tradition analysis of the post-resurrection appearance storiesof the gospel tradition" in which he has sought "throughan analysisof theirform and structureto answer the questionof theirpre-redactionalorigin and intentionas Gattung." Rejecting Martin Dibelius's view that the appearance stories came forth as illustrations for the kerygma in primitive missionary preaching, he has concluded that the appearance stories constitute "an independentstreamof traditionnext to thoseof the kerygmaand tombtraditions,"not built on Hellenistic parallels but upon Old Testament theophanies. Such study of the stories does not directly address but is open to and consonant with the historicity of the resurrection. 38 Within the various methods of New Testament criticism one finds that there are those critics who have applied the terms "myth" and "legend" to Jesus' resurrection and who have found no more objectivity in Jesus' resurrection than the fact that his disciples believed in his spiritual survival. Weighty indeed have been the presuppositions which these critics have brought to their labors, and such presuppositions have inherently precluded a genuine openness to the facticity of Jesus' resurrection. D. EVIDENCES FOR THE REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Several major evidences-not "proofs" in the strict sense-have been and can be cited in support or confirmation of the facticity or reality of Jesus' resurrection. 1. The Empty Tomb All four Gospels 39 directly or indirectly allude to the fact of Jesus' tomb having been vacated. Schmiedel 40 and others have argued against the fact of the empty tomb on the basis of the so-called silence of Paul and other New Testament writers, andWilliamJohn SparrowSimpson 41 (1859-1952) and T.J. Thorbum 42 have answered that argument. Schmiedel also used the silence of the women (Mark 16:8) and the lack of satisfactory examination of the 37. Resurrection:BiblicalTestimonyto the Resurrection;An HistoricalExaminationand Explanation, trans. A. M. Stewart (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1978), pp. 37-38, 45, 116, 114, 121-22, 123, 130, 125. German original, 1970. AppearanceStoriesof the GospelTradition:A History-of 38. The Post-Resurrection TraditionAnalysiswith Text-Synopsis,Calwer Theologische Monographien, series A, vol. 5 (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1975), esp. pp. 19, 266-74. 39. Mark 16:6; Matt. 28:6; Luke 24:3;John 20:2, 5-7. According to Edward Gordon Selwyn (1885-1959), "The Resurrection," in EssaysCatholicand Critical, ed. Selwyn (London: S. P. C. K., 1926), p. 317, "no fact recorded in the New Testament is better attested than this." 40. "Resurrection- and Ascension-Narratives," cols. 4058-60. 41. The Resurrectionand Modem Thought (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911), pp. 24-30. 42. The ResurrectionNarrativesand Modern Criticism,pp. 97-108.

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tomb by "opponents" against the empty tomb. 43 According to Greville Dennis Yarnold (1909- ), however, the increasing specificityas to the empty tomb as one moves from 1 Corinthians 15 to Mark to Luke to Matthew and finally to John affords no case against historicity.44 Answering Peter Crafts Hodgson (1934- )45 and Gordon Dester Kaufman, (1925- ),46 Gerald Glynn O'Collins, S.J. ( 1931- ), countered historical objections, and answering Geoffrey William Hugo Lampe (1912-80) 47 and Louis Evely (1910 - ),48 he countered theological objections, such as the idea, aimed to answer docetism, that the incarnation necessitated the decay of Jesus' body. O'Collins saw the empty tomb, the preaching of which could have been silenced by producing his body, as a "sign" of Jesus' removal "from the land of the living" and as a "safeguard" against docetism. 49 For Leon-Dufour, the empty tomb provided three important symbols: the rolled away stone (defeat of Sheol), the absence of Jesus' body (hope of the appearances), and the leaving oflinen cloths (the body of Jesus to be sought elsewhere).50 Mark 16, according to Willi Marxsen, regarded the empty tomb as only "illustration material" for the resurrection, whereas Luke and Matthew maximized it.51 But for Merrill C. Tenney the Gospel references to the empty tomb are "strong confirmation of the resurrection." 52 Grant Osborne, citing Kenneth Grayston's (1914- )53 list of"seven possible explanations for the empty tomb narrative," concluded "that the evangelists would have accepted both of the last two possibilities," namely, "God caused the body of Jesus to be revived and to abandon the tomb, thus creating a sign for faith," and "God caused the body of Jesus to be revived and to abandon the tomb, to make it possible for him to prove that he was a person possessed of flesh and bones and not a spirit." 54 Osborne's examination 43. "Resurrection-and Ascension-Narratives," col. 4066. 44. Risen Indeed:Studiesin the Lord'sResurrection(London: Oxford University Press, 1959), pp. 9-11. 45.Jesus: Wordand Presence:An Essayin Christology(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), pp. 236-37. 46. SystematicTheology:A HistoricistPerspective,pp. 418-30. Kaufman downplays and reckons as late the empty tomb accounts and refuses to reject the hallucination theory vis-a-vis the appearances. 47. Lampe in Lampe and D. M. MacKinnon, The Resurrection:A Dialogue,ed. William Purcell (London: Mowbray, 1966; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967), pp. 58-59, 97, 99. 48. The GospelswithoutMyth, trans. J. F. Bernard (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971), p. 160. 49. The ResurrectionofJesus Christ(Valley Forge, Pa.:Judson Press, 1973), pp. 90-97, 38-45. 50. Resurrectionand the Messageof Easter, p. 124. 51.jesus and Easter,p. 52. 52. The Reality of the Resurrection,p. 113. 53. "The Empty Tomb," ExpositoryTimes 92 (June 1981): 267. 54. The ResurrectionNarratives,pp. 196-97.

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of the various and sundry "seeming inconsistencies" in respect to the empty tomb led him to moderate harmonization and the conclusion that the "empty tomb is most definitely a historical event." 55 William Lane Craig ( 1949- ) has listed eight reasons for the historicity of the empty tomb narratives. 56

2. The Post-Resurrection Appearances a. Number and Sequence

The Gospels and 1 Cor. 15:5-8 provide accounts of ten or eleven appearances. Various authors list their number and sequence in slightly different arrangements: John Albert Broadus (1827-95)5 7andJames Orr 58

Laurence W. Miller 59

Merrill C. Tenney

1) Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9; John 20:11-18)

1) The women, including Mary Magdalene

1) Mary Magdalene

2) The women (Luke 24:9-11) 3) Simon Peter ( 1 Cor. 15:5)

2) Two on road to Emmaus

2) The women

3) Ten disciples, Thomas absent

3) Simon Peter

4) Eleven disciples, Thomas present

4) Two on road to Emmaus

5) Seven disciples by Sea of Galilee

5) Ten disciples, Thomas absent

6) Disciples on mountain in Galilee (Matt. 28:16-20)

6) Eleven disciples, Thomas present

7) Five hundred (l Cor. 15:6)

7) Five hundred

4) Two on road to Emmaus (Mark 16: 12-13; Luke 24: 13-43) 5) Ten apostles, Thomas absent (Mark 16:14; John 20:19-25) 6) Eleven apostles, Thomas present (John 20:26-29; 1 Cor. 15:5) 7) Seven disciples by Sea of Galilee (John 21)

60

55. Ibid., pp. 198-216, 218. 56. "The Empty Tomb of Jesus," in GospelPerspectives:Studiesof Historyand Tradition in the Four Gospels,6 vols., ed. R. T. France and David Wenham (Sheffield, U. K.:JSOTPress, 1980-85?), 2:189-94. 57. A Harmony of the Gospelsin the Revised Version(7th rev. ed.; New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1907), pp. 220-30. 58. The ResurrectionofJesus, pp. 155-56. 59. Jesus ChristIs Alive (Boston: W. A. Wilde Co., 1949), pp. 22-31. 60. The Reality of the Resurrection,pp. 123-32. Tenney also lists two other postascension "manifestations": to Stephen (Acts 7:56) and to Saul of Tarsus.

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The Resurrection of Jesus Broadus & Orr (cont.) 8) Five hundred on mountain in Galilee (Mark 16: 15-18; Matt. 28: 16-20; 1 Cor. 15:6)

Miller (cont.) 8) Eleven disciples prior to ascension

Tenney (cont.)

9) James (1 Cor.

9)James

9) Seven disciples by Sea of Galilee 10) Eleven on mountain in Galilee (Mark 16:15-18; Matt. 28:16-20)

15:7)

10) Eleven disciples prior to ascension (Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:3-8; 1 Cor. 15:7)

10) Saul of Tarsus (l Cor.

9:1; 15:8; Acts 9:5)

8)James

11) Eleven disciples prior

to ascension

b. Classification

The appearance narratives are sometimes subject to classification, the most common schemes being four in number. They can be classified according to time: those five occurring on the day of the resurrection and those five occurring later. 61 They can be classified according to their canonical location: those mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:5-8 and those mentioned in the Gospels. 62 They can be classified according to recipients: groups of persons, especially those "entrusted with an apostolic task," and individuals. They can be classified according to length: longer narratives and "brief narratives. "63 c. Nature

The precise nature of the post-resurrection appearances has been identified in numerous ways. Gerald O'Collins has interpreted the authors of three recent monographs on the resurrection, 64 whose positions we may take as representative of the available answers. Pheme Perkins ( 1945- ), using the label "Christophany," has described the appearances as ecstasies such as were attributable to the Holy Spirit. 65 For Reginald Fuller they were '"visionary experiences oflight, combined with a communication of meaning. "' 66 Hans Kessler ( 1938 - ), rejecting the categories of vision, light, or mystic experience, has adopted the more traditional language of "appearances" and "revelations," taking his clue from Karl 61. Broadus,A Harmonyof the Gospels,p. 220. 62. Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives,pp. 221-72. 63. O'Collins, The ResurrectionofJesus Christ,p. 22. 64. Interpretingthe Resurrection:Examiningthe Major Problemsin the StoriesofJesus' Resurrection(New York: Paulist Press, 1988), pp. 5-21. Reflection(Garden City, 65. Resurrection:New TestamentWitnessand Contemporary N. Y.: Doubleday, 1984), pp. 87, 99, 136-37, 156-57, 172, 175, 198. 66. O'Collins, Interpretingthe Resurrection,p. 7, interp. The Formationof the ResurrectionNarratives,p. 48.

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Rahner's statement that the appearances are "'strictly sui generis."'67 The third position, more adequately than the other two, identifies the essential nature and uniqueness of the appearances. d. Locations: Jerusalem or/and Galilee?

Modern scholars have given attention to the fact that in Mark and for the most part in Matthew the appearances are located in Galilee and that in Luke-Acts and in John they are located in Jerusalem. Some have regarded these facts as indicative of discrepancies or contradictions, thus leading to the espousal of one or of the other location as the true locale for the appearances. Hence, some authors (P. W. Schmiedel, 68 Kirsopp Lake, 69 Pervical Gardner-Smith 70) have concluded that the appearances occurred only in Galilee. Such a conclusion cannot stand apart from a massive deemphasis on or rejection of Luke 24 and John 20. 71 Secondly, other authors have asserted that the appearances occurred only in Jerusalem. Bernhard Weiss "cast great doubt upon the historicity of the statement (in Matthew, Mark) that the women received instructions from the angel to bid the disciples proceed to Galilee." 72 Alfred Resch (1835-1912) posited upon the basis of medieval pilgrimages that the Mount of Olives came to be called "Galilee." 73 Johannes Weiss rendered "'I will go before you to Galilee"' (Mark l 4:28b, RSV) as "I will lead you [like a shepherd] into Galilee," and hence there need not have been appearances in Galilee. 74 Francis Crawford Burkitt (1864- 1935), taking Mark 14:28 in the same sense, held that Peter started on a journey toward

67. Sucht den Lebendennicht beiden Toten:Die Auferstehungjesu Christi(Diisseldorf: Patmos/CVK, 1985), pp. 223-29, 233, 235, cited by O'Collins, Interpretingthe Resurrection,pp. 18-21. See Rabner, Foundationsof ChristianFaith:An Introductionto the Idea of Christianity,trans. William V. Dych (New York: Seabury Press, 1978), p. 277. 68. "Resurrection- and Ascension-Narratives," cols. 4063-65. 69. The HistoricalEvidencefor the ResurrectionofJesus Christ,pp. 73-79, 88-90, 93-94, 102-3, 134-47, 193, 206-27. 70. The Narrativesof the Resurrection,pp. 17-20, 44-49, 64-65, 88-96, 118-23, 140-70. 71. Thorburn, The ResurrectionNarrativesand Modem Criticism,pp. 114-15. 72. Ibid., p. 120, citing Weiss, The Life of Christ,trans. John Walter Hope and M. G. Hope, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1892-94), 3:403-4. 73. Ibid., p. 121, citing Resch, Aussercanonische Parallel-textezu den Evangelien, 5 vols. in 3 (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1893-97), 1:38 lff. 74. Anderson,Jesus and ChristianOrigins,p. 197, citing Die Schriftendes Neuen Testaments,neu iibersetz und fur die Gegenwart erklart von Otto Baumgarten und hrsg. vonJohannes Weiss, 2 vols. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1906), 1:208. Also Arthur Michael Ramsey, The Resurrectionof Christ:An Essayin BiblicalTheology(London: Geoffrey Bles, 1945), p. 70.

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Galilee in obedience to the angelic instruction, but Jesus appeared to him, and he turned back to Jerusalem. 75 The third posture is that of recognizing both locations. R. H. Lightfoot, while acknowledging the topographical differences as to the appearances, majored on the forward look of Mark in anticipating the yet-to-be parousia of the Son of Man in Galilee and of Matthew in anticipating the risen Lord's instruction of the disciples vis-a-vis all nations and the backward look of Luke in regarding the resurrection as the completion of Christ's victory, with John having affinities with both sides. 76 If both Galilean and Jerusalem appearances are to be taken as valid and supplemental to each other, then the earliest occurred in.Jerusalem, the next ones in Galilee, and the last in Jerusalem O-G-J). 77 Such a position has been embellished by the hypothesis of Charles F. D. Moule that the appearances are to be connected with festival pilgrimages; hence the disciples left Jerusalem after Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, returned to Galilee, and then came back to Jerusalem for Pentecost. 78 3. The Thoroughgoing Transformation ofJesus' Disciples

The revolutionary change in the attitude and outlook of Jesus' disciples between the time of his death and the Day of Pentecost constitutes another evidence of the facticity of Jesus' resurrection. The disciples were not anticipating or expecting Jesus' resurrection Qohn 20:9) despite Jesus' predictions thereof, they being filled with "forebodings" because of the predictions of his passion. 79 Their expectations of a temporal messianic kingdom had been dashed (Luke 24:21) and would only be briefly revived (Acts 1:6), and their "indignation and anger" soon turned into "shame and self-reproach. "80 But they were thoroughly transformed from discouragement and despair so as to be emboldened. 81 Their bewilderment and 75. ChristianBeginnings (London: University of London Press, 1924), pp. 75-97, esp. 86-87, 92-93. 76. Localityand Doctrinein the Gospels(New York, London: Harper and Brothers, 1937),pp.61-65, 72,80-89,95-101. 77. Thorburn, The ResurrectionNarrativesand Modern Criticism,pp. 122-27; Ramsey, The Resurrectionof Christ,p. 71; Yarnold, Risen Indeed, pp. 121-23; H. E. W. Turner,Jesus Masterand Lord:A Study in the HistoricalTruth of the Gospels(London: A. R. Mowbray and Co., 1953), p. 366. 78. "The Post-Resurrection Appearances in the Light of Festival Pilgrimages," New TestamentStudies4 (October 1957): 58-61. Also Osborne, The Resurrection Narratives,p. 214. 79. Ramsey, The ResurrectionofJesus, pp. 38-39; Yarnold, Risen Indeed, pp. 12-13;John McNaugher,jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1947), pp. 163-64. 80. Yarnold, Risen Indeed, p. 14. 81. W. T. Conner, The ResurrectionofJesus (Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1926), pp. 25-26.

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despondency over their "lost cause," which threatened their unity as a band of disciples, was radically changed to boldness in witness, and their individual characters, not only of Peter and Thomas but also of the others, were "suddenly altered." 82 Can such a transformation be explained apart from such an event as Jesus' resurrection?

4. The Conversion and Testimony of Saul of Tarsus Paul the apostle explained his own conversion from persecutor of the infant Christian movement to apostle to the Gentiles on the basis of the appearance of Jesus as risen Lord to him (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8-11; Acts 9:3-6; 22:6-10; 26:12-18). But Willi Marxsen has adamantly refused, partly because Gal. 1: 15-17 does not ref er to Saul's seeing the risen Jesus, to allow any connection between Paul's "experience on the Damascus road" and the occurrence of Jesus' resurrection. 83The sequence of efforts to depreciate the conversion of Paul by radical critics from F. C. Baur through Heinrich Weinel (1874-1936) was traced by Simpson. 84 But the transformation of Saul the Pharisee and persecutor of Christians to the apostle to the Gentiles lacks credibility if Jesus remained under the sway of death. 85

5. The Absence of Valid Contemporary Denial Unambiguous and indisputable evidence that Jesus continued in death without being raised, if advanced by first-century Jews or Romans, not only could have but also would have been employed as a means of suppressing or stamping out the nascent Christian movement. The instruction of the guards by the chief priests and elders to declare that Jesus' body had been stolen by his disciples at night and the payment for the same, designed partly to keep the Roman governor from disciplining the guards (Matt. 28: 11-15 ), did not constitute a convincing denial of the reality of Jesus' resurrection but rather an effort to repress the fact of his resurrection.86 Furthermore, the Sanhedrin's command to Peter and John "not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus" (Acts 4: 18, NIV) was no denial that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

6. The Subsequent History of the Christian Church The very existence, the preservation, and the considerable growth of Christianity during the early centuries of the Christian era is testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection was not only within the center Tenney, The Reality of the Resurrection,pp. 134-36. The ResurrectionofJesus of Nazareth, pp. 98-111. The Resurrectionand Modern Thought, pp. 153-69. Conner, The ResurrectionofJesus, pp. 26-30; Tenney, The Reality of the Resurrection,pp. 136-37; and McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,pp. 164-66. 86. Conner, Revelationand God, p. 162.

82. 83. 84. 85.

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of the Christian proclamation but also the best explanation of the Christian movement itself. "The Church, therefore, is the living, monumental, and perennial proof of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ." 87 Hence the "Church on earth today is not the sad widow of the dead Christ, but she is the happy Bride of the Risen and Living Son of God." 88

7. The Lord's Day The observance of the first day of the week as the Lord's Day, instead of continued observance of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath, by the early Christians (1 Cor. 16:2, Rev. I: 10) is very difficult to explain apart from the early Christian belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Surely more than an illusion was needed to convince Jewish Christians of the rightness of such a change. 89 E. MAJOR THEORIES DENYING THE HISTORICITY OR FACTICITY OF THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Various theories framed to provide an alternative explanation to the bodily resurrection of Jesus have been advanced, especially during the modern era. 1. Intentional Fraud Theory

The oldest of the theories, traceable to the Jewish high priests and their bribing of the Roman guards immediately after Jesus' resurrection, alleges that Jesus' disciples stole his body from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea while the Roman guards were sleeping. 90 The disciples, according to H. S. Reimarus, fabricated a story that Jesus was raised from the dead in order to gain self-recognition and start a new religion. 91

87. McNaugher,]esus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,p. 168. 88. Miller,Jesus ChristIs Alive, p. 89. See also Tenney, The Reality of the Resurrection, pp. 138-42. 89. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,pp. 166-67. Yet as a Seventh-day Adventist, Samuele Bacchiocchi ( 1938- ), From Sabbathto Sunday:A HistoricalInvestigationof the Rise of Sunday Observancein Early Christianity (Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University, 1977), esp. 165-269, has contended that anti-Judaistic attitudes in the Church of Rome and pagan Sun-worship were more important causes than the resurrection of Jesus. 90. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,p. 145; Miller, Jesus ChristIs Alive, p. 35. Thomas Woolston (1670-1733), an English Deist, defended the theft and bribery theory: A Sixth Discourseon the Miraclesof Our Savior (2d ed.: London: Author, 1729; rpt. ed., British Philosophers and Theologians of the 17th and 18th Centuries, no. 67, New York, London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1979), pp. 18-22. 91. Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives, p. 276. See Reimarus:Fragments,ed. Charles H. Talbert and trans. Ralph S. Fraser, Lives of Jesus Series (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970), pp. 153-200.

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Hence the empty tomb could be explained by theft, and the resurrection story would be based on deception. But is such a hypothesis probable? Since Roman soldiers could face the death penalty for an act of treason, namely, sleeping while on duty, is it likely that these guards were indeed soundly sleeping? If indeed the guards were sleeping, "how would the disciples have been able to break the seal without making considerable noise, and how quietly would they have been able to roll away the great stone from the mouth of the tomb with no fear of disturbing the soldiers?" Would the discouraged disciples have been "gullible" or "foolhardy" enough to undertake such a removal? Can the possession by his disciples of Jesus' corpse have explained the "amazing transformation" of the disciples themselves? Even modern rationalists have found this theory to be "a psychological impossibility." 92

2. Swoon Theory Strongly advocated by Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus ( 1761-1851) of Heidelberg, this theory posits, according to Paulus, that Jesus did not die but went into a state of unconsciousness after six hours on the cross. His "non-fatal wounds had ... the effect of blood-letting." Amid the cool spring climate and aided by the spices, Jesus gradually revived. His grave was opened by some others, perhaps Essenes, and he put on the gardener's nearby clothes and departed from the area. On various occasions he later "appeared in disguise" to his disciples in Galilee and in Jerusalem, and finally he died on the Mount of Olives. In favor of this theory have been two alleged considerations: "the absence of formal proof of Uesus'] death" and "the abstract possibility of a subsequent return to life and consciousness. "93 F. D. E. Schleiermacher 94 considered but rejected the swoon theory, and T. H. Huxley 95 embraced it. 92. Miller,Jesus ChristIs Alive, pp. 35-36; McNaugher,]esus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,pp. 145-46. 93. Theodor Keim, The HistoryofJesus of Nazara, FreelyInvestigatedin Its Connection with the NationalLife of Israel,and Rel,atedin Detail,trans. Arthur Ransom and E. M. Geldart, 6 vols. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1876-83), 6:326-29, based on Paulus, Exegetisches Handbuchuberdie drei erstenEvangelien,3 vols. (1830-33), 3.2.826ff., and idem, Das Lebenjesu, pp. 277ff. 94. The Life ofJesus, trans. S. Maclean Gilmour anded.Jack C. Verheyden, Lives of Jesus Series (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), pp. 415-19, 427. The passage is in that portion of the Life for which there are no manuscripts from Schleiermacher, only notebooks of his students, and hence the interpretation is problematic. 95. Scienceand ChristianTradition (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1896), pp. 278-82. The Ahmadiya sect oflslam has also taught the swoon theory, adding that Jesus subsequently traveled to India, died there, and was buried in Kashmir, where the sect claims to be "guardians of his tomb." Stott, The Crossof Christ,p. 41.

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On the other hand, this theory fails to take into account the evident fatal consequences of the crucifixion, posits improbably that the weakened Jesus could have unwound the grave clothes, 96 disregards the penetration of Jesus' pericardium by the thrust of the spear (John 19:34) and the death certificate given by the centurion to Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:44-45), 97 and entails the immoral result of the disciples' claiming that Jesus had been raised when he had not been and Jesus' acquiesing to such untruth. 98 3. Wrong Person Theory

Muslims have adopted a denial of the bodily resurrection of Jesus which is based upon their denial that Jesus himself was crucified. The Qy,r1iin accuses the Jews of falsehood in claiming that they put to death Jesus of Nazareth. 99 Muslims commonly hold "that God cast a spell over the enemies of Jesus in order to rescue him, and that either Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene was substituted for him at the last moment." 100 Such a theory reveals more concerning Islam's offense at the cross of Jesus than about the identity of the one crucified in Jerusalem between two thieves. 4. Wrong Tomb Theory

Kirsopp Lake fathered the theory that the women who came with their spices seeking Jesus' tomb actually came mistakenly to another nearby and hence the wrong tomb.Jerusalem had numerous "rock-tombs," and the women had probably watched at some distance when Jesus was buried. Hence their ability to locate the correct tomb was limited. Expecting

96. Miller,jesus ChristIs Alive, p. 37. David F. Strauss, an advocate of the visionary theory, found the swoon theory to be quite untenable: It is impossible that a being who had stolen half dead out of the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening, and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given to the disciples the impression that he was a Conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of Life, an impression which lay at the bottom of their future ministry. A New Life ofJesus, trans. unspecified, 2d ed., 2 vols. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1879), 1:412. 97. McNaugher,jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,p. 148. 98. Ibid., pp. 148-49; Keim, The HistoryofJesus of Naz.ara,6:330-31. 99. The QurJiin,trans. Richard Bell, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1937), 4. 156-57 (vol. 1, p. 89). 100. Stott, The Crossof Christ,p. 41. The fourteenth- or fifteenth-century apocryphal Gospelof Barnabas,"written in Italian ... by a Christian convert to Islam," declares that ''Judas was crucified in Jesus' place."

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"to find a closed tomb," they came upon "an open one." Lake interpreted '"He is not here"' (Matt. 28:6a, NIV) to mean that the angel or "young man" rather pointed to another tomb. Frightened, the women fled and later cortjured up the idea that the angel had been announcing Jesus' resurrection. 101 Lake arbitrarily selected some of the elements in the Gospel accounts for his theory and ignored others. 102 He ignored the "he has risen" of Matthew 28:66. Did Peter and John also go to the wrong tomb after Mary Magdalene had reported that His tomb was empty? Did not John see the undisturbed grave clothing lying in the Empty Tomb? How could there have been found grave clothing in this tomb if no one had been buried there? Why was Christ's grave clothing found undisturbed in this empty tomb, the tomb which ... Lake claims was the wrong one? 103 "Why reject the testimony of the Roman guard to the empty tomb? Why reject the testimony of the three Synoptics that the women had the tomb fully identified?"I0 4 Why was Lake silent about the other appearances?I0 5 The objections are indeed weighty.

5. Subjective Vision Theory Two forms of the vision theory, the subjective and the objective, have been advanced by modem biblical critics and exegetes. The subjective form explains the appearances of Jesus not on the basis of his resurrection from the grave but as the result of human psychological reactions, that is, as humanly initiated visions of Jesus. David F. Strauss, after rejecting the swoon theory, posited that the appearance of Jesus-called a "Christophany"-to Saul of Tarsus (1 Cor. 15:8) was internal and subjective and that the other appearances were of the same nature as that to Saul. Hence the disciples, after reflecting on the Messianic hope as found in the Old Testament, to which they added Ps. 16:10, became "exalted," made present to themselves "the risen Christ in a visionary manner," and concluded that Jesus could not have been held in bondage by death (Acts 2:24). 106 According to Ernest Renan (1823-92), Jesus continued after his death to be "a living comforter" to his disciples, and Mary Magdalene, marked by "credulous" "enthusiasm" and "vivid imagination," "gave to 101. The HistoricalEvidencefor the ResurrectionofJesus Christ,pp. 249-53. While denying an empty tomb, Lake affirmed Jesus' resurrection in the sense of "the manifestation ofa surviving personality" (pp. 252-53, 274-75). 102. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,p. 150. 103. Miller,Jesus ChristIs Alive, p. 44. 104. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,p. 150. 105. Miller,Jesus ChristIs Alive, p. 44. 106. Thelife ofJesusCritically Examined,trans. George Eliot (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Co.; New York: Macmillan and Co., 1898), pp. 728-44, esp. 74{}-44.

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the world" the "illusion" of "a deity risen from the grave." 107 For Alfred Loisy (1857-1940) the appearances were "based upon visions in which faith was able to find nourishment and confirmation, and for the good reason that faith had created them." "Faith raised Jesus into the glory he expected; faith declared him living for ever because faith itself was determined never to die." 108 We have previously noted that P. W. Schmiedel and Willi Marxsen have also espoused the subjective vision theory. 109 The psychological state of Jesus' disciples after his crucifixion constitutes a most important evidence against subjectivism. The theory presupposes a power of faith of a nature hitherto unknown to be produced out of utter despair. An immeasureable effect is thus ascribed to the most insignificant cause, and a revolution in the history of the world is supposed to have come from an accidental self-deception. 110 Hallucinations presuppose "prepossession" or "expectation," but such did not characterize the disciples. Moreover, a hallucination "is necessarily an individual experience," not the common experience of five hundred. 111

6. Objective Vision Theory The objective theory, on the other hand, explains the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in terms of divinely caused visions, whether by Jesus or the Holy Spirit, designed to teach the disciples "that his resurrection was a spiritual reality." 112 G. W. H. Lampe interpreted 1 Cor. 15:8 as referring to "an experience of vision, an objective, compelling and convincing revelation that Jesus was not dead, buried and forgotten, but was here and now the living Lord," but he did not mean to include any bodily resurrection. The appearances were "not mere hallucinations" but involved "the objective presence of Christ, 'outside' themselves." They "were not primarily proofs"but were the method whereby "the risen Lord" called persons to apostolic mission. Moreover, they "were not dissimilar in kind from other phenomena in the history ofreligious experience." 113 A variation of the objective vision theory is Paul Tillich's "restitution" or "spiritual 107. Life ofJesus, trans.Joseph Henry Allen (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1899), p. 402. 108. The Birth of the ChristianReligion, trans. L. P. Jacks (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1948), pp. 95, 98. 109. See above, I, C, 1; I, C, 3. Study,trans. 110. Karl August von Hase (1800-90), life ofJesus:A ManualforAca,demic James Freeman Clarke (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1893), p. 233. ll 1. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,pp. 152, 153. 112. Osborne, The ResurrectionNarratives,p. 278. 113. Lampe in Lampe and MacKinnon, The Resurrection:A Dialogue,pp. 18, 19, 21, 36, 39. We have already noted that Hans Grass has adhered to this theory. See above, I, C, 3.

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presence" theory, according to which the "picture of Jesus of Nazareth" was ecstatically and indissolubly united with "the New Being," thus restoring to Jesus the power of the Christ, and thus such a uniting constituted the various appearances. 114 If this theory proves to be less objectionable than the theory of subjective visions, it nevertheless offers no evidence as to what happened to the body of Jesus and swings unduly the pendulum vis-a-vis a "spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:44) too far to the spirit and away from the body.

7. Telegram Theory Theodor Keim ( 1825-78), having rejected the other major theories, postulated that Jesus the Messiah, presumably without any bodily resurrection and in a glorified and spiritual state, sent a "telegram from heaven" to his disciples as "evidence that he was alive." 115 If such be true, then why was Jesus' body not discovered? Why should the telegram hypothesis be more persuasive than the witness of the four Gospels to an empty tomb? This theory, while allowing for an aspect of the supernatural, makes the telegram to be a false message, for Jesus was still in the grave. 116

8. Materialization Theory James Martineau expounded a variation of the visionary theories which regarded the resurrection stories as later efforts to materialize what was essentially spiritual. Early Christian belief in Jesus' immortality was "the fruit of his spiritual influence" and the result of "the impression of Christ's personality." 117 For twenty-five years after the resurrection, Paul "had no other idea of the resurrection of Jesus than of his exchanging

114. SystematicTheology,2: 157, For critiques of Tillich's theory, see George H. Tavard, Paul Tillichand the ChristianMessage(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962), pp. 132-39;John Heywood Thomas, Paul Tillich:An Appraisal (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963), pp. 99-102; Kenneth Hamilton ( 1917- ), The Systemand the Gospel:A Critiqueof Paul Tillich (New York: Macmillan Co., 1963), pp. 166-67; Alexander Jeffrey McKelway (1932- ), The SystematicTheologyof Paul Tillich:A Review and Analysis (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1964), pp. 168-71, 180-84; John P. Newport (d. 2000), Paul Tillich, Makers of the Modern Theological Mind (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1984), pp. 122-23, 212. 115. The HistoryofJesus of Nazara, 6:323-65, esp. 364. 116. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,p. 156; Miller, Jesus ChristIs Alive, p. 42. 117. James Martineau to J. H. Thom, 28 August 1882, in James Drummond and C. B. Upton, The Life and LettersofJames Martineau, 2 vols. (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1902), 2:94.

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the earthly organism for the investiture with the spiritual essence of heavenly life; and no conception of a Christophany but as a manifestation of this life to the spirit or inward vision of the believer." Because both Jews and pagans were demanding "from the disciples something other than their own subjective vision in pFoof that 'Christ lives,"' "the traditions" "were so moulded as to answer this demand." 118 "This was not to rise into a spiritual form from a Messianic conception, but rather to sink back from the spiritual into the Messianic." 119 Martineau presupposed a very non-Hebraic understanding of body and spirit, reckoned any concept of bodily resurrection to be the result of Jewish and pagan pressure on Christians when actually the early Christian preaching of Jesus' resurrection was offense to the Greek world, and failed to escape the pitfall of Gnosticism. 9. Legendary or Mythical Theory Not a few biblical critics, historians of early Christianity, and theologians during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have applied the terms "legend" and/or "myth" to the New Testament passages expressive of the empty tomb and of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Ernest Renan referred to "legends touching the resurrection," 120 and Wilhelm Bousset wrote of the "legends of the empty tomb and of the bodily resurrection of Jesus" in a context in which he mentioned fictionalization and "fabrication." 121 David F. Strauss placed his entire discussion of Jesus' resurrection under the category of "myth," 122 Alfred Loisy repeatedly employed the term "myths" in connecting Jesus' resurrection with the Lord's Day,123 and Thomas Kelly Cheyne (1841-1915) insisted that the "form of the belief' inJesus' resurrection was "mythical" and hence non-historical, there being parallels in Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece, but that such form "has nothing to do with the truth or falsehood of the belief itself." 124 Rudolf Bultmann, defining "mythology" as "the use of imagery to express the other worldly in terms of this world and the divine in terms of human life, the other side in terms of this side," identified Jesus' resurrection as a 118. The Seat of Authorityin Religion (5th ed.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1905), pp. 405, 406-7. For Paul, if the Jewish authorities had taken Jesus' body and put it again on the cross, such action would not have prevented Jesus' spirit "from putting on its garment of heavenly light" (p. 406). 119. James Martineau to J. H. Thom, pp. 94-95. 120. The Life ofJesus, p. 402. 121. KyriosChristos,pp. 103-6, esp. 103. 122. A New Life ofJesus, 2:402-17. 123. The Birth of the ChristianReligfon, p. 224. 124. Bible Problemsand the New Materialfor Their Solution, Crown Theological Library (London: Williams and Norgate, 1904), pp. 117-21.

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"nonhistorical event," as "not an event of past history," and as "a mythical event pure and simple." 125 His resurrection "simply cannot be a visible fact in the realm of hu~an history." 126 According to Paul Tillich, historical research should seek to identify the "factual element" underlying "the symbol of the Resurrection" "on the basis of the legendary and mythological material which surrounds it." 127 Although there are nuances that somewhat differentiate the views of the authors just interpreted, it may be generally concluded that the legendary or mythical theory normally entails a skepticism concerning the facticity or historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus which is not open to favorable evidence. Turning from these numerous theories which pose as alternative explanations in place of a historical bodily resurrection of Jesus, we now take brief notice of recent affirmations of the reality by twentieth-century theologians. F. RECENT THEOLOGIANS APPROACHING OR AFFIRMING THE FACTICITY OF THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS

1. Minimal Dependence on Facticity 128 According to Emil Brunner, writing in 1927, the gospel is "a movement from God to man" after the analogy of a parabola, and the resurrection of Jesus marks the beginning of the upward reascent. "Easter ... is not an 'historical event"' and "not an occult process," but rather "revelation ... addressed wholly to faith." Neither the accounts nor the fact of the empty tomb constitutes the basis for the early Christian certainty of Jesus' resurrection. 129 In 1949 the same author wrote: The knowledge of the risen Lord had to be one which was granted to faith alone. But the Empty Tomb is a world-fact, which everyone, whether they believe in Christ or not, could have perceived. . . . [Yet]the original testimony to the Resurrection did not contain any

125. 126. 127. 128.

"New Testament and Mythology," p. 10, n. 2; pp. 34, 42, 38. Theologyof the New Testament, 1:295. SystematicTheology,2:155. Here we follow the typology of Daniel Payton Fuller ( 1925- }, EasterFaith and History (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), pp. 145-87, which is concerned with historicity, rather than the "six interpretative models" of Gerald O'Collins, S. J., WhatAre They Saying about the Resurrection?(New York: Paulist Press, 1978), pp. 9-34, which run the gamut of all contemporary interpretations of the resurrection. On the greater propriety of using "facticity" rather than "historicity," see George Eldon Ladd, I Believein the ResurrectionofJesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), pp. 101-2, 125. 129. The Mediator:A Study in the CentralDoctrineof the ChristianFaith, pp. 561-63, 575,576.

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reference to the Empty Tomb, but was solely concerned with the appearances of the Risen Lord to His disciples.130 Moreover, "our faith is not based upon the record of their experiences of the Resurrection," but rather every "believing Christian" "knows Christ as the living present Lord." 131 The facticity of the empty tomb, though affirmed by Brunner, had no essential significance for belief in Jesus' resurrection. John Knox ( 1900-90) combined an insistence on the facticity or reality of Jesus' resurrection with an affirmation that the belief in the risen Jesus is based on the memory of the disciples and the advent of the Spirit of God within the primitive church. No naturalistic or purely psychological explanation of the resurrection is adequate, for it is a "special act of God." 132 It cannot be confirmed or invalidated "by historical research," and it is not "historical" in the sense of "observable." 133 It belongs to the Christ event and is in fact the "center" or the "culmination" of that event. 134 On the other hand, the disciples' faith in the risen Jesus was based on their knowledge and memory of him 135 and on the advent of the Spirit 136 within the new community of faith. 137 "The resurrection was not an inference from the empty tomb," and not an inference from the accounts of the appearances. Such appearances cannot be harmonized and can be explained psychologically. 138 Nor is the resurrection a rational inference from the existence of the church. It is not to be argued and cannot be proved. 139 In 1952 Hans von Campenhausen (1903-89) in an effort "to get back to the historical kernel behind the Easter narrative," argued for the high probability of the fact that '"the tomb showed itself to be empty,"' but he did not investigate why the tomb was empty, thus leaving the way open for either a natural or a supernatural explanation. He also held that the 130. The ChristianDoctrineof Creationand Redemption,p. 368. 131. Ibid., p. 371. 132. On the Meaning of Christ(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 75; The Churchand the Reality of Christ(New York: Harper and Row, 1962), p. 71. 133. The Churchand the Reality of Christ,pp. 76, 69. 134. On the Meaning of Christ,pp. 40, 68, 75; The Churchand the Reality of Christ, p. 26. 135. Christthe Lord: The Meaning ofJesus in the Early Church(Chicago: Willett, Clark and Co., 1945), pp. 60-61; The Churchand the Reality of Christ,pp. 36,46. 136. On the Meaning of Christ,p. 39; Criticismand Faith (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1952), p. 32; The Churchand the Realityof Christ, P· 61. 137. Christthe Lord, p. 65. 138. Ibid., pp. 65, 67. 139. The Churchand the Reality of Christ,pp. 61, 66, 67.

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disciples gradually came to be encouraged before reaching Galilee, and hence a reversal of their state of despair would not need the reality of Jesus' post-resurrection appearances as its explanation. In the final analysis Campenhausen makes the "Easter faith (to be] independent of history." 140 During the 1920s Karl Barth asserted that "it is really a matter of indifference" whether Jesus' tomb "may prove to be a definitely closed or an open tomb" 141 and, when commenting on Romans 6:9, declared that "if the Resurrection [of Jesus] be brought within the context of history, it must share in its obscurity and error and essential questionableness." 142 By 1955 the Basel theologian was stating concerning the resurrection and the ascension that it is an event. It takes place after the conclusion of the preceding sequence . . . . But it has the same character as what had gone before to the extent that it, too, is an event within the world, in time and space. It, too, takes place in the body, although not only in the body. It, too, was experienced and attested, not only inwardly but outwardly, by certain men. But "there can be no demonstration of the event which has apologetic value .... " Indeed the knowledge of this event "cannot derive from the knowing man, but only from the One who is revealed in it." In such knowledge both apostolic witness and our love for God are factors. 143 Barth had become more certain about the "event-ness" of Jesus' resurrection, but our knowledge of the resurrection was for Barth still not significantly dependent on historical knowledge. Brunner, Knox, Campenhausen, and Barth moved perceptibly toward the facticity of Jesus' resurrection, but for them the primary source of our knowledge of that resurrection was outside of history.

140. Der Abl,aufder Osterereignisseund das leere Grab, Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akadamie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, 1952, tract 4 (4th ed.; Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, 1977), esp. pp. 8, 42, 45-54, as interp. by Fuller, Easter Faith and History, pp. 157-66. 141. The Resurrectionof the Dead, trans. H.J. Stenning (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933), p. 142. German original, 1924. 142. The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns from 6th German ed. (1928) (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), p. 204. No attempt will be made here to trace Barth's role in the Barth-Bultmann debate on the resurrection of Jesus; for such, see Fuller, Easter Faith and History, pp. 87-111. Likewise, no effort will be made to interpret the thought of members of the Bultmannian school; for such, see ibid., pp. 112-36. 143. Church Dogmatics,IV/2, The Doctrineof Reconciliation,trans. G. W. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1958), pp. 143, 149. German original, 1955.

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2. Maximal Dependence on Facticity Wolfhart Pannenberg has become the leading exponent of that view which affirms that since "historical knowledge provides the sole basis of faith," not only the fact but also the meaning of Jesus' resurrection is derivable from historical knowledge, a knowledge that encompasses general or universal history and not merely so-called "salvation history." Pannenberg's general theological stance concerning "revelation as history" has encountered some major difficulties such as the following three: how the uniqueness oflsrael is to be explained, how the illumination of the Holy Spirit can be explained from ordinary history, and how unbelief is to be accounted for. 144 As attractive as Pannenberg's approach may be in the face of and as a better alternative to the modern assault on the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, it seems imperative that the very dimension of grace/faith absent from Pannenberg must be fully recognized and affirmed as well as evidences for facticity. Hence historical reason must be coupled with repentant faith in response to God's grace if the event of Jesus' resurrection and its meaning are to be joined and if the essential difference between faith and unbelief is to be maintained. 3. Balancing of Facticity and Experience Four theologians are representative of a mediating position. In 1933 Walter Kiinneth (1901-) in a major monograph described Jesus' resurrection in terms of"reality," or "the creative, reconstitutive truth of an event that lays claim to validity," rather than in terms of "historicality," which necessarily means subjecting an event to the repeatable and sequential flow of historical process, whereby either historical criticism or rationalizing can undermine its reality.Jesus' resurrection, therefore, while being related to history, transcends history. Kiinneth rejected the application of the term "myth" to Jesus' resurrection, for that "meansa levellingdown of theparticular to the universal,the changingof the 'revelatio specialis' into a generalrevelation, the confusing of the accidental with the essential." The appearances "are in no way to be identified with general theophanies, or with visions of angels and experiences of spiritual ecstasy in Old Testament prophecy" but rather constitute "a once-for-all experience which has no analogy either before or after." The empty tomb expresses "the concrete bodily reality of the resurrection of Jesus," and that theology takes it "seriously" is no "matter of indifference." But the fundamental knowledge of Jesus' resurrection is "believing knowledge." 145 144. Fuller, EasterFaith and History,pp. 177-87, esp. 182, 183; Pannenberg, Jesus-God and Man, pp. 88-106. 145. The Theologyof the Resurrection,trans.James W. Leitch, E. H. Robertson, and Brian Battershaw (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1965), pp. 21,23-33,57,84,85,97, 102-3.

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Richard Reinhold Niebuhr (1926- ) found in the post-resurrection appearances not an alternative of '"corporeal"' or "'spiritual"' but the characteristics of "identification and recognition," including "signs" by which through memory the risen Jesus was recognized. Such appearances "must be accorded the status of historical independence and tangibility." Yet the resurrection is "unlike any other" historical event. It was not miraculous in the sense of violating the natural but was marked by "spontaneity, particularity, and independence of historical events." 146 For Gerhard Koch (1912-86) Jesus' tomb was found to be empty, and he first appeared to his disciples in Galilee in what were genuine appearances. Yet from neither the empty tomb nor the appearances does one secure full knowledge of Jesus' resurrection; there must be "continued encounters with Jesus Christ," and these include modern encounters explainable in the thought-forms of existentialism. 147 Merrill C. Tenney also declared: Although true faith is essentially a voluntary affirmation independent of proof, the Scriptures nowhere demand committal without some reasonable basis. Between the extremes of gullibility and of chronic skepticism there is a middle ground of belief which may transcend the limitations of scientific logic, but which begins with historic facts. 148 Kiinneth, Niebuhr, Koch, and Tenney represent the both/and of historical and existential knowledge. For a model of the coordination of facticity and faith we turn to that of Daniel Fuller. Interpreting the basic theme of the Acts of the Apostles as "the work that Jesus continued to do as the risen and ascended Christ," Fuller finds that in Acts "the Gentile mission," climaxed in chap_ter 19 in Ephesus but continued in chapter 28 in Rome, "can only be explained ... on the basis of the resurrection of Christ." Nothing less than Jesus' resurrection could have turned Saul the persecutor to Paul the apostle and turned the Jerusalem conference (Acts 15) from Jewish exclusionism to a favorable attitude toward the Gentile mission. Hence, Theophilus (Luke 1:3-4) "could find verification" of the Christ event "through the Gentile mission." But in the Gentile mission particular Gentiles were delivered from darkness to light and from unbelief to saving faith in the risen Jesus not merely by the "revelational knowledge" coming from "empirical stuff' but by the special and indispensable grace 146. Resurrectionand HistoricalReason:A Study ofTheologi,calMethod (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957), pp. 173-75, 177. 147. DieAuferstehungjesu Christi,Beitrage zur Historischen Theologie, no. 27 (Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1959), esp. pp. 30, 33, 53, 43, 280, as interp. by Fuller, EasterFaith and History,pp. 167-72. 148. The Reality of the Resurrection,p. 105.

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of God. According to Fuller, therefore, Luke's method can enable "the church" to "verify the central fact of its past whenever the need arises" but without entanglement "in the difficulties of Pannenberg. 149

II. THE MEANING OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS Here we turn from apologetic to theology proper, from "Did it happen?" to "What does it mean?" We shall probe this meaning in two major areas. A. THE NATURE OF THE RESURRECTED STATE

What was the state or condition of Jesus after the resurrection?

1. More than Resuscitation The resurrection of Jesus was more than the reanimation or resuscitation of a corpse. It involved the elevation of Jesus to a unique and higher plane of existence. 150 Jesus' resurrection was different from the raisings of Jairus's daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus, for there is no evidence but that these were subject a second time to death and no indication that, being raised, their bodies differed from their former condition prior to the raising.Jesus' resurrection body had powers and characteristics that differentiated it from his incarnate and crucified body, but such was not the case with the three whom God raised through Jesus. 2. More than Immortality of the Soul The resurrection of Jesus was other than and more than the survival of his soul, his spirit, or his influence, as some of the skeptics as to his bodily resurrection have held. As we have previously noted, 151 some who have rejected the evidence for his empty tomb have affirmed that his spirit survived while his body remained in the grave. Jesus' resurrection stood in the tradition of the Hebrew holistic understanding of human beings rather than in the heritage of Greek disfavor of the body and exaltation of the soul as immortal. 3. A Spiritual Body The resurrection of Jesus involved his being raised in a body,yet, by analogy to what Paul in 1 Cor. 15:35-49, when referring to the future resurrection of Christian believers, described, it can be said to have been a "spiritual body." Paul differentiated the "natural body" (KJV, NIV, Phillips) or "physical body" (RSV, TEV) or "soulish body" (soma 149. EasterFaith and History,pp. 188-261, esp. 220, 223, 234-35, 237, 261, and 241. 150. Conner, Revelationand God, p. 163; Pannenberg,Jesus-God and Man, p. 177; Carl A. Braaten, New Directionsin TheologyToday,vol. 2, Historyand Hermeneutics(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966), p. 96. 151. See above I, E, 4 (Lake), 7 (Keim), and 8 (Martineau).

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psychikon)-not soma physikon-and the "spiritual body" (soma pneumatikon) (1 Cor. 15:44). In his resurrected state Jesus retained an identity with his pre-resurrection state, for he could be recognized by his disciples, yet he had been transformed. As risen he would move through closed doors Oohn 20: 19, 26), and hence he possessed powers not common to the normal human body. Thus there was both continuity and discontinuity. 4. Time of His Receiving His Resurrection Body

Three principal answers have been given, as Alvah Hovey noted a century ago, 152 to the question as to when Jesus obtained his resurrection body. First, some have concluded that he received his resurrection body before he left the tomb and possessed it throughout the forty days until his ascension. Hovey himself held to this view, as did William Milligan (1821-93). 153 Second, his body can be said to have been gradually acquired between his leaving the tomb and his ascension. Third, yet others hold that his resurrection body was not received until he ascended. Either some other bodily state must be posited for the forty-day period or the resurrection and the ascension must be joined as one event. Millard Erickson has advocated the third view, taking the first option. 154 The first view seems to be the proper answer so long as his resurrection and ascension are not to be fused or amalgamated.

5. Recognition ofJesus in His Resurrection Body The Gospel accounts seem to imply that it took more than the physical eye to behold the risen Jesus. 155 This may be inferred from the fact that the recorded post-resurrection appearances of Jesus were made only to believers or disciples. In fact, Celsus 156 in the second century, Thomas Woolston 157 in the eighteenth century, and David F. Strauss 158 in the nineteenth century all argued that Jesus should have appeared to his persecutors (he did to Saul of Tarsus!) and to unbelievers, 159 and thereby they sought to

152. Manual of ChristianTheology,p. 428. 153. The Ascensionand HeavenlyPriesthoodof Our Lord (2d ed.; London: Macmillan and Co., 1894), pp. 1, 3. 154. ChristianTheology,p. 777. Erickson favors the idea that Jesus during the forty days had his incarnate or natural body, thus making his resurrection only a "resuscitation." Convincing supporting evidence seems to be lacking. 155. Conner, Revelationand God, pp. 163-64. 156. Origen, Against Celsus2. 63-67. 157. A SecondDiscourseon the Miraclesof Our Saviour, pp. 22-25. 158. The Life ofJesus CriticallyExamined, pp. 738-39. 159. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,pp. 174-75.

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undermine his resurrection. Even so we must not fail to acknowledge that faith was essential to beholding the risen Lord. B. CONSEQUENCES OF JESUS' RESURRECTION

1. Identification ofJesus as the Powerful Son of God By his resurrection and "through the Spirit of holiness" Jesus was "declared (literally, "horizoned") with power to be the Son of God" (Rom. 1:4, NIV). During his ministry (for example, Matt. 16: 16) disciples were led to acknowledge him as the Son of God, but the resurrection afforded a powerful and complete identification of his unique divine sonship. 2. Approbation/Vindication ofJesus God the Father's raising of Jesus from the dead constituted or manifested the Father's approval of and full vindication of his Son in contrast to the condemnation of the crucifiers. According to Peter, "'God has made (epoiesen)this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36, NIV). This statement immediately follows in Peter's sermon a reference to Jesus' resurrection (2:31). 160 3. Deliverance from/Victory over Death as the Consequence of Sin The resurrection of Jesus constitutes and effects God's deliverance from and victory over death as the consequence of sin. Quoting from and applying Isa. 25:8, Paul declared, '"Death has been swallowed up in victory"' (1 Cor. 15:54c, NIV), and quoting Hos. 13: 14 and using the analogies of military conqueror and scorpion, he asked, '"Where, 0 death, is your victory? Where, 0 death, is your sting?"' (1 Cor. 15:55). This victory through Christ (1 Cor. 15:57), pointing toward eschatological resurrection, was effectuated through his resurrection (1 Cor. 15: 12-18). Likewise, according to Paul, "through Christ Jesus the law [or, control] of the Spirit who gives life" had set him free "from the law [or, control] of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2, author's trans.; cf. NEB). It is not necessary to restrict unduly the divine victory over death by focusing it solely in Jesus'

160. Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfons Schillebeeckx (1914- ), 0. P., has emphasized that Jesus' resurrection was God's confirmation of Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God and his "praxis" or "lifestyle." "The 'God of Jesus' and the Jesus of God"' in Schillebeeckx and Bas van Iersel, eds., Jesus Christand Human Freedom,Concilium: Religion in the Seventies (New York: Herder and Herder, 1974), pp. 119-23; idem, Interim Reporton the BooksJesus and Christ,trans.John Bowden (New York: Crossroad, 1981; Dutch orig. 1978), pp. 134-36; idem, On ChristianFaith: The Spiritual,Ethical and PoliticalDimensions,trans. John Bowden (New York: Crossroad, 1987; Dutch orig. 1986), pp. 26-29. Per Barry A. Stricker and Robert C. Stine.

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death, as John R. W. Stott has done on the basis of Heb. 2:14-15. 161 The Epistle to the Hebrews rarely alludes to the concept or event of resurrection (6:2c; 11:19; 13:20). Hence we ought not to use 2:14-15 as a proof text for the concept that victory over death was wrought solely by his death, especially because 2: 14-15 specifically refers to the destruction (katargese) of the devil.

4.Justification of Sinful Human Beings In the same epistle in which Paul grounded our justification in the blood of Jesus (Rom. 3:24-25) he also declared that Jesus "was raised to life for our justification" (4:25, NIV). Again, it is not necessary to limit the function of his resurrection to providing "assurance" of justification through his death even as one need not call his resurrection "the [i.e., sole] means of our justification." 162 5. Availability of the Risen Lord The Matthean form of the Great Commission includes the promise of the risen Jesus, "'And surely I am with you always [literally, "all the days"] to the very end of the age"' (28:20b, NIV). How is he thus to be present with his disciples? By the presence of the Holy Spirit the Paraclete? Yes, but also as the risen Lord who has not abdicated this human and historical order and whose presence is designed to foster the universal or worldwide mission given to the disciples. Eli Stanley Jones ( 1884-197 3) seemingly declared that if Jesus had begun one-day visits to all the villages of India during the time of his public ministry (1st century AD) and had continued to make these with the same regularity, he would not yet in the twentieth century have visited all of India's villages. 163

161. The Crossof Christ,pp. 237-38. 162. Ibid., pp. 238-39. According to Markus Barth and Verne H. Fletcher, Acquittalby Resurrection(NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964),

Jesus' resurrection was/isnot only the means ofjustification and forgiveness before God but also the act of his becoming "the sovereign-servant" (p. 104) and his enablement in contemporary issues of socialjustice (war and peace, poverty). 163. This statement has not been located in the numerous books by Jones despite intensive research by R. Craig Etheredge. Nor has the family of Jones been able to locate the statement in the published works.Jones's son-in-law,James K. Mathews, however, recalls thatJones "made the statement often in public addresses." Jones's daughter has written: "There were in 1940 in undivided India (present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) about 750,000 villages. From AD 29 to 1940 there were 1,911 years; times 364-1/4 = 696,082 days." Eunice Jones Mathewsto James Leo Garrett, Jr., 20 October 1992.

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6. Jesus' Resurrection and Universal Eschatological Resurrection: Beginning or Basis? Wolfhart Pannenberg has held that Jesus' disciples understood his resurrection as "the beginning of the universal resurrection of the dead" and of the events of the end of history with the result that they anticipated that his second coming, eschatological resurrection, and final judgment would occur within a few years. Paul, according to Pannenberg, shared that same idea. Later New Testament authors came to realize that "the resurrection ofJesus was not yet the beginning of the immediately continuous sequence of the eschatological events but was a special event that happened to Jesus alone." Pannenberg saw in this development the danger that "any connection" between Jesus' resurrection and eschatological resurrection and judgment "would be lost." 164 Whatever evaluation we may make of the accuracy of Pannenberg's reconstruction of first- century eschatology, we cannot make the idea of beginning essential to our doctrine of Jesus' resurrection. Instead, from 1 Corinthians 15 we need to derive the concept that Jesus' resurrection is the basis for the hope and expectation of the final resurrection of believers. Paul argues that denial of future resurrection of believers was a denial of Jesus' resurrection (vv. 13, 15-16), but he also asserted that the future resurrection of believers in Christ is the proper and assured sequel to the resurrection of Jesus: "But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ" (v. 23, RSV). In summary, we have located the biblical passages concerning the resurrection of Jesus, examined the treatment of the empty tomb and appearances texts by the various methods of biblical criticism, explicated the principal evidences for the resurrection, stated and answered the major alternative explanations of the resurrection, summarized the views of recent theologians who have approached or affirmed the facticity of the resurrection, interpreted the nature of Jesus' resurrected state, and set forth in brief the significance of his resurrection. Thereby the centrality of Jesus' resurrection for the entire Christian faith and message should have been made evident, for his resurrection "is not simply an external seal or evidential appendage to the Christian Gospel, but enters as a constitutiveelementinto the very essence of that Gospel." 165 Likewise, his resurrection's relation to the three dimensions of time-past, present, and future-should also be recognized. 166 The doctrine of Jesus' resurrection should evoke praise for its manifestation 164. Jesus-God and Man, p. 66. 165. Orr, The ResurrectionofJesus, p. 274. 166. John Frederick Jansen, The ResurrectionofJesus Christin New TestamentTheology(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1980), pp. 29-137; O'Collins, The ResurrectionofJesus Christ,pp. 117-31.

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of God's power,joy for its strategic victory over sin, death, and evil powers, surrender for the appropriation of its new life for our living, and hope for the assured final accomplishment of God's purpose. Love's redeeming work is done, Fought the fight, the battle won, Death in vain forbids him rise, Christ has opened Paradise, Alleluia! 167 He lives, that I may also live, And now his grave proclaim; He lives, that I may honor give To his most holy name. 168

167. Charles Wesley. 168. Ibid.

CHAPTER51

THE ASCENSION AND THE HEAVENLY SESSION OF JESUS The explication of the doctrine of the saving work of Jesus Christ has included a multifacted treatment of the death of Jesus and an intensive exposition of his resurrection. One task yet remains, namely, the delineation of the ascension and the heavenly session of Jesus.

I. THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE ASCENSION OF

JESUS First, we should take note of those Old Testament passages which were either quoted or paraphrased by New Testament authors in reference to the ascension or exaltation of Jesus. Psalm 2 (esp. vv. 4-9), one of the royal psalms, announced the enthronement of the Son-King together with his rule over Yahweh's human opposition. Verse 7 (NIV), "'You are my Son; today I have become your Father,"' was quoted in relation to Jesus' transfiguration (Matt. I 7 :5; 2 Pet. I: 17). In Heb. I :5 the author quoted verse 7 after referring to Jesus' heavenly session (l:3d). Verse 9a was quoted in Rev. 12:5 and 19:15b. In Psalm 8, which celebrates the creation and dominion of human beings, verses 6-8 spell out such dominion over other creatures of God. Paul quoted verse 6b in 1 Cor. 15:25-28 to support the idea that "'everything'" had been "put under" the feet of Jesus Christ. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (2:6-8) quoted Ps. 8:4-5, 6b but identified the one "crowned" as Jesus rather than created humanity. Psalm 68, a psalm of celebration, perhaps of the taking of the ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:12), addressed the Lord when referring to ascending, leading captivity captive, and receiving gifts, but Paul in quoting verse 18 in Eph. 4:8 ascribed these activities to Jesus, turning the receiving of gifts into his giving of gifts to human beings (4:7-10). Psalm 110, the Old Testament passage most often quoted by New Testament writers, ascribed royal authority (v. 1) and priestly office (v. 4) to one of

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the Davidic kings. Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:34-35, 33) quoted verse 1, noting that '"David did not ascend to heaven,"' but that Jesus did. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:25 paraphrased verse 1 in reference of the subjection of everything to Christ. Verse 4 concerning Melchizedek was quoted in Heb. 5:6; 6:20; and 7:21 vis-a-vis Jesus' high priestly office, and Heb. 10: 12-13 conflated verses 1 and 4. Dan. 7: 1314, which alluded to the giving of"authority," "power," and "dominion" to the Son of Man, was quoted by Jesus in answer to the Jewish high priest, with his "sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One" being added (Mark 14:61 b-62 and par.). 1 It is not necessary to conclude with Peter Toon (1939-) that these Old Testament passages had two meanings, one "for those who first heard, read, and used them," and another "hidden meaning only to be recognized after the advent of the Messiah." 2 It is better to affirm the investiture of another meaning by the New Testament writers. Other Old Testament passages not quoted or paraphrased by New Testament authors have been read in the liturgical history of Christianity in celebration of Ascension Day. These include Gen. 5:21-24 (translation of Enoch), 2 Kings 2: 1-14, especially v. 11 (translation of Elijah), Ps. 24:7-10 (procession in bringing the ark to Jerusalem), and Ps. 47:5-9 (universal sovereignty ofYahweh). 3 Sigmund Mowinckel early in the twentieth century advanced the view that "in pre-exilic Israel" there was observed "an autumnal New Year festival which celebrated the enthronement ofYahweh as universal King." He connected Psalms 24 and 4 7 with such a feast. 4 William Oscar Emil Oesterley 5 connected Psalms 2, 24, 68, and 89 and Aubrey R. Johnson 6 connected Psalms 2, 24, 29, 46-48, 68, 89, 93, and I IO with the same feast. Norman H. Snaith rejected the theory. 7 The New Year 1. Peter Toon, The Ascensionof Our Lord (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), pp.

21-28. 2. Ibid., p. 22. Toon can be followed in his conclusion that the ascension and exaltation of Jesus were "prefigured in the Old Testament." 3. Ibid., pp. 28-32. 4. John Gordon Davies ( 1919- ), He Ascendedinto Heaven:A Study in the History of the Doctrine(London: Lutterworth Press, 1958),p. 18, based on Mowinckel, PsalmenstudienIL Das Thronbesteigungsfest Jahwiis und der Ursprungder Eschatologie( 1922). 5. "Early Hebrew Festival Rituals," in S. H. Hooke, ed., Myth and Ritual: Essays on the Myth and Ritual of the Hebrewsin Relation to the CulturePattern of the Ancient East (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), pp. 122-3 7. 6. "The Role of the King in the Jerusalem Cultus," in S. H. Hooke, ed., The Lauyrinth: FurtherStudiesin the Re/,ationbetweenMyth and Ritual in theAncient Worul (London: S. P. C. K., 1935), pp. 87-100, 107-11; idem, SacralKingshipin AncientIsrael (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1955), pp. 63-77, 120-22. 7. TheJewish New YearFestival:Its Originsand Development(London: S. P. C. K., 1947), pp. 77-80, 196-97.

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Festival theory identified "four principal elements": a procession up to Mount Zion, reenactment of Yahweh's triumph over "death and chaos," reenthronement of Yahweh as king and the Israelite king as well, and "the sacred marriage. "8 But the fourth is inapplicable to the ascension and exaltation of Jesus.

II. THE ASCENSION OF JESUS ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT We shall first examine the pertinent passages and then deal with issues posed by biblical critical inquiries. A.PASSAGES

The passages that seem to refer to Jesus' ascension may be arranged according to the categories of New Testament writings. Accordingly there would be sections on Paul, Mark (?), Luke-Acts, Peter, Hebrews, the Gospel of John, and Revelation. Although the examination of these passages may well be conducted under those categories, it seems better to use the Greek verbs 9 expressive of the ascension as the pattern for such an examination. The two most frequently used verbs are anabainein, usually translated "to ascend," and analambanein,employed passively to mean "to be taken up" or "to be received up." Anabainein is used in Paul's quotation and interpretation of Ps. 68:18 (Eph. 4:8-10), of David's not ascending (Acts 2:34), of the ascending of the Son of Man (John 3:13; 6:62), and in Jesus' word to Mary Magdalene prior to his ascension (John 20:17). Analambaneinis found in the addendum to the Gospel of Mark ( 16: 19), in the prologue to Acts (1:2), in an account of the ascension (Acts 1:11), as the end of a chronological period (Acts 1:22), and in a confessional or hymnic summary (1 Tim. 3:16g). The verb poreuomai, "to go," conveys the idea of Jesus' ascension, conjoined to his heavenly session (1 Pet. 3:22a), and is associated with his preparing a "place" for the disciples (John 14:2), the greater works to be performed by the disciples (John 14:2), the greatness of the Father (John 14:28), the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7c), and the leaving of the world (John 16:28b). Likewise, the verb hypageinmeaning "to go away," refers to Jesus' ascension in the contexts of the sending Father (John 7:33;16:5), the validity of Jesus' self-testimony (John 8:14c, d), the disciples' inability to accompany Jesus (John 8:21; 16:10), Jesus' dominion (John 13:3),Jesus' return for his disciples (John 14:4), and the puzzled mind-set of the disciples (John 16: 17). Similarly, the verb erchomai,"to come," and its cognates refer to Jesus' ascension and at times also his 8. Davies, He Ascendedinto Heaven, pp. 19-20, 22-23. 9. See Toon, The Ascensionof Our Lord, pp. 119-20.

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heavenly session. His coming (erchomai)to the Father is imminent (John 17: 13) and calls for the Father's protection of the disciples (John 17:11), and this coming (aperchomai)is to be for the good of the disciples (John 16:7b). Moreover,Jesus as high priest "has gone through (dierchomai)the heavens" (Heb. 4: 14, NIV), "has entered" (eiserchomai)the heavenly sanctuary "on our behalf' (Heb. 6:20), even "the Most Holy Place once for all" (Heb. 9: 12) or "heaven itself' (Heb. 9:24). The ascension is described or identified by other Greek verbs used only occasionally in the New Testament.Jesus "parted from" (KJV, RSV, NEB) or "departed from" (TEV) or "left" (NIV) (dihistimi) the disciples (Luke 24:51). He was "carried up" (KJV, RSV, JB) or "taken up" (TEV, NIV) (anapheromai)into heaven (Luke 24:51). He was "taken up" (KJV, TEV, NIV) or "lifted up" (RSV, JB, NEB) (epairomai)(Acts 1:9), and a cloud "received" (KJV) or "took" (RSV,JB) or "removed" (NEB) or "hid" (TEV, NIV) (hypolambanein)Jesus"from their [the disciples'] sight" (TEV, NIV,JB, NEB) (Acts 1:9). In Rev. 12:5b the male child of the woman "was caught up" (KJV, RSV) or "snatched away" (TEV) or "up" (NIV, NEB) "to God and to his throne" (RSV,JB, NIV) (harpazein). Other verbs signify Jesus' exaltation so as to embrace possibly his resurrection, his ascension, and his heavenly session. He was "exalted at" (RSV) or "to" (NIV) (hypsoun)"the right hand of God" (RSV, NIV) (Acts 2:33). Him God "exalted at" (RSV) or "to" (NIV) "his own right hand as Prince and Savior" (NIV) (Acts 5:31). Like Moses "'the Son of Man must be lifted up"' (TEV, NIV) Qohn 3:14). When such lifting does occur, Jesus' identity as the Son of Man will be made known (John 8:28). But in John 12:32, 34 the lifting up refers to Jesus' crucifixion. By means of a compound verb (hyperhypsoun)Paul declares that God has "highly exalted" (KJV, RSV) or "raised ... to the highest place" (TEV) or "to the heights" (NEB) Jesus (Phil. 2:9). He was "crowned" (stephanoun)"now" "with glory and honor" (RSV, TEV, NIV) (Heb. 2:9). B. BIBLICAL CRITICISM

From textual criticism have come various forms of a theory of interpolation whereby portions of Acts 1 are said to have been added at a later time to the text of Acts. Kirsopp Lake posited the interpolation of Jesus' being "taken up" (v. 2) and of his appearing "to them over a period of forty days" (v. 3, NIV) at a time when the church's calendar date for the Ascension Day was unclear. 10 Amos Niven Wilder (1895-1993) similarly held to an interpolation between Luke 24:49, which is the charge to the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit, and Acts 1:4, which reiterates the charge and leads to the correction of the disciples' view of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Hence the original end of Luke and the 10. "The Practical Value of Textual Variation," The Biblical Worl.d19 (May 1902): 362-64. Lake used the text of Acts 1:1-3 given by Vigilius ofTapsa.

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prologue of Acts would have had no reference to the ascension, and the period of forty days was seen as a late tradition." 11 According to Joseph Augustine Fitzmyer, S. J. ( 1920- ), Acts 1:9-11 is an interpolation by Luke into a context that originally flowed from Luke 24:49 to Acts 1:4. 12 But the evidence from textual criticism itself for such theories is weak. Some literary critics have applied the term "legend" to the ascension narratives. 13 Recently Mikeal Carl Parsons has treated Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:9-11 according to the method of narrative criticism.14 Varying patterns have been employed in assessing the usefulness of the New Testament texts for the doctrine of the ascension. For William Barclay the "only unquestioned evidence" for the ascension was Acts 1:1-12, because he took, as does the NEB, "carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:51, KJV, RSV) as a later addition to the text. Yet Barclay proceeded to quote seven other texts from the Gospel of John, Paul, Hebrews, and Peter. 15 Jozef Frans Maria Heuschen classified the texts under three categories: (1) texts "which suppose the ascension"; (2) texts "which mention the ascension as a theological fact"; and (3) texts "about the ascension as a historical fact" (only Luke 24:50-51 and Acts 1:112).16According to Fitzmyer, the distinction is between incidental references to and descriptions of the ascension. The former texts "allude to Jesus' exaltation as an ascension" (Heb. 4:14; 1 Pet. 3:22; Rom. 10:6-8; Eph. 4:7-1 l;John 20:17; 13:1; and 17:15), and the latter texts "describe or depict the ascension" (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-11). 17 Brian Kenneth Donne (1924- ) treated separately the "Lucan writings" and the "other New Testament writings," 18 whereas Bruce Manning Metzger differentiated the "descriptive accounts" (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:3, 9-11; Mark 16:19), the "anticipatory" references (John 6:62; 20:17), and the doctrinal references. 19 11. "Variant Traditions of the Resurrection in Acts," journal of BiblicalLiterature 62 (March 1943): 311-12. 12. "The Ascension of Christ and Pentecost," TheologicalStudies45 (September 1984): 419. 13. Theodor Keim, The HistoryofJesus ofNaz.ara, 6:365-83; Adolf Harnack, The Acts of theApostles,New Testament Studies, no. 3, trans. J. R. Wilkinson (London: Williams and Norgate; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909), p. 159. 14. The DepartureofJesus in Luke-Acts:The AscensionNarrativesin Context,Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series, no. 21 (Sheffield, U.K.: University of Sheffield, 1987). 15. Crucifiedand Crowned(London: SCM Press Ltd., 1961), pp. 171-72. 16. The Bible on theAscension,trans. F. Vander Heijden, 0. Praem. (DePere, Wisc.: St. Norbert Abbey Press, 1965), pp. 1-25. 17. "The Ascension of Christ and Pentecost," pp. 414-21. 18. ChristAscended:A Study in the Significanceof theAscensionofJesus Christin the New Testament(Exeter, U. K.: Paternoster Press, 1983), pp. 3-25. 19. Historicaland LiteraryStudies:Pagan,jewish, and Christian,New Testament Tools and Studies, no. 8 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), pp. 77-82.

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C. TIME OF THE ASCENSION

Christian exegetes and theologians have held three views as to the time of Jesus' ascension, the traditional view that adheres to forty days after the resurrection, the critical view that posits that the ascension occurred on the day of Jesus' resurrection, and the double view that holds to a secret ascension on the evening after Jesus' resurrection and a public ascension forty days later.

1. Traditional View William Milligan, while being aware of the critical view, opted for the traditional view with a minimum of discussion. 20 The traditional view finds support in a literal interpretation of the "forty days" of Acts 1:3, backed up by Acts 13:31, and is sustained by the placement of Ascension Day in the ecclesiastical calendar forty days after Easter. J. Heuschen, emphasizing that the post-resurrection appearances "must be spread out over of a number of days," has opted for a visible ascension on the Mount of Olives, though willing to grant that "forty days" may have been "a round figure." 21 Murray James Harris (1939- ), specifically rejecting the critical view, concluded that there is nothing in either John 20 or Luke 24 that precludes a considerable interval, such as that posited in Acts 1, between the Resurrection and the Ascension. The silence of two witnesses should not be given precedence over the testimony of one witness-particularly when Luke 24 and Acts 1 come from a single pen. If the Ascension actually took place on Easter Day and if Acts 1 is historically unreliable, we are left without any witnesses to the Ascension .... 22

2. Critical View Benjamin Wisner Bacon ( 1860-1932) tried to base the critical view on Acts 1 as if Acts 1 implied Jesus' ascension on the day of his resurrection. 23 John Gordon Davies built it upon Luke 24, arguing that even as Jesus' transfiguration was presumably, according to Luke 9:29, 32, at night, so his ascension was at night and that "'Receive the Holy Spirit"' Uohn 20:22, RSV, TEV, JB, NEB, NIV) implies that the ascension has already occurred. Davies garnered support from second-century writers and writings, namely, Barnabas, Aristides, the Epistle of the Apostles, the Gospel of Peter, and Pseudo-Tertullian. Moreover, the "forty days" of Acts 1:3 could be 20. The Ascensionand HeavenlyPriesthoodof Our Lord, pp. 1-5. 21. The Bible on theAscension,pp. 83-104, esp. 93, 96. 22. Raised Immortal:Resurrectionand Immortalityin the New Testament(London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), pp. 89-91. 23. "The Ascension in Luke and Acts," The Expositor,ser. 7, vol. 7 (1909): 254-61.

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seen in the light of the use of forty days as a traditional number capable of typological interpretation. 24George Eldon Ladd synchronized Jesus' resurrection and his ascension, thus making what has been traditionally called the ascension to "signal the end of Jesus' resurrection appearances."25 In 1978 Peter Toon espoused the critical view not only on the basis of Luke 24:50-52, Mark 16:19, and John 20:22 but also on the ground that in Phil. 2:6-11 exaltation immediately follows resurrection and in 1 Pet. 3: 18-22 exaltation follows the descent to Hades. 26

3. Double View William Barclay, holding that "forty days" "simply means some considerable time," went on to suggest that such a period was necessary for Jesus as "a time of the increasing spiritualization of his earthly body until he could ascend to the glory of God." Thus the ascension would be more process than event. 27In 1984, rejecting his earlier view and seeking an integrated act of God's exaltation of Jesus from Hades into heaven, Toon posited a "secret and invisible" ascension "on Easter morning" and forty days later "a symbolic, visible" ascension "for the benefit of his disciples." 28 Although the critical and the double views represent honest efforts to synthesize the data of the New Testament, it seems that the case against the traditional view has not been indisputably made.

III. THE HEAVENLY SESSION OF JESUS ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT Undoubtedly the New Testament passages pertaining to the heavenly session of the ascended Christ were rooted in Ps. 110: 1. Henry Barclay Swete ( 1835-191 7) declared: That this Psalm found its fulfillment at the Ascension was the fixed belief of the Apostolic age, as we see from its use by S. Peter

24. He Ascendedinto Heaven, pp. 47-56. The "forty days" have also been taken as a symbolic number by Kenneth Charles Thompson, ReceivedUp into Glory, Studies in Christian Faith and Practice, no. 11 (Westminster, U. K.: Faith Press, 1964), pp. 39-40. 25. / Believein the ResurrectionofJesus, pp. 126-29, esp. 128. But Ladd, p. 126, sharply differentiated "the form of the appearance of Christ to Paul [i.e., in a glorified body] ... and the appearances in the Gospels." 26.Jesus ChristIs Lord (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1979), pp. 10-18. First published by Marshall, Morgan and Scott in 1978. 27. Crucifiedand Crowned,pp. 174, 178. Barclay noted that among the Gnostic sects the period from Jesus' resurrection to his ascension ranged from eighteen months (Valentinians) to eleven or twelve years (Ophites). 28. The Ascensionof Our Lord, pp. 9-12, 125-26.

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According to Arthur James Tait (1872-1944), Ps. 110: la contains three significant themes: rest, honor, and sovereignty. 30 The verb kathizein,meaning intransitively "to cause to sit" and transitively "to sit down," is used uniformly in reference to Jesus' heavenly session (Eph. l:20;Acts 2:30; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). Jesus declared that the Son of Man would ultimately sit upon his throne (Matt. 19:28; 25:31; Mark 14:62 and par.) and quoted Ps. 110:1 when teaching about David's son (Mark 12:36 and par.). In the addendum to Mark ( 16: 19)1 esus' session "at the right hand of God" is stated after his ascension has been reported. Peter quoted Ps. 110: 1 on the Day of Pentecost after his references to the exaltation of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33-35). Subsequently Peter and the other apostles declared God's exaltation of Jesus "to his own right hand as Prince and Savior" (Acts 5:31, NIV) without use of the language of sitting. Stephen is said to have seen "Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). In 1 Cor. 15:24-26 Christ's heavenly rule, but not his session, is affirmed. Paul referred to Jesus as being "at the right hand of God" for the work of intercession (Rom. 8:34), to God's having "seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms" and "placed all things under his feet" (Eph. 1:20, 22), and to Christ as "seated at the right hand of God" following his resurrection (Col. 3: I). The Son of God, after providing "purification of sins," "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven" (Heb. 1:3; also 8:1). To none of the angels, but to Jesus, was given the promise of Ps. 110: 1 (Heb. I: 13). This same Jesus as high priest, after offering his once-for-all "sacrifice for sins" and enduring the shame of the cross, "sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 10:12; 12:2). He, having "gone into heaven," "is at God's right hand" (1 Pet. 3:22). Jesus will give to "him who overcomes" the privilege of sharing his throne even as Jesus the Overcomer sat down with God the Father on his throne (Rev. 3:21). Moreover, the son of the "woman clothed with the sun" "was snatched up to God and to his throne" (Rev. 12:1, 5b).

29. The AscendedChrist:A Study in the EarliestChristianTeaching(London: Macmillan and Co., 1910), p. 11. 30. The Heavenly Sessionof Our Lord:An Introductionto the Historyof the Doctrine (London: Robert Scott, 1912), pp. 8-10.

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IV. THE ASCENSION AND THE HEAVENLY SESSION ACCORDING TO THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE A. THE PATRISTIC AGE

1. The Ascension 31 Among the ante-Nicene authors there were two parallel tendencies, namely, to give expression to the ascension in quasi-creedal formulations and to utilize the ascension in the refutation of false teaching. An example of the former may be found in Justin Martyr, 32 who also applied Psalms 110, 68, 19, 24, and 4 7 to the ascension.33 An example of the latter is Tertullian, who used the ascension in his effort to show that Christian baptism, having the gift of the Holy Spirit, is superior to the baptism of John the Baptist,34 used in opposition to Gnostic sects both ascension and heavenly session as embracing the bodily manhood of Jesus, 35 utilized the ascension and promised spiritual gifts against Marcionism to show that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, 36 and noted, as he was refuting Patripassianism, 37 that it was the Son of God, not the Father, who ascended. Furthermore, Irenaeus integrated the ascension and his doctrine of recapitulation, 38 Novatian (3rd cent.) employed the ascension to show that Jesus Christ was both human and divine and indeed truly divine,39 and Origen expounded the ascension as "an ascent of the mind rather than of the body. "40 Both the pro-Nicene and the pro-Arian creeds of the fourth century, without exception, contain references to Jesus' ascension. Whereas Arians used Acts 2:36 and Phil. 2:9 as proof texts for Jesus' "promotion" from "a prior inferiority," Athanasius used the ascension in his defense of the consubstantiality of the Son of God and of the manhood of the Son of God. 41 Following Novatian, Hilary of Poitiers (? -367) viewed the ascension, being Jesus' exaltation, as indicative of his humanity, which was the result of the self-emptying of the Word and which, by virtue of the two natures, necessarily included his deity. 42 For Ambrose the ascension proves the omnipotence of the Son, was necessary for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and 31. Davies, He Ascendedinto Heaven, pp. 69-146. 32. J Apology21, 31, 42, 46; Dialoguewith Trypho63, 85, 126, 132. 33. J Apology45; Dialoguewith Trypho32, 33, 39, 87, 64, 36, 85, 37. 34. On Baptism 10. 35. On the Resurrectionof Flesh51. 36. Against Marcion 5.8; 5.15; 5.17. 37. Against Praxeas30. 38. Against Heresies5.21.1, 3; Demonstrationof theApostolicPreaching37-38, 83. 39. On the Trinity 11, 13. 40. On Prayer23. 1-2 (LCC). 41. Against theArians 1.41; Epistles60.5. 42. On the Trinity 1.33.

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prepared the way for the advent of believers to heaven. 43 Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-386) differentiated the ascension from the translations of Enoch and Elijah,44 and Jerome tended to identify ascending to the Father with Jesus' resurrection. 4s After Ascension Day began to be observed in the fourth century, sermons were preached on that day; of such those by John Chrysostom and by Augustine of Hippo were significant. 46

2. The Heavenly Session41 References to the heavenly session of Jesus in ante-Nicene writings were far less numerous than the references to his ascension, and more numerous in the West than in the East. 48 For Athanasius the session meant "participation in the Father's sovereignty and possession of the Father's essence," 49 and Basil stressed being "at the right hand of God" as indicative of Jesus' equality as to nature and honor.so But Cyril of Jerusalem disconnected the session from exaltation or reward and saw it as proceeding from eternity.s 1 On the contrary, for John Chrysostom thesession primarily meant "the acceptance by the Father of the first fruits of our nature." 52 Western authors such as Hilary of Poitierss 3 andAmbrose 54 continued to explain the session in reference to the manhood of the Son of God. Whereas the heavenly session was not expressly stated in some of the fourth-century creeds in the East, it was uniformly included in the Western creeds. 55 B. MIDDLEAGES

According to Thomas Aquinas, Christ fittingly ascended both as God and as man by divine power. In doing so he "prepared the way for our ascent into heaven," "entered heaven 'to make intercession for us"' 43. 44. 45. 46.

On the Faith 4.14, 24; On the Holy Spirit 1.66; On the Faith 4.7.

CatecheticalLectures14.25. Epistolae120.5; 59.4. Davies, He Ascendedinto Heaven, pp. 190-98. William H. Marrevee, S. C. J ., The Ascensionof Christin the Worksof St. Augustine (Ottawa, Ont.: University of Ottawa Press, 1967), esp. pp. 153-54, has concluded on the basis of a study of the passages in Augustine, not only sermons but also commentaries, that Augustine developed his doctrine of the ascension in relation to Christo logy and ecclesiology. 47. Tait, The Heavenly Sessionof Our Lord, pp. 53-73, 25-41. 48. Ibid., pp. 57-58. 49. Ibid., p. 59, based on Athanasius, Against the Arians 1.61. 50. Ibid., p. 62, based on Basil, On the Holy Spirit 6. 51. Ibid., p. 59, based on Cyril of Jerusalem, CatecheticalLectures4.7; 11.17. 52. Ibid., p. 63, based on John Chrysostom, On the Ascension3. 53. On the Trinity 9.36-40. 54. On the Faith 2.102-5; Epistles76 (or 85).8. 55. Tait, The Heavenly Sessionof Our Lord, pp. 25, 34.

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(Heb. 7:25), and proceeded to bestow gifts upon humans. 56 His heavenly session meant both his abiding in the Father's "bliss" and his reigning with the Father. Being at the Father's "right hand" can signify commonality of nature, the Son's deity within the union of his natures, and equality of honor. It is fitting that only Jesus Christ be sitting at the Father's right hand. 57 C. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION AND THE POST-REFORMATION ERA

Martin Luther, in his controversy with Ulrich Zwingli concerning the Lord's Supper, developed the doctrine that after his ascension Jesus' human nature was ubiquitous or omnipresent. For Luther such doctrine was "a necessary consequence of the unity of the divine nature with the human nature in the [one] person of Christ." By teaching it Luther was rejecting the traditional interpretation of the heavenly session, namely, that Christ is now "limited to a particular place in heaven. "58 For John Calvin,Jesus' ascension marked the true inauguration of his kingdom, made possible his "more useful" presence among believers, enabled him "to rule heaven and earth with a more immediate power," and enabled him to do his work of intercession. His heavenly session meant presiding "at the heavenly judgment seat," not "simply his blessedness."59 Balthasar Hubmaier emphasized the help available through the intercession or advocacy of the ascended Christ and the vanity of seeking "another intercessor." 60 According to the Racovian Catechism (1605), reflective of Polish anti trinitarian Anabaptism, Jesus ascended to heaven, "the seat of immortality," to "prepare a place" for "the children of God" and to exercise rule 56. Summa Theologica,3.57. 1-3, 6. 57. Ibid., 3.58. 1-4. 58. Bernhard Lohse (1928- ), Martin Luther:An Introductionto His Life and Work, trans. Robert C. Schultz (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 74. 59. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.), trans. Ford Lewis Buttles, 2.16.14, 16, 15. From what was implicit in Calvin came the more explicit doctrine of post-Reformation Orthodoxy concerning the two states of Christ, namely, humiliation and exaltation. Marvin P. Hoogland, Calvin'sPerspective on the Exaltationof Christin Comparisonwith the Post-ReformationDoctrineof the Two States (Kampen:J. H. Kok, 1966), esp. pp. 203-17. Among the Reformation confessions of faith perhaps the most explicit concerning the ascension was the Scottish Confession of 1560, art. 11, in Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,3:448-50. 60. "The Twelve Articles of Christian Faith Phrased in the Form of a Prayer at Zurich in the Watertower" (1527), 6, in BathasarHubmaier:Theologianof Anabaptism,trans. and ed. H. Wayne Pipkin and John H. Yoder, Classics of the Radical Reformation, no. 5 (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1989), p. 237. See also the Waterland Mennonite Confession (1580), art. 16, Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 52.

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over all humankind. His heavenly session meant his exaltation above all powers and his "supreme dominion." Hence he is able "to succour" human beings "in all their necessities both spiritual and temporal" and to "punish the disobedient with both spiritual and corporal penalties." 61 The early seventeenth-century confessions framed by the English General Baptists were rather explicit about the ascension and the heavenly session, 62 but later English and American Baptist confessions have normally been less explicit. 63

V. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION: THE ASCENSION Finally, we should attempt to give a systematic exposition of the doctrine of the ascension of Jesus Christ, together with its corollaries. A. RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION

The ascension of Jesus followed and completed his resurrection and his post-resurrection appearances. These are properly to be differentiated and correlated. Jesus' resurrection "was not the completion of His glory," although "His glorification indeed then began." 64 He parted from them when He ascended, as He had parted from them at the end of each of His appearances after the Resurrection. But ... whereas the other separations were for a few hours or days, this was final and beyond recall. 65 According to Karl Barth, The resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ are two distinct but inseparable moments in one and the same event. The resurrection is to be understood as its terminus a quo, its beginning, and the ascension as its terminus ad quern, its end. 66 Metzger has argued that the ascension followed logically as well as chronologically Jesus' bodily resurrection: For, if Jesus rose from the dead not with a natural, but with a spiritual (or glorified) body-and this is undoubtedly the teaching of the New Testament-then it would appear to be inappropriate 61. The Racovian Catechism,sect. 7, rpt. ed., pp. 365-66. 62. A Short Confession (1610) [38 articles], art. 16; Propositions and Conclusions concerning True Christian Religion (1612-1614), arts. 45-47, Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, pp. 106, 132. 63. The exceptions would be the Somerset Particular Baptist Confession (1656), art. 17, and the Southern Baptist Convention's 1963 Statement of Baptist Faith and Message, 2.2, Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith (rev. ed., 1969), pp. 207, 394. 64. Milligan, The Ascensionand Heavenly Priesthoodof Our Lord, p. 1. 65. Swete, The AscendedChrist, p. 5. 66. ChurchDogmatics,IV/2, p. 150.

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for him to remain permanently on earth. The translation of his resurrected body to that sphere of existence to which it properly belonged can be said to be both natural and necessary. 67 B. EXALTATION

The resurrection, the ascension, and the heavenly session of Jesus constitute his exaltation. Even the theologians who strongly insist upon distinguishing between resurrection and exaltation find the two "inseparably connected." Thus Hermann Sasse (1895-1976) declared that "the New Testament distinguishes [logically] the resurrection from the exaltation of Christ" but refused to treat them as "two distinct events. "68 Since Peter both in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost and that before the Sanhedrin proceeded directly from the resurrection to the exaltation at the Father's right hand (Acts 2:32-33; 5:30-31), and Paul in his great Christological hymn proceeded from Jesus' death to his exaltation (Phil. 2:8-11) and in Rom. 8:34 from the resurrection to the session, we do well to reckon his resurrection as the beginning of his exaltation. "The Ascension remains the essential link between the Resurrection and the Exaltation" in heaven. 69 The exaltation of Jesus was his coronation "with glory and honor" (Heb. 2:9). 70 C. ASCENSION AND HEAVENLY SESSION

The ascension of Jesus was immediately followed by his heavenly session "at the right hand of God." If Swete was correct in stating that all New Testament references to the session "rest ultimately on the 110th Psalm" 71 and if Tait rightfully stated that Ps. 110: 1a contains three themes (rest, honor, and sovereignty), we need to ask whether all of these themes are to be ascribed to the risen, ascended Jesus in his heavenly session. Milligan 72 and Swete73 were confident that Jesus' session involves activity, not rest. Honor and rulership can more confidently be ascribed. According to Metzger, God's right hand "is metaphorical language for the divine omnipotence." 74 Whether standing (Acts 7:55) or having sat down (Mark 16:19; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; Rev. 3:21) or sitting (Matt. 19:28; 25:31; Mark 14:62) or being seated (Col. 3: 1) or having been seated by the Father (Eph. 1:20), Jesus in his heavenly session exerts his rule over "all things" 67. Historicaland LiteraryStudies:Pagan,jewish, and Christian,p. 84. 68. "Jesus Christ, the Lord," in MysteriumChristi:ChristologicalStudiesby British and GermanTheologians,ed. G. K. A. Bell and AdolfDeissmann (London: Longman, Green and Co., 1930), p. 105. 69. Donne, ChristAscended,p. 60. 70. Milligan, The Ascensionand HeavenlyPriesthoodof Our Lord, pp. 55-57. 71. The AscendedChrist,p. 10. 72. The Ascensionand HeavenlyPriesthoodof Our Lord, pp. 58-59. 73. TheAscendedChrist,p. 14. 74. Historicaland LiteraryStudies:Pagan,jewish, and Christian,p. 87.

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(Eph. 1:22) and all beings (1 Pet. 3:22), indeed over all things and all beings until yielding that rule to the Father (1 Cor. 15:24-27) or until his parousia (Acts 3:21). D. OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The ascension and the inauguration of the heavenly session were followed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:33). Jesus' glorification must precede the gift of the Spirit (John 7:39). E. PRIESTLY INTERCESSION

The ascension and the inauguration of the heavenly session were also followed by Jesus' continuing intercession as high priest in behalf of human beings (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). He is not only "high priest" (archierea) (Heb. 4: 14) but also "advocate" (paraklitos) (1 John 2: I, I\JV, RSV,JB). 75 Thomas F. Torrance has found in Christ's heavenly intercession the blending of "his endlessself-oblation,""his endless ... advocacyfor us," and his eternal blessing of his people. 76 But Kenneth C. Thompson has gone too far by asserting that the ascension was the "supreme ... occasion" for Jesus' offering to the Father his manhood as a "living sacrifice" and that his high priesthood was "inaugurated" at the ascension, not at the Last Supper or by his death on the cross. 77 Such denigration of Jesus' death is unnecessary and unwarranted. F. RETENTION OF JESUS' MANHOOD

Jesus' ascension seemingly entailed the retention of his humanity; that is, he ascended as the God-man. The mediatorial office is to be exercised by "the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). As the "great high priest" he, having been tempted but sinless, can "sympathize with our weaknesses" (Heb. 4: 14-15, RSV, NEB, NIV). According to Milligan, "in laying aside the garment of 'flesh' in which He had been clothed, He did not lay aside the humanity which He had assumed. "78 Jesus ascended, Millard Erickson has asserted, with "a perfected humanity of the type which we will have after our resurrection." 79 Though now ascended up on high, He bends on earth a brother's eye; 75. Swete, The AscendedChrist,pp. 16-67, Thomas F. Torrance, Space, Time and Resurrection(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), pp. 112-22, and Toon, The Ascensionof Our Lord, pp. 33-99, have interpreted Jesus' ascension in relation to his kingship, priesthood, and prophethood. See also Vol. 1, ch. 41, IV.

76. Space, Time and Resurrection,pp. 115-18. 77. Received Up into Glory,p. 82. Thompson (pp. 84-85) sought to establish his view by adopting the gift theory concerning sacrifice. 78. The Ascensionand HeavenlyPriesthoodof Our Lord, p. 27. 79. ChristianTheology,p. 778.

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Partaker of the human name, He knows the frailty of our frame. 80 G. ASCENSION AND SPACE

How is the relation of Jesus' ascension to the order of space to be understood so as to make demythologization unnecessary? Although one can insist on "heaven" as a "place" as well as a "state of being" and define heaven as where the ascended Jesus is,81 the issue is indeed more complex. A century ago Milligan noted that in going to heaven Jesus was going to God and referred to Jesus' ascension as "less of a transition from one locality than of a transition from one condition to another." 82 More recently, Metzger warned that Jesus' ascension "does not mean that he was elevated so many feet above sea-level," 83 and Thompson affirmed that the ascension, "even if its initial stages were visible, was not entirely or even predominantly an event in this physical universe." 84 But Torrance has engaged in the most vigorous analysis of the issue, namely, one that centers in the two natures of Jesus Christ, who himself is "the place in this physical world of space and time where God and man meet." In so far as he is man, truly and perfectly man, we must think of the ascension as related to the space and time of creaturely reality .... But in his own resurrection Jesus had healed and redeemed our creaturely existence ... so that in him space and time were recreated or renewed. . . . On the other hand, the ascension must be thought of as an ascension beyond all our notions of space and time ... , and therefore as something that cannot ... be enclosed within categories of this kind. He ascended "above all space and time without ceasing to be man or without any diminishment of his physical, historical existence," yet his ascension "inevitably transforms 'heaven."' We must then affirm both that 'Jesus Christ has ascended from man's place to God's place" and that by ascending he "establishes man in man's place in space and time." 85 80. Michael Bruce in The Baptist Hymn Book (London: Psalms and Hymns Trust, 1962), no. 178. 81. McNaugher,Jesus Christthe Same Yesterday,Todayand Forever,pp. 195, 196. 82. The Ascensionand HeavenlyPriesthoodof Our Lord, pp. 21, 26. 83. Historicaland LiterarySources:Pagan,jewish, and Christian,p. 84. 84. ReceivedUp into Glory,p. 25. 85. Space, Time and Resurrection,pp. 128, 127-28, 129, 130, 133. But Thompson, ReceivedUp into Glory,pp. 63-71, esp. 64, 65, has contended that since heaven is a "place" and not merely a state, the "Heaven to which our Lord ascended must be a physical and material Heaven," and hence "at his Ascension our Lord began the fashioning of the new Heaven and Earth which one day is entirely to supersede and replace this familiar universe of ours."

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H. ASCENSION AND SECOND COMING

The ascension of Jesus Christ, coupled with his heavenly session and priestly intercession, is to be followed by his second coming (Acts 1: 11). The interval is the era of the church's mission to the nations (Matt. 24:14). Torrance has reminded us that parousiais only used in the singular in the New Testament and that only with Justin Martyr and Hippolytus does one find the plural, parousiai, applicable to first and second advents. "The pause in the heart ascension ... thus introduces, as it were, an eschatologi,cal of the parousiawhich makes it possible for us to speak of a first advent and a second or final advent of Christ." 86 According to Swete, As the interval between the Ascension and the Return lengthens century by century, the Church takes heart when she remembers the Seated Figure of the expectant Christ. 87 In summary, we have identified the Old Testament texts which the New Testament authors quoted or paraphrased in reference to Jesus' ascension, together with certain Old Testament passages which later Christianity has read in connection with the ascension. We have examined the New Testament passages relative to the ascension according to the Greek terms employed, certain critical issues related to these texts, and three views as to the time of the ascension. We have identified the New Testament passages pertaining to the heavenly session of Jesus according to the types of New Testament literature. After interpreting the major developments in these two doctrines during the patristic, medieval, and Reformation and post-Reformation eras, we have delineated an eightfold systematic exposition of the ascension and related themes. We have examined in detail the death of Jesus: as sacrifice, propitiation, and substitution vis-a-vis God's righteousness, as the expression of God's love, as the historic deed of the eternal Son of God, and, coupled with his resurrection, as ransom-victory over sin, death, and Satan. Furthermore, we have probed the question as to the extent of the intention of the atonement, the modern issue as to bodily healing on the basis of atonement, and the ages-old topic, Jesus' descent into Hades. We have studied in detail both the event and the meaning of Jesus' resurrection and his ascension and heavenly session. Now we must turn from the saving work of Jesus Christ to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

86. Space, Time and Resurrection,pp. 144, 145. See also Davies, He Ascendedinto Heaven, pp. 174-76. 87. The AscendedChrist,p. 15.

PART VII

THE HOLY SPIRIT

CHAPTER52

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND GOD At the beginning of a study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit a warning by Frederick William Dillistone (1903-93) may be appropriate: Within the Bible the majority ofreferences to the Holy Spirit are to be found in the context of records ofliving experience, and no attempt is therefore made to work out a comprehensive account of the nature and activity of the Holy Spirit himself .... It was as the Spirit laid hold of men's lives that they were constrained to bear witness .... It is true that on the basis of what they had already experienced, the Biblical witnesses were often prepared to look for similar or even fuller manifestations of the Spirit in the future. But there is nothing abstract or formal about Biblical pneumatology. Whereas there are approaches to creedal statements concerning God the Father and God the Son, there is no suggestion of a creedal confession in relation to God the Holy Spirit. Everything moves within an atmosphere of warm and vital experience, and this fact must never be forgotten when the attempt is made to work out a general account of the Spirit's nature and activity on the basis of the Biblical evidence. 1 Dillistone's denial of any creedal confession respecting the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, which may be sustained, should not be taken to mean that in later centuries Christians did not formulate such. But the experience of the Spirit must necessarily be recognized as also having had a powerful impact upon the doctrine of the Spirit during later centuries.

1. 'The Biblical Doctrine of the Holy Spirit," TheologyToday (January 1947): 486.

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I. INTRODUCTION

TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Two preliminary questions need to be answered as we undertake the study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. First, how has the Holy Spirit been treated in representative Christian systematic theologies? Also, what location or placement has this doctrine had in such systematic theologies? Second, how should the doctrine of the Holy Spirit be developed or organized? A. TREATMENT/LOCATION IN REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGIES

The answers to the first question will be drawn selectively from the Roman Catholic, the Reformed, the Wesleyan, and the Baptist traditions. Thomas Aquinas gave minimal treatment to the Holy Spirit, and when he did treat the topic it was in reference to the person of the Spirit or to the sacrament of confirmation. 2 Joseph Pohle treated the "personality" and "divinity" of the Holy Spirit but virtually ignored the Holy Spirit elsewhere in his twelve-volume dogmatics. 3 In a symposium published in 1948 John MacKintosh Tilney Barton ( ? -1977) explicated the deity, the procession "from the Father and the Son," the "temporal mission," and the work of the Holy Spirit in respect to the Scriptures. 4 Karl Rabner expounded the need not to "stifle the Spirit," the "continual" outpouring of the Spirit in the church as well as at Pentecost, the experience of the Spirit in relation to "existential commitment" and "enthusiasm," and the "charismatic element in the church" and criteria for visions and prophecies. 5 John Calvin treated the confirmation of the Scriptures as by the witness of the Holy Spirit rather than by the church's judgment, the deity of the Spirit and the Spirit's participation in the Trinity, the necessary agency of the Spirit in making the Word of God effective for faith, the Holy Spirit as the bond uniting believers to Christ, and Christians as glorying in the presence of the Holy Spirit. 6 The Holy Spirit pervades the 2. Summa Theologica,1.36-38; 3. 72. 3. Within the twelve volumes see only The Divine Trinity, trans. and ed. Arthur Preuss (St. Louis, London: B. Herder, 1946), pp. 97-112. 4. "The Holy Ghost," in The Teachingof the CatholicChurch,ed. George D. Smith (rpt. ed.; London: Burns and Oates, 1956), pp. 143-79. 5. Within the twenty volumes of his TheologicalInvestigationssee vol. 7, Further Theologyof the SpiritualLife, 1, trans. David Bourke (London: Darton, Longman and Todd; New York: Herder and Herder, 1971), esp. pp. 72-87, 186-201; vol. 16, Experienceof the Spirit: Sourceof Theology,trans. David Morland, O.S.B. (New York: Crossroad, 1983), pp. 24-51. But also see idem, The Spirit in the Church,trans.John Griffiths, W. J. O'Hara, Charles Henkey, and Richard Strachan (New York: Seabury Press, 1979). 6. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.), 1.7; 1.13.2-6, 14-25; 3.2.33-35; 3.1.4; 3.1.1; 3.2.39.

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Institutes of the Christian Religion in a way that it does not the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, and Calvin dwelt more on the work of the Spirit than on his person. For Charles Hodge the Spirit is related to the other "persons" of the Trinity by eternal procession, is both personal and divine, and applies to believers the saving work of Christ. Hodge had little to say about the Holy Spirit in reference to regeneration or to faith, but he did find the Spirit important to "common grace." 7 Karl Barth's treatments of the Holy Spirit focused upon the Spirit as Redeemer and as eternal, as the "subjective reality" and "possibility of revelation," in relation to "the gathering of the Christian community" and to faith, in respect to "the up building of the Christian community" and to Christian love, the promise of the Spirit, "the sending of the Christian community" and Christian hope, and in regard to "baptism with the Holy Spirit." 8 Far less explicit is the discussion of the Holy Spirit in the three-volume "Dogmatics" of Emil Brunner, who briefly treated the Spirit in relation to the Trinity. 9 For G. C. Berkouwer the Holy Spirit is to be interpreted in relation to the Spirit's testimony to the Scriptures and to the sin against the Holy Spirit, but Berkouwer also was less complete in his coverage of the entire doctrine of the Spirit. 10 Neither Brunner nor Berkouwer gave as much attention to the doctrine of the Spirit as did Calvin and Barth, and for the latter the work of the Spirit received more attention than the person of the Spirit. Early theologians in the Wesleyan tradition such as Richard Watson 11 and Samuel Wakefield (1799-1895) 12 treated the Holy Spirit in detail only in connection with the doctrine of the Trinity. But William Burt Pope ( 1822-1903) extended the treatment to the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit as the "crowning credential" of revelation, to the inspiration of the Scriptures, to the work of the Spirit both before and after the Day of Pentecost, to faith and the application of the atonement, to the guidance of the 7. SystematicTheology,1.6.6; 1.8; 3.15.3; 3.16; 3.14. 8. ChurchDogmaticsIII, ch. 12; 1/2, ch. 16; IV/I, chs. 62-63; IV/2, chs. 67-68; IV/3, chs. 69, sect. 4; 72-73; IV/4, sect. 1. 9. The ChristianDoctrineof God, ch. 16, sect. 3. On Barth and Brunner seeJ. Rodman Williams, The Era of the Spirit (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1971), pp. 67-84. IO. Holy Scripture,trans. Jack B. Rogers, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), ch. 2; Sin, trans. Philip C. Holtrop, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), ch. 10. 11. TheologicalInstitutes:or, a Viewof the Evidences,Doctrines,Morals,and Institutions of Christianity(Nashville: E. Stevenson and F. A Owen, 1857), esp. part 2, ch. 17. and System12. A CompleteSystemof ChristianTheology;or, a Concise,Comprehensive,

atic Viewof the Evidences,Doctrines,Morals,and Institutionsof Christianity (Cincinnati: Cranston and Stowe, 1869), esp. bk. 2, ch. 7. Wakefield did treat the Holy Spirit in reference to biblical inspiration, regeneration, adoption, and entire sanctification.

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Spirit, and to the witness of the Spirit so as to afford assurance. 13 John Miley extended the explicit treatment only to the inspiration of the Scriptures, regeneration, and assurance, 14 and H. Orton Wiley (1877-1961) developed a full five-chapter exposition of the doctrine of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. 15 Among American Baptists John L. Dagg wrote not only of the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit but also of the Spirit's role as Sanctifier and Comforter and of the Christian obligation to live and walk in the Spirit, 16 and Alvah Hovey also expanded the treatment beyond deity and personality so as to include biblical inspiration, regeneration, and Christian growth. 17 But James P. Boyce dealt only with deity and personality and with the procession of the Holy Spirit, 18 and A. H. Strong limited his treatment to deity and personality. 19 The chapter by E. Y. Mullins centered upon the relation of the Spirit to the Trinity, but he also briefly dealt with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Spirit in salvation and sanctification. 20 W. T. Conner's chapter included the deity and personality of the Spirit, the Spirit's relation to Jesus, and the work of the Spirit both in the Christian and the church (the gifts); he also alluded to the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and his work in regeneration and union with Christ. 21 W.W. Stevens, 22 Dallas M. Roark, 23 and Morris Ashcraft 24 had chapters on the Spirit which embrace both person and work. Dale Moody, after writing a monograph on the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 25 chose not to treat the Spirit as a major topic in 13. A Compendiumof ChristianTheology,3 vols. (2d rev. ed.; New York: Phillips and Hunt, 1881), 1:150-54, 168-70; 2:101-5, 321-34, 381-82, 393-94; 3: 18-19, 115-20. 14. SystematicTheology,1:257-66; 2:333-37, 342-48, 481-82. But Sheldon, System of ChristianDoctrine,pp. 212-16, limited the coverage to the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. 15. ChristianTheology,1:400-405; 2:303-517. 16. A Manual of Theology,pp. 234-43. 17. Manual of SystematicTheologyand ChristianEthics (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1877), pp. 235-42; Manual of ChristianTheology, pp.64-65, 294-304,328-31. 18. Abstractof SystematicTheology,pp. 130-34, 149-52. 19. SystematicTheology,pp. 315-17, 323-26. 20. The ChristianReligi,onin Its DoctrinalExpression,pp. 203-13, 321, 359-64, 423. 21. Revelationand God, pp. 283-320; The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 125-27, 155-56, 189-91. Conner also wrote a monograph, The Work of the Holy Spirit. 22. Doctrinesof the ChristianReligion, pp. 95-111. Stevens dealt with speaking in tongues (pp. 110-11 ). 23. The ChristianFaith, pp. 133-46. Roark dealt with the work, especially the gifts, more extensively than the person. 24. ChristianFaith and Beliefs,pp. 90-101. 25. Spirit of the Living God: The BiblicalConceptsInterpretedin Context(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963). This is a detailed exposition of the biblical doctrine.

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his the the the

system, 26 and Millard Erickson discussed the internal testimony of Spirit and the illumination of the Spirit vis-a-vis the Bible as well as deity and personality and the work of the Spirit in the life of Jesus, life of the Christian, and the bestowal of gifts. 27 As will become evident, the Pentecostal 28 and Neo-Pentecostal 29 movements have given much greater attention to the doctrine of the work of the Spirit than any of the four traditions just examined. B. SCOPE AND ORDER OF TOPICS OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

George Stuart Hendry (1904-93) suggested in 1956 that there are two primary methods for the sequencing of topics needed for a well-developed treatment of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit: "the canonical and the chronological." By "canonical" he meant "the order of canonical Scripture," or the order of biblical theology. Accordingly, one would expound first the doctrine of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, then interpret the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and offer little more than that. By "chronological" order Hendry meant "the order in which the problems or issues engaged the attention of the Church," and he chose to employ this second method. 30 Hendry was indeed correct that certain authors of monographs on the Holy Spirit have followed the method of biblical theology and for the most part limited their treatments to the biblical materials. Included among such authors are Robert Ainslee Redford (1828-1906), 31 Ernest Findlay Scott (1868-1954), 32 W. T. Conner, 33 Charles Kingsley Barrett

26. The Wordof Truth. 27. ChristianTheology,pp. 247-51, 257-58, 843-83. 28. Myer Pearlman, Knowing the Doctrinesof the Bible, pp. 68-77, 277-341; Ernest Swing Williams, SystematicTheology,3 vols; Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, Foundationsof PentecostalTheology(Los Angeles: L. I. F. E. Bible College, 1983), pp. 19-22, 107-14, 261-357. 29. J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology,vol. 1, God,the Worldand Redemption, pp. 83-94; vol. 2, Salvation, the Holy Spirit, and ChristianLiving, pp. 137-409; vol. 3, The Church,the Kingdomand Last Things, pp. 77-82, 117-18, 127-33, 141-51, 192-96,317-20. 30. The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology(Philadelphia: Westminster Press), esp. pp. 14-17. 31. VoxDei: The Doctrineof the Spirit as It Is Set Forthin the Scripturesof the Old and New Testaments(Cincinnati: Curts and Jennings, 1889). 32. The Spirit in the New Testament(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923). 33. The Work of the Holy Spirit.

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(1917- ),34 Dale Moody, 35 Charles Webb Carter, 36 Eduard Schweizer, 37 David Ewert (1922- ),38 and Wayne Eugene Ward (1921- ).39 Hendry, on the other hand, was not correct in assuming that the only other major option was the "chronological" order of issues which he defined and utilized. Indeed there have been at least three other major methods employed besides Hendry's. Some authors have first treated the biblical materials, then reviewed the postbiblical history of the doctrine, and finally dealt with contemporary issues or attempted a systematic formulation. In such monographs there has been little effort to identify a major issue in each chronological period, as Hendry did. Somewhat generally Charles Gore followed this method. 40 William Henry Griffith Thomas followed it strictly, presenting a systematic formulation and dealing with contemporary issues. 41 So did John F. Walvoord, 42 Henry Pitney Van Dusen, 43 Lindsay Dewar (1891-? ), who worked out a psychological interpretation, 44 and Charles F. D. Moule, who addressed contemporary issues. 45 In his trilogy Yves M. J. Congar treated the biblical doctrine and the postbiblical history of the the doctrine in the first volume, the Spirit in relation to the church, the Christian, and renewal in the second, and the relation of the Spirit to the 34. The Holy Spirit and the GospelTradition (London: S.P.C.K.; New York: Macmillan, 1947). A more succinct presentation was that of Joseph Edward Fison (1906-72), Fire upon the Earth (London: Edinburgh House, 1958), who dealt with the primitive Spirit, the prophetic Spirit, the priestly Spirit, the philosophical Spirit, the pietist Spirit, the Pentecostal Spirit, the Pauline Spirit, and the Johannine Spirit. 35. Spirit of the Living God. 36. The Personand Ministry of the Holy Spirit:A WesleyanPerspective(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1974). 37. The Holy Spirit, trans. Reginald H. and Ilse Fuller (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980). 38. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament(Scottdale, Pa., Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1983). 39. The Holy Spirit, Layman's Library of Christian Doctrine (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987). 40. The Holy Spirit and the Church (London: John Murray, 1924). 41. The Holy Spirit of God (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1913; rpt. ed.: Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1976). 42. The Holy Spirit:A ComprehensiveStudy of the Personand Workof the Holy Spirit (Wheaton, Ill.: Van Kampen Press, 1954). Walvoord's order of topics was different, but he included biblical, historical, and systematic aspects. 43. Spirit, Son and Father:ChristianFaith in the Light of the Holy Spirit (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958). 44. The Holy Spirit and Modern Thought:An Inquiry into the Historical,Theological, and Psychological Aspectsof the ChristianDoctrineof the Holy Spirit (London: A. R. Mowbray and Co., 1959). 45. The Holy Spirit (Oxford: A. R. Mowbray and Co., 1978; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979).

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Trinity and to the sacraments in the third. 46 Alasdair I. C. Heron concentrated on contemporary issues. 47 A second group of authors has constricted the preceding method by treating the biblical materials and then proceeding to a systematic formulation or to contemporary issues. Representative of such an approach have been Henry Barclay Swete,48 J. E. Fison, 49 Georgia Harkness, 50 and Michael Green. 51 The third additional method has been that of a rather consistent systematic theological approach to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Its practitioners have included George Smeaton (1814-1889), 52 Abraham Kuyper,53 George Campbell Morgan (1863-1945), 54 Reuben A Torrey, 55 H. Wheeler Robinson, 56 Rene Pache (1904-79),57 Arnold B. Come, 58 Hendrikus Berkhof,59 G. W. H. Lampe, 60 BillyGraham, 61 and John Peck.62 The last mentioned method, namely, a consistent systematic one, will be sought in the chapters that follow.Hence we will examine the Holy Spirit's relation to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Christian, to the church, and to spiritual gifts. 46. / Believein the Holy Spirit, vol. 1, The Holy Spirit in the "Economy";vol. 2, "He Is Lord and Giver of Life"; vol. 3, The River of the Waterof Life (Rev. 22:1) Flowsin the East and in the West,trans. David Smith (New York: Seabury Press; London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1983). 47. The Holy Spirit (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1983). 48. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament:A Study of PrimitiveChristianTeaching (London: Macmillan, 1910). Swete also wrote The Holy Spirit in theAncient Church:A Study of ChristianTeachingin theAge of the Fathers(London: Macmillan, 1912). 49. The Blessingof the Holy Spirit (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1950). 50. The Fellowshipof the Holy Spirit (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966). 51. I Believein the Holy Spirit (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983). 52. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1889; rpt. ed.: London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1958). 53. The Work of the Holy Spirit, trans. Henri de Vries (New York, London: Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1900). Dutch original, 1888. Kuyper treated the Spirit in relation to the church and to the Christian. 54. The Spirit of God (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1900, 1954). 55. The Personand Work of the Holy Spirit as Revealedin the Scripturesand in Personal Experience(New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1910; rev. ed.: Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974). 56. The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit (London: Nisbet and Co., 1928). 57. The Personand Work of the Holy Spirit, trans. J. D. Emerson (Chicago: Moody Press, 1954). 58. Human Spirit and Holy Spirit. 59. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit (Richmond, Va.: John Knox Press, 1964). 60. Godas Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977). 61. TheHolySpirit:ActivatingGod'sPowerin YourJ.J,fe (New York: Warner Books, 1978). 62. What the Bihle Teachesaboutthe Holy Spirit (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1979). There are authors who have concentrated solely on the biblical

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II. THE USES OF ru(a)~ IN THE OLD TESTAMENT As one becomes familiar with the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, one soon finds that the term "spirit" (ru(a)IJ,)in the phrase "the Spirit of God"

has usages other than in reference to deity. In fact four distinct usages of ru(a)IJ,,which appears 378 times in the Old Testament, have been identified.63 First, ru(a)IJ,is used physically to refer to "wind" or violent power

in nature. More than one-third of all occurrences fall under this classification. For example, "I would hasten to find me a shelter from the raging wind and tempest" (Ps. 55:8, RSV). A second usage of ru(a)IJ,is "physiological." It means the principle of life in human beings. Thirty-nine occurrences may be so classified. For example, "as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils" (Job 27:3). A third meaning is "psychical." The term ru(a)IJ,refers to human dispositions of mind and character. Some 74 usages convey this meaning. Of Caleb it was said that "he has a different spirit" inasmuch as he had fully obeyed Yahweh (Num. 14:24), and, according to Ps 32:2, "Blessed is the man .. in whose spirit there is no deceit." The fourth meaning of ru(a)IJ,is "supernatural." It means, at least primarily, the life and strength of God in contrast to human weakness and mortality. Of the occurrences 134 may be seen as expressive of the fourth meaning. Representative usages include Gen. 6:3, "Then the Lord said, 'My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh ... ,"' and Isa. 31:3, "The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit." It is the fourth meaning of ru(a)IJ, that pertains especially to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 64 Now it becomes necessary to explore the very nature and activity of God as spirit or of the Spirit of God according to the Old Testament. Such exploring will begin with the work or activity of the Spirit of God and then proceed to the nature of the Spirit of God.

Ill. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT What activity is attributed in the Old Testament to the Spirit of God (ru(a)IJ,'elohim or ru(a)IJ,'il or the Spirit of the Lord (ru(a)IJ,yahweh)?65 and postbiblical materials; e.g., Thomas Rees, The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915). 63. Van Dusen, Spirit, Son and Father,pp. 36-37. Van Dusen, p. 50, found that in the Old Testament "spirit" generally had a twofold significance: "vitality or activity" and "intimacy or immediacy." 64. Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, pp. 36-58, reminded us that, although holiness (qodes)and spirit (ru(a)IJ,)were not combined in the Old Testament except in Ps. 51:11 and Isa. 63:10-11, the Old Testament concept of the holy needs to be included within the doctrine of the Spirit of God. 65. Heron, The Holy Spirit, pp. 10-22, found "four main contexts": "Creation and the Maintenance of Life," "Outstanding Gifts," "Prophecy," and "The

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A. CREATION AND SUSTENANCE

Although the idea is not so frequently expressed, 66 the Spirit of God is said to have been active in the creation of the universe and to be active in sustaining that universe. "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen. 1:2, NIV). "When you send your Spirit, they [the animals] are created, and you renew the face of the earth" (Ps. 104:30). In the words of Elihu, '"The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life"' Qob 33:4), and in the words of Job, '"as long as I have life within me, the breath (ru(a)IJ,)of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness"' Qob 27:3-4a). Again from Elihu we read: '"If it were his [God's] intention and he withdrew his spirit (ru(a)IJ,)and breath (n'siimiih), all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust"' Ooh 34:14). B. HUMAN ARTISTIC TALENTS AND UNDERSTANDING

Occasionally in the Old Testament the granting of artistic talents or understanding to individual human beings is ascribed to the Spirit of God. "'And I have filled him [Bezalel] with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts-to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftmanship"' (Exod. 31:3-5, NIV).67 "'But,"' according to Elihu, "'it is the spirit (ru(a)IJ,)in a man, the breath (n'siimiih) of the Almighty, that gives him understanding"' Qob 32:8). C. ENDOWMENT OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS FOR LEADERSHIP IN THE CORPORATE LIFE OF ISRAEL

By far the most frequently mentioned activity related to the Spirit of God in the Old Testament was the endowing of individuals, at least for a time, for leadership within the nation of Israel. Such endowment was attributed to certain judges and to the prophets. 68 Of Othniel it was written, "The Spirit of the LORD (ru(a)IJ,yahweh) came upon him, so that he became Israel's judge and went to war" Qudg. 3: 10a, NIV). Othniel "overpowered" the king of Aram. "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him" Qudg. 6:34). There followed the account of the fleece and of the victory over the Midianites. "Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and Future Hope." The first three of these are identical with the first three to be treated in the discussion that follows. 66. Green, / Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 28-29. 67. See also Exod. 35:31-33. 68. Pharoah had asked the Egyptian officials, '"Can we find anyone like this man Uoseph], one in whom is the Spirit of God?"' (Gen. 41:38, NIV). Concerning Joshua, see Num. 27:18.

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from there he advanced against the Ammonites" (Judg. 11:29), over whom he triumphed. Of Samson it was written, "The Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan ... " (Judg. 13:25a), "came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat" (Judg. l 4:6a), "came upon him in power" to defeat the men of Ashkelon (Judg. 14:19), and "came upon him in power" so that he was freed from the ropes that bound him and he could kill a thousand Philistines with a ''.jawbone of a donkey" (Judg. 15: 13-16). Similarly, the Spirit was said to have come upon Amasai and his soldiers (1 Chr. 12:18). Dale Moody, following Johannes Lindblom (1882- ? ),69 took all these texts to mean that the judges were possessed by the Spirit in terms ofan ecstasy in which the "ordinary ego" of the judge "dropped into the background" and "the extraordinary inflow of ruach constituted a new ego" for the judge. Such ecstatic possession was seen to be different from the Spirit's inspiration of the prophets. 70 According to Michael Green, the Spirit among the judges was "a violent, invading force." 71 The activity of the Spirit vis-a-vis prophecy was cited in respect to Moses and the seventy elders, Balaam, Saul, Samuel's group of prophets, Saul's men, David, Micaiah, and Micah. The Lord "took of the Spirit that was on him [Moses] and put the Spirit on the seventy elders," and "they prophesied" (Num. 11:25, NIV). In a rebuke to Joshua, Moses declared, '"I wish that all the LORD'S people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"' (Num. 11:29). "When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him and he uttered his [third] oracle" (Num. 24:2-3a). To Saul on the occasion of his anointing by Samuel it was said: "The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them ["procession of prophets"]; and you will be changed into a different person" (1 Sam. 10:6). Such occurred ( 1 Sam. 10:10), but the Spirit's power also led Saul to anger against the Ammonites ( 1 Sam. 11:6). The Spirit's departure from Saul, however, was marked by his being "tormented" by "an evil spirit from the LORD" (1 Sam. 16:14). When encountering Samuel's "group of prophets" as they prophesied, three groups of emissaries from Saul in succession and finally Saul himself joined in such prophesying. In so doing Saul "stripped off his robes" and "lay that way all that day and night" (1 Sam. 19:20-24). 72 From the day of his anointing by Samuel "the Spirit of the LORD came upon 69. Prophecyin Ancient Israel (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1962; Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1963), pp. 32-36, esp. 33. 70. Spirit of the Living God, p. 15. 71. I Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 19-21. According to Fison, Fire upon the Earth, p. 1, these instances of "possession" by the Spirit are "the starting point of that doctrine," and hence we modern Christians "cannot jump the queue." 72. Such ecstatic possession has been compared to that oflslamic dervishes. Heron, The Holy Spirit, pp. 13-14; Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, p. 62.

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David in power" ( 1 Sam. 16:13b), and in uttering his farewell words David claimed: "'The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue"' (2 Sam. 23:2). Moreover, the departure of "the spirit from the LORD" from Zedekiah, the son of Kenaanah, "the leader of the cultic prophets," so that he would have a "lying spirit" and so as to inspire Micaiah, "the first of the classicalprophets," seived to differentiate true and false prophets (1 Kings 22:19-25). 73 The eighth-century Micah declared: "But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin" (3:8). A military alliance had not been formed by the Spirit of the Lord (Isa. 30:1), and the people's rebellion had "grieved his Holy Spirit" (Isa. 63:l0a). Furthermore, for "many years" the Lord God patiently "admonished" the Israelites by his Spirit through the prophets (Neh. 9:30). Hence to certain judges the Spirit of the Lord came in ecstatic possession, and to the early prophets the same Spirit came for prophetic endowment. "On the whole, you had to be someone rather special in Old Testament days to have the Spirit of God .... [Indeed] the Spirit of God was not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry." 74 Was the Spirit of God ever related to the individual Israelite and his personal life? D. INDIVIDUAL RELIGIOUS LIFE

The Psalms do seem at times to connect the Spirit of God with the piety of individual Israelites. "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" (Ps. 139:7, NIV) points to the inescapable presence of God as Spirit. In Psalm 51, a psalm of confession of sin and divine cleansing, we read: "Create in me a pure heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast spirit (ru(a)IJ,)within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit (ru(a)IJ,)from me" (vv. 10-11). To be in the comprehensive presence of God is to have the inescapable Spirit of God; to be in his relational presence means the forgiveness of sin and the nonwithdrawal of the Spirit. 75

73. Moody, Spirit of the Living God, p. 17. 74. Green,/ Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 30-32. But Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, pp. 66-80, has noted that except for two passages in Micah (2:7; 3:8) and one in Hosea (9:7) the eighth-century prophets did not refer to ru(a)~ and that the usage thereof only returned with Ezekiel and second Isaiah, who used it with a full ethical meaning. 75. Conner, The Workof the Holy Spirit, pp. 30-32. Other Old Testament texts which mention the Spirit in reference to the Messiah or Servant of the Lord or in reference to the future of God's people will be subsequently dealt with in ch. 53, I, and ch. 54, I.

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IV. THE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT From consideration of the work or activity of the Spirit of God (or of the Lord) we turn to a more difficult question, namely, the nature of the Spirit according to the Old Testament. Three questions will help to provide answers. A. WHAT GENERALLY DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT MAKE KNOWN ABOUT THE BEING OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD?

The Old Testament presents God's Spirit as the presence, the life, and the power of God himself in human life and in the created universe. A. B. Davidson declared: The Old Testament does not teach that Jehovah is spirit,except as a synonym for power; it teaches that He has a spirit. He has a spirit, just as man has a spirit. And though in speech we can distinguish between man and his spirit, virtually the spirit of man is man. And the spirit of God is God, but with that connotation which spirit always carries of energy and power .... The spirit of the Lord is the Lord present and exerting spiritual energy. 76 According to Walther Eichrodt, the Spirit of God is "the principle of life," "the instrument of the salvation history," "the consummating power of the new age," and "the power behind the life of the people of God." 77 H. Wheeler Robinson asked: Are not these the key-words of the Biblical doctrine of the Spirit? Vitality, Personality, Fellowship, Service. Where the Spirit of God is, there is God, and where God is present, God is active, and these are the tokens of His activity. The primitive and fundamental idea of "spirit" (ruach) in the Old Testament is that of active power or energy (energeianot dynamis), power superhuman, mysterious, elusive, of which the ruach or wind of the desert was not so much the symbol as the most familiar example. In the fundamental Hebrew usage ... , it denoted a wind-like energy, and then the special appropriation of this energy as the activity, the "Spirit" of God. Through the idea of His creative activity, it came to denote, from the exile onwards, the vital principle in man, his whole psychical life, though usually regarded on its higher side, as the religious origin of the usage would suggest. 78 76. Old TestamentProphecy(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1903), pp. 369-70. 77. Theologyof the Old Testament,2:46-68. 78. The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit, pp. 8, 20-21.

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More succinctly Norman H. Snaith has written that ru(a)~ "stands for Power, for Life, and it is of God as against ofman." 79 B. DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT TEACH THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS "PERSONAL" (THAT IS, HYPOSTATICALLY DISTINCT FROM GOD)?

In seeking an answer to this question, we would do well to keep in mind both the monotheism within the Old Testament and the practical, nonspeculative nature of the faith of Israel. Concerning the personhood of the Spirit Davidson wrote: [I]t is doubtful if any Old Testament passage can be found which requires this sense; and it is doubtful if any passage of the Old Testament has this sense, ifby the sense of the Old Testament we mean the sense intended by the writers of the Old Testament.so As the very minimum one should avoid trying to infer or to build a case for the hypostasis of the Spirit from the "us" and "our" texts in the Old Testament (Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa. 6:8), as if the latter were trinitarian texts.s 1 But the issue may also be seen as one of emphasis. According to A. C. Knudson, "The great truth with which the Old Testament as a whole was concerned was not the personality of the Divine Spirit, but the spirituality of the Divine Person."s 2 Eichrodt, making a similar point but focusing on spirituality as nonmateriality, asserted that it is not the spiritual nature of God which is the foundation of Old Testament faith. It is his personhood-a personhood which is fully alive, and a life which is fully personal, and which is involuntarily thought of in terms of the human personality. Acknowledging that the early Israelites thought of God in physical terms, Eichrodt went on to conclude: A doctrine of God as spirit in the philosophical sense will be sought in vain in the pages of the Old Testament. Not until John 4:24 is it possible to declare: 'God is a spirit.' 83 But, even so, there seem to be certain passages in the Old Testament which seem to point to or prepare the way for the concept of the personhood of the Spirit in distinction from God. The NASV makes this trend even more evident. Amid the promise of the release of the captives in Babylon, Yahweh's beloved deliverer (Isa. 48:14) declared: '"And now the LORD God has sent me, and His Spirit"' (Isa. 48: 16d). But the covenant people by their rebellion "grieved His Holy Spirit." "Where is He 79. The DistinctiveIdeas of the Old Testament,p. 183. 80. The Theologyof the Old Testament,p. 127. 81. See above, ch. 21, II, A, 1, a. 82. The Religi,ousTeachingof the Old Testament,p. 114. 83. Theologyof the Old Testament, 1:211, 212.

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who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them ... ?" (Isa. 63: 10a, llc). Yahweh spoke through Haggai: '"As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!"' (2:5). Furthermore, '"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts""' (Zech. 4:6). In the New Testament more clearly than in the Old Testament, as we shall presently see, the Holy Spirit is distinguishable from God the Father. C. ARE ETHICAL QUALITIES OR ATTRIBUTES ASCRIBED TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?

Clearly the Spirit of God conveys the ideas of presence, life, and power. Are any ethical or moral attributes also ascribed specifically to the Spirit of God? Three times in two passages (Ps. 51: 11; Isa. 63: 10-11) the term "holy Spirit" is used in the Old Testament. Does the term "holy" in these passages mean "divine" in a general sense, or does it attribute some quality to the Spirit such as majesty or transcendence? It is not easy to make a good case for the latter. The Old Testament does twice employ the expression" good Spirit" in reference to God: "may your good Spirit lead me on level ground" (Ps. 143:lOb, NIV), and "'You gave your good Spirit to instruct them" (Neh. 9:20a). 84

V. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS GOD As long as the Old Testament pattern that Yahweh has a spirit and that

that spirit is not clearly differentiatable from Yahweh prevailed, it was not necessary to affirm that the Spirit of God is God, or divine. Following the advent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost with the consequent differentiation of the Spirit from Jesus and from the Father, it became necessary to do so. Before pursuing that affirmation, let us take note of the vocabulary of the New Testament. According to Van Dusen, 84. Eduard Schweizer, The Holy Spirit, pp. 29-45, and Alasdair Heron, The Holy Spirit, pp. 23-38, have included chapters on the Spirit in intertestamental Judaism. The majority of the texts cited by Schweizer are in the writings of Philo, who was contemporaneous with Jesus. Heron sharply differentiated "Palestinian Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls" from "Hellenistic Judaism and the Wisdom Tradition." Psalms of Solomon, ch. 17, pertains to the Spirit's relation to Jesus, Testament of Levi 18:6-8, 10-12 may have been edited by Christians, and in the Dead Sea Scrolls the focus is on two spirits, true and false. Hellenistic Jews merged the Spirit of God and the Wisdom of God; Heron, p. 37, admits that that tradition "has little or no influence on the New Testament understanding of the Holy Spirit." Hence we find no pressing need to deal with those intertestamental passages in detail in this chapter.

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The vocabulary of the New Testament is not uniform in referring to the Spirit. Of the nore than three hundred (335) uses, over half (220) speak simply of"Spirit" or "the Spirit," while the term "Holy Spirit" which had occurred only twice in the Old Testament appears ninety-one times, "The Spirit of God" or "the Spirit of the Lord" or "the Spirit of the Father" nineteen times, and "the Spirit of Christ" five times. 85 A. THE NEW TESTAMENT

Do the writers of the New Testament directly and formally teach that the Holy Spirit is God, or do they strongly infer that the Holy Spirit is God? The evidence seems to support no less than the latter, if not indeed the former. Paul implies the deity of the Spirit by analogy of the human spirit: For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us (1 Cor. 2:11-12, NIV). The Spirit of God is thus inherent in God even as the spirit of man is inherent in a human being, and the Spirit who has come from God is surely of God himself. There are also passages in which incipiently the Three-in-Oneness of God is affirmed and hence the deity of the Spirit implied. These include the Matthean baptismal formula (Matt. 28:19), Paul's statement concerning varieties (1 Cor. 12:4-6), the benediction for 2 Corinthians (13:14), and Paul's lengthy prayer at the outset of Ephesians (1:3-14). 86 B. THE PATRISTIC AGE

It became the need and the task of the Church Fathers to affirm and defend the deity of the Holy Spirit. Justin Martyr in several passages alluded to "the Holy Spirit" 87 or "the prophetic Spirit" 88 as God. lrenaeus implied the deity of the Holy Spirit in passages having a baptismal context 89 and in passages explicating the "rule of faith. "90 An example of the former is the following: 85. Spirit, Son and Father,p. 52. In the New Testament one also finds "the Spirit of truth," "the Spirit of holiness," "the Spirit oflife," "the Spirit ofadoption," "the Spirit of grace," "the Spirit of glory," and "the eternal Spirit" together with the symbols of wind, fire, water, dove, seal, and oil. Williams, Renewal Theology,2: 141-48. 86. See above, ch. 21, II, B, 2, b. 87. Apology1 65.3; 67.2. 88. Ibid., 1.13; 6.2. 89. Demonstrationof theApostolicPreaching3, 7, 100. 90. Ibid., 6; Against Heresies1.10.1; 4.33. 7.

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The Holy Spirit Dost thou believe in God the Father? Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnate, and died, and rose again? Dost thou believe in the Holy Spirit of God? 91

Tertullian likewise referred to the Holy Spirit or the Paraclete as God both in baptismal 92 and "rule of faith" 93 contexts. Origen also witnessed to the deity of the Spirit. 94 The early Christian creeds likewise confessed the deity of the Holy Spirit. The Old Roman Symbol (R) as given in Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia (c. 345-410) declared: "I believe ... in the Holy Spirit." 95 As given in Greek by Marcellus of Ancyra (? - c. 374) it also declared: "I believe ... in the Holy Spirit." 96 The Creed of Eusebius of Caesarea affirmed: "We believe in one Holy Spirit," 97 whereas the Creed of Nicaea (N) (325) asserted: "And in the Holy Spirit." 98 The statement of the Baptismal Creed of Jerusalem in the mid-fourth century was more detailed: "[And] in one Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, who spoke in the prophets. "99 Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-386) acknowledged the full deity of the Holy Spirit but did not use the term homoousiosto express the Spirit's relation to God. 100 Athanasius, countering the Tropici, who held that the Spirit was created, at the Synod of Alexandria (362) "secured acceptance of the proposition that the Spirit is not a creature but belongs to, and is inseparable from, the substance of the Father and the Son." 101 A late fourth-century group known as Pneumatomachians ("Spirit-fighters")after 380 called Macedonians, for the Homoiousian bishop Macedonius, who may not actually have held this view-opposed the deity of the Holy Spirit. Its "more radical" wing, "led by Eustathius of Sebaste after his rupture with Basil [of Caesarea] in 373," taught that the Holy Spirit is "'like in substance'" or "'like in all things"' to God. Eustathius refused to call the Holy Spirit either God or a creature. Rather he sought a "middle position," 102 not unlike Arius's view of Jesus as the Logos. One of the most important treatises ever written about the person of the Holy Spirit was Basil's On the Holy Spirit (375). According to Basil, the Holy Spirit must be "reckoned with" or "ranked with" (synarithmeisthai), 91. Demonstrationof theApostolicPreaching 100. 92. On the Crown 3. 93. On the Prescriptionof Heretics13; Against Praxeas2. 94. Commentaryon the Gospelofjohn, 32.16. 95. Commentaryon theApostles'Creed35-36. 96. Kelly, Early ChristianCreeds,p. 103. 97. Ibid., p. 182. 98. Ibid., p. 216. 99. Cyril of Jerusalem, CatecheticalLectures16-1 7. 100. Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,p. 258. 101. Ibid., p. 259. 102. Ibid., pp. 259-60.

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not "reckoned below" or "ranked below" (hyparithmeisthai) the Father and the Son. In the baptismal formula the Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son. Faith in Christ comes only through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is both glorified and called "Lord." 103 But Gregory ofNazianzus was the first Christian theologian to apply the term "consubstantial" (homoousios)to the Holy Spirit. What then? Is the Spirit God? Most certainly. Well then is He consubstantial? Yes, if He is God. 104 The Creed of Constantinople (C) (381) included a more elaborate statement about the Spirit: And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, Who proceeds from the Father, 105 Who with the Father and the Son is together worshipped and together glorified, Who spoke through the prophets .... 106 The "Athanasian" Creed, a sixth-century document that has little to do with Athanasius and instead reflects Augustine's doctrine of the Trinity, took the doctrine of the deity of the Holy Spirit to its fullest expression: ... the Godhead ... of the Holy Spirit ... . . . the Holy Spirit uncreate . . . . the Holy Spirit unlimited . . . . the Holy Spirit eternal. ... the Holy Spirit almighty . . . . the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten: but proceeding. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. 107

VI. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS "PERSONAL" In referring to the Holy Spirit as "personal" we confront a linguistic and semantic problem. By employing the term "personal" we are seeking both to differentiate the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son and to ascribe the characteristics of personal, or hypostatic, existence to the Holy Spirit. Yet in such usage we must maintain the unity of the Divine Being and avoid the concept of individualization which is commonly associated with human beings. Can the term "personal" be used effectively with these qualifications? Those who doubt such effectiveness may 103. Chs. 6, 10-15, 11, 19, 21 (NPNF). 104. Orations31.10. 105. The later Western addition wasfilioque, "and from the Son." 106. Kelly, Early ChristianCreeds,p. 298. 107. Items 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 23, and 26, slightly adapted from Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,2:66-68.

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indeed seek other words to describe the nature of the Holy Spirit, but such alternatives are not likely to be more accurate or acceptable. The question is not solely one of the use of the masculine pronoun "he" in reference to the Holy Spirit instead of the neuter "it." 108 Rather it is whether the qualities and functions of personal being are truthfully to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. A. THE NEW TESTAMENT

Does the New Testament afford any evidence favoring or supporting the idea that the Holy Spirit can be properly described as "personal"? It does not indeed apply the term "person" to the Holy Spirit, even as it does not use "person" of God. 109 But there are indications within the Pauline and Johannine writings that personal being should be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. I. Linguistic and Grammatical Evidence

When in John 14: 16Jesus referred to "another Comforter" (KJV)or "Counselor" (RSV, NIV) or "Advocate" UB) or "Helper" (TEV) (paraklitos),he used the Greek adjective altos,meaning "another of the same kind," rather than heteros,meaning "another of a different kind." The word altossignifies one who is of the same nature as Jesus himself. "The Spirit is as personal as the Jesus at whose behest he comes." 110 The Greek work ekeinos, the masculine demonstrative pronoun meaning "that one," is used of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8, 13, 14, even though the word pneuma ("spirit") is neuter. 111

2. Psychological Evidence Paul referred to "the mind (phronima) of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:27, KJV, RSV, NIV) and declared that "the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God" (1 Cor. 2:10, RSV). The same apostle admonished the Ephesian Christians not to "grieve" (KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV) or "wound" (Phillips) "the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph. 4:30a) by falsehood, unrestrained anger, stealing, or bad language. Likewise Peter asked Ananias, "why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?" (Acts 5:3, RSV). These two passages suggest the moral sensitivity of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, according to Paul, the Holy Spirit "apportions" (RSV) or "distributes" (Phillips, JB) or "gives" ([EV, NIV) spiritual I 08. In Hebrew ru( a)IJ,is feminine, in Greek pneuma is neuter, and in Latin spiritus is masculine. Heron, The Holy Spirit, p. viii. 109. See Vol. I, ch. 14, I, A, I. 110. Green, I Believein the Holy Spirit, p. 43. 111. Peck, What the Bible Teachesabout the Holy Spirit, p. 117, concluded that ekeinos"frequently breaks the normal rules of grammar," but W. Boyd Hunt, Redeemed!EschatologicalRedemptionand the Kingdomof God (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993), p. 27, is confident that ekeinoshas as its antecedent parakletos(v. 7) and that pneuma is in apposition to parakletos.

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gifts to each believer "as he wills" (Phillips, RSV) or "determines" (NIV) or "chooses" (JB) (bouletai)(I Cor. 12:11). Hence to the Holy Spirit are ascribed mind, moral sensitivity, and will.

3. Revelational Evidence According to Jesus' Farewell Discourse the Holy Spirit was to indwell believers (John 14:17), to "teach" believers and bring to their remembrance the sayings of Jesus (14:26), to "bear witness" to Jesus (15:26), to guide believers "into all the truth" (16:13a), and to "glorify" Jesus (16:14). How could subpersonal or impersonal reality adequately fulfill these tasks? How could the impersonal effectively make known the personal Jesus? B. "ATHANASIAN" CREED

The "Athanasian" Creed used very specific language in reference to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit: "For there is one Person [persona]of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Spirit." 112 C. ANCIENT AND MODERN DENIALS

The personal nature of the Holy Spirit, however, has not always been accepted and affirmed within the history of Christianity. Indeed the denials of the Spirit's hypostatic nature have tended to be linked by antitrinitarian theology. Four instances of such denial will be briefly identified.

1. Modalistic Monarchianism of Sabellius Earlier 113 the theology of Sabellius has been summarized. Seemingly usingprosopa to mean "roles" and not "persons," he regarded the roles of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as successive in time. Such a concept of impermanent roles or modes or functions either explicitly or implicitly denies the personal nature of the Holy Spirit. 114

2.Jehovah's Witnesses According to Jehovah's Witnesses, the Holy Spirit is "the invisible active force of Almighty God which moves his servants to do his will" 115 or "the impersonal invisible active force that finds its source and reservoir in

112. Item 5, slightly adapted from Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,2:66. 113. See Vol. 1, ch. 22, II, C. 114. Bethune-Baker, An Introductionto the Early Historyof ChristianDoctrine,pp. 105-6. But Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,pp. 121-23, has denied that Sabellius taught three prosopa"in the sense of masks or outward appearances." 115. "Let GodBe True" (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1946), p. 89.

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Jehovah God and that he uses to accomplish his will even at great distances, over light years of space." 116 Hence, There is no basis for concluding that the Holy Spirit is a Person . . . . Yes, the Trinity finds its origin in the pagan concept of a multiplicity, plurality, or pantheon of Gods. 117 In accord with these views the New Worl.dTransl,ationof the Holy Scriptures, published by Jehovah's Witnesses, uses lower case letters rather than capital letters for "holy spirit" and renders the masculine ekei,nosin John 14:26 as "which" rather than "whom." 118 Clearly for this movement the Holy Spirit "is ... neither God nor a person" but "merely an impersonal force." 119

3. Worldwide Church of God This movement, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986), has also denied the personal nature of the Holy Spirit. He and his son, Garner Ted Armstrong (1930-) declared: The Holy Spirit is the one harmonious, perfect holy attitude of mind which is shared by both Father and Son . . . . The Holy Spirit is the very power of God! It expressesthe unified creative will of the God family .... How clear it is that the Holy Spirit is not a thirdpersonof the Godhead as taught by the pagan "trinity" idea! 120 Herbert Armstrong also claimed: "The theologians" and "higher critics" have blindly accepted the heretical and false doctrine (introduced by pagan false prophets who crept in) that the Holy Spirit is a Third Person .... This limits God to three persons. 121 Armstrong's claim to ecclesial restorationism is contradicted by his reduction of the Holy Spirit to impersonal power or force, for "if He is truly a Third Person in the Trinity ... , then it follows that Armstrong is

116. "Let Your Name Be Sanctified"(Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1961), p. 269. 117. The Watchtower[date not given], p. 24, quoted by Walter R. Martin and Norman H. Klann,Jehovah of the Watchtower:A ThoroughExposeof the Important Anti-BiblicalTeachingsofJehovah's Witnesses(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1956), p. 134. 118. Hoekema, The Four Major Cults, pp. 239-41. 119. Ibid., p. 258. 120. AmbassadorCollegeCorrespondence Course,lesson 29 (1963, 1969), p. 9, as quoted by Joseph Martin Hopkins, The ArmstrongEmpire:A Look at the WorldwideChurchof God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), p. 112. 121. The Plain Truth, February 1962, p. 45, as quoted by Charles F. DeLoach, The ArmstrongError (Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1971 ), p. 64.

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not really acquainted with the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent to lead the true church until the end of this present age." 122

4. Way International Founded by Victor Paul Wierwille (1916-85), the Way International has followed the way of antitrinitarianism and depersonalization of the Holy Spirit. Wierwille differentiated "Holy Spirit" as God "the Giver" and "holy spirit," or the gift of the new birth, possible only after the Day of Pentecost, and of "power from on high." 123 In this chapter we have examined four of the Christian confessional traditions as to what extent and how the Holy Spirit has been treated by their theologians and have identified five methods utilized by twentieth-century Christian authors of monographs on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We have identified four basic usages of the word ru(a)~ in the Old Testament, have explicated the work ascribed to the Spirit of God by the Old Testament, have probed the nature of the Spirit of God according to the Old Testament, and have interpreted the doctrines of the deity of the Holy Spirit and of the personhood of the Holy Spirit both in the New Testament and in the patristic age. Now we turn to the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.

122. DeLoach, TheArmstrongError, p. 69. See also Paul N. Benware, Ambassadors of Armstrongism:An Analysisof the Historyand Teachingsof the Worldwide Churchof God (Nutley, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1977), p. 43. Recently the Worldwide Church of God under the leadership of Joseph Tkach has moved significantly, although not unitedly, toward orthodox Christianity: Randy Frame, "Worldwide Church of God Edges toward Orthodoxy," ChristianityToday,9 November 1992, pp. 57-58; Mark A. Kellner, "Mainstream Moves May Split Worldwide Church of God," ibid., 8 November 1993, pp. 59, 63; idem, "Move toward Orthodoxy Causes Big Income Loss," ibid., 24 April 1995, p. 53; idem, "Leader Battles Defectors, Cancer," ibid., 17 July 1995, p. 63. 123.jesus Christls Not God (New Knoxville, Ohio: American Christian Press, 1975), pp. 127-33.

CHAPTER53

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND JESUS CHRIST In his effort to identify the paramount pneumatological issue in each major epoch of the history of Christianity, George Hendry concluded that the relation of the Holy Spirit to Jesus was the predominant issue during the New Testament era. 1 But surely this relationship has continued through the centuries to be of major import for the Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit. The beginning point, however, for expounding this relationship is the Old Testament.

I. OLD TESTAMENT ANTICIPATIONS AS TO THE SPIRIT

OF THE LORD AND THE MESSIAH/SERVANT OF THE LORD The Old Testament contains at least three texts, all in Isaiah, wherein the work of the Spirit of the Lord respecting the Messiah or the Servant of the Lord is expected. One relates to the "shoot from the stump of Jesse," the verses often being reckoned as a messianic passage: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD (Isa. ll:l-3a, RSV). A second text connects the Spirit of the Lord with the Servant of the Lord: 1. See above, ch. 52, I, B.

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Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations .... (Isa. 42:1) The third text relates the Spirit of the Lord to the anointed liberator: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD'S favor, and the day of vengeance of our God .... (Isa. 61: l-2a,b) In each passage, as the contexts make clear, the one on whom the Spirit of the Lord is to come is to perform his task, whether endowment or judgment or deliverance, by and with the Spirit.

II. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS Twentieth-century authors who treated in detail the New Testament doctrine of the Holy Spirit, as one would expect, employed different methods. The majority of these organized their treatments of the subject under the major segments of New Testament literature; such has been true ofW. H. Griffith Thomas,2 E. F. Scott, 3 W. T. Conner,4 J. E. Fison, 5 H. P. Van Dusen, 6 Dale Moody,7 Charles W. Carter, 8 and Alasdair Heron. 9 H. B. Swete divided his treatment between the role of the Holy Spirit in the "history" of the New Testament and the Holy Spirit as subject in the "teach-

2. The Holy Spirit of God, pp. 23-69. 3. The Spirit in the New Testament, chs. 3-6. 4. The Work of the Holy Spirit, chs. 3-9. The Blessing of the Holy Spirit, chs. 5-7. :J. 6. Spirit, Son and Father, ch. 3. 7. Spirit of the Living God, chs. 2-8. 8. The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit, chs. 4-13. 9. The Holy Spirit, ch. 3.

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ing" of the New Testament. 10 Other authors Uohn F. Walvoord, ll Michael Green, 12 and Eduard Schweizer 13) have made a thematic approach. In chapters 52-56 of this present volume we utilize a systematic method (the Holy Spirit and God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Christian, the Holy Spirit and the church, the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts), but in chapters 53-56 we give major attention to New Testament materials. It is also possible to divide the New Testament doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit's relation to Jesus between Jesus' death and resurrection, namely, by differentiating the role of and the sayings about the Holy Spirit up through Jesus' crucifixion from the role of the Holy Spirit in and after the resurrection of Jesus together with the apostolic teaching about the Spirit. In their briefer treatments W. T. Conner, 14 Hendrikus Berkhof, 15 W.W. Stevens, 16 and Bruce Milne 17 employed such a method, and we use such in this chapter. Hence we now turn to the Holy Spirit's relation to Jesus' life and ministry. A. THE VIRGINAL CONCEPTION

According to Matt. 1: 18, 20 and Luke 1:35 the incarnate life of Jesus the Son of God had its beginning in the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived in Mary "through" and "from" the Holy Spirit, or when the Holy Spirit came and overshadowed Mary. 18 C. K. Barrett, after reviewing the Old Testament uses of ru(a)IJ,in relation to God, concluded "that in the Old Testament the Spirit appears to act creatively only in relation to the primal creation of the world and man, and in the redemption of the people of God." Hence the Spirit of God was actively creative in God's redemption via the virginal conception or 10. The Holy Spi,ritin the New Testament,parts 1-2. 11. The Holy Spirit, pp. 81-104. Walvoord's rubrics are the birth, the life, and the sufferings/glorification of Jesus. 12. / Believein the Holy Spirit, chs. 3-4. Green employed two sets of categories: ( 1) Jesus as "the unique Man of the Spirit," as the "unique Dispenser of the Spirit," and as the one who "stamps a new character on the Spirit"' and (2) sonship, servanthood, and witness. 13. The Holy Spirit, ch. 4. Schweizer's four divisions are "the Holy Spirit as the Stranger," "the Holy Spirit in both 'creation' and 'the new creation,"' "the Holy Spirit as 'the source' of the Christian knowledge of God," and "the Holy Spirit and last things." 14. Revelationand God, pp. 294-303. 15. The Doctrineof the Holy Spi,rit,pp. 17-29. Berkhof differentiated "Jesus as the bearer of the Spirit" (Synoptics) and "Christ" as "the sender of the Spirit" (Paul, John). 16. Doctrinesof the ChristianReligion, pp. 103-5. 17. Know the Truth, pp. 178-81. 18. See Vol. 1, ch. 42, II, A.

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begetting of Jesus. For Barrett, this is a Hebraic idea mediated through "Hellenistic influences." 19 B. JESUS' BAPTISM

All three Synoptic Gospels report a manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the occasion of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist (Mark 1: 1O; Matt. 3:16; Luke 3:22). The Holy Spirit is said to have "descended" from an open heaven on Jesus "in bodily form like a dove" (Luke 3:22, TEV, NEB, NIV). There follows the account of the heavenly voice of filial approbation. Luke provides a separate and preparatory account of the Baptist's declaration that a more powerful coming one "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire," so that he will gather the wheat and burn up the chaff (3: 16-17). John's account likewise contrasts the water baptism by the Baptist and the baptism "with the Holy Spirit" to be executed by him on whom the Spirit has descended and remains (1:32-34). By these verses George Hendry understood that the "visible manifestation" of the Holy Spirit was "the sign that Jesus is the permanent bearer and dispenser of the Holy Spirit." But Hendry downplayed the word "descend" lest it should suggest adoptionism and favored "visible revelation. "20 According to Michael Green, since the rabbis repeatedly declared that the Spirit of God had "departed from Israel after the last of the prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi," and since the Spirit of God was not reckoned to have been present in the second Jewish temple, the baptism of Jesus retrospectively marked the end of "the age-long drought of the Holy Spirit." 21 For Swete22 and Conner 23 the Spirit's descent was intended to inaugurate or to "qualify" Jesus for his "Messianic office." For Fison the Holy Spirit at Jesus' baptism "is the decisive factor in the proclamation of the apostolic kerygmaof the eschatonor End. "24 The apocryphal Gospel of the Hebrews, a fragment of which has been preserved in Jerome's commentary on Isa. 11: 1-3, contains the following passage: It came to pass that when the Lord had ascended from the water, all the fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said to him, "My Son, in all the prophets I have been looking for you, that you might come and I might rest in you; for you are my rest, you are my firstborn Son, who reigns forever. "25 19. The Holy Spirit and the GospelTradition, pp. 17-24. 20. The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology,pp. 19-20. 21. I Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 32-34. 22. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament,pp. 45-49. For Ebionites, Jesus' baptism marked his receiving his "Messianic sonship," whereas for certain Gnostics the Spirit's descent "was the descent of the Christ upon the man Jesus." 23. The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 49. 24. The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, pp. 112-13. On Jesus' messianic consciousness, see Vol. 1, ch. 41, I, D, 5, and on Jesus' baptism, see below, ch. 73, II, A. 25. Jerome, Commentariorumin Esaiam 4.11 (CCL, 73: 148).

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C. WILDERNESS TEMPTATIONS

According to all three Synoptic Gospels Jesus, "full of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 4: la), encountered and overcame the devil during his temptations in the Judean wilderness by or through the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:12-13; Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-14). According to Mark 1:12, the Spirit "drove" (RSV, JB; cf. KJV) or "sent" (Phillips, NIV, NEB) (ekballei)Jesus "into the wilderness" (KJV, RSV, JB, NEB). Not a few interpreters have noted that Matthew and Luke softened the Markan language by using "was led" (anichthe; Matt. 4: 1; igeto, Luke 4: 1), although for Luke he was led, not "into," but while he was "in the desert" for forty days (v. 2, NIV). Moreover, according to Luke 4: 14 "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power (dynarnei)of the Spirit" (Phillips, NIV). These temptations, according to Swete, marked the "battlefield" where "the two invisible agents," the Holy Spirit and the devil, converged and fought with the Spirit as victor but the devil not destroyed. 26 D. MESSIANIC MISSION

Both Luke and John quite early in their Gospels provided testimony that the entire Messianic mission of Jesus was accomplished by the guidance and in the power of the Spirit of God. For Luke (4: 16-21) it came in the account of Jesus' reading in the synagogue at Nazareth. He read Isa. 61: l-2a: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4: 18-19, NIV). Then Jesus announced to his hearers the present fulfillment of this passage in their "hearing" (Luke 4:21, RSV, NEB, NlV). Thereby he was not only identified with the anointed liberator but also the Spirit-led activity of that liberator. The passage, according to James D. G. Dunn, represents "a Lukan construction," not "an authentic tradition," for Luke likely constructed it on the basis of an authentic connection between Isa. 61: l-2a and Matt. 11:26 and par., the account of the query of the disciples of John the Baptist to Jesus. 27 But Dunn's argument rests on the presumed idea that an announcement with messianic import simply could not have been made early in Jesus' public ministry. 26. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, p. 52; also Barrett, The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition, p. 52. 27.Jesus and the Spirit: A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience ofJesus and the First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament (Philadelphia: West-

minster Press, 1975), pp. 53-62.

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The relevantJohannine text is John 3:34 (NIV): "For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit (ek metrou)." The KJV and RSV read "not by measure," and the JB reads "without reserve." The import seems to have been that Jesus was speaking "the words of God" because the Father was giving to him the Spirit of God in unlimited fashion. Appropriate, therefore, is the statement that "Jesus is the unique Man of the Spirit." 28 But how ought we today to understand the nature of Jesus as Spirit-gifted? Dunn has put forth an answer. Jesus was charismatic in the sense that he manifested a power and authoritywhich was not his own, which he had neither achieved nor conjured up, but which was given him, his by virtue of the Spirit/power of God upon him. The power did not possess him and control him so that he was its instrument willing or unwilling. But neither was he the author of it; nor was he able to dispose of it or ignore it at will. . . . The authoritywas not his by academic merit or social standing; he had not earned it as a right. And yet it set aside all other authority however sacrosanct ... for it came directly from his relation to God .... 29 But Jesus was not "ecstatic"in the sense of being in "an unusually exalted state of feeling, a condition of such total absorption or concentration that the individual becomes oblivious to all attendant circumstances and other stimuli, an experience of intense rapture or a trance- like state in which normal faculties are suspended for a shorter or longer period and the subject sees visions or experiences 'automatic speech,' as in some forms of glossolalia. "30 E. JESUS' EXORCISMS

Jesus claimed to have cast out demons and marshalled such activity as evidence that '"the kingdom of God has already come upon [or, to] you"' (Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20, TEV, NEB). Luke, reminiscentofExod. 8:19, reported that Jesus claimed to be driving or casting out demons "'by the finger of God"' (RSV, NIV, NEB), whereas Matthew employed the words "'by the Spirit of God."' Both Matthew and Luke connected this claim by Jesus with his parable of the strong man (Matt. 12:24-29; Luke 11: 14-22). According to Dunn, the "eschatological kingdom was present for Jesus only because the eschatological Spirit was present in and through him." 31

28. Green, / Believein the Holy Spirit, p. 32. 29.Jesus and the Spirit, pp. 87-88. 30. Ibid., p. 84. 31. Ibid., p. 48.

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F. SYNOPTIC SAYINGS

Two facts become evident when careful attention is given to the sayings of Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. The first is that they are few in number and different in nature compared with the greater number of such sayings in John's Gospel. The Synoptics have nothing comparable to the Farewell Discourse (John 14-16). The second is that, whereas in the Synoptic sayings of Jesus the Spirit or the Holy Spirit is rarely mentioned, the Synoptics do connect the Holy Spirit with major events in Jesus' life and ministry, 32 as we have just noted. Biblical scholars and theologians during the twentieth century sought in various ways to explain "the silence of the synoptists." 33 E. F. Scott, implying that the Jewish belief in angels, evil spirits, and demons as spiritual intermediaries had grown at the expense of the concept of the Spirit during the intertestamental era, contended that Jesus wished to circumvent such intermediaries in favor of direct access to God the Father and hence had little to say about the Spirit as an intermediary. 34 Jesus did, however, accept Jewish teachings on angels, evil spirits, and demons, 35 and Scott's theory "would argue Jesus as less skilled in spiritual discernment than Paul, or than hundreds of obscurer saints." 36 Vincent Taylor, building upon form criticism, held that since the early Christian communities were quite aware that they possessed the Holy Spirit and since there was no controversy among them relative to the Holy Spirit, they had no need to recall and repeat the sayings of Jesus about the Spirit. 37 Surely controversy was not the only criterion for inclusion of Jesus' sayings, and there was some controversy about water baptism and the Spirit (Acts 19:1-7). 38 According to R. Newton Flew, Jesus needed to overhaul and enrich the Old Testament concept of the Spirit of God, especially its ecstatic aspect, and such could be done only in the course of his ministry. Like the concept of Messiah, the concept of the Spirit must be transformed by Jesus. In Flew's own words,

32. Van Dusen, Spirit, Son and Father,p. 53. 33. Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, pp. 81-102. Here we for the most part follow the summary by Barrett, The Holy Spirit and the GospelTradition,pp. 140-62. 34. The Spirit in the New Testament,pp. 77-80. 35. Barrett, The Holy Spirit and the GospelTradition,p. 141. 36. R. Newton Flew,jesus and His Church:A Study of the Idea of the Ecclesiain the New Testament(New York: Abingdon Press, 1938), p. 69. 37. "The Spirit in the New Testament," in The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit:Four LecturesbyMembersof the Staff of WesleyCollege,Headingley(London: Epworth Press, 1937), pp. 50-60. 38. Barrett, The Holy Spirit and the GospelTradition,pp. 141-42.

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But, if Jesus began from the withdrawal to Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27-9: 1 and par.) to prepare his disciples for his suffering role as Messiah/Son of Man, "why should he not also have taught them the true meaning of the Holy Spirit?" 4 °C. K. Barrett, noting the reluctance of certain Old Testament prophets to identify with prophecy and the probable non-Semitic origin of the term "prophet" (niibi'), attributed a similar hesitancy to Jesus and proceeded to conclude that "the eschatological thought of Jesus ... accounts for his silence with regard to the Spirit." For Jesus to have spoken of the gift of the Spirit to his disciples would have meant the divulging of the messianic secret, and, furthermore, Jesus did not foresee and speak about an extended period between his resurrection and his second coming. 41 Barrett's assessment of the so-called "silence of the synoptists," as indeed that of the other theorists whose views have been summarized, rested on the assumption that the Johannine statements about the Paraclete were the creation of the early church and in no sense dominical, or traceable to Jesus himself. H.P. Van Dusen drew the thoroughgoing conclusion, namely, that the Synoptic "ascription of the pivotal events of His life to the Spirit," the teachings about the Spirit attributed to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, and "most if not all the references to the Spirit in His mouth in the Synoptics" were "the interpretation of the Early Church." 42 Hence the theories that seek to explain "the silence of the synoptists" suffer from the need to reassess the Paraclete sayings of John and to explore the greater correlation of Synoptic and J ohannine materials. 43 If the debate over critical theories cannot be fully resolved, the five Synoptic sayings can indeed be examined. The first of these (Matt. 12:28) has already been treated in respect to exorcism. The second pertains to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28-30; Matt. 12:31-32; Luke 12:10). According to Matthew and Luke, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to be contrasted with the blasphemy against 39.Jesus and His Church,p. 70. 40. Barrett, The Holy Spirit and the GospelTradition, p. 142. 41. Ibid., pp. 143-62, esp. 160. J. E. Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, pp. 81-86, 94-102, combined the views of Flew and Barrett. Georgia Harkness, The Fellowshipof the Holy Spirit (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966), pp. 53-56, identified four possible explanations but did not subscribe to any one of them. 42. Spirit, Son and Father,p. 61. 43. The writer is indebted to Lacoste Munn for aid in discovering how even the recent conservative commentaries on the Gospel of John have not directly assessed the dominical origin of the Paraclete sayings.

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"the Son of man" (KJV, RSV, JB, NEB, NIV). Most translators have assumed that the latter is a reference to Jesus himself, but its being a reference to humanity is indeed possible. At the very least we should insist that this saying was not designed to classify sins on a trinitarian basis, 44 that is, by making sin against the Holy Spirit unforgivable whereas sin against Jesus would be forgivable. The context is that of the manifest works of Jesus, specifically his exorcisms, as they have been wrought in the power of the Spirit of God, and the parallel Pharisaic attribution of these works to Satan. Such attribution of the Spirit-wrought deeds of Jesus to Satan is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. How far should one take the application of this teaching? Some (e.g., John Albert Broadus) have limited its application to those who actually beheld the miracles of Jesus performed during his public ministry and/or the miracles wrought during the apostolic age. 45 Others (e.g., B. H. Carroll) have taught that such blasphemy can be committed by persons in any era who have such thoroughgoing perversity of heart and will as that, when encountering the very works of God, they attribute these to Satan. 46 A third option (e.g., Arthur Michael Ramsey, 1904-88 47 ), building on the term "an eternal (aioniou) sin" (Mark 3:29, RSV, TEV, NEB, JB, NIV), has interpreted the text to mean that the one guilty of this blasphemy will have no part in the age to come. The third saying is peculiar to Luke (11:13): "'If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'" (NIV). Matthew (7:11) reads '"good gifts"' (KJV, RSV, NIV) or "'good things"' (JB, NEB, TEV) instead of "'the Holy Spirit."' Here is Synoptic testimony to the truth that Jesus will give or bestow the Holy Spirit. The fourth saying pertains to biblical inspiration. In introducing a quotation of Psalm 110:1, Jesus said, "David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared" (Mark 12:36, NIV) or "How is it then that David,

44. Erickson, ChristianTheology,p. 862. 45. Broadus, Commentaryon the Gospelof Matthew,An American Commentary on the New Testament (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1886), re Matt. 12:31-32. Smeaton, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 184-85, traced this interpretation to John Chrysostom andJerome. 46. The Four Gospels,An Interpretation of the English Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1973), pt. 1, pp. 383-417. First published in 1916. Smeaton, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 185-86, traced this interpretation to Calvin and Reformed theologians. 47. Holy Spirit (London: S.P.C.K.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), pp. 29-30. This interpretation may be compared with that of Augustine of Hippo, namely, that the blasphemy is "equivalent to final impenitence." Smeaton, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 185.

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speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'?" (Matt. 22:43). 48 In the fifth saying (Mark 13: 11; Matt. 10:20; Luke 12:12)Jesus promises that "the Holy Spirit" or "the Spirit of your Father" will enable the disciples to speak when they are being called to account in synagogues and before government officials. 49 G. PROMISE OF JESUS' BAPTISM IN/WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND DELAY OF THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT

Six times in the New Testament (Mark 1:8; Matt. 3:llc; Luke 3:16;John 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11: 16) one finds recorded the statement that whereas John the Baptist had baptized "with" or "in" water, a stronger coming One, on whom the Spirit has descended and remains, would baptize "with" or "in" the Holy Spirit. Matthew and Luke refer to the latter baptism as being "with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (RSV, NEB). In all six texts Jesus is the stated or implied baptizer and the Spirit is the means or instrument of the baptism. The four Gospels attribute this statement to John the Baptist, whereas Acts ascribes it to Jesus. Most commentators and theologians 50 find the fulfillment of this promise on the Day of Pentecost, but among N eo-Pentecostal theologians one finds the idea that the baptism not only occurred on the Day of Pentecost but also occurs subsequently "an unlimited number of times." 51 In John 7:37-39 reference is made to Jesus' promise that from the "innermost being" (NASV) of believers in him would "flow rivers ofliving water." The Evangelist interpreted the saying as a reference to the Holy Spirit but commented that the gift of the Spirit had not at the time of utterance been given because Jesus had not yet been "glorified," presumably by his death and resurrection. H. JOHANNINE SAYINGS AS TO THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, AND THE PARACLETE52

In the context of the turning of many disciples from Jesus because of his "'hard teaching"' (Phillips, NIV)John's Gospel records Jesus' saying that "'the Spirit gives life"' and that his own words are "'spirit"' and '"life"' 48. Modern translators have frequently inserted the word "inspired" (Phillips, RSV, TEV, NEB), "moved" QB), or "speaking" (NIV), for which there is no literal equivalent in the Greek. 49. Luke (10:21) attributes to the Holy Spirit Jesus' saying concerning revelation as being hidden "from the wise and learned" (TEV, NIV) and being made known to "mere children" (Phillips, JB). 50. For example, F. F. Bruce, Commentaryon the Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), p. 76. 51. For example, Williams, Renewal Theology,2: 184, 200. 52. See W. Boyd Hunt, "John's Doctrine of the Spirit," Southwesternjournal of Theology8 (October 1965):45-65.

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(6:60-63, NIV). 53 Three times in the Farewell Discourse the promised Holy Spirit is called '"the Spirit of truth"' Uohn 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13). That Spirit will remain "forever" with the disciples, "'proceeds'" from the Father (RSV), will testify concerning Jesus, and will "'guide'" disciples "'into all the truth"' (RSV, NEB). In the same three chapters the Holy Spirit is four times called the Paraclete 54 (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). The Paraclete is to be given by the Father, or sent by the Father in Jesus' name, or sent by Jesus from the Father-after the departure ofJesus. 55 The functions of the Holy Spirit vis-a-vis Jesus, as presented in the Farewell Discourse, can be summarized by use of the key verbs. The Spirit is to "'be"' (e")with the disciples "'forever"' ( 14: 16), to '"teach"' (didaksei)them '"all things"' ( 14:26), to "'remind"' UB, NIV) (hypomnisei)them of "'all things"' (RSV) which Jesus has spoken to them (14:26), to '"bear witness"' (RSV, NEB) (martyrisei)about Jesus (15:26), to '"convince [elegksei]the world"' (RSV) respecting '"righteousness"' because of Jesus' departure (16:8, 10), to "'guide"' (odigisei) disciples "'into all the truth"' (16:13), to "'speak"' (lalisei)'"only what he hears"' (NEB) (16: 13), to '"tell"' (TEV, JB, NEB, NIV) (anaggelei)the disciples '"what is yet to come"' (NIV) (16: 13), to "'glorify"' (KJV, RSV,JB, NEB) (doksasei)Jesus(16:14), and "'to take"' (KJV, RSV, TEV) or "'draw"' (Phillips, NEB) '"from what is"' Jesus' (16:14) and '"tell"' (TEV) or '"reveal"' (Phillips) or '"declare"' (RSV) (anaggelei)it to the disciples (16:14).56

53. According to D. A. Carson, The GospelaccordingtoJohn (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), re 6:63, 'Jesus' words, rightly understood and absorbed, generate life." 54. The word paraklitos has been translated "Comforter" (KJV), "Counselor" (RSV, NIV), "Advocate" (JB, NEB), and "Helper" (Moffatt, TEV, NASV). Leon Morris, The Gospelaccordingtojohn, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971 ), p. 665, asserted that "Advocate" is the best English translation, but Summers, Behold the Lamb, p. 198, favored the use of"Paraclete." 55. Carson (ibid., p. 481) has concluded "that these Paraclete passages have important parallels in other New Testament books, that within the Fourth Gospel they build on antecedent remarks about the Holy Spirit (especially 1:32-34; 3:5, 34; 4:23-24; 7:37-39), and that they anticipate 20:22-23." On the importance of the Paraclete sayings for the patristic age, see Anthony Casurella, Thejohannine Paracletein the ChurchFathers:A Study in the Historyof Exegesis,Beitrage zur Geschichte der biblischen Exegese, no. 25 (Tiibingen: J.C. B. Mohr, 1983). Other studies include Hans Windisch, The Spirit-Paracletein the Fourth Gospel,trans. James W. Cox, Facet Books, Biblical Series, no. 20 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1968); George Johnston, The Spirit-Paracletein the Gospelofjohn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970). 56. See Ramsey, Holy Spirit, pp. 100-103.

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I. JESUS' DEATH AND RESURRECTION

In the New Testament epistles one finds the Holy Spirit to be related both to the death and to the resurrection of Jesus. Christ "through [dia] the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9: 14, RSV). Furthermore, he was "designated" (RSV) or "marked out" (Phillips) or "declared" (NEB, NIV) "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4, RSV). Indeed, Paul assumed that the Spirit had raised Jesus from the dead and went on to affirm thereby that the same Spirit, indwelling believers, will give life to their "mortal bodies" (Rom. 8: 11).57

III. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE EXALTED LORD JESUS In the post-resurrection phase of our inquiry, attention must be given both to the unique coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and to the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to Jesus as risen and ascended Lord. A. THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

I. Its Time

The traditional answer that the unique and determinative coming of the Holy Spirit occurred on the Day of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, as recorded in Acts 2: 1-4, has been questioned in the light of the exegesis and correlation of John 20:22 and Acts 2: 1-4. According to John 20:22,Jesus on the evening of his resurrection day, having appeared to the ten disciples, Thomas being absent, in commissioning the disciples, "breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit"' (TEV, JB, NIV). Were these two distinct comings or advents of the Holy Spirit, or are these two descriptions of the same coming? The two passages can be taken as referring to two different events. According to William Graham MacDonald (1933- ), John 20:22 refers to the regeneration or renewal of the disciples (Tit. 3:5), whereas Acts 2:4 refers to their being "filled with the Holy Spirit." 58 The idea of two comings has also been rejected. Michael Green has opposed the idea "that Jesus gave two insuffiations of his Holy Spirit." 59 Efforts at harmonization have not been convincing, according to C. K. Barrett: It does not seem possible to harmonize this account of a special bestowing of the Spirit with that contained in Acts 2; after this event there could be no more "waiting" (Luke 24:48-49; Acts 1:4-5); the Church could not be more fully equipped for its mission. The existence of divergent traditions of the constitutive gift 5 7. See Pearlman, Knowing the Doctrinesof the Bible, pp 300-301. 58. Glossolaliain the New Testament(Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1964), p. 2. 59. I Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 41-42.

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of the Spirit is not surprising; it is probable that to the first Christians the resurrection of Jesus and his appearances to them, his exaltation ... , and the gift of the Spirit, appeared as one experience, which only later came to be described in separate elements and incidents. 60

2. lts Fulfillment of Prophecy The coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was interpreted by the Apostle Peter (Acts 2:16) as the fulfillment of the prophecy by Joel: And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved .... (Joel 2:28-32a, NIV).

3. Its Empowering/or Witness The coming of the Spirit was specifically related to the empowerment or enduement of the disciples of Jesus for witnessing to their Lord. This relationship is the central theme of the form of the Great Commission that is found in Acts 1:8 (JB): '"but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth."' Acts 2:4, 4:31, and 5:32 are indications that the promise and mandate were fulfilled. In one sense the advent of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost marked the release of the redemptive energy of the death and resurrection of Jesus. According to R. C. Moberly, Calvary without Pentecost, would not be an atonement to us. But Pentecost could not be without Calvary. Calvary is the possibility

60. The Gospelaccordingto St.john: An Introductionwith Commentaryand Notes on the GreekText (London: S. P. C. K., 1967), re 20:22.

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The Holy Spirit of Pentecost: and Pentecost is the realization, in human spirits, of Calvary. 61

4. Its Unusual Accompanying Phenomena The advent of the Holy Spirit was characterized by three extraordinary phenomena. First, "Suddenly a sound (ichos)like the blowing of a mighty wind (pnois) came from heaven and filled the whole house" (Acts 2:2, NIV). Second, there appeared to those present "tongues as of fire (glossai oseipyros),distributed and resting on each one of them" (2:3, RSV). Third, being "filled with the Holy Spirit" (RSV, TEV,JB, NEB, NIV), they "began to speak in other tongues (laleinheteraisglossais), as the Spirit gave them utterance" (2:4, RSV). We will subsequently 62 treat the differing understandings of this speaking in other tongues. B. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN RELATION TO THE EXALTED LORD JESUS

Already 63 those passages in the four Gospels in which Jesus and the Spirit are specifically related have been located and identified. Now certain of these passages, together with at least one passage from Paul, will become the biblical basis for a more systematic statement of the Spirit's activity vis-a-vis the ascended Jesus.

1. Teaching the Sayings ofJesus The Holy Spirit, according to John 14-16, '"will teach"' the disciples "'all things, and bring to ... remembrance all that'" Jesus had said to these disciples (14:26, RSV). According to Jesus, the Spirit "'will take from what is mine"' (ek tou emou) "'and declare it to you"' (16:14b). Indeed what belongs to Jesus is the Father's (16: 15). Hence the Spirit is to serve in a didactic role, reminding, declaring, and clarifying what Jesus had taught. Does this also mean that the Holy Spirit is needed for a proper interpretation of the Bible ?64

2. Testimony by "the Spirit of Truth" to the Truth Which Is in Jesus The "'Spirit of truth ... will testify"' about Jesus (15:26, NIV) and "'will guide'" the disciples "'into all the truth"' ( 16: 13a, RSV,TEV, NEB), "'since he will not be speaking as from himself" (16: 13b,JB) and '"will speak only what he hears"' (16:13c, NIV). But the Spirit "'will declare to you the 61. Atonementand Personality,p. 152. See W. Boyd Hunt, "The Holy Spirit and Revelation Today," Southwesternjournal ofTheology 16 (Spring 1974): 33-36. Pentecostal theologians refer to present-day "receiving" of "Pentecost" as evidenced by tongues-speaking. William Caldwell, PentecostalBaptism (Tulsa: Front Line Evangelism, 1963), pp. 55-58, 70-73. 62. See below, ch. 56, IV, A. 63. See above, IL 64. Hunt, "The Holy Spirit and Revelation Today," pp. 36-38.

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things that are to come"' (ta erchomena)(16: 13d, RSV). Thus the Spirit was said to have a testimonial function with Jesus as the focus of the testimony. The Holy Spirit is not engaged in an independent enterprise but is testifying to Jesus as the Son of God, his person, his truth, and his work. According to W. T. Conner, the Spirit's function respecting Jesus is analogous to what light is to the natural order, namely, an illuminating power which reveals its object. 65 Denying that present-day churches need "a new Spirit-centeredness," Frederick Dale Bruner ( 1932- ) has fittingly observed: The Holy Spirit does not mind being Cinderella outside the ballroom if the Prince is honored inside his Kingdom. For the Holy Spirit is really the shy member of the Trinity. 66

3. Glorification ofJesus Closely related to the Spirit's testimony to Jesus is the Spirit's glorifying of Jesus Qohn 16:14a). The "Spirit's work is the thoughtful honoring of Christ." 67 The Spirit not only illumines and reveals the exalted Jesus but also honors and glorifies him.

4. Making Possible the Spiritual Presence of the Exalted Jesus Jesus made three promises to his disciples that are comparable. First, "'For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them"' (Matt. 18:20, RSV). Second, "'I will not leave you as orphans (orphanous);68 I will come to you"' 69 Uohn 14: 18, NIV; cf. JB).Third, "and lo, I am with you always (egometh'hymiineimipasas tas himeras),to the close of the age" (Matt. 28:20b, RSV). How were those promises fulfilled? It seems evident that such occurred through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in making the exalted Jesus present.Jesus' physical departure made possible the coming of the Holy Spirit as Paraclete and there would be no barriers of space and time to prevent disciples being in intimate contact with him. Indeed, they would find the relationship even closer than companionship

65. The Workof the Holy Spirit, pp. 88-89. 66. "The Shy Member of the Trinity," in Bruner and William Hordem, The Holy Spirit: Shy Memberof the Trinity (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), p. 16. According to Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, p. 138, "The true Holy Spirit of God does not advertise Himself: He effaces Himself and advertises Jesus." 67. Bruner, "The Shy Member of the Trinity," p. 15. 68. "Alone" (Phillips, TEV); "desolate" (RSV); "bereft" (NEB) (14: 17). 69. The context contains a reference to the Holy Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit with Jesus in the days of his flesh .... The Spirit universalizes the presence of Jesus in the hearts of disciples. 70

The Apostle Paul wrote exultantly, after noting that the veil of the Mosaic law had been removed, "Now the Lord is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3: 17a, RSV, NIV). In the same context, after alluding to the transformation of Christian believers into the "likeness" (eikona)of the Lord Jesus, Paul declared that such transformation is "even as" (KJV) "from the Lord who is the Spirit" (3: 18b, RSV). Surely Paul was not implying that there is no functional or no hypostatic distinction whatever between the Holy Spirit and Jesus. Rather he seems to have been stressing the correlation of the presence and work of the two. To have the presence of the Holy Spirit is to have the abiding spiritual presence of the risen, ascended Jesus. The Holy Spirit came, therefore, to take the place of Jesus as the incarnate Word or Son of God, but the Spirit did not come to replace or displace Jesus as exalted. C. THEOLOGIZING ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE SUBJECTIVE FACTOR

Certain twentieth-century theologians described the work of Jesus as being "objective" and the work of the Holy Spirit as being "subjective." Karl Barth had sections of his ChurchDogmaticsentitled "The Holy Spirit the Subjective Reality of Revelation" and "The Holy Spirit the Subjective Possibility of Revelation" and "Jesus Christ the Objective Reality of Revelation" and "Jesus Christ the Objective Possibility ofRevelation." 71 But, it seems, Barth did not separate or overextend the objective and the subjective. W. T. Conner related Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to "the historical and the experiential" aspects of Christianity. 72 According to George Hendry, The work of God in the gospel has for Paul a dual aspect: there is the (objective) fact of Christ, in whom God confronted men, and there is the (subjective) gift of the Spirit, by which men recognize and respond to the gift of God in Christ. Both are essential. 73 In making the objective-subjective distinction, one should never teach or even imply either the objective unreality of the Holy Spirit or the subjective unavailability of Jesus as the exalted Lord.

70. Green, I Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 42-43. It is the Holy Spirit alone who "in P. T. Forsyth's oft-quoted phrase can make j esus Christ our contemporary." Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, p. 141. 71. 1/2, chs. 16, 13. 72. The Work of the Holy Spirit, pp. 2-5. 73. The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology,p. 34.

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IV. THE ETERNAL RELATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE SON (OR WORD) OF GOD The statements within the New Testament Gospels relative to Jesus and the Holy Spirit seem during his life and ministry to apply to the realm of time and history. Jesus was guided and empowered by the Spirit, he would go to the Father, he or the Father would send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit then came uniquely on the disciples of Jesus inJerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and did abide with them. But in the statement that "the Spirit of truth" "proceeds from the Father" (para tou patros ekporeuetai)Qohn 15:26, RSV) there is the suggestion of the eternal relationship of the Spirit to the Father. Later Christians would make use of this verb "to proceed." Among the Church Fathers, especially those of the fourth century, there was a tendency to refer to "the procession of the Holy Spirit" even as they referred to "the begottenness of the Son of God." Following John 15:26, Gregory of Nazianzus held that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father." 74 Gregory of Nyssa taught that the Holy Spirit "is from God, and of the Christ." He is "proceeding from the Father" and "receiving from the Son. "75 After the Cappadocians "the regular teaching of the Eastern Church" was "that the procession of the Holy Spirit is 'out of the Father through the Son. "' 76 But procession would ultimately become a long-term theological issue between the Greek East and the Latin West. Although seemingly such Latin fathers as Augustine of Hippo, Leo I, and Gregory I employed the language of the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father and from the Son, such patristic language did not at that time alter the text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (C) relative to the Holy Spirit: "who proceedeth from the Father." 77 The Western insertion into this creed of the word ''filioque"("and from the Son") was probably first made in Spain during the sixth century. Whether this was done out of ignorance or from anti-Arian motivation is not clear, but the insertion was also made in Gaul and Britain. 78 Pope Leo III (bp. 795-816) sought to terminate the developing controversy over filioque by a return to the earlier text, but Pope Sergius IV (hp. 1009-12) insertedfilioque into his creed and sent a copy to Constantinople, and Pope Benedict VIII (hp. 1012-24) used the altered creed at the coronation of Emperor Henry 11.79 74. Orations31.7-8. 75. On the Holy Spirit against the Macedonians2, 11 (NPNF). 76. Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,p. 263. 77. Nicolas Zernov, Eastern Christendom:A Study of the Origin and Developmentof the Eastern OrthodoxChurch (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1961), p. 90; Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,2:59. 78. Zernov, Eastern Christendom,p. 90. 79. Ibid., pp. 90, 101.

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Eastern Christian opposition to filioquewas elaborately expressed by Photius (820-91 ), a patriarch of Constantinople. Photius went beyond the objection that no ecumenical council had approved the insertion. He also went beyond the temporal mission of the Holy Spirit, for he could have accepted that mission as true. Rather Photius advanced thirty-one arguments against the insertion of filioque on the basis of the defense of the eternal or timeless being of the Triune God against any double origin or subordination of the Spirit. 8°From the arguments by Photius one can see that ontology and eternity were major factors in the Eastern rejection of

filioque. Despite the efforts of the reunion councils, Lyons II (1274) and Florence (1439), to resolve the Eastern Orthodox-Roman Catholic differences as to filioque, this theological question persisted as a divisive issue up to the twentieth century, including the era of Vatical Council 11.81 Even the Episcopal Church in the United States during the 1970s had to decide whether to keep filioque, and it did. 82 Alasdair Heron has offered a penetrating critique of both positions as to filioque by insisting that neither of these positions can be regarded as entirely satisfactory. The Trinity cannot be subdivided into "two here" and "one there," or "two of this sort" and "one of that," without doing violence to the pattern and dynamic of God's being and movement as Father, Son and Holy Spirit .... Neither view is adequately trinitarian; both reflect a double rather than a triple pattern. [Thus] ... neither approach is easily reconcilable with the history of Christ and the Spirit as presented in the New Testament. A Spirit proceeding.from (rather than to) the Son in eternity squares ill with a Spirit coming upon, being received by, and then given from the Son in history. Similarly, however, a Spirit that proceeds in eternity from the Father alone would seem to stand in a different eternal relation to the Son from that enacted and realized in the movement from incarnation to Pentecost. Must room not somehow be found to affirm a double relationship between 80. R. M. French, The Eastern OrthodoxChurch (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1951), p. 73; Photius, On the Mystagogyof the Holy Spirit, trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Astoria, N. Y.: Studion Publishers, 1983), pp. 67-116. 81. The Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches sponsored two consultations (1978, 1979) on the issue ofjilioque: Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ:EcumenicalReflectionson the FilioqueControversy,ed. Lukas Vischer, Faith and Order Paper, no. 103 (London: S. P. C. K.; Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1981). For a recent Roman Catholic discussion, see Congar, I Believein the Holy Spirit, 3:49-60, 174-214. 82. Hanson and Hanson, ReasonableFaith, pp. 162-63. The Hansons wish to keep the term but interpret it as meaning that "the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son."

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the Son and Spirit which is as ultimate in the life of God as in the work of salvation? 83 The history of the filioquecontroversy should be a reminder that too much theology can be placed on, as if all drawn from, John 15:26. But, on the other hand, the controversy should also show once more the need for an ontological, not merely an economic, Trinity. Indeed what is revealed in the economy of divine revelation about the Holy Spirit and what is affirmed about the Spirit in eternity must not be contradictory. We have noted certain anticipations of the role of the Spirit of God in relation to the Messiah or Servant of the Lord. We have traced in the Gospels both the activity of the Spirit in respect to Jesus' life and ministry and Jesus' utterances concerning the Spirit. We have examined the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and his subsequent work vis-a-vis Jesus as exalted Lord. We have probed the relation of the Son of God and the Spirit of God in eternity. Now we turn to the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Christian believer or disciple.

83. The Holy Spirit, p. 177.

CHAPTER54

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHRISTIAN H. ¼'heeler Robinson has related that in the course of a serious illness, he was led to ask himself why the truths of 'evangelical' Christianity which he had often preached to others now failed to bring him personal strength. They remained true to him, but they seemed to lack vitality. They seemed to demand an active effort of faith, for which the physical energy was lacking. The figure that presented itself at the time was that of a great balloon, with ample lifting power,-if only one had the strength to grasp the rope that trailed down from it! ... The result of this experience was ... to lead him to seek for the lacuna in his own conception of evangelical truth. He found it in his relative neglect of those conceptions of the Holy Spirit in which the New Testament is so rich.' Robinson's experience points both to the reality of the neglect of the Holy Spirit by numerous Christians and to the opposite truth, namely, that the Holy Spirit wills to work actively amid human life and experience. The probing of the activity of the Spirit in respect to the life of the individual Christian is, therefore, a topic that is currently and existentially important as well as biblically and theologically necessary. The Christian creeds of the patristic age stressed and were specific about the person of the Holy Spirit, especially the deity and the hypostatic nature of the Spirit, but these creeds tended to be either silent or rather deficient about the work or activity of the Spirit. Beginning with the writings of the Protestant Reformers and the Reformation confessions of faith more attention was given to the work of the Holy Spirit, and that trend continued into the modern period. 2 Such attention to the Spirit's work 1. The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit, p. 4.

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during and since the Reformation is important for the present-day formulation of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Christian. In treating the work of the Holy Spirit since the advent of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, it seems wise and useful to treat separately the work of the Spirit in the (individual) Christian and the work of the Spirit in the (corporate) church, as various twentieth-century theologians have done. 3 Furthermore, the importance of spiritual gifts seems to warrant a specific and separate treatment of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.

I. OLD TESTAMENT ANTICIPATION OF THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD ON "ALL FLESH" The prophet Joel anticipated a more general or comprehensive outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord by Yahweh than had previously been experienced, and this in connection with "the day of the Lord" (1:15; 2:1-2, 11, 31). As previously noted,4 the bestowal of the Spirit of God according to the Old Testament had been limited to the chosen few among the covenant people, that is, judges and prophets, and had normally been for a short period of time and for the accomplishment of a specific task or function. Joel recorded Yahweh's promise: And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 5 Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness 2. As the Reformers "derived the whole regenerate life from the free grace of God, they postulated the Holy Spirit as the personal agent of that grace in the heart, more specifically and uniformly than either Biblical or ecclesiastical writers had hitherto done." Rees, The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, pp. 186-87. 3. Thomas, The Holy Spirit of God, chs. 21-22; Robinson, The ChristianExperience of the Holy Spirit, pt. 2, chs. 6, 9: Conner, The Workof the Holy Spirit, chs. 6-8; Hendry, The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology,chs. 3, 5; Van Dusen, Spirit, Son and Father, pp. 77-83, 94-105, 122-45; Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, chs. 3-4; Geoffrey W. Bromiley, "The Holy Spirit," in Fundamentalsof the Faith, ed. Carl F. H. Henry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969), pp. 158-64; and Green,/ Believein the Holy Spirit, chs. 6-7. 4. See above, ch. 52, III, C. 5. Or "all flesh" (KJV, RSV), or "all mankind" (JB, NASV).

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and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved ... " (2:28-32a, NIV). Although Joel anticipated a general outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord, it is likely that he understood "all flesh" to mean "all Judah." But the fulfillment recorded in Acts 2: 16 anticipates the inclusion of Gentile believers so that "all flesh" comes to mean "all the people of God," among whom there is no distinction, whether of age or of sex, as to the basic gift or presence of the Spirit of God. 6

II. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND BECOMING A CHRISTIAN How best can the New Testament teaching concerning the experience of the Holy Spirit by the Christian be treated? W. T. Conner in interpreting the Pauline teaching differentiated the initial and the continuing aspects. 7 Geoffrey W. Bromiley divided the topic into three divisions: "the commencement, course, and consummation," which he related, respectively, to "regeneration" ("the evangelistic"), "renewal" (the "ethical"), and resurrection (the "eschatological"). 8 Bromiley's division will be followed in the present chapter. The "commencement," which in more popular terms means becoming a Christian, involves conviction, rebirth, possession or reception, and baptism. A. CONVICTION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AS TO SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND JUDGMENT

The textus classicus for the convicting or convincing work of the Holy Spirit is John 16:8-11 (RSV): And when he [literally, "that one," or the Paraclete] comes, he will convince the world ["reprove" (KJV) or "prove the world wrong" (NIV)] concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged ["stands condemned" (NEB, NIV) or "has already been judged" (TEV)]. According to this text, unbelief toward Jesus is the essence of sin, Jesus has been the objective embodiment or standard of righteousness, and 6. Fison, The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, p. 117. 7. The Workof the Holy Spirit, chs. 6-7. 8. "The Holy Spirit," p. 161.

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the divine judgment of Satan already has occurred. The three parts of the text do not constitute "three separate works of conviction" or convincement, "but one-three phases of one work. "9 It is not only unbelieving Jews during the first century AD that needed the convicting or convincing of the Holy Spirit but also modern unbelievers who are brought face-to-face with the claims, deeds, and person of the exalted Lord Jesus and reject these. With Jesus as the incarnate Word no longer the visible embodiment of righteousness, it now becomes the role of the Holy Spirit to prescribe or make known the righteousness which God requires. 10 Such convincing or convicting work of the Spirit is to be joined with the realization that Satan has already been judged unto condemnation. B. REBIRTH, REGENERATION, OR RENEWAL BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

The bringing of new life to human beings is another major activity of the Holy Spirit. In his conversation with Nicodemus Jesus declared: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit (gennithi ex hydatos kai pneumatos), he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit .... The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" Uohn 3:5-6, 8, RSV). Verse 5 has posed major problems for the interpretation of this text, and there are major variant interpretations of the verse. First, "born of water" has been understood as a reference to physical birth, that is, to the water of childbirth. Accordingly, the verse is seen as referring to two births, one a physical birth and the other the birth by the Holy Spirit. The two births would be both contrasted and coupled together. Second, "born of water" has been taken to refer to water baptism. Especially has this been true of commentators in the pedobaptist tradition. Accordingly, the verse would mean that unless one should be baptized in water and be born of the Holy Spirit, he could not enter God's kingdom. Third, "born of water and the Spirit" has been understood as a single action, not as two actions, and to be the cleansing of regeneration. The absence of the article before pneumatos is emphasized, and John 3:5 is

9. Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 87. 10. It is also possible to interpret "righteousness" (1) as the "imputed righteousness" which Jesus obtains "by His meritorious and atoning death," Smeaton, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 179, 180; or (2) as "the Father's vindication of the Son in the exaltation." A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of the Spirit (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1894), pp. 191-97, esp. 194; Hunt, "John's Doctrine of the Spirit," p. 56, n. 37.

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interpreted in the light of Tit. 3:5. 11 Fourth, some scholars have argued that hydatos kai was not in the original text of John's Gospel but was added later, perhaps during the second or third century when baptismal regeneration was being taught. The favorable evidence from textual criticism, however, is very limited. 12 Fifth, the "water" has been taken to be "the Word of God" but without clear delineation of the identity of the Word of God. 13 Sixth, the "water" has been interpreted as the repentance preached by John the Baptist and "the Spirit" as regeneration. 14 Although a final determination is difficult, the third interpretation seems to be most likely. In Tit. 3 :5 Paul referred to Jesus' saving "by the washing of regeneration" (di,aloutroupalingenesias)(KJV, RSV) "and the renewal of the Holy Spirit" (anakainoseospneumatoshagiou) (Phillips). In 1 Pet. 1:3b (RSV)the being "born anew" is said to be "to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," but no mention is made of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, John 1: 12-13 contains a graphic delineation of the birth from God but without allusion to the Holy Spirit. The New Testament clearly attributes the new birth or regeneration to the direct agency of the Holy Spirit or, more generally, to God. Evangelical Christianity during the modern era, in contrast to more sacramental forms of Christianity, has normally made the same attribution.

11. Ray Summers, "Born of Water and Spirit," in The Teacher'sYoke:Studiesin Memoryof Henry Trantham, ed. E.JerryVardaman,James Leo Garrett,Jr., andj. B. Adair (Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 1962), pp. 117-28. Summers, Beholdthe Lamb, pp. 64-73, elaborated on these three interpretations, noting that some who have held to the first have understood "born of water" to refer to male semen and that advocates of the second can be divided into those who understand that "this water birth is a part of the saving process" and those who do not (pp. 68, 69). Joseph Belcastro (1910- ), The Relationshipof Baptismto ChurchMembership(St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1963), pp. 130-33, breaking with his own Disciples of Christ heritage, adopted the third view. Beverly Roberts Gaventa (1948- ), FromDarknessto Light:Aspectsof Conversionin the New Testament,Overtures to Biblical Theology, no. 20 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), pp. 134-35, has assumed the correctness of the second or sacramental view without examining the others. 12. Moody, Spirit of the Living God,pp. 153-55. Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Gospelaccordingtojohn (I-XII), Anchor Bible (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966), pp. 141-44, was less decisive. 13. John Vernon McGee (1904-88), Thru the Bible CommentarySeries,60 vols. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 38:54-55. Per Ronald Allen Jenkins. 14. Edwin A. Blum, ''John," in The BibleKnowledgeCommentary,ed. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, 2 vols. (n.p.p.: Victor Books, 1985), 2:281. Per Ronald Allen Jenkins.

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C. GIFT/RECEPTION/POSSESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Peter announced on the Day of Pentecost: "'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift (dorean) of the Holy Spirit"' (Acts 2:38, RSV). Hence the Spirit as a gift was to be given to all the believers. Paul asked the rhetorical question of the Galatian Christians: "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?" (Gal. 3:2b, NIV). The same apostle declared: "Any one who does not have (echei)the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him [Christ]" (houtosouk estin autou) (Rom. 8:9b, RSV). "Paul makes the possession of the Spirit to be the essential mark of a Christian." 15 The gift of the Spirit, receiving the Spirit, and having or possessing the Spirit seem to be synonymous and expressive of what is basic for all Christians. D. BAPTISM BY THE HOLY SPIRIT?

The question of a baptism fJ,ythe Holy Spirit rests on the interpretation of 1 Cor. 12:13a: "For by one Spirit (en heni pneumati) ["in the one Spirit," NEB, JB] we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free ... " (RSV). Does the text refer to Christian baptism, that is, baptism in water, or to a baptism by the Holy Spirit that is distinctive from water baptism? The commentary tradition on this passage is heavily weighted toward the view that "baptized" refers to water baptism-the sacrament of baptism or the ordinance of baptism-and thus the Holy Spirit is the agent in water baptism. 16 But some Pentecostals have tended to understand this text as referring to Christian conversion, not to water baptism or 15. Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 92. 16. The majority commentary tradition, that is, those who have for the most part interpreted "baptized" in 12: 13a as a reference to water baptism (including either a sacramental or an ordinance view of baptism), may be illustrated by the following: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-81), The Epistlesof St. Paul to the Corinthians(London: John Murray, 1865); Thomas Charles Edwards (1837-1900),A Commentaryon the First Epistleto the Corinthians,(2d ed.: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1885); Frederic Louis Godet (1812-1900), Commentaryon St. Paul's First Epistleto the Corinthians,trans. A. Cusin, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1887); Charles John Ellicott ( 1819-1905 ), A Criticaland GrammaticalCommentaryon St. Paul's First Epistleto the Corinthians(Andover, Mass.: W. F. Draper, 1889); George Gillanders Findlay (1849-1919), "St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians," vol. 2, Expositor'sGreekTestament(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980; first publ. 1897?); Henry Leighton Goudge (1866-1939), The FirstEpistleto the Corinthians, Westminster Commentaries (London: Methuen and Co., 1903); Bernard Weiss, A Commentaryon the New Testament,vol. 3 (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1906); Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer (1841-1926),A Criticaland ExegeticalCommentaryon the First Epistleof St. Paul to the Corinthians, The International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1911); Heinz-Dietrich Wendland (1900- ), Briefean die Korinther(Gottingen: Vandenhoek und Ruprecht, 1936); Marvin Richardson Vincent

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to the subsequent baptism by Christ with the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. 17 Still others, especially Neo-Pentecostals, have understood the text, which they translate "in one Spirit," to state that the Holy Spirit is the "element" in which Corinthian believers had been baptized and to imply that Christ is the baptizer. 18 This third view identifies 1 Cor. 12: 13a with that interpretation of the texts in the Gospels and Acts which sees them as referring to a post-conversional baptism in or with the (1834-1922), Epistlesof Paul, vol. 3, Word Studiesin the New Testament(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914);Joseph MacRory (1861-1945), The Epistlesof St. Paul to the Corinthians(St. Louis: B. Herder, 1915); Reginald St. John Parry ( 1858-1935 ), The FirstEpistleof Paul theApostleto the Corinthians, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1916); Richard Charles Henry Lenski (1864-1936), First Epistleto the Corinthians (Columbus: Wartburg, 1935);John Calvin, Commentaryon the Epistlesof Paul theApostleto the Corinthians,trans. John Pringle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948);first publ. 1546; Clarence Tucker Craig (1895-1953), "Corinthians"-"Ephesians," vol. 10, The Interpreter'sBible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1953); Leon Morris, The FirstEpistleof Paul to the Corinthians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1958);Jean Hering, The First Epistleof Saint Paul to the Corinthians,trans. A. W. Heathcote and P. J. Allcook (London: Epworth Press, 1962); C. K. Barrett, A Commentaryon the FirstEpistleto the Corinthians,Harper's New Testament Commentaries (New York: Harper and Row, 1968); Raymond Bryan Brown (1923-77),Acts-J Corinthians,vol. 10, The BroadmanBible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1970). Per R. Stanton Norman. Representatives of the twentieth-century monographs concerning baptism which have taken this same view of 1 Cor. 12:13a are: Herbert George Marsh (1889-? ), The Origin and Significanceof the New TestamentBaptism (Manchester: University Press, 1941), p. 132; William Frederick Flemington (1901- ), The New TestamentDoctrineof Baptism (London: S.P.C.K., 1957), pp. 56-57; Reginald Ernest Oscar White (1914- ), The BiblicalDoctrineof initiation:A Theologyof Baptismand Evangelism(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), pp. 203-4; and George Raymond Beasley-Murray, Baptismin the New Testament (London: Macmillan, 1963), pp. 167-71. 17. Ralph Meredith Riggs ( 1895-1971 ), The Spirit Himself (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1949), pp. 43-44; David Johannes du Plessis (1905-87), The Spirit Bade Me Go: The AstoundingMove of God in the Denominational Churches,(3d ptg.: Oakland: Author, 1963), p. 70; Gordon Donald Fee (1934- ), The First Epistleto the Corinthians,The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), p. 605; Frederick Dale Bruner, A Theologyof the Holy Spirit: The PentecostalExperienceand the New TestamentWitness(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), p. 60. 18. Arnold Bittlinger (1928- ), Giftsand Graces:A Commentaryon 1 Corinthians 12-14, trans. Herbert Klassen (London: Hodder and Stoughton; 1967; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), Williams, Renewal Theology,2:199; Kendell Harrison Easley (1949- ), '"In the Spirit': The Significance of the Dative of Pneuma in the New Testament" (Ph.D. diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1978), pp. 113-14, 195-96. The last per R. Bruce Corley

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Holy Spirit. A fourth interpretation, made by certain non-Pentecostal Protestant commentators, reckons "baptized" to refer to spiritual birth, or Christian conversion, by the Spirit, but apart from any subsequent baptism in or with the Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. 19 There are indeed other interpretations. 20 The first interpretation of 1 Cor. 12:13a by understanding the baptism as water baptism eliminates any distinctive baptism by the Holy Spirit. The third interpretation identifies the baptism mentioned in this text with what happened on the Day of Pentecost and with what Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals declare to be happening continually with Spiritfilled persons today. The second and fourth interpretations connect the baptism mentioned in this text with Christian conversion, and hence such baptism becomes synonymous with being born of the Spirit (John 3:5) or having received the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38) or having the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9b ). The fourth interpretation seems most likely unless the text should refer to the singular coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

19. Some non-Pentecostal Protestant commentators who have interpreted "baptized" in 12:13a so as to refer to spiritual birth or Christian conversion are: Charles Hodge, An Expositionof the First Epistleto the Corinthians(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950; first publ. 1857), who referred to "spiritual regeneration"; Ezra Pound Gould (1841-1900), "Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians," An American Commentaryon the New Testament(Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1887); Robertson, WordPictures in the New Testament,4: 171, who referred to an "inward experience of the Holy Spirit symbolized by baptism"; Roy Leonard Laurin (1898-1966), Life Matures:A DevotionalExpositionof the First Epistleto the Corinthians(Wheaton, Ill.: Van Kampen Press, 1950); F. F. Bruce, J and 2 Corinthians,New Century Bible (London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, 1971), who identified this text as "the one place in the NT outside the Gospels and Acts where the baptism of the Spirit is mentioned";John William MacGorman (1920- ), Layman's Bible Book Commentary,vol. 20, Romans, 1 Corinthians(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1980); William Curtis Vaughan (1924-) and Thomas Dale Lea (1938-99), 1 Corinthians,Bible Study Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983). Per R. Stanton Norman. See also Merrill Frederick Unger (1909- ), The Baptizing Work of the Holy Spirit (Findlay, Ohio: Dunham Publishing Co., 1962), pp. 78-83; idem, The Baptismand Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), pp. 95-103; Wayne E. Ward, The Holy Spirit, p. 98; Earl Clinton Davis (1938- ), Life in the Spirit, Layman's Library of Christian Doctrine (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1986), pp. 29, 112. 20. James D. G. Dunn, Baptismin the Holy Spirit:A Re-examinationof the New Testament Teachingon the Gift of the Spirit in Relation to PentecostalismToday (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970), pp. 224-29, has related Spirit-baptism both to faith and to water baptism in "conversion-initiation."

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E. BAPTISM IN OR WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

We have already 21 noted that in six contexts, four in the Gospels and two in Acts, one finds the promise that Jesus would "baptize in or with the Holy Spirit." But today these six passages are not being given a single or unanimous interpretation.

1. Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal Teaching Modem Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals,joining these aforementioned six passages with Acts 2:4 ("filled with the Holy Spirit"), Acts 2:38 ("receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"), and 1 Cor. 12:13b ("all were made to drink of one Spirit," RSV), teach that the baptism "by Christ-as-agent in or wi,ththe Spirit-as-element" does not occur at conversion and has not been experienced by all Christians but occurs subsequent to conversion/regeneration and is evidenced by speaking in tongues. 22 This teaching is one of the three most distinctive teachings of modem Pentecostalism; the others are the teachings that this baptism is to be earnestly sought by all Christians and that all the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 are operative today.23 Although Reuben A. Torrey lived prior to the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement, his clear-cut differentiation of"the Baptism with the Holy Spirit" from regeneration by the Spirit anticipated, led to, and has been utilized by the present-day Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal teaching. Torrey wrote: The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and subsequent and additional to His regenerating work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration there is an impartation of life, and the one who receives it is saved; in the Baptism with the Holy Spirit there is an impartation of power and the one who receives it is fitted for service. Every true believer has the Holy Spirit. . . But not every believer has the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, though every believer ... may have.24 21. See above, ch. 53, II, G. 22. Bruner,A Theologyof the Holy Spirit, pp. 59-61, esp. 60; see also Harold Duane Hunter, Spirit-Baptism:A PentecostalAlternative(Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1983). 23. Bruner,A Theologyof the Holy Spirit, pp. 57, 61, 130-31. Siegfried Grossmann, Stewardsof God'sGrace,trans. Michael Freeman (Exeter, U.K.: Paternoster, 1981), pp. 50-58, seems to have originated the threefold differentiation: "Classical Pentecostalism," "Neo-Pentecostalism," and "the Charismatic Renewal," the third of which does not regard tongues-speaking as the only indicator of Spirit-baptism. 24. What the Bible Teaches:A Thoroughand ComprehensiveStudy of What the Bible Has to Say concerningthe GreatDoctrinesof WhichIt Treats (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1898), p. 271.

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Pentecostal authors have frequently quoted this statement, even though Torrey made no reference to tongues-speaking. Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals are not agreed as to how this baptism in or with the Holy Spirit as evidenced by tongues-speaking ought to be related to water baptism. Arnold Bittlinger and Le6njoseph Suenens (1904-96) have contended that there is only one baptism, that in water and in the Spirit. 25 David Johannes du Plessis differentiated (1) regeneration, in which the "Holy Spirit is the baptizer, the Church is the element into which He baptizes, and the unregenerated sinner is the object that is baptized," (2) water baptism, in which the "Church is the agent, water is the element, and the new Christian is the object," and (3) Spirit baptism, in which "Christ is the agent, the Holy Spirit is the element, and the believer is the object. "26 Dennis Joseph Bennett ( 1917- ) and Rita Bennett ( 1934- ) likewise differentiated three baptisms: a "spiritual baptism into Christ," "baptism with water," and "baptism with the Spirit." 27 Neo-Pentecostals have argued in support of their position by using the analogy that Jesus was both conceived by the Holy Spirit and endowed by the Spirit at his baptism. 28 Non-Pentecostals have pointed out in opposition that "the New Testament never enjoins Christians to be baptized in the Spirit," presumably because they have already been so baptized. 29

2. Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic Teachings Spirit baptism, according to certain Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic theologians, occurs with the imposition of the hands of the bishop in the sacrament of confirmation. Reference is made to the imposition of hands in Acts 8: 17 (by the apostles) and 19:6 (by Paul). 30 25. Bittlinger, "Baptized in Water and in Spirit: Aspects of Christian Initiation," in Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., and Arnold Bittlinger, The Baptismin the Holy Spirit as an EcumenicalProblem(Notre Dame, Ind.: Charismatic Renewal Services, Inc., 1972), pp. 11-12, 18-21; Suenens,A New Pentecost?trans. Francis Martin (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), p. 80. 26. The Spirit Bade Me Go, p. 70. 27. The Holy Spirit and You:A Study-Guideto the Spirit-FilledLife (Plainfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1971), pp. 26-27, as interpreted by Culpepper, Evaluating the CharismaticMovement, p. 59. 28. Bennett and Bennett, The Holy Spirit and You, p. 27. 29. Culpepper, Evaluating the CharismaticMovement, p. 62. 30. Ludwig Ott, Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma, pp. 361-63; George D. Smith, "The Sacrament of Confirmation," in Smith, ed., The Teachingof the Catholic Church,pp. 803-38, esp. 806-7, 819, 827,835,837; Congar, I Believein the Holy Spirit, 3:217-27; Lionel S. Thornton, C.R., Confirmation:Its Placein the BaptismalMystery(Westminster, U. K.: Dacre Press, 1954), pp. 13-19, who found in 1 Cor. 12:13b a basis for confirmation; and Gregory Dix (1901-52), The Theologyof Confirmationin Relation to Baptism (Westminster, U. K.: Dacre Press, 1946), pp. 14, 17, 21, 23, 26, 28, 32, who reckoned baptism in water and "Baptism of the Spirit" to be closely related, though distinguishable.

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3. Non-Pentecostal Protestant Teachings The texts in the Gospels and the Acts that refer to the promise of Jesus' baptism in or with the Spirit have been interpreted by non-Pentecostal exegetes either in reference to the Day of Pentecost or in reference to individual Christian conversion or in reference to both. Two Baptist commentaries illustrate the trends. In An American Commentaryon the New TestamentJohn Albert Broadus (re Matt. 3:11) and Horatio Balch Hackett (1808-75) (re Acts 1:5) clearly pointed to the Day of Pentecost, William Newton Clarke (re Mark 1:8) found the fulfillment both on the Day of Pentecost and in modern conversions, Alvah Hovey (re John 1:33) referred both to the Day of Pentecost and later instances, though not all Christians are so baptized, and George Ripley Bliss (1816-93) (re Luke 3:16) was unclear. 31 In The BroadmanBibleCommentary Taylor C. Smith (re Acts 1:5) pointed to the Day of Pentecost, Henry Eugene Turlington ( 1918-2000) (re Mark 1:8) allowed for the Day of Pentecost or individual conversion, Frank Stagg (re Matt. 3: 11) concluded that the fulfillment was probably in conversions, and Malcolm Tolbert (1924- ) (re Luke 3:16) and William Edward Hull (1930-) (re John 1:33) were indecisive.32Other authors teaching that the once-for-all baptism occurred on the Day of Pentecost include Anthony A Hoekema. 33 Non-Pentecostal responses have been made from the Acts of the Apostles. According to Michael Green, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1-19, esp. 17c), "the Ephesian dozen" (Acts 19:1-7), and "the Samaritan converts" (Acts 8:4-25, esp. 15-17) constituted "exceptional" cases on which one should not build a doctrine of "two-stage initiation." 34Other authors who have taught that the baptism occurs at the conversion of every believer include John F. Walvoord 35 and John Stott. 36 F. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND REPENTANCE AND FAITH

One additional issue derives not from modern Pentecostalism but from the divergences between High Calvinists on the one hand and Arminians and Wesleyans on the other hand. High Calvinists have taught that repentance and faith are the gifts of God to the elect; that is, they are given by God or by

31. Ed. Alvah Hovey, 7 vols. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1881-90). 32. Ed. Cliftonj. Allen, vols. 8-12 on the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1969-72). 33. Holy Spirit Baptism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), pp. 15-29. Hoekema, pp. 18-19, did allow that Acts 11: 16 involved a repetition of the baptism but such was "simultaneous with ... conversion." 34. / Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 134-39. 35. The Holy Spirit, pp. 139-40, 145. 36. The Baptismand Fullnessof the Holy Spirit, pp. 35-42; Baptismand Fullness,pp. 36-40.

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the Holy Spirit.:17 Arminians and Wesleyans, on the other hand, have understood repentance and faith as essential human responses to the grace of God and the wooing of the Holy Spirit. 38 Such responses are in no sense meritorious works. The High Calvinist teaching is built upon human spiritual death and separation from God and magnifies the sovereignty of God. The Arminian-Wesleyan teaching is built upon the accountability of human beings and the sinfulness of impenitence and unbelief and magnifies the responsibility of human beings. High Calvinism has called repentance and faith "graces," whereas Arminianism and Wesleyanism have referred to them as "duties."

III. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE One would expect that the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete intends to be intimately associated with believers or disciples throughout their Christian pilgrimages from the beginnings of faith to the encounter with death, and an examination of the New Testament indeed confirms such an expectation. Paul's admonition in Gal. 5:25 may serve as a general affirmation of the needed Christian dependence upon the Holy Spirit: "If we live [or, have been made alive] by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (RSV).39 Such Christian walking involves social relationships as well as individual piety and conduct. 40 A. ASSURANCE

The Holy Spirit works to effect the assurance that a believer/disciple has indeed entered a genuine filial relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. To the Galatians Paul wrote: "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba,' Father" (4:6, NIV). 41 Then to the Romans he declared: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing 3 7. French Confession ( 1559), ch. 21; Canons of the Synod of Dort ( 1619), 3d and 4th heads, arts. 10, 13, 14; and Westminster Confession ( 1647), chs. 14-15, in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, 3:371, 589, 590-91, 630-33. 38. "Remonstrant Articles" ( 1610), art. 3, in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, 3:546-47;James Arminius, "Apology against Thirty-One Defamatory Articles," arts. 27, 28; "Twenty-Five Public Disputations," no. 17, in The Writings ofjames Arminius, trans. James Nichols and W.R. Bagnall, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1956), 1:365-69, 575-83. Yet Arminius held to the agency of the Holy Spirit in repentance and faith: "Private Disputations," nos. 43, 44, in Writings, 2: 106-11. 39. TEV: "The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives." 40. George S. Duncan, The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, The Moffatt New Testament Commentary (New York, London: Harper and Bros., 1934), re 5:25. 41. JB: 'The proof that you are sons is that God has sent .... "

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witness with our spirit (synmartyreitii pneumati himiin) that we are children of God" (8:15-16, RSV). The First Epistle of John (3:24b; 4:13) contains two similar statements affirming that the gift of Christ's Spirit or God's Spirit enables the recipients to "know" that Christ or God abides in them. John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley (1708-88) gave major emphasis 42 to a doctrine of assurance 43 based on Rom. 8:16.John Wesley insisted that in addition to an "'indirectwitness, or testimony"' of the Holy Spirit growing out of "'a consciousness of the fruit"' of the Spirit there is also a '"direct testimony of the Spirit"' to believers. But for Wesley this direct testimony has to be "antecedent to the testimony of our spirit" and hence is somewhat distinguishable from it. 44 But the Greek of Rom. 8: 16 suggests a more intimate relationship between the Spirit's witness and the believer's witness. It can be seen as a conjoint testimony of assurance-not the Spirit's testimony to our spirits, but with our spirits. 45 B.PRAYER

According to Paul (Rom. 8:26-27), "the Spirit helps (synantilambanetai) us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes (hyperentugchanei) for us" (RSV) "through our inarticulate groans" (stenagmoisal,a,litois)(NEB). "And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (RSV). Christians today who in the depth of personal need cry out to God without being able adequately 42. On the history of the doctrine of the Spirit's witness so as to effect assurance from Arminius to Wesley, see Howard Watkin-Jones (1888-1953), The Holy Spiritfrom Arminius to Wesley:A Study of ChristianTeachingconcerningthe Holy Spirit and His Placein the Trinity in the Seventeenthand EighteenthCenturies (London: Epworth Press, 1929), pp. 305-21. 43. John Wesley did later abandon the use of the term "assurance" because of the way in which Calvinists tied it to final perseverance. Ibid., p. 318. On the Puritan doctrine of the witness of the Spirit, see James I. Packer, A Questfor Godliness:The Puritan Visionof the ChristianLife (Wheaton, Ill.: Good News Publishers, 1990), pp. 179-89. 44. Arthur Stanley Yates ( 1911- ), The Doctrineof Assurance,with SpecialReference tojohn Wesley(London: Epworth Press, 1952), pp. 72-81, esp. 76, 74. According to George Park Fisher (1827-1909), Historyof ChristianDoctrine, International Theological Library (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896), p. 392, for Wesley, "This faith in the living power of the Holy Spirit ... was the secret of the emphasis which was laid on Assurance as a privilege attainable by all believers." 45. Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 95. The doctrine delineated here must be carefully differentiated from the doctrine of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit to the Scriptures, as treated by Bernard L. Ramm, The Witnessof the Spirit:An Essayon the ContemporaryRelevanceof the Internal Witnessof the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959).

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to verbalize their prayers can be encouraged by this Pauline affirmation. The Spirit completes our faltering prayers. He "inspires and guides the Christian's prayer life."46 "The Spirit who is the supreme object of prayer is also the prime inspirer of prayer." 47 Moreover, the Spirit as Paraclete actually engages in his own intercession. C. RESISTANCE TO SIN

Henlee Hulix Barnette (1911- ) has asserted that both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the early patristic age the ethic was distinctively "an ethic of the Holy Spirit." Although much neglected in the twentieth century, the Christian ethic of the Holy Spirit can give Christian ethics its rightful "theocentric ground" and save it "from both legalism and antinomianism." 48 According to Paul, the Holy Spirit calls Christians from immorality to holiness. "It is God's will that you should be holy; that you should avoid sexual immorality .... Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit" (I Thess. 4:3, 8, NIV). To the Christians in Corinth he wrote: Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body (1 Cor. 6: 18-20). As already noted earlier,

the Holy Spirit is grieved by the sins of Christians, whether the lying to the Spirit of Ananias and the testing of the Spirit by Sapphira (Acts 5:3,9) or the falsehoods, excessive anger, stealing, and foul talk delineated by Paul (Eph. 4:25-30, esp. 30). The Holy Spirit "creates" within the Christian "an increasing sensitiveness ... to sin" and gives to the Christian "an increasing ability to overcome sin when recognized in one's life." 50 Furthermore, the Holy Spirit liberates human beings from the powerful and sequential control of sin and death. Christians are not condemned "because in Christ Jesus the life-giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2, NEB). The life from the Spirit sets believers free from the sin that inevitably issues in death. 49

46. Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 106. 47. Green, I Believein the Holy Spirit, p. 96. 48. "The Significance of the Holy Spirit for Christian Morality," Review and Expositor52 (January 1955): 5-20, esp. 7, 5, 15-17. 49. See above, ch. 52, VI, A. 2. 50. Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit, pp. 111-12. Conner often said to his students, "It's not how high you jump or how loud you shout but how straight you walk."

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While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. (Rom. 7:5-6, RSV) Setting one's mind "on the flesh" is the very opposite of setting one's mind "on the Spirit" (Rom. 8:5-6). But walking by the Spirit means using one's freedom from salvation by law not "as an opportunity for the flesh" but "through love" as "servants of one another" demonstrating neighbor love (Gal. 5:16, 13-14). 51 D. INSTRUCTION

In identifying the sayings of Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel, 52 we have given attention to the didactic function of the Spirit (John 14:26; 16: 13-15). The Spirit's instruction is to center in and relate to Jesus and his truth. Surely this didactic function was not limited to the age of the apostles. Michael Green has warned: "We cannot rightly attribute to the Spirit any teaching which does not shed light on Jesus, or any religious experience which is not congruous with the life of Jesus. "53 E. FRUITAGE IN CHARACTER

According to Paul, walking by the Spirit means not only not gratifying "the desires of your sinful nature" (Gal. 5:16, NIV) and not producing the "acts of the sinful nature" (Gal. 5: 19) but also producing "the fruit of the Spirit": "love,joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22). These nine qualities of character or disposition are the expected "harvest" (Gal. 5:22, NEB) of the Holy Spirit. Such fruit ought to be differentiated from the baptism or gift of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and the gifts or charisms of the Holy Spirit. Paul does not state and seemingly does not imply that such fruit is optional for Christians or is limited to certain ones within the household of faith. The same apostle likens Christians to "a letter from Christ, drawn up by us, and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on the tablets of your living hearts" (1 Cor. 3:3, JB). F. POWER FOR WITNESS

Already 54 attention has been given to the fact that a stated purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was that the believers 51. James I. Packer, Keepin Step with the Spirit (Old Tappan, N. J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1984), chs. 3-4, has stressed the role of the Holy Spirit in actualizing "the way of holiness." 52. See above, ch. 53, II, G, H. 53. / Believein the Holy Spirit, p. 52. 54. See above, ch. 53, III, A, 3.

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might be empowered for witness to Jesus Christ (Acts 1:4, 5, 8). The bold witness of the earliest Christians was specifically attributed to the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31; 5:32). G. BEING "FILLED WITH" OR "FULL OF" THE HOLY SPIRIT

Luke-Acts 55 contains a recurring emphasis on being "filled with the Holy Spirit" or being "full of the Holy Spirit." John the Baptist (Luke 1: 15c), Elizabeth (Luke 1:41 b ), and Zechariah (Luke 1:67) were all said to be "filled with the Holy Spirit," and Jesus after his baptism was reported as being "full of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 4: 1). All the disciples on the Day of Pentecost were declared to be "filled with the Spirit" (Acts 2:4), and so was Peter when speaking to the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:8). The seven (Acts 6:3), Stephen (Acts 6:5b; 7:55), and Barnabas (Acts 11 :24) were identified as "full of the Holy Spirit." Likewise Saul, who became Paul, both initially (Acts 9: 17c) and later on the island of Cyprus (Acts 13:9), and the new believers at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:52) were said to be "filled with the Holy Spirit." Then Paul coupled a command not to "get drunk with wine" with a command to "be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18, RSV). This Pauline command to be "filled with the Spirit" stands in contrast to the absence of any New Testament command to be baptized in or with the Spirit. Whereas the baptism was seemingly a singular occurrence with respect to the individual Christian, being filled seems to be capable of being repeated. The Pauline command (Eph. 5: 18) suggests that some believers were not "full of the Spirit." Paul connected "joy," "peace," and "hope" with being filled with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:13). The word "fullness" (pliroma) is never applied to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. 56 Even so being "filled with" or "full of' the Spirit, according to Michael Green,"is corporate no less than individual." It "is intended to be the continual state of the Christian," "not a plateau on to which you are ushered by some second stage in initiation." Christians "are meant to be progressively filled with the Spirit," but this state "can be lost, through disobedience" and also "regained" via repentance. Present-day teaching and practice vis-a-vis being filled with the Spirit ought to clear the Pauline warnings in Galatians against legalism and in Colossians against syncretism. 57 ff.LOVE

The Holy Spirit, although associated with hope, peace, and joy, has, according to Paul, a special relationship to love. Even our hope rests on has been poured into our hearts through the fact that "God's love (agape"") 55. Twenty-two of the twenty-four occurrences of the verb pimplisthai are in Luke-Acts, and eleven of the sixteen occurrences of the adjective pleros are in Luke-Acts (Green, I Believein the Holy Spirit, p. 148). 56. Ibid. 57. Ibid., pp. 157, 153, 154-55.

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(dia) the Holy Spirit," (RSV) "whom he has given us" (NIV) (Rom. 5:5). This text had a special attraction for Augustine of Hippo. 58 J. E. Fison has declared:

Only against the background of the Pauline magna charta of the Spirit in Romans 8 can we really make head or tail of the Pauline ethic oflove in 1 Corinthians 13.... But through church or bible or sacrament or some other means or apart from all means altogether the Holy Spirit can lead us to the discovery of 1 Corinthians 13, not as a beautiful vision of what might be, but as a practical demonstration of what is.59

IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FINAL REDEMPTION In the Pauline theology of the New Testament one finds repeated instances in which the Holy Spirit is said to be active in the anticipation or the realization of the final redemption of believers/disciples/saints. A. FIRST FRUITS

Paul declared that "we ourselves, who have the first fruits (aparche)of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies" (Rom. 8:23, RSV). The Holy Spirit, therefore, is described as the "first fruits" of the final bodily resurrection of believers. Hendrikus Berkhof has noted that, whereas in the Old Testament "the first fruits of crop and cattle" were sacrificed or offered to God, in Paul's use of the term the "first fruits" are supplied by God. Thus "of the Spirit" is understood as a "genitive of explication," as the NEB translation demonstrates: "we, to whom the Spirit is given as firstfruits of the harvest to come." Hence the Spirit "is the first part of the coming glorification, the foretaste of the Kingdom. "60 According to Hermann Gunkel, "the presupposition here is that the Spirit is the present and future possession of the Christian; a partial bestowal in the present which proves a complete bestowal in the future." 61 B. DOWN PAYMENT

Paul also referred three times (2 Cor. 1:22b; 5:5; Eph. 1: 14) to the Holy Spirit as the "down payment," "earnest" (KJV), "pledge" (NEB, JB), 58. For example, Reply to Faustusthe Manichaean 17.6; 32:18; Confessions13.7.8; On the Spirit and the Letter 29.17; On Nature and Grace67.57; On the Trinity 7.3.5; 15.18.32; 15.26.46; On Man's Perfectionin Righteousness10.21; On the Graceof Christand on OriginalSin 1.10.9; 2.28.24. 59. The Blessingof the Holy Spirit, p. 132. 60. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 106. 61. Die Wirkungendes heiligenGeistes(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1899), p. 63, as trans. and quot. by Neill Quinn Hamilton (1925-98), The Holy Spirit and Eschatologyin Paul, Scottish Journal of Theology Occasional Papers, no. 6 (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), p. 19.

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"guarantee" (RSV, TEV), or "deposit guaranteeing" (NIV) (arrabon) of final redemption. A "non-Greek word" "borrowed" "from the Semitic business-language in the Near East," arrobonconnoted a first installment or down payment. "The whole work of the Spirit ... is an anticipation of the consummation. "62 C.SEALING

The Greek verb "to seal" (sphragiz.ein ), employed in the Septuagint, was used in Greek papyri "to give validity to documents" and "to guarantee genuineness of articles." 63 Paul's statement that God "has put his seal upon us" (2 Cor. 1:22a, RSV) is in a context in which he identified the gift of the Holy Spirit as "down payment" (22b). Likewise, believers "were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Eph. 1: 13) and "were sealed" in the Holy Spirit "for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). If such sealing has eschatological significance, when does the sealing occur? Adoniram Judson Gordon taught that, whereas the baptism in the Holy Spirit occurred once for all on the Day of Pentecost and resulted in "a permanent condition," the enduement of the Spirit, consisting of the sealing, the fullness, and the anointing, must after conversion be consciously appropriated through faith as preparation for service. 64 W. T. Conner, refuting Gordon, insisted that "by the sealing of the Spirit, Paul means the impartation of the Spirit himself to the believer when he believes." 65 An Assemblies of God theologian, Harold Lawrence Cuthbert Horton ( 18801968), equated sealing with the baptism in the Holy Spirit. 66 D. GLORIFICATION

In a context wherein he declared "the Lord" to be "the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3: 17a, 18b), Paul referred to believers under the new covenant as, while "beholding the glory of the Lord, . . . being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another" (3:18a, RSV). Those who, according to Paul, have received the outpouring of God's love "through the Holy Spirit" as given (Rom. 5:5, RSV, NEB) "rejoice in" their "hope of sharing the glory of God" (Rom. 5:2, RSV). E.HOPE

It is the Holy Spirit who causes Christian hope to abound. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope" (Rom. 15: 13, RSV).

62. 63. 64. 65. 66.

Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 106, 107. Robertson, Word Picturesin the New Testament,4:214. The Ministry of the Spirit, pp. 57, 67-96. The Work of the Holy Spirit, pp. 96--100, esp. 97. The Baptismin the Holy Spirit:A Challengeto Whole-HeartedSeekersafter God (London: Assemblies of God Publishing House, 1961), pp. 12-13.

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F. RESURRECTION

Not only was Jesus' resurrection attributed to the Spirit but also the future resurrection of believers was so attributed: "he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through (dia) his Spirit which dwells in you" (Rom. 8: 11b, RSV). "By linking the Spirit with the resurrected, exalted Lord, Paul automatically links the Spirit with the future." 67 We have begun with the Old Testament anticipation of the outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord on "all flesh." We then examined the convicting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and the possession of the Spirit by believers, probed as to whether there is a baptism by the Spirit as well as baptism in or with the Spirit, and related the Spirit to repentance and faith-all in the context of becoming a Christian. Subsequently the Spirit's various roles in the Christian life-assurance, help in prayer, resistance to sin, instruction, fruitage in character, power for witness, being filled with the Spirit, and productive oflove-were interpreted. Finally the eschatological dimension of the Spirit was spelled out in terms of first fruits, down payment, sealing, glorification, hope, and resurrection. But the Spirit works in the church as well as in the individual believer.

67. Hamilton, The Holy Spirit and Eschatologyin Paul, p. 17.

CHAPTER55

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH Most Christian theologians would agree that the Holy Spirit is active both in individual Christian experience and in the corporate life of the church. They do not, however, always agree as to which sphere or arena is primary. H. B. Swete, an Anglican, wrote: The Spirit was the corporate possession of the Body of Christ, and it became the property of the individual convert when he was made a member of the Ecclesia. No man could be Christ's who had not Christ's Spirit, and ordinarily no man could have Christ's Spirit but by being "added" to the brotherhood of Christ's disciples.1 On the other hand, George Smeaton, a Presbyterian, after delineating the work of the Spirit in regeneration and in sanctification, declared: It was at Pentecost that the Lord, by the power of His Spirit, welded into a Church the Souls on whom the word had exercised a saving efficacy. The Holy Spirit ... collected the disciples into a living unity; and this great work of the Spirit is called the Church, the kingdom of God, the body of Christ, the temple of the Spirit, the habitation of God in the Spirit .... 2 Was there any expectation in the Old Testament that the Spirit of the Lord would work anew among the people of the covenant?

1. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament,p. 308. Emil Brunner, a Reformed theologian, agreed with Swete: The Misunderstandingof the Church,trans. Harold Knight (London: Lutterworth Press, 1952), p. 11. 2. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 162-229, 230.

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I. OLD TESTAMENT ANTICIPATION OF THE INTERNALIZING OF THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD WITHIN THE RETURNING JEWISH EXILES AND OF THE NEW COVENANT The prophet Ezekiel in three passages gives expression to promises that Yahweh will "put within" or "pour out upon" united Israel his Spirit. In the prophecy "to the mountains oflsrael" (36: 1), in which Yahweh promises to bring the captives or exiles again to their own land, Yahweh promises: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws" (36:26-27, NIV). In the vision of the valley of dry bones the climactic promise is: I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord (37:14). In the oracle against Gog likewise the climactic statement reads as follows: '"I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord"' (39:29). Ezekiel's prophecy points to the change from the action of the Spirit upon human beings, which characterized the judges and the prophets, to the action of the Spirit within human beings. Although the text does not mention the Spirit of God (or of the Lord), Jeremiah's anticipation of the "new covenant" (31:31-34) must be correlated with the texts in Ezekiel, for reference is made to Yahweh's putting his law in the minds of the people, to an intimate relationship between Yahweh and his people, and to a widespread intimate knowledge of Yahweh by his people. 3

II. THE ARENA OR SPHERE OF THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UNDER THE NEW COVENANT A. NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS?

Certain occasional concepts of "Holy Spirit" or "Divine Spirit" have been reported to have been found in non-Christian religions. Richard Birch Hoyle (1875-1939) found such in Zoroastrianism, later Stoicism, Greek 3. On the relationship betweenjer. 31:31-34 and 2 Cor. 3:1-11, see Fred Anderson Malone ( 1948- ), "A Critical Evaluation of the Use of Jeremiah 31:31-34 in the Letter to the Hebrews" (Ph.D. diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1989), pp. 201-3, 212-17.

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mystery-religions, and Islam. 4 H. P. Van Dusen cited the motto of a Buddhist-Christian institute in Hong Kong: "Truth-Wind (Spirit)- Hill," or "the Hill of the Spirit ofTruth." 5 John Vernon Taylor (1914-) wrote of Malam Ibrahim, the Muslim teacher in northern Nigeria who began from the QurJiin to preach the Messiah Jesus as "the mediator" through whom one is to pray to God, gathered a company of believers, and was publicly crucified by the Muslim authorities three decades before any Christian preacher entered the area. 6 Was this evidence of the Spirit's work? But the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit has also been interpreted as being distinctive of Christianity or of the Judaeo-Christian heritage. According to Stephen C. Neill, the knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit, according to the New Testament, is "not found anywhere outside the realm of direct and personal encounter with the risen Christ. "7 B. WORLD OR CHURCH?

Charles Gore, after discussing the work of the Spirit of God according to the Old Testament in the creation and in the vitality of human existence, observed that in the New Testament ... it is very noticeable that while the idea is conveyed to us of a universal activity of God in nature and in the minds of men, the idea is associated with His Son or Word, and not with the Spirit. The gift or activity of the Spirit is exclusively associated with Christ and the Church. 8 Gore would, therefore, place the work of the Spirit under the new covenant squarely in the arena of the church. H. Wheeler Robinson, on the other hand, insisted on the Spirit's "constant activity ... in the whole extra-ecclesiastical world." 9 A. T. and R. P. C. Hanson have recently turned this question of the sphere of the Spirit's activity into support for the genuineness of the encounter of the Spirit through nonChristian religions. 10

4. "Spirit (Holy), Spirit of God," Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings, 13 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons; Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1909-27), 11:784, 791. 5. Spirit, Son and Father, pp. 23-25. 6. The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission (London: SCM Press, 1972; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973), p. 193. 7. "The Holy Spirit in the Non-Christian World," The Church Quarterly 3 (April 1971): 302. 8. The Holy Spirit and the Church, p. 9. 9. The Christian Experience of the Holy Spirit, p. 157. 10. Reasonable Belief, pp. 167-70.

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III. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE EXISTENCE OF THE CHURCH Later, 11as an aspect of the doctrine of the church, we will examine the various views as to the time of the origin of the church of Jesus Christ. Without assuming any final answer as to the time, we rather give attention here to the role of the Spirit in the very existence of the church. Paul twice referred to the "fellowship" (koinonia)"of the [Holy] Spirit" (2 Cor. 13: 14; Phil. 2: 1).12The term koinoniamay be translated "participation" as well as "fellowship." How ought the Pauline phrase "the fellowship" or "the participation" "of the Spirit" be understood? Three principal answers have been given. First, "the Spirit" (pneumatos)can be taken as an objective genitive. Hence the phrase, according to Lionel S. Thornton, would mean "'participation in the Spirit"' or "'the sharing of the Spirit."' The use of koinoniain 1 Cor. 1:9 may support this first meaning. 13Second, according to H. Wheeler Robinson, "fellowship of the Holy Spirit" (2 Cor. 13:14) can be taken as a subjective genitive so as to imply an "activity" by the Spirit, namely, common "fellowship with God ... created by the Spirit." The use of"the love of the Spirit" (Rom. 15:30) and "the access in one Spirit" (Eph. 2:18) can be adduced as evidence for the second interpretation.14 Third, again taking pneumatos as a subjective genitive, one may, with Percy George Samuel Hopwood (1895-?) and Dale Moody, understand "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" as "the community ... called into being and inspired by the Spirit" 15so that "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" "summarizes Paul's view of the church." The use of "fellowship" in Acts 2:42 and Eph. 2: 18 can be cited in support of the third interpretation.16 Furthermore, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" and "the love of God" (2 Cor. 13:14) seem to involve subjective genitives, for Paul doubtless alludes to Christ's grace, not ours, and to God's love for us, not our love for God. To interpret "of the Spirit" also as a subjective genitive would seem to be the mark of consistency. Although it is possible, with Hendrikus Berkhof, 17to try to hold to both the subjective genitive and objective genitive so that the two meanings are "a sign of multidimensionality," it seems best to conclude that the koinonia of the Holy Spirit 11. See below, ch. 71, II, C. 12. In Phil. 2: 1 the definite articles are absent: koiniiniapneumatos. 13. The CommonLife in the Body of Christ(London: Dacre Press, 1942), pp. 69-76, esp. 69, 74, 71. 14. The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit, pp. 232-33. 15. Hopwood, The ReligiousExperienceof the PrimitiveChurch:The Periodprior to the Influenceof Paul (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1936), p. 224. 16. Moody, The Spirit of the Living God, p. 106; idem, The Wordof Truth, p. 447. But Moody, The Wordof Truth, p. 318, can also connect 2 Cor. 13:14 with "mutual participation in the Spirit." 17. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 57-59.

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means the koinonia or commonality created by the advent and gift of the Spirit. Hence koinonia needs to be brought into meaningful relation with "church" (ekklisia)and the numerous metaphors for the church. "Where the Holy Ghost is, there is the Christian communion." 18 In churches, those which are congregationally governed as well as those hierarchically governed, it is quite common and indeed easy to think of the human persons who are in leadership roles in the constituting of new congregations. One hears of"church planters," of"church founders," and of "charter members." Yet on the deeper level the very existence of any church of Jesus Christ as the true koinoniaof God depends on the Holy Spirit. Such is both the lasting significance of the Day of Pentecost and the present trinitarian reality of the church.

IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH If the very existence of the church depends on the Holy Spirit, it is also true that the unity of the church rests upon the Holy Spirit. Paul admonished Christians to accelerate the efforts "to maintain the unity (henotita) of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3, RSV). The relation of the Holy Spirit to the unity of the ekklisia of Christ is represented by Paul through the metaphor or analogy of the naos, the inner portion of the Jewish temple. Such a metaphor involved a familiar Jewish religious institution, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The apostle asked the Corinthian saints:

Do you not know that you are God's temple (naostheou)and that God's Spirit dwells (oikei)in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are (estehymeis)(1 Cor. 3:16, 17). The "you" in this passage is plural and refers to the entire Corinthian congregation. Paul did not declare that these Christians "have" "the temple of God" but rather stated that they "are" "the temple of God." Under the old covenant Yahweh met his people in the tabernacle and later in the temple through the mediation of priests. Now under the new covenant in Christ the people of God meet God in the Christian ekklisia or koinonia, which is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. 19 Consequently, schism or contributing to the fracturing of such unity is, according to Paul, a very serious and punishable offense. 2°Conversely, it is the 18. Brunner, The Misunderstandingof the Church,p. 11. 19. Robinson, The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit, p. 151, referred to the "'Kenosis"' of the Holy Spirit that is "implied in the indwelling of the Church by His Spirit." 20. "Strife" (eris) is one of the Pauline "works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:19-2la).

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Spirit who makes possible the genuine unity of believers, which unity is to be diligently maintained. Paul also employed the metaphor of naos in his Ephesian epistle wherein it is set in a context in which five words derived from the word "house" (oikos)are employed: Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people (ton hagion) and members of God's on the founhousehold (oikeioitou theou),built (epoikodomithentes) dation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building (pasaoikodome) is joined together and rises to become a holy temple (eis naon hagion) in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together (synoikodomeisthe) to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (eiskatoikitirion tou theouen pneumati) (Eph. 2: 19-22, NIV). Thus even Gentile believers enter or share in the "holy temple" (naos hagios), which is the dwelling place (katoikitirion) of God in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, according to Paul, is related to the reconciliation of Jewish and Gentile believers by providing access (prosagoge)to God the Father. Christ's purpose was to "reconcile" "both" Jews and Gentiles "to God in one body through the cross" (Eph. 2:16a, RSV). By virtue of Christ's act of peace-making (2: 15) and peace-announcing (2: 17), believers, both Jewish and Gentile, "have access (prosagogin)to the Father by one Spirit" (2: 18, NIV). For many Christian congregations today it is not altogether evident that persons from differing ethnic, linguistic, national, cultural, and economic backgrounds are being united in the bond of Christian fellowship by common access to the Father in and through the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, the sin of schism seems not to rank very high in the hierarchy of present-day sins inasmuch as new divisions among Christians are defended or justified without specific acknowledgement that schism is a sin. Still further, the great issue as to the greater actualization of Christian unity and of church unity remains largely unanswered at the beginning of the twenty-first century despite the impact of the Ecumenical Movement. Although there may be a growing recognition that there is indeed a givenness to Christian unity which survives all our Christian divisions, there is little agreement about structures designed to embody or reflect that unity. 21 One thing should be unmistakably clear, namely, that the genuine unity of Christians is the work of the Holy Spirit and not merely the contrivance of human beings.

21. See below,ch. 77, II, B.

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V. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH The New Testament affords evidence that Christian worship during the apostolic age was worship in the Holy Spirit. Paul's admonition to "be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18) was followed by specific references to singing and giving thanks in Jesus' name to God the Father (5:19-20). Twice in Revelation (1:10; 4:2) the Spirit is mentioned in the context of worship. A. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF

GOD Isaiah recorded the divine promise that the word of Yahweh would not be ineffectual but rather effectual:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth ... , so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (55: 1Oa, 11, NIV) Early in the history of the church, a distinct apostolic "ministry of the word" (hi diakoniatou logou)was recognized (Acts 6:4). In what was probably his earliest epistle Paul described his preaching of the gospel as being not solely "in word" (en Zogg)but also "in power (en dynamei)and in the Holy Spirit" (RSV) and his hearers as having "received the message with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit" (TEV) (1 Thess. l:5a, 6b). To the Corinthians he declared: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (1 Cor. 2:4-5, NIV). It was from God's Spirit, not from "the spirit of the world" that Paul had received understanding, and he spoke "not in words taught ... by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit" (1 Cor. 2: 12-13 ). Paul and his companions were qualified by God to be "ministers of a new covenant-not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:Sb-6). Christians are to "guard" "the treasure" (NEB) or "the good deposit" (NIV) of gospel truth "with the help of the Holy Spirit dwelling within" (NEB) them (2 Tim. 1:14). The Reformation brought a renewed emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian preaching. At first the Lutherans and the Reformed had no significant differences on this subject. 22 According to the Augsburg Confession, the Holy Spirit is given through the instrumentality of the preached word and the sacraments, but the Spirit "works faith, 22. Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 37.

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where and when it pleases God, in those that hear the gospel." 23 Lutherans came, however, to emphasize "the real and active presence of the Spirit in the preached Word, with the result that where the Word is the Spirit also is." Depending on Isa. 55:11, Lutherans "preferred to describe the work of the Spirit as occurring 'through the Word' (perverbum)."Conversely, the Reformed, not wishing to ascribe the Word's not creating faith to the human, Spirit-resisting free will and being afraid of any "word-magic," chose not to affirm that "where the Word is the Spirit is also" and to affirm that the Spirit may indeed "work outside of the Word" and that the preached Word may prove to be ineffective. Hence the Reformed formula tended to be that the Spirit works "together with the Word" (cum verbo). Probably both the Lutherans and the Reformed failed adequately to deal with the ineffectiveness of the preached word. 24 Even so, the Spirit's activity in the proclamation of the word is essential, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) declared: "The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. "25 B. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MUSIC IN WORSHIP

Twice the Apostle Paul (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) encouraged his readers to sing "psalms" (psalmois),"hymns" (hymnois),and "spiritual songs" (qdais pneumatikais).In one instance Christians were to "speak to one another" (NEB, NIV) with such melodies so as to "sing and make music" in their hearts "to the Lord" (Eph. 5:19, NEB). In the other they were to "sing" such melodies "with gratitude" OB, NIV) or "with thankfulness" (RSV) in their hearts "to God" (Col. 3: 16). Both passages reflect corporate worship. Martin Luther, the author-composer of numerous hymns, gave impetus to the inclusion and usage of hymns in Christian worship.John Calvin, on the other hand, favored the restriction of singing in worship to biblical texts, especially the Psalms. The Church of England and the Nonconformist churches in England at first followed Calvin's pattern of psalm-singing only, to the exclusion of "man-made" hymns, but after the era of Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and Charles Wesley, major hymn writers and composers, they embraced hymn singing. Nineteenth-century revival movements, especially in the United States, brought forth the use of gospel songs, which were testimonial toward one's fellow human beings rather than being primarily addressed to God. 26 Vatican Council II opened the door to congregational 23. Part 1, art. 5, as slightly adapted from Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,3: 10. 24. Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 37-38. 25. Q. 89, as slightly adapted from Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,3:695-96. See also Hendry, The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology,p. 75. 26. William Jensen Reynolds (1920- ), A Survey of ChristianHymnody(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963); Erik Reginald Routley ( 1917- ), Hymns and Human Life (London: John Murray, 1952).

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hymn singing in the vernacular in the Roman Catholic Church. N eo- Pentecostals and Charismataics have produced praise choruses. Thus singing has become integral to most forms of Christian worship. Christians, however, are not agreed as to which types of musical compositions and their corresponding texts are most fitting for worship or most conducive to Spirit-led worship.

VI. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH The concept of sending was expressed in the Greek New Testament by two verbs, apostellein,"to send away," and pempein, "to send." In the Vulgate the Latin translation was normally the verb mittere,"to send," whose perfect passive participle is missus, "having been sent," from which the English word "mission" is derived. With the biblical concept of sending or mission the Holy Spirit is particularly associated. A. THE MISSION OF THE SPIRIT-LED SERVANT TO THE NATIONS

In the first of the Servant songs one reads: "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations." (Isa. 42: 1, NIV) Then in the second of the songs Yahweh declares: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." (Isa. 49:6) Such a mission by the Servant would find its fulfillment in Jesus as Servant and in his Spirit-baptized and Spirit-empowered servant people on mission to the nations. B. THE MISSION (COMING) OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS FOLLOWING AFTER THE MISSION OF THE SON OF GOD AND PRECEDING THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

There was both a chronological and a logical procession from the mission (advent) of the Son of God to the mission (coming) of the Holy Spirit and to the mission of the church. First, there was the distinctive mission of the Son of God. "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth (exapesteilen)his Son, born of woman, born under the law ... (Gal. 4:4, RSV). In the High Priestly Prayer the verb is uniformly apostellein.The

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mission of the Son of God is coupled with the mission of the disciples (church) Gohn 17: 18).27 The unity of the disciples is designed to enable "the world" to "believe" ( 17 :2 lc) and to "know" ( 17:23) of the mission of the Son of God. Indeed true disciples have known of that mission (l 7:25c). Both the mission of the Son and the mission of the disciples were in a post-resurrection setting closely connected with the reception of the Holy Spirit Gohn 20:21-22). Second, there was a distinct mission of the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete is the one "whom the Father will send (pempsei)"in Jesus' name Gohn 14:26a) and the one whom Jesus "will send" (KJV, TEV, NEB, NIV) (pempso)to the disciples "from the Father" Gohn 15:26). This promised sending was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4, 16, 38-39). Third, there was, of course, the mission of the disciples, or of the church of Jesus Christ. These disciples, once the Holy Spirit had come upon them, were to announce "repentance and forgiveness of sins" "to all nations" (Luke 24:4 7-49, NIV). Going forth, they were to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28: 19a). Paul understood that the Messiah's mission was to "'proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles"' (Acts 26:23b). Indeed Paul's own ministry was cast along the same lines (Rom. 1: 13-17). Writing of the first-century church but probably oflater eras as well, Michael Green has asserted that "it is the Spirit who energizes the evangelism of the Church and drives its often unwilling members into the task for which God laid his hand on them: mission." 28 Hendrikus Berkhof has correctly affirmed that the mission of the Christian church is not only "the way by which the mighty acts of incarnation, atonement, and resurrection are transmitted to the next generation and the remoter nations" but also "itself a mighty act" of God, indeed the "last mighty act through which we enter all the preceding acts," a "last act [that] still goes on." 29 C. THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

1. The New Testament a. Power

The Holy Spirit bestows or provides the essential power (dynamis)for the mission of the church (Acts 1:8; Rom. 15:18-19a). 27. "Christ's mission is first; church and mission are its interacting results." Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 31. 28. / Believein the Holy Spirit, p. 65. 29. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 35. In this framework of ideas one can appreciate the application to the nineteenth century of the term "great century'' by Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968), A Historyof the Expansionof Christianity(New York, London: Harper and Brothers, 1941, 1943, 1944), vols. 4-6.

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b. Personnel

The Holy Spirit calls forth persons to be bearers of the mission (Acts 13:2-3). c. Places

The Holy Spirit guides or directs missionaries to specific areas of witness and labor (Acts 16:6-8), that is, for example, not to the provinces of Asia or Bithynia but to Troas. 30

2. Postbiblical Christianity For many centuries the doctrinal or dogmatic teaching within Christianity neglected to include the relation of the Holy Spirit to the mission of the church as an essential part of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit or of the doctrine of the church. First, this lacuna was in part due to the church's own longterm neglect of the mission outside the European corpusChristianum. The history of the Christian mission in its postpatristic phase has been indeed a history of the shift from governments to societies and from societies to churches as the primary bearer of the mission. Whereas the magisterial or classical Reformers of the sixteenth century regarded the Great Commission as having long ago been fulfilled, the Anabaptists regarded it as obligatory on all Christians of all eras, including their own.31 Hermhut Pietism 32 gave great impetus to the international mission in an era when Roman Catholic orders were providing the major portion of missionaries. When and where the church was only marginally involved in mission, its doctrine of the Spirit had little place for mission. Second, this lacuna was also to some extent due to the focusing of the doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit on something other than mission. Roman Catholic theology majored on the role of the Spirit as "the soul and the sustainer of the church" as institution. Protestant theology majored on the role of the Spirit as "the awakener of individual spiritual life in justification and sanctification." Hence the Spirit was "either institutionalized or individualized" with the result that in both cases there came 30. See David Jacobus Bosch (1929-92), TransformingMission:ParadigmShifts in Theologyof Mission,American Society of Missiology Series, no. 16 (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1991), pp. 113-15. 31. Franklin Hamlin Littell, The AnabaptistViewof the Church:An Introductionto SectarianProtestantism(Chicago: American Society of Church History, 1952), pp. 94-103; subtitle: A Study in the Originsof SectarianProtestantism(2d rev. ed.: Boston: Starr King Press, 1958), pp. 109-23; The Originsof Sectarian Protestantism:A Study of theAnabaptistViewof the Church(3d ed.: New York, London: Macmillan, 1964), pp. 109-23. 32. Joseph Edmund Hutton (1868-? ), A Historyof Moravian Missions(London: Moravian Publication Office, 1922); Arthur James Lewis, Zinzendorfthe EcumenicalPioneer:A Study in the Moravian Contributionto ChristianMissionand Unity (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1962).

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to be "an introverted and static pneumatology." Absent was an emphasis on the Spirit as "the great mover and driving power on the way from the One to the many, from Christ to the world." 33 During the twentieth century Christian systematic theology moved toward a major correction through a deliberate inclusion of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in relation to the worldwide mission of the church. Hendrik Kraemer, John A. Mackay, Harry Reinier Boer (1913- ), and others have contributed from the studies of world religions and of Christian missions. 34 The rapid and explosive growth of the Pentecostal, Neo-Pentecostal, and Charismatic movements, especially in the Third World, has contributed to the change. 35 But recent systematic theologians still have not demonstrated a full incorporation of this theme. 36 According to Mackay, the core of evangelistic effort is to "presentChristJesus in thepower of the Holy Spirit." A "largely alien world," to use William Temple's phrase, a world that today exists as much within the Church as outside the Church, must be confronted with Christianity's and history's central figure, Jesus Christ, and with the Gospel. This Gospel ... involves all that Christ was, said, did, is now, and shall be. To have redemptive effect upon those who hear it, the Gospel must be presented by persons who themselves believe passionately in its truth. They allow themselves in humility to be organs of the Holy Spirit. 37

VII. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS LORD, NOT CAPTIVE, OF THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH A. NEW TESTAMENT

The lordship of the Holy Spirit is conveyed positively by his role as the guide to truth (John 16:13), as teacher of "all things" (John 14:26), and as sovereign in bestowing spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:11) and negatively through the warnings against blasphemy against the Spirit (Mark 3:29 33. Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 33. 34. Ibid, pp. 32-34. See Boer, Pentecostand the MissionaryWitnessof the Church (Franeker: T. Wever, 1955?); rev. as Pentecostand Missions(London: Luttetworth Press; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961). 35. Williams, Renewal Theology,2:247-48. 36. Moody, The Wordof Truth, pp. 427-33; Milne, Know the Truth, pp. 176-208, 220, 226-28, 246-50; Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 865-83, 1025-1146; Dunning, Grace,Faith, and Holiness,pp. 429-77, 505-38; Finger, Christian Theology,2:271-319; 379-406. See also the present author's "Missions and Baptist Systematic Theologies," Baptist Historyand Heritage35 (Spring 2000): 67-71. 37. Ecumenics:The Scienceof the Church Universal(Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964), pp. 170-71.

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and par.), lying to the Spirit (Acts 5:3), grieving the Spirit (Eph. 4:30), and quenching the Spirit (1 Thess. 5: 19). B. CATHOLIC TRADITION

According to Augustine of Hippo, What the soul is for the body of man that the Holy Ghost is for the body of Christ, that is, the Church. The Holy Ghost operates in the whole Church that which the soul operates in the members of the one body. 38 Pope Leo XIII likewise taught that the Holy Spirit is the "soul" of the Church. 39 Thomas Aquinas, however limited was his understanding of the circulation of blood, identified the Holy Spirit as the "heart" (cor)of the Church with the suggestion of the heart's "hidden influence." 40 Pope Pius XII considered the Holy Spirit as the One who joins together members of the Body of Christ with each other and with Christ as the "exalted Head" so that the Spirit "is entire in the Head, entire in the Body, and entire in each of the members." 41 Over against such exalted views of the Spirit's influence on the church, the history of Christianity affords evidence that the church has actually stifled and made captive the Holy Spirit of God. In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, The BrothersKaramazov, the grand inquisitor scene portrays dramatically the church's captivity to its own clerical leaders to the denigration of the authority of Jesus as Lord and, by implication also, to the denial of the dominion of the Holy Spirit. Ivan Karamazov tells a story set in Seville, Spain, during the era of the Inquisition.Jesus comes in human form for a momentary visit. The day before his visit nearly a hundred "heretics" had been burned by the grand inquisitor. The populace flocks to Jesus and follows him, and he blesses the people. In front of the cathedral mourners bring to him "a little open white coffin" bearing the seven-year-old and "only daughter of a prominent citizen." The mother beseeches Jesus, and he raises the daughter from the dead. At that very moment the cardinal, who is the grand inquisitor, and his assistants pass by and observe what is happening. The cardinal orders Jesus to be taken to prison, and the crowd, cowed in submission, acquiesces. The next day the cardinal visits Jesus in his prison cell and says: "Is it Thou? Thou?" but receiving no answer, he adds at once, "Don't answer, be silent. What canst Thou say, indeed? I know too well what Thou wouldst say. And Thou hast no right to add anything to what Thou hadst said of old. Why, then, art thou 38. Serrno,267 4.4, as quoted by Ott, Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma, p. 295. 39. Divinum illud (1897), as quoted by Ott, Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma,p. 295. 40. Summa Theologi,ca3.8.1. reply obj. 3. (English Dominican Fathers). 41. The MysticalBody of Christ( 1943), para. 5 7.

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The Holy Spirit come to hinder us? For thou hast come to hinder us, and Thou knowest that. But dost Thou know what will be to-morrow? I know not who thou art and care not to know whether it is Thou or only a semblance of Him, but to-morrow I shall condemn Thee and burn Thee at the stake as the worst of heretics. And the very people who have to-day kissed Thy feet, to-morrow at the faintest sign from me will rush to heap up the embers of Thy fire." 42

George S. Hendry, a Presbyterian theologian, has offered a critical analysis of the Roman Catholic concept of the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church. That concept, he contended, depends on (1) the Church (via popes from Peter and via bishops from the other apostles) as the successor to Jesus Christ and (2) the necessity of the teaching, ruling, and sanctifying offices of Christ in the Church. The result is, according to Hendry, (3) an overemphasis on the Church's institutional possession of the Holy Spirit so as to be "inflated with its own authoritarian claim" to the neglect of dependence upon the lordship of the Holy Spirit and with "a loss of the sense of the 'personality' of the Holy Spirit." Hence "the Holy Spirit is thought of as an impersonal principle, a source or channel of supernatural endowments, rather than as a Lord and a Person. "43 On the other hand, Hendry's critique must be balanced by an awareness of Yves Cougar's trilogy on the Holy Spirit, which presents a theology of the Spirit which is remarkably free from the bases ofHendry's accusations. 44 C. ORTHODOX TRADITION

In the Greek East the exercise of spiritual authority by the civil ruler increased beyond that in the Latin West, partly because of the East's lack of the counterbalance of a Roman papacy. This pattern came to be known as Caesaropapism. Emperor Justinian I (483-565) was an early representative, and Peter the Great (1672-1725), the Russian czar, a later representative. Caesaropapism constitutes a civil or governmental infringement upon the lordship of Jesus and the dominion and guidance of the Holy Spirit. 45 Today, following the demise of communist hegemony in the former Soviet Union, Romania, and Bulgaria, the Orthodox churches seem to be seeking the restoration of state establishments which would have some of the marks of Caesaropapism. 42. Trans. Constance Garnett (New York: Modern Library, n.d.), pp. 294-97. 43. The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology,pp. 53-59, esp. 58. 44. I Believein the Holy Spirit, 3 vols. Congar, 1:160-64, even accepted as valid P. Pare's charge that the Roman Catholic Church had "replaced the Holy Spirit and let him be overshadowed by the Pope, the Virgin Mary and the cult of the Blessed Sacrament [Eucharist]," though Congar held that the charge was "certainly exaggerated." 45. E. Friedberg, "Caesaropapism," The New Schaff-HerzogEncyclopediaof Religious Knowledge,2:335.

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D. PROTESTANT HERITAGE

Protestants, despite their lesser involvement in hierarchical polity, have not escaped the danger of making the Holy Spirit captive to the church. Notice has already been taken of the Reformation's tendency to confine the work of the Spirit to justification and sanctification of individual believers to the neglect of the work of the Spirit in evangelization and missions.46 Even the structures of congregational polity in the so-called "free churches" can make the Spirit captive to culture or to the whims of a majority. As Christians have become more conscious of the church's proneness to cultural captivity, this danger has been more dearly identified and assessed. Three twentieth-century examples of Protestant muzzling of the Holy Spirit have been the defense of racial segregation and discrimination, 47 the acquiescence by some in political totalitarianism, 48 and the surrender to suburban culture in the great cities.49 E. PRESENT-DAY LORDSHIP OF THE SPIRIT

The compelling evidence from church history as to the churches' efforts to make captive the Holy Spirit makes meaningful H. Wheeler Robinson's statement: "In proportion as we really believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit with the Church which is His body, we shall see the history of the Church as the Spirit's Via Dolorosa."50 The Spirit's directive agency over and in the church is no contradiction to the headship of Jesus Christ over the church, for Christ's headship is administered by the Spirit. Rather than its becoming captive to the human, the cultural, the hierarchical, and/or the ecclesiastical, the Holy Spirit is to rebuke, reform, refine, renew, and redirect the church and thereby deliver the church from the snare of institutionalism or ecclesiasticism.

VIII. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS GUIDE OF CONTEMPORARY CHURCHES Avoidance of the ecclesiastical captivity of the Holy Spirit should be coupled with the church's obedient response to the guidance of the Spirit. A. NEW TESTAMENT

The message of the council at Jerusalem to the church in Antioch of Syria included the following consensus: '"It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following require46. See above, VI, C, 2. 47. Tilson, Segregationand the Bible. 48. Arthur C. Cochrane (1909- ), The Church'sConfessionunder Hitler (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962). 49. Gibson Winter (1916- ), The SuburbanCaptivityof the Churches:An Analysisof ProtestantResponsibilityin the ExpandingMetropolis(New York: Macmillan, 1962). 50. The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit, p. 151.

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ments'" (Acts 15:28, NIV). There followed four ethical imperatives. To the Thessalonian Christians Paul wrote: "Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thess. 5:19-22, RSV). The letters to the seven churches contained an admonitional formula, "'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"' (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22, RSV, NIV). B. RADICAL PROTESTANTISM

Radical or left-wing Protestants of the Reformation era made a unique and significant contribution to the doctrine of the church's guidance by the Holy Spirit. They went beyond magisterial or right-wing Protestantism's emphasis on the task of the Holy Spirit in confirming the Scriptures and the agency of the Spirit in justification by grace through faith. George Hendry, 51 Hendrikus Berkhof, 52 and William Hordern 53 have too completely identified the radical Protestant view of the sixteenth century with "the immediate, subjective experience of the Spirit in the individual" or with the Spirit's having only an "indirect" relation to the church or with a reliance on the Spirit that does not need the Scriptures, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. They have failed to recognize the distinction which twentieth-century scholars have made between the Anabaptists and the Spiritualists of the sixteenth century. 54 H.P. Van Dusen criticized Hendry's interpretation as coming close to "an inexcusable misrepresentation, even travesty, of its [Anabaptism's] major expressions," for the "latter" has "been indifferent to neither Scripture and Christ nor Church." 55 Twentieth-century efforts to reassess and renew radical Protestantism included the continuation or the recovery of consensus, or agreement by means of discussion through the leading of the Holy Spirit. 56 But even among the heirs of the believers' church heritage the practice of consensus has seemed to be foreign. Has the French parliament with its numerous political parties, each striving for its own ends, and their corresponding representation become the unconscious model for some churches and denominations? Have governments dominated by one party, notably the Communist, with their reduction of all opposition to mere formalities become the pattern for others? Has the practice of voting become so politicized through factional strife as to obscure any possible guidance by the Spirit? Such present-day influences of the political upon the ecclesial are 51. The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology,p. 68. 52. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 45-47. 53. "The Holy Spirit and the Theology of the Cross" in Bruner and Hordern, The Holy Spirit: Shy Memberof the Trinity, p. 88. 54. Williams and Mergal, eds., Spiritual and AnabaptistWriters,pp. 19-38; Littell, The Anabaptist Viewof the Church,pp. 43-45. 55. Spirit, Son and Father, p. 135.

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opposite to the fact that radical Protestantism's decisions by consensus through the Spirit in an earlier era were taken from the ecclesial sphere and applied in the political with a resultant boost for democracy. Have regional mores or programmatic activism actually had more impact on decisions within and by churches than the Spirit of God? Does God the Holy Spirit actually guide Christian congregations into what Van Dusen called '"new truth' which God desires to reveal to His children in the special and novel circumstances of their contemporary life"? 57 What of the Spirit's guidance as to racial justice, the population explosion, atomic energy and weaponry, ecological pollution, and bio-medical ethics? Or does the fact that various churches have come to differing conclusions concerning these contemporary ethical issues negate any guidance by the Spirit? C. SPIRIT-GUIDANCE AND THE BIBLE

The history of Christianity, however, has given evidence that claims to guidance by the Holy Spirit must always be checked in the light of and by the norm of the canonical Scriptures. Three examples of movements whose claims to Spirit-guidance were challenged should be noted.

1. Gnostics During the second and third centuries AD the Gnostics claimed to possess a spiritual knowledge or secret knowledge of Jesus and his sayings which sometimes proved to be a variation from or a distortion of the message and mission of Jesus as recorded in the four canonical Gospels and interpreted by the kerygmaembodied within the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of the New Testament and attested by the developing Rule of Faith. 58 Hence the church's controversy with the Gnostics was at least in part an evaluation of claims to Spirit-guidance in the light of the canonical books.

56. Franklin H. Littell, The Free Church(Boston: Starr King Press, 1957), pp. 43-48; Howard Brinton, Friendsfor 300 Years:The Historyand Beliefsof the Societyof Friendssince GeorgeFox Startedthe QuakerMovement (New York: Harper and Bros., 1952), pp. 99-117. 57. Spirit, Son and Father,pp. 136-37. 58. But recent writers on Gnosticism have been slow to point to Spirit-guidance as distinct from the transmission of an oral tradition: Henri-Charles Puech, "Gnostic Gospels and Related Documents," in Edgar Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha,ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher, trans. Robert McLachlan Wilson, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963), 1:231-362; Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,pp. 22-28; Robert M. Grant, Gnosticismand Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), pp. 151-81; Robert McLachlan Wilson, Gnosisand the New Testament(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1968), pp. 60-99.

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2. Spiritualists, or Spiritualizers In sixteenth-century Europe the Spiritualists, not to be confused with the nineteenth- and twentieth-century movement that allegedly communicates with the dead, elevated the spirit, whether divine or human, above the Scriptures (Word) as well as above the church as the primary channel of divine revelation. Some stressed "the Inner Word" instead of the external Word (the Bible). Some were revolutionary (Thomas Miintzer, 1488 or 1489-1525 ), others were rationalistic (Sebastian Franck, 1499- 1542), and yet others were evangelical (Caspar Schwenckfeld). These Continental Spiritualizers also taught an ungathered church of the Spirit-without covenant, ministry, or sacraments. 59 Both magisterial Reformers and Anabaptists rejected the claims of the Spiritualists.

3. Friends, or Quakers Beginning in seventeenth-century England Quakers have claimed to have received immediate revelations by the Holy Spirit, whether outwardly or inwardly manifested, which contradict neither the Scriptures nor reason and are not to be examined by the Scriptures or by reason, for they are self-evidencing. Beliefs, therefore, are accepted on the final authority of such "inward, direct, and objective revelation by the Spirit." 60 Evangelical Protestants have insisted that revelations allegedly derived immediately from or through the Holy Spirit must be evaluated on the basis of the supreme authority of the Scriptures. D. INADEQUATE CONTEMPORARY ALTERNATIVES TO SPIRIT-GUIDANCE

True Christianity, both in its personal and its ecclesial aspects, entails living under the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not to be confused with any of its alternatives, its inadequate substitutes, or its "counterfeits." W. T. Conner, in lecturing on the work of the Holy Spirit, was inclined to point out so-called alternatives, namely, aestheticism, emotionalism, activism, and rationalism. Donald G. Bloesch has more recently identified certain "counterfeits" of faith, namely, "legalism," 59. Thomas Miintzer, "Sermon before the Princes" (1524), in Williams and Mergal, eds., Spiritualand Anabaptist Writers,pp. 49-70; Sebastian Franck, "Letter to John Campanus" (1531), in ibid., pp. 147-60; Caspar Schwenckfeld, CorpusSchwenckfeldianorum,ed. Chester David Hartranft, 19 vols. (Leipzig: Breitkopfund Hartel, 1907-61), 4:62-65; 8:168-214; 13:736-899, 902-22; 14:351-57; Williams, The RadicalReformation,esp. chs. 3, 18, 31, 32; Hans Joachim Hillerbrand ( 1931- ), A Fellowshipof Discontent (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), chs. 1-2; Rufus M.Jones, Spiritual Reformersin the 16th and 17th Centuries(Boston: Beacon Press, 1959; first publ. 1914), chs. 4-5. 60. [Robert] Barclay'sApologyin Modern English, ed. Dean Frei day (Elberon, N. J.: Author, 1967; first publ. 1678), proposition 2, or pp. 16-45; Brinton, Friendsfor 300 Years,chs. 2-3.

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doctrinal or liturgical "formalism," "humanitarianism," "enthusiasm," "eclecticism," and triumphalist "heroism." 61 We have noted in the Old Testament an anticipated internalizing of the Spirit of the Lord and have probed the question as to whether under the New Covenant the Spirit works primarily in the church or both in the church and in the created order. We have examined in some detail the role of the Holy Spirit in the existence of the church, the unity of the church, the worship of the church, and the mission of the church. We have assessed the danger of the Spirit's becoming captive to the church and the rightful guidance by the Spirit of the church. One topic must yet be considered, namely, the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.

61. Faith and Its Counterfeits(Downers Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity Press, 1981).

CHAPTER56

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS Until the 1960s Protestant theologians could write major monographs on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit without specific or detailed treatment of spiritual gifts. 1 Since that decade spiritual gifts have only rarely 2 failed to receive attention from those who have written on the doctrine of the Spirit. Some authors have related spiritual gifts to the individual Christian, 3 whereas others have related them primarily to the church. 4 Not only Pentecostal 5 and Neo-Pentecostal 6 but also non-Pentecostal7 authors have produced commentaries or monographs on 1 Corinthians 12-14. 1. Scott, The Spirit in the New Testament;Gore, The Holy Spirit and the Church; Robinson, The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit; Hendry, The Holy Spirit in ChristianTheology;Dewar, The Holy Spirit and Modem Thought;and Harkness, The Fellowshipof the Holy Spirit. But Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, pp. 184-89, 560-64, Rees, The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience,pp. 65-73, and Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, pp. 163-88, did provide specific discussions of spiritual gifts. 2. Heron, The Holy Spirit, pp. 130-36, and Finger, ChristianTheology,2:382-89, have no such treatment. 3. H. Berkhof, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 85-92; Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 875-82. 4. Conner, The Work of the Holy Spirit, pp. 140-45; Carter, The Personand Ministry of the Holy Spirit, pp. 268-89; Green, I Believein the Holy Spirit, pp. 116-22; and John Terry Young (1929- ), The Spirit within You (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1977), pp. 77-101, esp. 80, 101. 5. Harold Horton, The Gifts of the Spirit (3d ed.: Luton, U. K.: Assemblies of God Publishing House, 1949; 1st publ. 1934); Donald Gee, ConcerningSpiritual Gifts (rev. ed.: Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1972; orig. publ. 1928). 6. Bittlinger, Giftsand Graces:A Commentaryon I Corinthians12-14. 7. John Edgar Goldingay (1942- ), The Churchand the Giftsof the Spirit:A Practical Expositionof 1 Corinthians12-14 (Bramcote, U. K.: Grove Books, 1972); John William MacGorman, The Gifts of the Spirit:An Expositionof 1 Corinthians

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Attention has already been given to the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament in endowing judges and prophets and in gifting Israelites such as Bezalel. 8 John T. Koenig ( 1938- ) has concluded that in the Old Testament there were both "contingent" gifts (e.g., to Samson, Saul, Solomon) and "unconditional" gifts (to Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, David, and Daniel, and in the new covenant). 9

I. THE NEW TESTAMENT A. THE GIFT AND THE GIFTS

Basic to the study of the spiritual gifts, or charisms, in the New Testament is a recognition of the distinction between the "gift (dorean) of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38), which is bestowed on and common to all Christians, and the "gifts" (charismaton) (KJV, RSV, NEB,JB, NASV) or "spiritual gifts" (TEV, NIV) of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4), which are distributed by the Spirit to various Christians. 10 In the present chapter the latter are the focus of the exposition. B. LISTS OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Four 11 lists of spiritual gifts as given by Paul and one brief list by Peter have been identified. These may be listed as follows with reliance on the language of the RSV: 12-14 (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1974); Herman D. Seyer, The Stewardship of Spiritual Gifts: A Study of First Corinthians, Chapters Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen, and the Charismatic Movement (Lemoore, Calif.: Author, 1974); Robert Lewis Thomas (1928- ), Understanding Spiritual Gifts: The Christian's Special Gifts in the Light of 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1978); Bert Dominy, "Paul and Spiritual Gifts: Reflections on l Corinthians 12-14," Southwestern journal of Theology 26 (Fall 1983): 49-68; Ralph P. Martin ( 1925- ), The Spirit and the Congregation: Studies in 1 Corinthians 12-15 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984); Donald A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987).

8. See above, ch. 52, III, B, C. 9. Charismata: God's Gifts for God's People, Biblical Perspectives on Current Issues (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978), pp. 39-47. 10. The term pneumatikon in 1 Corinthians 12: I, which is normally translated "spiritual gifts," could possibly mean "spiritual persons" (Dominy, "Paul and Spiritual Gifts: Reflections on 1 Corinthians 12-14," p. 50). 11. Some reckon 1 Corinthians 14:6 as an additional or fifth Pauline list. Berkhof, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, p. 91. Rene Laurentin, "Charisms: Terminological Precision," trans. Theo Weston, in Charisms in the Church, ed. Christian Duquoc and Casiano Floristan, Concilium: Religion in the Seventies (New York: Seabury Press, 1978), p. 7, identified eight New Testament lists-"four using the word charism explicitly: 1 Cor. 12:4-1 O; 12:28-31; Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Peter 4: 10;-four without this word: 1 Cor. 14:6-13; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 4:11; Mk. 16:17-18."

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1 Corinthians 12:8-10 utterance of wisdom utterance of knowledge faith healing working of miracles prophecy ability to distinguish between spirits various kinds of tongues interpretation of tongues 1 Corinthians 12:28-30 apostles prophets teachers workers of miracles healers helpers administrators speakers in various kinds of tongues Romans 12:6-8 prophecy service teaching exhortation contribution giving aid acts of mercy Ephesians 4: 11 apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers 1 Peter 4:10-11 speaking service There is an overlapping of certain of gifts, but the lists are far from being identical. Prophecy is the only gift to appear in all of Paul's four lists, whereas teaching appears in three. Tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles, and healing are to be found only in the two lists within 1 Corinthians. The two Corinthian lists are given in the context of the problem of tongues-speaking in Corinth, the list in Romans appears in the context of

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an exhortation to Christian humility, and the Ephesian list is coupled with an emphasis on the gifts as given for the edification of the body of Christ. These lists should not be taken as exhaustive or complete. 12 C. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS

In the four aforementioned passages Paul sets forth three specific yet widely applicable teachings about spiritual gifts. First, the Holy Spirit wills to bestow or apportion such gifts (1 Cor. 12: 11). The gifts are not self-selected by the recipients but sovereignly given by the Spirit. Hence they are truly Spirit-given gifts. Second, the Spirit bestows "varieties" (RSV, NEB) (diaireseis)of (1 Cor. 12:4) or "differing" (KJV) (diaphora)(Rom. 12:6) "gifts." Plurality and diversity are clearly the Pauline emphasis. Third, the Spirit bestows the various gifts within and for the church. Such giving is "for the common good" (Phillips, RSV, NIV) (prosto sumpheron)(1 Cor. 12:7). By analogy the parts of the human body are to have "the same care" (KJV, RSV, NASV) or "the same concern" (RSV, TEV, NEB) "for one another" (RSV, TEV, NEB) (toauto hyperallilon merimnosin)(1 Cor. 12:25b). The gifts are given "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12, RSV).13 Before leaving the New Testament phase of this study, we need to ask whether Paul understood the spiritual gifts as only supernatural or in some sense also natural. 14 Admittedly such a question, as framed, may be anachronistic. At least three answers have been given. First, one can regard the spiritual gifts as the blossoming of one's natural endowments under the Holy Spirit. 15 Second, one can look upon spiritual gifts, taken to be supernatural, as coinciding with natural endowments. 16 Third, one can rather sharply differentiate the supernatural gifts from natural endowments while acknowledging that the former may employ the latter. 17

12. Dunn,jesus and the Spirit, p. 256. 13. On Ephesians 4:11-12, see William Owen Carver, The Gloryof God in the ChristianCalling:A Study of the EphesianEpistle (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1949), pp. 150-51, 206; John A. Mackay, God'sOrder:The EphesianLetter and This PresentTime (New York: Macmillan Co., 1957), pp. 145-53; and D. Elton Trueblood, The IncendiaryFellowship(New York: Harper and Row, 1967), pp. 40--41. 14. Dominy, "Paul and Spiritual Gifts," pp. 52-54. 15. Bittlinger, Gifts and Graces,p. 70. E. F. Scott, The Spirit in the New Testament, p. 91, had declared that most of the spiritual gifts "can have been nothing more than natural endowments." 16. Stott, Baptismand Fullness,pp. 90-94. 17. Dunn,jesus and the Spirit, pp. 255-56; Ray C. Stedman, Body Life (2d ed.; Glendale, Calif.: Regal Books, 1972), pp. 52-54.

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II. POSTBIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY PRIOR TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The historians of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit who wrote in the latter nineteenth century or during the first half of the twentieth century had almost nothing to say about spiritual gifts.18 The same was true of the survey in 1978 by Warren George Rusch ( 1924- ) and Bernard Holm ( 1906- ), who wrote in the context of Lutheran answers to N eo-Pentecostalism. 19 But since the advent of Neo-Pentecostalism efforts have been made to probe the history of spiritual gifts, especially tongues, prophecy, and healing. The recent studies have focused on the recurring exercise of gifts rather than on a doctrine of spiritual gifts. Louis Bouyer. ( 1913- ) cited several movements and authors, but only Montanism and the Messalians specifically claimed spiritual gifts.20 R. Leonard Carroll (1920-72) 21 rightly located the testimony concerning prophets in The Teaching of the Twelve,22 the report by Irenaeus of "many brethren in the Church ... who through the Spirit speak all kinds oflanguages," 23 and Tertullian's challenge to Marcion to exhibit "a psalm, a vision, a prayer-only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred . . . ."24 Carroll's use of Gregory ofNazianzus, Basil ofCaesarea, and Leo I is doubtful, but Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300-367) 25 and Ambrose 26 seemed to refer to the contemporary exercise of tongues. Augustine of Hippo 27 and John Chrysostom 28 referred to the cessation of tongues-speaking. George Huntston Williams and Edith Waldvogel (Blumhofer) (1950-) provided a 18. Smeaton, The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, pp. 256-368; Thomas, The Holy Spirit of God, pp. 75-117; Rees, The Holy Spirit in Thoughtand Experience,pp. 109-212; and Robinson, The ChristianExperienceof the Holy Spirit, pp. 246-66. 19. Rusch, "The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Patristic and Medieval Church," and Holm, "The Work of the Spirit: The Reformation to the Present," in The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church:FromBiblicalTimesto the Present, ed. Paul D. Opsahl (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1978), pp. 66-135. 20. "Some Charismatic Movements in the History of the Church," in Perspectives on CharismaticRenewal, ed. Edward D. O'Connor, C. S. C. (Notre Dame, Ind., London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975), pp. 113-31. 21. "Glossolalia: Apostles to the Reformation," in The GlossolaliaPhenomenon,ed. Wade H. Horton (Cleveland, Tenn.: Pathway Press, 1966), pp. 78-82. 22. Chs. 11-13. 23. Against Heresies5.6.1. 24. Against Marcion 5.8. 25. On the Trinity 8.30-33. 26. Of the Holy Spirit 2.13.150-52. 27. On Baptism,against the Donatists3.16-21; Ten Homilieson the Epistlesofjohn 6.10. 28. Homilieson First Corinthians29.1.

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detailed summary that centered on speaking in tongues and related gifts. Among the chief exemplars were the Gnostics, the Montanists, Hilary of Poitiers, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Anthony of Padua (c. 11951231), the Anabaptists in Appenzell, Louis Bertrand (1526-81), Francis Xavier (1506-52), the Camisards, the Jansenists, John Wesley's followers, the Shakers, the Cane Ridge revival, Gustav von Below, Edward Irving ( 1792-1834) and Johann Lutz, and the early Mormons. 29 George William Dollar ( 1917- ) may have gone to the extreme in affirming "silence for many centuries," i.e., during the first nineteen Christian centuries, as to tonguesspeaking, 30 and Ronald Arbuthnott Knox ( 1888-195 7) more aptly referred to the paucity of "large scale" evidence for divinely inspired glossolalia before "the end of the seventeenth century." 31 The tracing of the history of the doctrine of spiritual gifts within the several confessional or denominational families has not yet attracted scholarly concentration, but it is possible to trace the doctrine among Baptists through their confessions of faith. The gifts of tongues, prophecy, healing, and miracles were seen to be preparatory to "the most proper gifts" associated with the new creation and water baptism. 32 Those appointed to the preaching and teaching roles ought to have been given gifts by God. 33 Those who have received gifts ought to "improve" such gifts and render faithful service. 34 The church has "the duty ... to send forth such brethren as are fitly gifted and qualified through the Spirit of Christ to preach the gospel to the world. "35 Those who practiced the ordinance of the laying on of hands on all believers viewed it as not being "for the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, but for (Eph. 1:13-14) a farther reception of the Holy Spirit of promise, or for the addition of the 29. "A History of Speaking in Tongues and Related Gifts," in The Charismatic Movement, ed. Michael P. Hamilton (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), pp. 61-113. See also Robert Glenn Gromacki (1933- ), The Modern Tongues Movement (rev. ed.: Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1973), pp. 11-23, and Ronald Kydd, CharismaticGifts in the Early Church(Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984). 30. "Church History and the Tongues Movement," BibliothecaSacra 120 (October-December 1963); 316. 31. Enthusiasm:A Chapterin the Historyof Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), p. 551. 32. "Propositions and Conclusions concerning True Christian Religion" (1612-1614), art. 53, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 134. 33. London Confession (1644), art. 45; "The Faith and Practice ofThirty Congregations" (1651), art. 58; Somerset Confession (1656), art. 31; Standard Confession (1660), art. 5; Second London Confession (1677), art. 26, sect. 9; and Orthodox Creed (1678), art. 31, in ibid., pp. 168,184,212,226,287, 319-20. 34. "The Faith and Practice of Thirty Congregations," arts. 30, 32, 33, 40, 45, 52, and 71, in ibid., pp. 179, 180, 181, 183, 186-87. 35. Somerset Confession, art. 34, in ibid., pp. 212-13.

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graces of the Spirit, and the influences thereof," for the extraordinary gifts had in primitive times confirmed the gospel. 36 More recently it has been sufficient to declare that the Holy Spirit "bestows the spiritual gifts by which they [believers] serve God through His church. "37

III. TWENTIETH CENTURY The twentieth-century monographs on spiritual gifts may be classified under five categories. A. PRE-VATICAN COUNCIL II ROMAN CATHOLICS

Prior to Vatican Council II Roman Catholic authors, especially Dominicans, tended to explicate the seven gifts of the Spirit identified by Thomas Aquinas (understanding, counsel, wisdom, knowledge, piety, fortitude, and fear) and based by him on Isa. l l:2-3a. 38 Such was true of Ambroise Gardeil, 0. P. (1859-1931), 39 Hugh Francis Blunt (1877-?),40 and Walter Farrell, 0. P. (1902-51) and Dominic Hughes (1918- ).41 B. POST-VATICAN COUNCIL II ROMAN CATHOLICS

More recent Roman Catholic writers who have interpreted spiritual gifts have tended to begin with the New Testament passages concerning spiritual gifts and to write in full awareness of Pentecostalism and Neo- Pentecostalism. Hans Kung warned both against the "misconception" that "charisms" are "principally exceptional, miraculous or sensational phenomena" and against the "misunderstanding" that "there is only one particular kind of gift, for example, that connected with some kind of ordination." Kung classified the gifts mentioned in three of Paul's lists (1 Cor. 12:28-30; Rom. 12:6--8;Eph. 4:11-12) under three categories: charisms "of preaching,""of servue," and "of leadership."A charism "is not a natural talent, but a call of grace, a call to service." Charisms are not reserved for an elitist group, for there is "a charismatic structure of the Church. "42 Donald L. Gelpi, S. J. (1934- ), came to the gifts from an "experiential" and not from a "purely exegetical" approach and held that most of the Pauline gifts can be correlated "with the different moments 36. Philadelphia Confession ( 1742), art. 31, in ibid., p. 351. 37. Baptist Faith and Message, Southern Baptist Convention (1963), art. 2, sect. 3, in ibid. (rev. ed., 1969), p. 394. 38. Summa Theologica,1-2.68.4. 39. The Holy Spirit in ChristianLife (London: Blackfriars Publications, 1953). 40. Life with the Holy Ghost:Thoughtson the Giftsof the Holy Ghost(Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1943). 41. Swift Victory:Essayson the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955). Yves Congar after Vatican Council II still treated the gifts with Thomas's doctrine as the focus./ Believein the Holy Spirit, 2 (French orig., 1979; E.T., 1983): 134-37. 42. The Church,trans. Ray Ockenden and Rosaleen Ockenden (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1968), pp. 181, 183, 184, 185, 188.

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in the graced development of experience." Tongues-speaking "is a mysterious utterance expressive of the mysterious presence of the Spirit," "a language of praise and thanksgiving" that is "devoid of clear conceptual content." Gelpi rejected the patristic exegesis of Acts 2:4 as referring to foreign languages. Tongues did not disappear after the apostolic age, is not to be reckoned as "an extraordinary gift," and is not "the only adequate criterion for baptism in the Holy Spirit. "43 Rene Laurentin ( 1917- ), defining charisms as the ''freegiftsof the Spi,ritintendedfor the lntil,dingup of the Church,the Bodyof Christ,"considered them to be "not extraordinary"and "not ecst.atic"and yet "supernatural" in the sense of being freely given by the Spirit rather in the sense of being "superadded to nature." They can be classified according to functions of ministry, according to "their end" (marriage, celibacy), and according to their "sacramental character" (baptism, confirmation, holy orders). 44 Enrique D. Dussel (1934-) attempted a task-oriented typology of charisms according to present-day practice. 45 Interpreting and building on Vatican Council H's statement about charisms, Francis A Sullivan, S. J. (1922-) differentiated "spiritual gifts" (pneurnatika), which for the Corinthian Christians meant tongues and prophecy, from "charisms" (charismata),which term refers to Paul's comprehensive understanding of numerous and diverse gifts. Sullivan did not treat the list in Ephesians 4: 11.46 C. REFORMED AND DISPENSATIONALIST THEOLOGIANS

Certain Reformed theologians have denied the actuality or at least the probability of the present-day exercise of the so-called extraordinary gifts of the Spirit on the basis that such gifts, being for the authentication of the message of the apostles, ceased to be given after the New Testament era. This was the position set forth by B. B. Warfield, who concluded that both miracles47 and extraordinary spiritual gifts ceased after the lifetime of the disciples of the apostles.48 According to Anthony Hoekema, tongues- speaking is "not a part of the great tradition of historic Christianity, but is rather an isolated phenomenon which has occurred sporadically, under unusual circumstances." Doubtful that it is "one of the permanent gifts of the Spirit to the church," Hoekema argued that the "special gifts of the Spirit, like tongue-speaking, are no longer operative in the church today." He followed Warfield's 43. Charismand Sacrament:A Theologyof ChristianConversion(New York: Paulist Press, 1976), pp. 65, 66, 70, 72, 74-75. Gelpi also discussed the gifts of faith, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, teaching, healing, and discernment and the action gifts. 44. "Charisms: Terminological Precision," pp. 8, 7, 9-10. 45. "The Differentiation ofCharisms," trans. Paul Burns, in Charismsin the Church,pp. 45-53. 46. Charismsand CharismaticRenewal:A Biblicaland TheologicalStudy (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant, 1982), pp. 20-46. 47. See above, ch. 27, IV, A, l. 48. CounterfeitMiracles,pp. 3-6, 21, 23-26.

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insistence upon authentication of the apostolic message, held that Paul in 1 Cor. 12-14 downplayed tongues, noted that no New Testament epistle besides 1 Corinthians refers to tongues, and alluded to the "almost total absence of glossolalia in the history of the church from AD 100 to 1900." Yet he also declared: "We certainly cannot bind the Holy Spirit by suggesting that it would be impossible for Him to bestow the gift of tongues today!"49 Building on the foundation laid by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield,50John F. Walvoord, a Dispensationalist theologian, made a sharp differentiation between the "permanent" and the "temporary" spiritual gifts. Included among the "permanent," which are to be found today, were the gifts of teaching, helping, administration, evangelism, pastoral ministry, exhortation, giving, showing mercy, and faith. Earmarked as the "temporary" and hence not available in the modern era were the gifts of apostleship, prophecy, miracles, healing, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and discerning of spirits. Walvoord's distinction seems to rest on two basic arguments: there is no longer a need to authenticate the apostolic message, and the "temporary" gifts are simply not being given today, even to God's "faithful remnant."51 Walter James Chantry (1938- ),52 Merrill F. Unger (1909- ),53 William John McRae ( 1933- ),54 Thomas R. Edgar ( 1933- ),55and Ronald E. Baxter ( 1938- )56 have argued for the same position. Robert Lewis Thomas has argued for the postapostolic cessation of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge by interpreting 1 Cor. 13:11, the putting away of childish things, as referring to the completion of the canon of the New Testament. 57

49. What about Tongue-Speaking?(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966), pp. 23, 103-13, 127. 50. ScofieUReferenceBible, ed. C. I. Scofield (New York: Oxford University Press, 1917), n. 1 re 1 Cor. 14:1. 51. The Holy Spirit, pp. 167, 168-88, esp. 168, 173-75; see also idem, The Holy Spirit at Work Today (Chicago: Moody Press, 1973), pp. 38-54, where he allowed that some "miracles" and "healings" do occur today (pp. 43-45) but was less certain about contemporary occurrence of the "genuine" gift of tongues (pp. 45-53). 52. Signs of theApostles:Observationson PentecostalismOU and New (2d rev. ed.: Edinburgh, Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976; 1st publ. 1973), pp. 22-60. 53. The Baptismof the Spirit and Giftsof the Spirit (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), ch. 8; also Gromacki, The Modern TonguesMovement,pp. 118-19. 54. The Dynamicsof Spiritual Gifts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), pp. 90-99, who cited Heb. 2:3-4 and 1 Cor. 13:8b in support. 55. MiraculousGifts:Are Theyfor Today?(Neptune, N.J.: Loizeaux, 1983), esp. pp. 223-52, 260-78. 56. Gifts of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1983), pp. 95-97, 99-102, 107-8, 111-12, 114-15, 124-29, 140-47, 159-62, 166-67. 57. UnderstandingSpiritual Gifts, pp. 103-15, esp. 107-8.

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D. PENTECOSTAL AND NEO-PENTECOSTAL AUTHORS

Pentecostal authors have uniformly taught that spiritual gifts are indeed being given today, as they have been at times during the postbiblical history of Christianity, but have tended to focus rather exclusively on the gifts mentioned in Paul's first list (1 Cor. 12:8-10). Harold Horton 58 and Donald Gee ( 1891-1966) 59 treated the gifts by explicating such a list. David J. du Plessis preferred the term "manifestations of the Spirit" rather than "spiritual gifts. "60 Similarly, Neo-Pentecostals have affirmed the contemporary occurrence of charisms and made 1 Cor. 12:8-10 the textus classicus.Arnold Bittlinger first explicated the gifts listed in that passage. 61 Then in a second book he broadened his consideration of the gifts to include Rom. 12:6-8 with the result that he classified giftsunder four categories ("proclamation," "service," "special power," and "prayer") and to embrace Eph. 4: 11-12 so that he could deal with "ministries for the whole church." 62 The major focus of Howard Matthew Ervin (1915- ) was upon 1 Cor. 12:8-10. 63 Siegfried Samuel Schatzmann (1941- ), a former Pentecostal, treated Rom. 12:6-8 in detail as well as 1 Cor. 12:8-10, 28-30 but excluded Eph. 4:11-12. 64 E. NON-PENTECOSTAL PROTESTANT AUTHORS

During the past quarter century numerous non-Pentecostal Evangelical Protestant authors have produced treatments of spiritual gifts. Their emphases can best be interpreted thematically. First, all, or at least most, of the spiritual gifts mentioned by Paul have been said to be given and exercised today (Edward F. Murphy, 65 1929- ; Kenneth Otto Gangel, 66 58. The Gifts of the Spirit. 59. ConcerningSpiritual Gifts. E. S. Williams, SystematicTheology,3:63-82, had treated Paul's two lists in 1 Cor. 12 and the one in Rom. 12 but not that in Eph.4. 60. The Spirit Bade Me Go, pp. 94-95. 61. Giftsand Graces:A Commentaryon 1 Corinthians12-14. 62. Giftsand Ministries,trans. Clara K. Dyck (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), pp. 15-16, 46-85. 63. "TheseAre Not Drunken, As Ye Suppose"(Plainfield, N. J.: Logos International, 1968), pp. 110-74, 194-213; rev. ed., Spirit-Baptism:A BiblicalInvestigation (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987), pp. 85-138, 155-70. In the latter Ervin took into account all four of Paul's lists (pp. 105-10). 64. A Pauline Theologyof Charismata(Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987), ch. 2. 65. Spiritual Giftsand the GreatCommission(South Pasadena, Calif.: Mandate Press, 1975), p. 102, who declared: "We do not live in the days of Augustine, Warfield or Scofield. Ours is a new day .... The Holy Spirit has been 'rediscovered,' i.e., His gifting ministry is being restored to the Church after so many centuries of neglect." 66. You and Your Spiritual Gifts (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), pp. 88-89.

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1935-; George Mallone, 67 1944-; Martin Maximillian Barnaby Turner, 68 194 7- ). Second, equal treatment has been given to the four Pauline lists of spiritual gifts (Charles Webb Carter; 69 Rick Yohn, 70 1937- ; Leslie Bruce Flynn, 71 1918-; William]. McRae; 72 Edward F. Murphy; 73 Kenneth S. Hemphill, 74 1948- ). Third, that every Christian has received at least one spiritual gift and ought to make use of it has been affirmed (Kenneth 0. Gangel; 75 Lynn P. Clayton, 76 1940- ; Kenneth Cain Kinghorn, 77 1930- ) . Fourth, various efforts have been made to classify the different spiritual gifts: (see list on p. 226). Fifth, the gifts in the list on page 226 all are given for ministry and for unity (Charles W. Carter, 78 Kenneth 0. Gangel, 79 Kenneth C. Kinghorn 80 ). Sixth, the gifts ought to be employed so as to enable Christians more effectively to fulfil the Great Commission or to contribute to church growth (Edward F. Murphy, 81 Charles Peter Wagner, 82 1930- ). Seventh, spiritual gifts are to be exercised through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ (Ray C. Stedman, 1917-92). 83 Eighth, a via media was sought between the extremes of "the overclaim of many glossolalists" and "the overreaction of the nonglossolalists who feel threatened" Oohn William MacGorman), 84

67. Mallone, "Tidy Doctrine and Truncated Experience," in Those Controversial Gifts: Prophecy, Dreams, Visions, Tongues, Interpretation, Healing, ed. Mallone et al. (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1983), pp. 13-29. 68. "Spiritual Gifts Then and Now," Vax Evangelica, 15: Biblical and Historical Essaysfrom London Bible College, ed. Harold H. Rowdon (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1985), pp. 41-50. But Stott, Baptism and Fullness, pp. 99-102, has denied that apostleship and prophecy are given today. 69. The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit, ch. 11. Carter does not treat in detail Rom. 12:6-8. 70. Discover Your Spiritual Gift and Use It (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1974), chs. 2-10. 71. 19 Gifts of the Spirit (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1974), chs. 3-20. 72. The Dynamics of Spiritual Gifts, ch. 3. 73. Spiritual Gifts and the Great Commission, pp. 42-99. 74. Spiritual Gifts: Empowering the New Testament Church (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1988), chs. 3-7. 75. You and Your Spiritual Gifts, p. 87. 76. No Second-Class Citizens (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1976), p. 8. 77. Gifts of the Spirit (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976), pp. 26-28. 78. The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit, pp. 280-85. 79. You and Your Spiritual Gifts, pp. 90-91. 80. Gifts of the Spirit, pp. 28-33, 110-13, 119-22. 81. Spiritual Gifts and the Great Commission, pp. 210-21, 248-64. 82. Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow (Glendale, Calif.: Regal Books, 1979), esp. chs. 6, 7, 9. 83. Body Life, ch. 6. 84. The Gifts of the Spirit, p. x.

226 James D. G. Dunn: 85

The Holy Spirit Kenneth C. Kinghorn:

1. Activities (energimata) 1. Enabling . Miracles . Apostleship . Healing . Prophecy . Faith . Evangelism 2. Manifestations . Shepherding (phanerosis) . Teaching . Revelation of Christ 2. Serving . Vision and Ecstasy . Wisdom . Knowledge and Wisdom . Knowledge . Guidance . Faith 3. Inspired Utterance . Healing . Proclamation . Miracles . Prophecy . Discernment . Discerning of Spirits . Helps and Serving . Teaching . Administration and . Singing Giving Aid . Prayer . Exhortation . Tongues (Glossolalia) . Giving . Interpretation . Compassion 3. Tongues of Tongues 4. Service (diakonia) . Tongues . Giving and Caring . Interpretation of . Helping and Guiding Tongues

86

Donald Bridge and David Phypers: 87 1. For Recognized Church Officers . Apostles . Prophets . Evangelists . Pastors and Teachers . Service . Helpers . Administrators 2. For the Whole Church . Wisdom . Knowledge . Faith . Healing . Miracles . Prophecy . Discernment . Tongues . Interpretation of Tongues . Voluntary Poverty . Martyrdom . Celibacy . Contribution . Acts of Mercy

between "charismania"and "charisphobia"(Kenneth C. Kinghorn), 85 and between a constricted limitation of "spiritual gifts" to those listed in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 and a broad, inclusive attribution of charisms to nonChristian religions and "secular heroes" (M. M. B. Turner). 89

IV. TONGUES-SPEAKING, OR GLOSSOIALIA Three of the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians and emphasized by present-day Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals call for some specific treatment. These are tongues, healing, and prophecy. Inasmuch as healing has already been discussed in connection with miracles 90 and with the

85.Jesus and the Spirit, pp. 209-53. 86. Giftsof the Spirit, chs. 4-6. 87. Spiritual Giftsand the Church(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1974), chs. 3-4. 88. FreshWind of the Spirit (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975), pp. 111-13. 89. "Spiritual Gifts Then and Now," p. 7. 90. See Vol. 1, ch. 27, IV.

The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts saving work of Christ, 91 the present consideration tongues and to prophecy.

227 will be limited to

A. NATURE OF TONGUES-SPEAKING IN ACTS 2:4B

Exegetes and theologians are not agreed 92 as to the nature of the occurrence described by Acts 2:4b. When "they began to speak," did they do so "with" (KJV) or "in" (RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV) "other tongues" (KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV) or "other languages" (TEV) or "different languages" (Phillips) or "foreign languages" QB) (erxanto l,aleinheteraisglossais)?The oldest interpretation, the accepted one among the Church Fathers, understands the tongues to have been intelligible foreign languages (xenoglossolalia). But present-day expositors also hold to the foreign- language view.93 A second interpretation of Acts 2 :4b understands "other tongues" as a reference to "fiery eloquence" 94 or linguistic persuasiveness. Willibald Beyschlag opted for fiery language, 95 and William Barclay took the phrase to mean speaking with great or convincing persuasiveness. 96 A third view interprets the text as referring to rapturous or ecstatic speaking in which the miracle consisted of acoustical certainty about the Holy Spirit. Accordingly the hearing was supernatural. 97 But the text emphasizes speaking. 91. See above, ch. 49, II. 92. Moody, Spirit of the Living God, pp. 62-63. 93. Wallie Amos Criswell ( 1909- ), The Holy Spirit in Today's World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966), p. 167; Gromacki, The Modern Tongues Movement, pp. 86-87; MacDonald, Glossolalia in the New Testament, p. 4; Fisher Humphreys and Malcolm Tolbert, Speaking in Tongues (New Orleans: Insight Press, 1973), p. 34; Young, The Spirit within You, pp. 66-68; and Edgar, Miraculous Gifts, pp. 122-31. Burton Scott Easton, "Tongues, Gift of," International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 5:2996-97, held that those assembled on the Day of Pentecost "recognized [only Jwords and phrases in their own tongues." According to Arthur Wright (1843-1924), Some New Testament Problems (London: Methuen and Co., 1898), pp. 290-302, tongues involved "an abnormally excited memory" that issued in messages or words and phrases of a language unknown to the hearers. But William L. Hendricks, "Glossolalia in the New Testament," in Speaking in Tongues: Let's Talk about It, ed. Watson E. Mills (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1973), pp. 52-53, while holding that Luke interpreted tongues as known languages or dialects, allowed for a possible "ecstasy source" behind the text. 94. Moody, Spirit of the Living God, p. 62. 95. Beyschlag, as interp. by P. W. Schmiedel, "Spiritual Gifts," Encyclopaedia Biblica, 4:4768. Beyschlag, New Testament Theology, I :305, also interpreted Acts 2:4b as the giving of "prophetic inspiration and ecstatic speech," since the Holy Spirit had already been given (John 20:22). 96. The Promise of the Spirit (London: Epworth Press, 1960), p. 55. 97. Wilhelm Michaelis, in Die Wirkungen des Geistes und der Geister im nachapost. Zeitalter bis auf Irenaeus, ed. H. Weinel (1899), as quot. and interp. by Maurice Barnett, The Living Flame: Being a Study of the Gift of the Spirit in the New Testament (London: Epworth Press, 1953), pp. 85-86. The objection to a

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A fourth view consists of a critical theory that alleges that Luke, as he had done with the birth of Jesus and the ascension of Jesus, "invented a myth," using the Jewish feast of Pentecost, to provide a setting for ecstatic utterance through the Spirit. He fused the natural wind symbolism with the fire symbolism and divine voice from Sinai, and made the whole scene into a symbolic harvest of souls through the conversion of representatives of many peoples. He further interpreted the glossolalia as a reversal of the confusion of tongues in Genesis, and translated the names given in the tenth chapter of that book into their modern equivalent to supply the names of the nations represented. 98 The theory contradicts the historical reliability of Acts. A fifth view, a critical view involving the use of electronic computers, has posited that Acts l: 15-2:4 7 was not included in the original Acts of the Apostles (called "Proto-Acts") and instead came with a later redaction. Hence 2:4b is downgraded as a source. 99 This theory contradicts the textual integrity of Acts. A sixth, common to but not restricted to Pentecostals and N eo-Pentecostals, takes Acts 2:4b to mean the same kind of supernatural utterance, that is, glossolalia, that Paul mentioned in 1 Cor. 12-14. 100 A seventh interpretation understands "other tongues" to refer to intelligible utterance, either "mysterious" "languages,though not necessarily foreign languages" 101 or "intelligible speech (polyglossia)" in the sense of "understandable language." 102

miracle of hearing goes back at least as far as Gregory of Nazianzus, Orations 41.15. 98. M. D. Goulder, Type and Historyin Acts (London: S. P. C. K., 1964), pp. 184-88. 99. Andrew Queen Morton (1919-) and George Hogarth Carnaby Macgregor, The Structure of Luke and Acts (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), pp. 40-44. 100. Gee, ConcerningSpiritualGifts,p. 61; Ervin, "TheseAre Not Drunken,As Ye Suppose,"pp. 105-9; Moody, Spirit of the Livi,ngGod, p. 62; Williams, Renewal Theolog;y,2:212-15; and Watson Early Mills (1939- ),A Theological/Exegetical Approachto Glossolalia(Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1985), pp. 69-70. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, pp. 180-87, taking Acts 2:4b to refer to the same phenomenon as recorded in Acts 10:46, Acts 19:6, and 1 Cor. 12-14, concluded in favor of a "supernatural," "unknown language" but, of course, denied its occurrence after the apostolic age.Joseph Richard Estes (1925-99), "The Biblical Concept of Spiritual Gifts" (Ph.D. diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1957), pp. 65-75, esp. 73, combined ecstatic utterance with the gift of hearing with understanding. 101. Scott, The Spirit in the New Testament,pp. 99, 98. 102. Frank Stagg, "Glossolalia in the New Testament," in Stagg, E. Glenn Hinson, and Wayne E. Oates, Glossolalia:Tongue Speaking in Biblical,

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The fourth and fifth interpretations by their critical presuppositions deny any extraordinary speaking, and the second and third interpretations by shifting to eloquent persuasiveness and to miraculous hearing, respectively, do in essence the same. Hence only the first, sixth, and seventh interpretations are of major importance in any effort to correlate Acts 2:4b and 1 Cor. 12-14. B. RELATIONSHIP OF ACTS 2:4B AND 1 CORINTHIANS 12-14

We approach this question of correlation on the assumption 103 that in 1 Cor. 12-14 Paul, by referring to "the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues" (NIV) or "various kinds of tongues" (RSV) (heterggeni gliissiin) (12: 10; cf. 12:28) and to "one who speaks in a tongue" (ho ... laliin gliissi) (RSV, 14:2), alluded to a Spirit-given utterance more likely to be described as ecstatic than as a foreign language. We also assume that what happened according to Acts 10:46 and Acts 19:6 was not markedly different from Paul's reference in 1 Cor. 12-14. How, then, ought one to compare Paul's reference in 1 Cor. 12-14 with that described in Acts 2:4b? First, some authors have concluded that the two phenomena are radically or markedly different as to nature, thereby resisting all efforts to identify the two. Frank Stagg sharply differentiated the "intelligible speech" of Acts 2:4b and the [e]cstatic, unintelligible utterance" at Corinth. "The shame of Corinth is not to be cloaked with the glory of Pentecost. Babbling, ancient or modern, is Corinthian and not Pentecostal." 104 Anthony Hoekema, taking Acts 10:46 and 19:6 to be extensions of Pentecost, drew the following contrasts: 105

Historical,and PsychologicalPerspective(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1967), pp. 31, 34. 103. On the contrary, J. G. Davies, "Pentecost and Glossolalia," journal of TheologicalStudiesn.s. 3 (October 1952); 228-31, interpreted the tongues in 1 Cor. 12-14 as "speaking in foreign languages," because the majority of the Septuagint's uses of hermeneueinand its cognates involves translation from one language to another. 104. "Glossolalia in the New Testament," pp. 37, 41. Stagg was less than decisive concerning Acts 10:46; 19:6 (pp. 34-35). "[T]here has been no dearth of critics and no lack of disapproval. It [present-day tongues-speaking] has been dismissed as incoherent gibberish, described as the vomit of Satan, categorised as the emotional extravagance of the socially deprived or as the morbid outbursts of psychological misfits." C. G. Williams, "Speaking in Tongues," in Strange Gifts?A Guideto CharismaticRenewal, ed. David Martin and Peter Mullen (Oxford, New York: Basil Blackwell, 1984), p. 72. 105. What about Tongue-Speaking?,pp. 67-88, esp. 82-83.

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The Holy Spirit Acts No interpretation needed Purpose: "validation and confirmation" Pentecost and its extensions A "temporary ... experience" "[E]veryone in the group. . . spoke with tongues."

1 Corinthians Interpretation needed Purpose: "edification"

No extension of Pentecost A "continuing gift" "[N]ot all spoke with tongues" (12:30).

Also Richard Norman Longenecker (1930-) differentiated between the understood languages of Acts 2:4b and the "ecstatic utterances" of 1 Cor. 12-14 because "gave utterance" (apophtheggomai)is used of understood speech in Acts 2: 14 and 26:25. 106 Second, some Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals as well as some non-Pentecostals have concluded that the phenomenon in Acts 2:4b and that in 1 Cor. 12-14 are very similar, if not indeed identical. W. R.Jones of the Elim Pentecostal Churches found that Acts 2:4 and 1 Cor. 14:2 both refer to tongues exercised for the praise of God, for "only Peter stood up to preach the gospel (Acts 2:14)." Tongues was the Spirit-given enablement "to speak ... in languages unknown to the one possessing the gift, that is, languages unknown either before or after the time of utterance." 107 According to J. Rodman Williams, Acts 2:4b describes the same phenomenon as do Acts 10:45-46 and Acts 19:6, and hence "speaking in tongues was the same phenomenon in all the cases recorded" in Acts. Then, including 1 Cor. 12-14, Williams strongly refuted "the view that speaking in tongues at Pentecost was not the same phenomenon that occurred later." 108 John F. Walvoord concluded "that basically the gift is the same in its various [New Testament] references." "In all passages, the same vocabulary is used: l,al,eo and glossa,in various grammatical constructions." 109 The same conclusion was advocated by Dale Moody, who declared: "First Corinthians, ch. 14, is primitive and primary, not Acts 2:6b-l l, so the earliest passage, not the secondary, should control interpretation." 110 Philip Schaff (1819-93) held to the identity view but in respect to foreign languages.'" 106. "The Acts of the Apostles," The Expositor'sBible Commentary,ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, 12 vols. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976 ff.): 9:271, 394-95. See also Charles H. Talbert (1934- ), "Paul's Understanding of the Holy Spirit: The Evidence of 1 Corinthians 12-14," in Perspectiveson the New Testament:Essaysin Honor of Frank Stagg, ed. Talbert (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1985), pp. 103-4. 107. "The Nine Gifts of the Holy Spirit," in PentecostalDoctrine,ed. P. S. Brewster (n.p.p.: Editor, 1976), p. 59. 108. Renewal Theology,2:209-17, esp. 212,213. 109. The Holy Spirit, p. 183. 110. Spirit of the Living God, p. 63. 111. Historyof the ChristianChurch,rev. ed., 7 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1882-1910), 1:230-31. Schaff acknowledged that at Pentecost no

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Third, both inside and outside the Pentecostal movement there have been those who have sought a via media between thoroughgoing differentiation and total identification of Acts 2:4b and I Cor. 12-14. Walter Jacob Hollenweger (1927- ), employing New Testament criticism, contrasted rather sharply the Holy Spirit and the extraordinary gifts in Luke-Acts and Paul's recognition of the ordinary gifts. Thus we cannot, on the basis of the text of the New Testament, refute Paul with Luke, nor Luke with Paul. Nor must we attempt to harmonize them. We have simply to ask which categories of presentation and thought are best appropriate to our own situation and our own congregations .... It is not accident that the picture presented by Luke has been accepted as the true biblical view by people who are not capable of dialectic thought. 112 Yet Hollenweger did not declare that the phenomenon of Acts 2:4b differed from that of 1 Cor. 12-14. For William G. MacDonald "there is no cogent exegetical ground for making any difference in the essentialcharacterof glossolalia in Corinthians from that in Acts," but in Acts "the purpose" of glossolalia was "personal, 'devotional,' or evidential" whereas in 1 Cor. 12-14 the purpose was both the latter and the edification of the church. 113 According to Robert H. Culpepper, the view "that the phenomenon of glossolalia in 1 Cor. 12-14 is different from that in Acts 2, but that both passages bear witness to valid workings of the Holy Spirit ... seems to be the best explanation of the scriptural evidence."u 4 C. GLOSSOLALIA ACCORDING TO CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS

Psychologistsof religion have given attention to the phenomenon of tonguesspeaking. Several examples may be noted. 115 George Barton Cutten (18741962) of Colgate University, not anticipating in 1927 the widespread forthcoming claims respecting glossolalia, seemed to identify tongues-speaking with catalepsy rather than with ecstasy or hysteria and defined it as "a state of personal disintegration, in which the verbo-motive centers of the subject are obedient to subconscious impulses." It could be further classified under interpretation was needed and that at Corinth such was needed and reckoned all instances as involving foreign languages. 112. The Pentecostals,trans. R. A. Wilson (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972), pp. 336-41, esp. 341. 113. Glossolaliain the New Testament,pp. 11-14, esp. 14. 114. Evaluating the CharismaticMovement, p. 96. 115. See the detailed classification of psychological theories by Ira Jay Martin, III, Glossolaliain theApostolicChurch:A Survey Study of Tongue-Speech(Berea, Ky.: Berea College Press, 1960), pp. 94-100: "partially developed catalepsy" (Cutten), "hysteria" (Francis Strickland), "hypnosis" (E. Mosiman), "excited memory" (Charles W. Shumway), "ecstasy," and "psychic catharsis" (Martin himself).

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"motor automatisms." The "outward expression" of tongues-speaking may involve any or all of the three forms of progression toward speech: "inarticulate sounds," "articulate sounds which simulate words," and "fabricated or coined words." 116 Morton T. Kelsey (1917- ), Episcopal priest trained in Jungian psychology, related tongues-speaking to Jung's concept of the "collective unconscious" but also placed tongues-speaking, for which he described both positive and negative results, in the tradition of "the direct experience of God" (Plato, New Testament, Church Fathers, Eastern Orthodoxy) rather than in the tradition of inferring or deducing God from the universe or from history (Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, later Western Christianity). 117 Wayne E. Oates, building on "the psychological development of language in human life," advanced the hypothesis that "speaking in tongues is 'cradle speech' of the newborn Christian," to be "likened to the language of children." By the 1960s the repressive cultural or societal "taboo" against God-talk had created a climate favorable to tongues-speaking. Oates related tongues-speaking speechand both to Jean Piaget's (1896-1980) distinction between "egocentric socialiudspeech"and to Harry Stack Sullivan's (1892-1949) distinction between "prototaxic," "parataxic," and "syntaxic" modes of human experience.118John P. Kildahl (1927- ), together with Paul Qualben, found that tongues-speakers "are more submissive, suggestible, and dependent in the presence of authority figures," tend to think of"benevolent" authority figures when beginning to speak in tongues, and are less depressed and "feel better about themselves after speaking in tongues." 119 Ira Jay Martin, III ( 1911- ), studied New Testament tongues- speaking in the context of its historical background but with attention to physiological, psychological, and social factors, 120 (34-37) and William J. Samarin ( 1926- ) studied modem tongues-speaking from the perspective of linguistics. He defined glossolalia as a "meaningless but phonologically structured human utterance believed by the speaker to be a real language but bearing no systematic resemblance to any natural language, living or dead." It is "learned behavior," though "not learned as real language is learned." It is "not aberrant behavior, only anomalous. It is only anomalous, because it departs from run-of-the-mill speech." It is "indeed anomalous but not extraordinary." "Glossolalists are ... not necessarily abnormal beings; it is only their belief that is not common ..... There are healthy glossolalists, and 116. Speakingwith Tongues,Historicallyand Psychologically Considered(New Haven: Yale University Press), pp. 157-84. 117. Tongue Speaking:An Experimentin Spiritual Experience(Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1964), pp. 188-95, 218-33. 118. "A Socio-Psychological Study of Glossolalia," in Stagg, Hinson, and Oates, Glossolalia,pp. 76-91. 119. The Psychologyof Speakingin Tongues (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), pp. 38-47, 78. 120. Glossolaliain theApostolicChurch,esp. pp. 15-28, 34-37.

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there are sick ones." But glossolalia, according to Samarin, "is normal, not supernatural as the Pentecostal believes."121 From such modem studies we must again turn to the text of the New Testament. D. THE APOSTLE PAUL CONCERNING GLOSSOLALIA

Paul's teaching about tongues-speaking, delivered in the context of his addressing a problem situation in the church at Corinth, may be summarized as follows. First, tongues-speaking is a true and valid charism (1 Cor. 12:10, 28, 30; 13:1). Second, Paul himself had experienced or practiced tongues-speaking (14: 18). Third, tongues-speaking is in essence directed to God, not to human beings (14:2). Fourth, tongues-speaking is intended to be a "sign" to unbelievers (14:22a),122 not a stumbling block to them (14:23). Fifth, tongues-speaking needs to be interpreted to or in the church assembly (14:6--11, 13-17, 19, 23-25). Sixth, tongues-speaking in the church assembly should be limited on one occasion to three practitioners, speaking in succession, and should be accompanied by interpretation (14:27-28). Seventh, tongues-speaking ought not to be forbidden (14:39b). Eighth, uninterpreted tongues-speaking is not as great a gift as prophecy (14:4-5). Ninth, believers ought to seek "the higher gifts" (ta charismatata meizona) (12:31). Such higher gifts, which would take one beyond childishness (14:20-21) and would edify the church (14:12), include prophecy (14:lb, 24-25, 39a) and love (13:1-14:la). Tenth, believers ought to exercise all gifts in "a fitting and orderly way" ( 14:40, NIV) and for the edification of the church (14:26). E. CONTEMPORARY GLOSSOLALIA

Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals continue to insist that tongues- speaking is the single and sole evidence ofbaptism in or with the Holy Spirit, the baptism being post-conversional. Moreover, they place great emphasis on tongues-speaking while affirming that all the other gifts listed in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 are being given and exercised today. How ought nontongues-speakers to respond to these claims? First, they can recognize that the gift of tongues is seemingly a present-day reality and abandon Warfield's apostolic cessation theory. Second, they can take note of abuses of tonguesspeaking and of other gifts, as Donald Gee 123 acknowledged. Third, they

121. Tonguesof Men and Angels: The ReligiousLanguageof Pentecostalism(New York: Macmillan; London: Collier-Macmillan, 1972), esp. pp. 2, 72, 228, 229. 122. For the seven major present-day interpretations of 1 Cor. 14:22a, see Carson, Showingthe Spirit, pp. 108-17. 123. ConcerningSpiritual Gifts,ch. 12. Martin, Glossolaliain theApostolicChurch, pp. 64-65, even found "genuine" and "synthetic" types of glossolalia in 1 Cor. 14.

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can recognize that both Neo-Pentecostal1 24 and non-Pentecostal 123 authors have identified present-day tongues-speaking as a "special language," different from any "known language" but expressive of meaning. Fourth, they can be aware that leading exponents of tongues-speaking make the practice almost identical with praying with the Holy Spirit.126 On both sides of the tongues issue authors have emphasized that tongues-speaking can lead to the "enrichment" of one's prayer life or "personal devotional life." 127 Fifth, they can respectfully ask tongues-speakers not to elevate this gift above all others, so as to contradict Paul, or to look on non-tongues-speakers as inferior or second-class Christians. 128 Sixth, they should refrain from efforts to exclude or disfellowship those who exercise tongues-speaking within the Pauline perimeters. 129 Seventh, they can express thanks to Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals for their clear witness to the dynamic agency and the sovereign lordship of the Holy Spirit in today's world. Eighth, they should make certain that their own use of known languages is for the witness of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

V. PROPHECY Systematic theologians would have no reason to discuss the gift of prophecy unless some today should be affirming the present-day gift and exercise of prophecy; otherwise the topic could be left to the biblical theologians. Pentecostal theologians have, seemingly without exception, affirmed the contemporary giving and exercise of prophecy. For Donald Gee prophecy today is quite "distinct from ordinary preaching" and is not intended to afford "guidance." Rather it is '"inspired utterance."' Pentecostalism must learn from past pneumatic movements not to attach "too much infallibility" to such prophecy and not to "despise" such a gift.130 Harold Horton differentiated "the Gift of Prophecy," given to the individual, from "the Prophetic Office," given to the church. The prophetic gift differs from prediction and from "the mere repetition of Scripture verses." It is designed to "edify," "exhort," "comfort," and instruct the church. It ought to be the gift "most 124. Laurence Christenson, Speaking in Tongues and Its Significance for the Church (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1968), p. 26. 125. Moule, The Holy Spirit, p. 87. 126. DuPlessis, The Spirit Bade Me Go, pp. 75-79, 82. 127. Christenson, Speaking in Tongues, p. 28; Culpepper, Evaluating the Charismatic Movement, p. 163. 128. Hoekema, What about Tongue-Speaking?, pp. 119-20. 129. "The Lutheran Church and the Charismatic Movement: Guidelines for Congregations and Pastors" [Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod] (1977), in Opsahl, ed., The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church: From Biblical Times to the Present, pp. 271- 87, esp. 279, 283-86; Claude Leodis Howe,Jr. (1928- ), "The Charismatic Movement in Southern Baptist Life," Baptist History and Heritage 13 (July 1978): 25-27. 130. Concerning Spiritual Gifts, pp. 48-54.

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commonly exercised" in the church, and "women should prophesy as freely as men." But this gift "is not to take the place of the Written Word ofGod." 131 Present-day prophecy, according to W. R. Jones, is "a supernatural utterance . in the known, accepted tongue of the community;" which has "no connection with human thought, reasoning, and intellect." It is to be judged or evaluated so that it will conform to the Scriptures. 132 As Neo-Pentecostals Howard Ervin and J. Rodman Williams have emphasized that prophecy is "in reach of the whole assembly" 133 and potentially for every believer. 134 Other present-day exponents of the renewal of prophecy include Michael Claude Harper (1931- ),135 a Protestant, and Bruce Yocum, 136 a Roman Catholic. Some non-Pentecostal authors have provided historical treatments of New Testament prophecy without any effort to address the issue of twentieth-century prophecy. 137 Those non-Pentecostals who hold to the cessation of all extraordinary spiritual gifts after the apostolic age, of course, have denied the occurrence of prophecy in the modern era. 138 Certain others, differentiating the office of prophet from the gift of prophecy, have concluded that the office ceased after the apostolic age but that the gift, identified with preaching or "inspired speaking," is given today. 139 Another segment of the non-Pentecostal authors has allowed for the possibility of twentieth-century prophecy but with very definite limitations. Earle Ellis has found three characteristics of New Testament prophecy to "have significant 131. The Gifts of the Spirit, pp. 173-92. 132. "The Nine Gifts of the Holy Spirit," p. 58. 133. Ervin, Spirit-Baptism:A BiblicalInvestigation(Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987), p. 116. Ervin allowed for both the office of prophet and the more general gift of prophecy. 134. Williams, Renewal Theology,2:380-81; The Era of the Spirit, p. 27. 135. Prophecy:A Giftfor the Body of Christ(London: Fountain Trust, 1964). 136. Prophecy:Exercisingthe PropheticGiftsof the Spirit in the ChurchToday (Ann Arbor: Word of Life, 1976). 137. Harold Alfred Guy, New TestamentProphecy:Its Origin and Significance(London: Epworth Press, 1947); Theodore Michael Crone, Early ChristianProphecy:A Study of Its Origin and Function (Baltimore: St. Mary's University Press, 1973); J. Panagopoulos, "Die urchristliche Prophetie: 1hr Charakter und Ihre Funktion," in PropheticVocationin the New Testamentand Today,ed. J. Panagopoulos, Supplements to Novum Testamentum,vol. 45 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977), pp. 1-32; E. Earle Ellis, Prophecyand Hermeneuticin Early Christianity:New TestamentEssays(Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), pp. 129-44; David E. Aune, Prophecyin Early Christianity and theAncientMediterraneanWorld (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983). 138. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit, pp. 177-79; Baxter, Gifts of the Spirit, pp. 97-102; Robert L. Reymond, What about ContinuingRevelationsand Miraclesin the PresbyterianChurchToday?A Study of the Doctrineof the Sufficiencyof Scripture (n.p.p.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1977); Edgar, Miraculous Gifts, pp. 83-84. 139. Criswell, The Holy Spirit in Today'sWorld,pp. 135-37; Kinghorn, Giftsof the Spirit, pp. 47-51.

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implications for prophetic proclamation in the church today": its interpretation of Old Testament passages, its eschatological dimension, and "its communal context." 140 D. A Carson has warned against Neo-Pentecostal practice wherein prophets speak as if giving "direct quotations from the Lord" and are unwilling to submit themselves "totheevaluationof a spiritually mindedcongregation. "141 Still other non-Pentecostals have taken a more positive approach to the contemporary exercise of prophecy. Wayne Arden Grudem has taken prophecy in the New Testament to be a function and not an office. "All believers have permission to prophesy (if they receive a revelation from the Holy Spirit), and all have a potential ability to prophesy. But only some are given an actual ability to prophesy, and no one can prophesy atwill." 142 Such Grudem applies to the contemporary scene, for he has rejected the interpretation of "when the perfect comes" (1 Cor. 13:10, RSV) as referring to the completion of the canon of the New Testament and has held that the text refers to the second coming of Christ. The present-day exercise of prophecy "would undoubtedly add an element of closeness to God and sensitivity to his promptings in our daily walk" and "add a rich new measure of vitality in worship." It is precisely those Christians who major on objective truth who need to benefit from such a gift. 143 David Hill (1935- ), while insisting that prophecy ought not to be confused with the interpretation of tongues, that Pauline prophecy was not ecstatic, and that prophecy should be balanced by the gift of "the ability to distinguish between spirits" (1 Cor. 12: 10c, RSV, NIV), was commendatory of contemporary prophecy. 144 The Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal emphasis on the contemporary gift and exercise of spiritual gifts presents a challenge to non-Pentecostal Christians. What ought their response to be? From Reformed theological roots and a European state-church background Hendrikus Berkhof has urged: 140. "Prophecy in the New Testament Church-and Today," in Panagopoulos, ed., PropheticVocationin the New Testamentand Today,pp. 54-57. 141. Showing the Spirit, p. 121. 142. On this theme see Sullivan, Charismsand CharismaticRenewal, pp. 91-98. 143. The Gift of Prophecyin the New Testamentand Today (Eastbourne, U. K.: Kingsway Publications; Westchester, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1988), esp. pp. 212-13, 229-52, 266-67. Refutation of Grudem has been offered by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. (1950- ), The CharismaticGift of Prophecy:A Reformed Responseto Wayne Grudem(2d ed., rev.: Memphis: Footstool Publications, 1989), who cites Calvin, the Westminster Confession, and numerous modern Reformed and non-Reformed Evangelical theologians. 144. New TestamentProphecy(London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott; Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1979), esp. pp. 210-13. See also George Mallone, "Thus Says the Lord: Prophecy and Discernment," in Mallone et al., ThoseControversialGifts, pp. 31-50.

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[T]he "non-Pentecostal" churches have to hear in the Pentecostal movement God summoning us, not to quench the Spirit and earnestly to desire the spiritual gifts. What did we do with 1 Corinthians 12-14? ... The Pentecostal movement is God's judgment upon a church which lost its inner growth and its outward extension, its character as a vertical as well as a horizontal movement. We have to rediscover the meaning of the variety of the spiritual gifts. We are not to copy the situation in Corinth, let alone that on the day of Pentecost. 145 From the British context David Hill has written: But Pentecostalism-and for this we must be grateful-simply forces us all to come face to face with the contemporary exercise of all the spiritual gifts. He would be a singularly brave (or prejudiced) man who would claim that there is not room in the Church today for the careful and discerning exercise of the charismata God appointed for the edifying of the Church-not because the New Testament provides a blueprint or normative pattern of Church life and organization-but because the Church in the twentieth century needs the benefits of spiritual gifts. 146 Even a strong critic of Pentecostalism and Neo-Pentecostalism, John Fullerton MacArthur, Jr. (1939- ), has found nine "positive lessons evangelicals should learn from the Charismatic movement." 147 Robert H. Culpepper, in a Southern Baptist context and with longterm missionary service in Japan, has described six possible "approaches" or attitudes "with regard to the relationship between traditional Christianity and charismatic Christianity," especially in the congregational setting, and has advocated the sixth: ( 1) indifference to or ignoring of the issue; (2) mutual toleration; (3) voluntary separation; (4) exclusion of charismatics; (5) conversion to one side or to the other; and (6) reconception through biblical study. 148 A reconception respecting spiritual gifts does not require the conclusion that the baptism in or with the Holy Spirit must be postconversional and can only be evidenced by speaking in tongues. 145. The Doctrineof the Holy Spirit, p. 93. 146. New TestamentProphecy,p. 203. See also the "positive" and "negative aspects" identified by Packer, Keepin Step with the Spirit, pp. 185-97. 147. The Charismatics: A DoctrinalPerspective(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), pp. 200-204. But MacArthur included no such list oflessons in CharismaticChaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), esp. pp. 291-96, a more critical book written to refute both the "third wave" of the Holy Spirit led by John Wimber (1934-97) and C. Peter Wagner and (2) the Health and Wealth Gospel. 148. Evaluating the CharismaticMovement, pp. 166-68. The order of the six has been slightly rearranged. See also Wayne E. Ward, "The Significance of Tongues for the Church," in Mills, ed., Speakingin Tongues:Let's Talk about It, pp. 149-51.

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We have sought to interpret spiritual gifts in view of the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal movements. Relative to the New Testament we have differentiated the "gift" and the "gifts," have examined the various lists of gifts, and have probed the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the gifts. The post-biblical occurrence of the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and healing was investigated, and the role of spiritual gifts according to Baptist confessions of faith reviewed. Twentieth-century monographs on spiritual gifts were classified in a fivefold schema: pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic, post-Vatican II Roman Catholic, Reformed and Dispensationalist, Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal, and non-Pentecostal Protestant. We have explored tongues-speaking by probing its nature in Acts 2:4b, the relationship between Acts 2:4b and 1 Cor. 12-14, its interpretation by twentieth-century psychologists and linguists, the teachings of Paul, and the contemporary phenomenon. We also have examined prophecy in the contemporary setting, looking at both Pentecostal/Neo-Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal views. Finally, we have asked what response non-Pentecostal Christians ought to make to the Pentecostal and NeoPentecostal emphasis on spiritual gifts. From a detailed examination of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit we must now turn to the comprehensive doctrine of becoming a Christian and the Christian life.

PART VIII

BECOMING A CHRISTIAN AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

CHAPTER57

REPENTANCE It is probably for the sake of clarity and contemporaneity that one should choose to denominate this division of systematic theology as "becoming a Christian" and "the Christian life." Such language seems to communicate easily with present-day Christians, although it has little basis in the history of systematic theology. In past decades and centuries numerous Christian theologians have identified this doctrine by the overall term "soteriology," or "the doctrine of salvation." One should, however, note that such a term is derived from one-and only one-of the several New Testament terms employed to refer to the ways by which the saving work of the crucified and risen Jesus is applied to human beings. Why, then, should we elevate such a single term to the status or function of the overall or umbrella term for this doctrine? In its fullest scope this doctrine embraces the entire range of Christian experience-initial, continual, and consummative. But for the sake of commonly accepted divisions within systematic theology the doctrine is normally in practice limited to two of these three, that is, the initial and the continual, with the third being reserved for eschatology, or the doctrine of last things. If one should express these distinctions in postReformation terminology, he could say that the forthcoming study embraces (punctiliar) ''justification" and (continuing) "sanctification" but not (eschatological) "glorification." Several different organizational patterns for the explication of "soteriology" have been employed by Protestant systematic theologians. The most commonly used pattern has been that of treating the person and work of Christ prior to and as topics separate from becoming a Christian and the Christian life. 1 A second pattern has been the treatment of both the person and work of Christ and becoming a Christian 1. Calvin, Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559), bk. 2, chs. 12-17; bk. 3, chs.

1-25; Schleiermacher, The ChristianFaith, pp. 355-524; Dagg, A Manual of Theology,bk. 5, chs. 1-3; bk. 7, chs. 3-4; Boyce,Abstract of SystematicTheology,

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and the Christian life as aspects of the doctrine of soteriology. 2 A third pattern has been the inclusion of the work of Christ and becoming a Christian and the Christian life under soteriology but not the person of Christ. 3 A fourth pattern has been the treatment of the person and work prior to and as topics separate from becoming a Christian and the Christian life but with the latter as aspects of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 4 A fifth pattern has involved the treatment of becoming a Christian and the Christian life prior to and separate from the doctrines of the person and work of Christ. 5 Other systematic theologians have tended to bypass or neglect becoming a Christian and the Christian life. 6 If it is indeed proper to consider becoming a Christian and the Christian life a basic doctrine of the Christian religion, what sequence of topics should be followed in the explication of this doctrine? Some awareness as to what has been done may be helpful. Some theologians have begun with the eternal purpose of God, that is, the doctrine of election, and then proceeded to discuss other topics. 7 Other theologians have begun with the divine side of becoming a Christian. 8 Yet other

2.

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5. 6. 7.

8.

chs. 26-38; Sheldon, Systemof ChristianDoctrine,pp. 325-579; W. A. Brown, ChristianTheologyin Outline, chs. 18-23; Mullins, The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,chs. 7, 13-16; Conner, Revelationand God, ch. 6; idem, The Gospelof Redemption,chs. 2-5; L. Berkhof, SystematicTheology,pp. 303-549; Brunner, The ChristianDoctrineof Creationand Redemption,chs. 11-12; idem, The ChristianDoctrineof the Church,Faith, and the Consummation, chs. 10-24; Weber, Foundationsof Dogmatics,2: 1-507; H. Berkhof, Christian Faith, pp. 267-337, 423-97; Erickson, ChristianTheology,chs. 31-39, 42-48; Ashcraft, ChristianFaith and Beliefs,chs. 2, 10-11, 13. Barth, ChurchDogmatics, chs. 11, 13, 15, 33, 44, 47, 57-59, 61, 63-64, 66, and 69, generally, though not precisely, followed this pattern. Hodge, SystematicTheology,pt. 3, chs. 1-20; Strong, SystematicTheology,pp. 665-886; Thiessen, IntroductoryLecturesin SystematicTheology,chs. 21-34; Buswell, A SystematicTheologyof the ChristianReligion, 2: 17-553. In doing so, Hovey, Manual of SystematicTheologyand ChristianEthics,pp. 171-299, scarcely mentioned faith and repentance (pp. 262, 263). Shedd, DogmaticTheology,2:259-587. Clarke,An Outline of ChristianTheology,pp. 260-427; Dunning, Grace,Faith, and Holiness,chs. 10-12, 14-15. One can also argue that Calvin's Institutes belongs here. Moody, The Word of Truth, chs. 7-8. Aulen, The Faith of the ChristianChurch;Horton, ChristianTheology:An EcumenicalApproach;Thielicke, The EvangelicalFaith. Boyce, Abstractof SystematicTheology,chs. 29-38; Strong, SystematicTheology, pp. 777-886; Mullins, The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,chs. 14-16; Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,chs. 2, 4-5; Thiessen, Introductory Lecturesin SystematicTheology,chs. 28-34; Buswell, A SystematicTheologyof the ChristianReligion, 2:133-215. Dagg, A Manual of Theology,bk. 7, chs. 3-4; Shedd, DogmaticTheology, 2:490-560; Ashcraft, ChristianFaith and Beliefs,ch. 11.

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theologians have commenced with faith and/or repentance. 9 The last of these will be the approach to be followed in the present and succeeding chapters. Such an option is not to be taken as support of the concept that becoming a Christian is initially a human attitude or activity so as to deny the divine initiative and activity. Rather this option builds on the fact that the call to repentance and faith is the "front door" to the gospel for those who are initially confronted with the work and claims of Jesus Christ. Initially we shall examine the human responses to God's saving work in Jesus Christ, or the basic responses to the gospel of Christ, namely, repentance, faith, and confession. Secondarily, we shall discuss the action of God in our becoming Christians as expressed in terms of conversion, justification, new life, sonship by adoption, forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, liberation, salvation, and union with Christ. Finally, we shall treat the doctrine of the Christian life in terms of assurance, discipleship, sanctification, stewardship, prayer, abiding in Christ, and election. First, then, repentance is to be discussed.

I. OLD TESTAMENT Normally'° two Old Testament verbs, naham, "to pant, sigh, or grieve," and sub,"to turn or return," are associated with the doctrine of repentance. In the KJV naham is usually translated as "repent," whereas in the RSV it is sometimes translated as "repent" and in the NIV it is often translated as "relent." The majority of the uses'' of naham refer to God's repenting and not to that of human beings. The verb is also used 12 to express God's not repenting. 13 Exegetes and theologians have eagerly sought to explain in what sense God "repents" according to the Old Testament. The God who is "immutable in His being, perfections, and purposes" changes his "relationship and attitude [toward humans], in judgment upon sin from complacency to wrath, in mercy from wrath to favour and blessing." 14 Not 9. Calvin, Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559), bk. 3; Brunner, The Christian Doctrineof the Church,Faith, and the Consummation,chs. 10-24; H. Berkhof, ChristianFaith, pp. 423-97; Weber, Foundationsof Dogmatics2:258-507; Moody, The Wordof Truth, ch. 7; Dunning, Grace,Faith, and Holiness,ch. 14. 10. John H. Hayes, "Repentance," MercerDictionaryof the Bible, ed. Watson E. Mills (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1990), pp. 753-54, has taken iisam, "to become guilty," and subto be the primary terms. 11. Gen. 6:6-7; Exod. 32:12, 14; Deut. 32:36;Judg. 2:18; l Sam. 15:11, 35; 2 Sam. 24:16; 1 Chr. 21:15; Ps. 90:13; 106:45; l35:14;Jer. 18:8, 10; 20:16; 26: 3, 13, 19; 42:lO;Joel 2:13-14; Amos 7:3, 6;Jon. 3:9-10; 4:2; Zech. 8:14. 12. Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29; Ps. 110:4;Jer. 4:28; Ezek. 24:14; Hos. 13:14. 13. John Murray, "Repentance," The New Bible Dictionary,ed. J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), p. 1083. 14. Ibid.

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being "fickle or arbitrary," God "repents" of"evil proposed or initiated." 15 He responds to the changing attitudes of human beings. The human "who commits evil finds further evil willed by God. But he who repents of his evil finds a God who repents of his evil." 16 The repenting of God, who has no "consciousness of personal transgression," is markedly different from the repenting of human beings, for God "'is not a man, that he should repent"' (1 Sam. 15:29b, KJV, RSV; see also Num. 23:19b). 17 A minority of the usages of naham refer to human repentance. It can express a change of mind as to direction (Exod. 13: 17). More often it expresses remorseful grief concerning one's complaining speech (Job 42:6) or for Judah's straying (Jer. 31: 19) or the lack of repentance for wickedness (Jer. 8:6). 18 In the'IgV in the The more important Old Testament verb is sub. vast majority of uses of this verb it is translated either "turn" or "return," and only three times 19 is it translated "repent." Some hold that the earliest form of repentance was national and liturgical in nature. 20 The "nation was more conscious of its collective guilt than of its individual guilt." After "national catastrophes" there were "cultic liturgies ofrepentance that included an assembly of the people, fasting, lamentation, and the confession of sin." But the eighth-century prophets criticized mere "cultic and liturgical repentance" and called for repentance bearing ethical fruit (Amos 4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11; 5 :21-24; Isa. 1: 10-17). 21 In its more specialized meaning submeans turning from sin and returning to God, often accompanied by sorrow or regret. In Joel 2: 12-13 sub is the call given to humans and niihamis posited of God, whereas in Ezek. 14:6 and 18:30, where subis repeated, it is first translated "repent" and secondly translated "turn" (KJV, RSV, NIV, NASV). In the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha metanoeinand metanoiawere often used to mean "a complete turning from sin and to (the ways or laws

15. James D. G. Dunn, "Repentance," The IllustratedBibleDictionary,ed. J. D. Douglas, 3 vols. (Leicester: InterVarsity Press; Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House; Lane Cove, N. S. W., Australia: Hodder and Stoughton, 1980), 3: 1327. 16. Ibid. 17. Byron Hoover DeMent (1863-1933), "Repentance," InternationalStandard Bible Encyclopedia,ed.James Orr et al. and rev. Melvin Grove Kyle, 5 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1939), 4:2558. 18. Frankj. Matera, "Repentance," Harper'sBible Dictionary,ed. Paulj. Achtemeier (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985), p. 861. 19. 1 Kings 8:47; Ezek. 14:6; 18:30. 20. John L. McKenzie, S. J ., Dictionaryof the Bible (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1965), p. 728. McKenzie cited Neh. 9; Isa. 63:7-64: 12; Baruch 1:15-3:8; Dan. 9:3-19; Hos. 6:lff.; 7:14; 14:2ff.;Joel 2:15-18;Jon. 3:7-8. 21. Matera, "Repentance," p. 861.

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of) God," and for Philo the noun was "used for the conversion of Gentiles to the ways of God. "22

II. NEW TESTAMENT A. Metanoein AND Metanoia

The principal New Testament family of words expressive of repentance is the verb metanoeinand the noun metanoia,the root idea of which is a change of mind. According to Warren Anderson Quanbeck ( 1917- ), The LXX translates sub by epistrephon, 'turn about,' and apostrepho,'turn back." Naham is translated by metamelomai,'to change one's mind,' and by metanoeo,'repent.' The NT does not follow the practice of the LXX, but uses metanoeoto render the thought-content of sub;this usage has support in other Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible and in Hellenistic Judaism. 23 Thus we are to understand that metanoein and metanoia in New Testament usage convey the idea of turning which was basic to subin the Old Testament, even though we also allow for a slight modification in these words as used in the New Testament because their Greek rootage conveys the concept of a change of mind or of a new mind. 24 In the Synoptic Gospels John the Baptist issued to his contemporaries an imperative call to "'repent"' (Mark 1:4 and par.), and the call to '"repent"' was central to the proclamation of Jesus (Mark 1: 15 and par.). Jesus declared that he had "'not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance'" (Luke 5:32, RSV, NIV), the men of Nineveh were said to have '"repented at the preaching of Jonah"' (Matt. 12:41, RSV, NEB, NIV, and par.), and the Twelve "preached that men should repent" (Mark 6:12, KJV, RSV). In view of the Galilean rebellion repentance is needed to avoid perishing (Luke 13:3). According to the parable of the lost sheep "'there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance'" (Luke 15:7, RSV), and in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man proposes to father Abraham that Lazarus should go to the rich man's brothers to warn them so that they would repent (Luke 16:30). Jesus taught a sevenfold forgiveness of repentant disciples (Luke 17:34), and '"repentance and remission of sins"' were to be '"preached"' in the name of the risen Jesus "'to all nations"' (Luke 24:47, RSV, NIV). Luke used metanoeinand metanoiamore often than the other Synoptists. 22. B. H. DeMent and Edgar W. Smith, Jr., "Repent," The InternationalStandard Bible Encyclopedia,rev. ed., ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley et. al., 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982-88), 4:136. 23. "Repentance," The Interpreter'sDictionaryof the Bible, 4 vols. (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), 4:33. 24. Matera, "Repentance," p. 862.

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In the Acts of the Apostles metanoeinand metanoiaare used five times in connection with the ministry of Peter and five times in reference to the ministry of Paul. In Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost the command or call to "'repent"' wasjoined with the call to be "'baptized ... in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins"' and with the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit (2:38, RSV). In a subsequent sermon Peter issued to God, so that the call: "'Repent (metanoisate),then, and tum (epistrepsate) your sins may be wiped out"' (3:19, NEB, NIV). Before the Sanhedrin Peter declared that God exalted Jesus "'to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins"' (5:31, RSV), to Simon, called "Great," Peter issued a call to repent of the '"wickedness"' of trying to buy the Holy Spirit (8:22), and Peter testified to the church in Jerusalem that "'to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life'" (11: 18). In Antioch of Pisidia Paul referred to the "'baptism ofrepentance"' announced by John the Baptist (13:24, KJV, RSV,JB), and he made a similar reference while in Ephesus ( 19:4). In Athens Paul announced that God at that time was commanding "'all men everywhere to repent"' (17:30, KJV, RSV, NEB). He assured the Ephesian elders that he had urged both Jews and Greeks to repent "'before God"' (20:21, NEB) and likewise King Herod Agrippa II that he had consistently called Jews and Gentiles to '"repent and tum to God (metanoein kai epistrepheinepi ton theon) and prove their repentance (metanoias)by their deeds"' (26:20, NN). The epistles of Paul employ the noun metanoiasparingly. "Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" (Rom. 2:4, RSV). "I rejoice ... because you were grieved into repenting .... For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret ... " (2 Cor. 7:9a, 10a). Paul expressed the hope that God would grant repentance to quarreling controversialists (2 Tim. 2:25). According to the Epistle to the Hebrews Christians are not to "lay again" (TEV, NIV) the "foundation of repentance from dead works" (6: 1b, KJV, RSV) and are to recognize that it is "impossible to restore again to repentance" any who may apostatize (6:4-6, RSV). Furthermore, the Lord does not wish "that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9c). In Revelation the verb metanoeinappears in five of the seven letters to churches (2:5, 16, 21; 3:3, 19). The church at Ephesus had abandoned its first love, the church at Pergamum had embraced the Balaamite and the Nicolaitan teachings, and the church at Thyatira had tolerated the prophetess Jezebel. The situations evoking calls to repent at Sardis and at Laodicea are less clearly identified. All these five texts refer not to initial repentance but to the repentance of professing Christians. The plague survivors are said not to repent of their many evils (9:20-21 ), and the same is true of plague victims (16:9, 11).

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Metanoeinand metanoiado not appear in the Gospel of John or in the epistles of John. The translation of metanoein has proved to be difficult. The Old Latin and the Vulgate rendered the imperative by a verb and a noun, poenitentiamagite, "do ye penance." Luther translated it into German as "Thut Busse." As to English, Wycliffe used "Do ye penaunce," Tyndale rendered it "Repent ye," and the Rheims New Testament contained "Do penance." In the Geneva Bible the translation was "Amend your lyves," and the KJV and many later English versions have followed Tyndale by using "repent." B. Epistrephein AND Apostrephein

Less frequently used but important to the New Testament teaching about repentance is the verb epistrephein,"to turn toward." Reference has already been made to the use of this verb together with metanoeinin Acts 3: 19 and 26:20. 25 The residents of Lydda and Sharon who beheld the healed Aeneas "turned to the Lord" (Acts 9:35, KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV), and in Antioch of Syria "a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord" (Acts 11:21, TEV, NIV). When Paul encountered residents ofLystra who wanted to treat Barnabas and him as "gods," he called upon them '"to turn from these follies to the living God"' (Acts 14:15c, NEB). At the council inJerusalemJames alluded to "'those of the Gentiles who are turning to God"' (Acts 15: 19). Paul had been commissioned to bear witness to the Gentiles so that "'they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God"' (26: 18a, RSV), and indeed the Thessalonian Christians had "turned to God from idols" ( 1 Thess. 1:9). Whenever one "turns to the Lord the veil [of Moses] is removed" (2 Cor. 3:16). Christians are "straying" "sheep" who "have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of' their "souls" (1 Pet. 2:25). Apostrephein,"to turn from," is used only in Acts 3:26 of the risen Jesus' turning believing Jews from their "wicked ways" (NEB, JB, TEV, NIV), and the noun epistrophi,"turning," is found only in Acts 15:3 in reference to "the conversion of the Gentiles" (KJV, NEB, RSV). Anthony Hoekema held that "generally metanoiaseems to emphasize the inner change involved in repentance, whereas epistrepheinstresses the change in one's outward life which implements and gives expression to the inward change." Epistrepheinthus "describes a total change in behavior, a reversal of one's life style, a complete turnaround." 26

25. See above, II, A. 26. Saved by Grace(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Exeter, U. K.: Paternoster Press, 1989), pp. 124, 126.

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C. Metamelomai

The verb metamelomai,"to have care afterward" or "to regret," is used five times in the New Testament. In Heb. 7:21 in a quotation from Ps. 110:4 it conveys the idea of God's change of mind, and in 2 Cor. 7:8 it conveys Paul's personal regret. When used in reference to Judas Iscariot, the verb clearly conveys regret or remorse, but not repentance (Matt. 27:3). In the parable of the two sons (Matt. 21 :29) it is not certain that the term refers to genuine repentance, but clearly true repentance is meant when Jesus said that those who had rejected John the Baptist "'did not afterward repent"' (Matt. 21:32, RSV).27 The term must be reckoned as being on the margin of the New Testament doctrine of repentance, its inclusion being dependent on the specific text under consideration. 28 D. OTHER EXPRESSIONS

In both the Gospel of Matthew and in the epistles of Paul there are ways of expressing the idea of turning from sin to God other than by use of one of the three principal terms. Jesus called upon human beings to deny themselves and take up their cross and to lose their lives so as to save them (Matt. 16:24-25). Paul referred to being "crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2:20), to the crucifixion of"the flesh" (KJV, RSV) or "sinful nature" (NIV) with "its passions and desires" (RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV) (Gal. 5:24), to the crucifixion of "the world" to himself and of himself to "the world" (Gal. 6: 14b), and to transformation "by the renewing of your mind" (tj anakainosei tou noos) (Rom. 12:2b, KJV, NIV).

III. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE A. PATRISTIC AGE

The doctrine of repentance did not receive major attention among the Church Fathers. It is noteworthy that the second-century Shepherd of Hermas, assuming that the remission of former sins came through baptism, taught that there could be only one valid or acceptable postbaptismal repentance. 29 Early in the third century Tertullian as a

27. Otto Michel, "metamelomai,ametameletos,"TheologicalDictionaryof the New Testament, 4:628. 28. Instructive as to the differences between metanoeinand metamelomaiis 2 Cor. 7:8-12. See Vol. 1, ch. 37, II, C, 2. 29. Mandates4.3. According to Thomas F. Torrance, The Doctrineof Gracein the ApostolicFathers(London: Oliver and Boyd, 1948; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), pp. 117-25, Hermas, oblivious to justification by grace alone, regarded repentance (metanoia)as the self-willed cure for "double-mindedness" (dipsychia).Hermas seemed to allow those guilty of adultery and apostasy to engage in the second repentance, Mandates4.1.

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Catholic supported this one-time postbaptismal repentance and referred to an ecclesial process of exomologisis,or public confession, 30 and as a Montanist taught that adulterers/fornicators, murderers, and idolaters were not to be permitted the second repentance and hence remission. 31 Ultimately the church allowed those committing such major sins to be allowed to repent or confess unto forgiveness. B. MEDIEVAL ERA

During the Middle Ages the church's practice of exomologisisdeveloped into the full-orbed Roman Catholic sacrament of penance. The practice of private oral confession of postbaptismal sins to a priest flourished in the Irish monasteries as early as the sixth century, and from Ireland came the earliest penitential books. 32 The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) made it mandatory that every lay person after attaining the years of discretion confess to a priest at least once every year. 33 For Thomas Aquinas the sacrament of penance consisted of contrition, confession, satisfaction, and the keys (for absolution). 34 C. REFORMATION AND POST-REFORMATION ERAS

Repentance did not receive the attention from the Protestant Reformers which faith did, but it was important in that it was the sacramental foundation for the practice of indulgences, which the Reformers vehemently rejected, and in that as a sacrament it was likewise rejected by the 30. On Repentance7-12. Frank Leslie Cross (1900-68), The Early ChristianFathers (London: Gerald Duckworth and Co, Ltd., 1960), p. 144, understood Tertullian to allow those who had committed murder, idolatry, and adultery to have the second repentance, but Williston Walker, A Historyof the Christian Church,rev. Cyril C. Richardson, Wilhelm Pauck, and Robert T. Handy (New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1959), p. 92, held that Tertullian most likely excluded such offenders from the second repentance. 31. On Modesty22. 32. Walker,A Historyof the ChristianChurch,pp. 181,249. Robert Cecil Mortimer (1902-76), The Origi,nsof PrivatePenancein the WesternChurch (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939), refuted the claims of Paul Galtier, S. J. (1872?- ? ), L'Egliseet la remissiondespechesaux premierssiecles(Paris: G. Beauchesne et ses fils, 1932), that private confession had been practiced during the patristic age. 33. Heinrich Joseph Dominik Denziger (1819-83), EnchiridionSymbolorum: Definitionumet Declarationumet Rebus Fideiet Morum, ed. Karl Rabner, S. J. (29th ed.; Freiburg im B.: Herder, 1953), item 437. 34. Summa Theologica,Suppl. 1-20. These articles were written after the death of Thomas by his associates. For a modern interpretation of this sacrament, see Joseph Pohle (1852-1922), The Sacraments,4 vols., adapt. and ed. Arthur Preuss (St. Louis, London: B. Herder Book Co., 1947), vol. 3, and Ott, Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma, pp. 416-40. On Thomas's doctrine, see the present author's "Thomas Aquinas' Doctrine of Penance: A Critical Analysis" (Th.M. thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1949).

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Reformers.John Calvin defined repentance as "the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of him; and it consists in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man and in the vivification of the Spirit." He taught that repentance as the gift of God "not only constantly follows faith, but is also born of faith," that inward repentance is more important than outward repentance, and that "sincere repentance" is different from "sham repentance." 35 According to James Arminius, repentance is "priorto faith in Christ" but comes after "that faith by which we believe that God is willing to receive into his favor the penitent sinner." 36 It is "an act of the entire man" in which "he turns away from Satan and the world, and returns to God and adheres to Him," whereas regeneration is "the act of God." Its "primary efficient cause" is God, whereas its "proximate" cause "is man himself, converted and converting himself by the power and efficacy of the grace of God and the Spirit of God." For God "the fruits of repentance" are "the remission of sin," and for repentant humans the fruits are "good works." 37 According to the Synod of Dort, "that others who are called by the gospel obey the call and are converted, is not to be ascribed to the proper exercise of free-will ... ; but it must be wholly ascribed to God, who, as he hath chosen his own from eternity in Christ, so he ... confers upon them faith and repentance, rescues them from the power of darkness, and translates them into the Kingdom of his own Son .... "38 Thus Arminians have reckoned that repentance is a human response motivated by the Spirit of God and Calvinists have held that repentance is the gift of God. Later Evangelical Calvinists sought to bridge the gulf between the two positions. Andrew Fuller, reacting to the practice of the passive awaiting of divinely wrought faith and repentance, called repentance "a duty required of every sinner, 39 and John L. Dagg called repentance and faith "twin graces, proceeding from the same Holy Spirit," and repentance "the first duty enjoined in the gospel." 40 Jeremy Taylor (1613-67), an Anglican archbishop, asserted that godly sorrow is the "porch" leading into repentance, whereas "correction and amendment" are "the formality and essence of repentance." It consists of "[l]eaving our sins" and of "actions meet for repentance." It is 35. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.), trans. F. L. Battles, 3.3.5, 21, 1, 16-17. 36. "Certain Articles to Be Diligently Examined and Weighed," 18.4, The Writings ofJames Arminius, 2:499. 37. "Public Disputations," 17.2, 3, 5, 6, 10, in ibid., 1:576, 578,579, 581. 38. The Canonsof the Synod of Dort, 3d and 4th heads, art. 10, in Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,3:589-90. 39. The GospelWorthyof All Acceptation( 1786) 2.6, in The CompleteWorksof the Rev. Andrew Fuller, rev.Joseph Belcher, 3 vols. (Harrisonburg, Va.: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 2:364. 40. A Manual of Theology,pp. 263, 264.

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"a whole state of a new life, an entire change of the sinner, with all its appendages and instruments of ministry." 41 D. MODERN PERIOD

In nineteenth-century England a group ofliterary men and classical scholars reinterpreted metanoiain light of classical Greek literature rather than the Old Testament. Thomas DeQuincey (1785-1859) translated it as "metamorphosis" rather than as "repentance," 42 Samuel T. Coleridge rendered it as "transmentation, "43 and Matthew Arnold ( 1822-88) insisted that Jesus, who came "to restorethe intuition" by "transforming the idea of righteousness," understood repentance as "the setting up of an immense new inward movementfor obtaining one's rule oflife." 44 Consequently the relation of repentance to God was much less specific. A century later an American Presbyterian, William Douglas Chamberlain (1890-1958), expressed an affinity for such thinking. 45 Twentieth-century Baptist theologians in the United States have tended to expound repentance in a threefold manner: the cognitive or convictive, the emotional, and the volitional. 46

IV. SYSTEMATIC FORMUI.ATION From the biblical and the historical studies and in the contemporary setting it is possible to reinterpret the doctrine of repentance. 1. The most basic idea in repentance seems to be turning from sin to God. This was especially true in the use of subby the Old Testament prophets, but it was also central to the calls to repentance by John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles. 2. Sorrowfor sin is most likely an essential ingredient of true repentance, but it is not the essence of repentance. It may be the "porch," as Jeremy Taylor suggested, but not the living room. Remorse or regret 41. Unum Necessarium;or, The Doctrineand Practiceof Repentance,2.1.5, 8, 9, in The WholeWorksof the Right ReverendJeremy Taylor,D. D., ed. Reginald Heber, 15 vols. (London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. et al., 1822), 8:310, 312,314. 42. AutobiographicSketches,1.434, quoted by Treadwell Walden,An Undeveloped Chapterin the Life of Christ:The GreatMeaning of the WordMetanoia,Lostin the Oul Version,Unrecovered in the New (New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1882), p. 17. 43. As cited by Walden, An UndevelopedChapterin the Life of Christ,p. 5. 44. Literatureand Dogma:An Essaytowardsa BetterApprehensionof the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1873), pp. 190-200, esp. 190, 192-93, 196. 45. The Meaning of Repentance (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1943), pp. 41-47. 46. Strong, SystematicTheology,pp. 832-34; B. H. Carroll, The Bible Doctrineof Repentance(Louisville, Ky.: Baptist Book Concern, 1897), pp. 54-55; Mullins, The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,pp. 369-70; Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 196-98; Stevens, Doctrinesof the ChristianReligion, pp. 221-22.

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for sin, as in the case of Judas Iscariot, is not the equivalent of true repentance. Paul recognized the difference between sorrow (lypi) and experiencing regret (metamelomai)on the one hand and true repentance (metanoia)on the other (2 Cor. 7:8-11). 3. Repentance, especially in the New Testament usage, brings to the repentant one a new mind. But, contrary to the nineteenth-century neo-classicists, this new mind is more than a new philosophy. It must involve a new Godward allegiance, new attitudes, and a new lifestyle. 4. True repentance is necessarily the accompaniment of true faith, and spurious faith is normally accompanied by a lack of repentance. True repentance may serve as an antidote to cheap grace and easy "believism" (Bonhoeffer). 5. The extremesof utter passivity and of anytime self-inducement are to be avoided in framing the doctrine of repentance. To be responsible for impenitence human beings must actively participate in repentance (Acts 17:30), and for repentance to lead to God, God must enable humans to repent (Acts 11: 18). Hence some have been prone to refer to repentance both as a "grace"and "a duty." 6. Repentance, especially as set forth in Luke-Acts, is an essential condition of and leads to the forgi,venessor remission of sins. 47 7. Although the majority of the New Testament usages of "repent" and "repentance" may represent repentance as a condition of conversion to God or to Jesus Christ, in the letters to the churches in Revelation it is professed Christians who are called on to "repent." We are not likely to adopt the strict standard of Hermas and hence ought to recognize that Christian believersor disciplesalso need to repent. 8. Although the medieval church may have been excessive in its institutionalization of repentance as the sacrament of penance, there is indeed a place for confessionof sin, especially of wrongs against others, to fellow men and asking for forgiveness. Also there may be need for restitution (Luke 19:8). 9. Genuine repentance has usually characterized movements of spiritual renewal, and the lack of manifest or widespread repentance may be the telling evidence, as James Edwin Orr (1912-87) suggested, 48 that there has been no major spiritual awakening in Protestant Christianity since the opening decade of the twentieth century. 10. True repentance is the occasion for heavenly rejoicing (Luke 15:7, 10) and leads to life (Acts 11: 18). After studying repentance it is to be expected that we should turn to the nature and meaning of faith.

47. Carroll, The BibleDoctrineof Repentance,pp. 84-102. 48. J. Edwin Orr to James Leo Garrett, Jr., 24 July 1980.

CHAPTER58

FAITH Does it matter whether one first expounds repentance and then subsequently deals with faith or one first expounds faith and subsequently deals with repentance? Some Protestant theologians have utilized the sequence of faith and repentance. 1 The most telling reason for doing so may be that the prior divine agency in justifying or regenerating human beings would seem to require or call for an immediate faith. Other Protestant theologians have employed the sequence of repentance and faith. 2 The most persuasive argument for such a sequence may be the fact that the New Testament texts which mention both terms consistently refer first to repentance. 1. Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559 ed.), 3.2-3; Dagg,A Manual of Theology, pp. 175-78, 262-65; A. A. Hodge, Outlines a/Theology (en!. ed.: New York: George H. Doran Co., 1878), pp. 465-81, 487-95; Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 2:529-37; W. A. Brown, Christian Theology in Outline, pp. 381-82, 390-91; Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of the Church, Faith, and the Consummation, pp. 134-289; and Roark, The Christian Faith, pp. 231-36. 2. Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, pp. 480-95, 503-5; James Madison Pendleton (1811-91), Christian Doctrines: A Compendium of Theology (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1878), pp. 263-73; Boyce, Abstract of Systematic Theology, pp. 382-94; William Newton Clarke, An Outline of Christian Theology, pp. 401-6; E.G. Robinson, Christian Theology, pp. 327-39; Sheldon, System of Christian Doctrine, pp. 434-41; Strong, Systematic Theology, pp. 832-49; Mullins, The Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression, pp. 369-77; L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, pp. 480-509; Conner, The Gmpel of Redemption, pp. 195-211; Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, pp. 352-61; Wenger, Introduction to Theology, pp. 272-78; Stevens, Doctrines of the Christian Faith, pp. 219-29; H. Berkhof, Christian Faith, pp. 428-45; Lawson, Introduction to Christian Doctrine, pp. 220-23; Milne, Know the Truth, pp. 187-88; Erickson, Christian Theology, pp. 933-42; Dunning, Grace, Faith, and Holiness, pp. 436-41; Williams, Renewal Theology, 2:44-50, 71-76; and Hoekema, Saved by Grace, pp. 121-51.

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We do well to take note of the fact that whereas in the Greek language the verb for "believe" (pisteuein) and the noun for "faith" (pistis) come from the same root and the same is true in German (glauben, Glaube), other languages utilize words that come from different roots: Latin (credere,fides),French (croire,foi), and English (believe, faith). 3

I. OLD TESTAMENT The noun "faith" appears only twice in the KJV's Old Testament (Deut. 32:20; Hab. 2:4), 4 although it does appear eighteen times in the RSV.5 The paucity of uses of the noun is balanced by the more frequent employment of Hebrew verbs to convey the ideas of trusting in or believing God. How many verbs in the Old Testament convey such ideas? The scholars differ in their answers. Some consider the verb >aman,"to be firm, secure, reliable (hiphil, "to believe, trust in"), to be the principal or only significant verb. 6 Second, there are interpreters who find that there are two principal verbs: >amanand batah, "to be secure, confide in, trust." 7 Third, still others cite three basic Hebrew verbs: >aman,batah,and hiisah,"to take refuge in." 8 Finally, other authors extend the list of three by including three verbs that relate to the concept of hope, and thus there are six verbs

3. George G. Findlay, "Faith," Dictionaryof the Bible, ed. James Hastings (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1909), p. 255. 4. Ibid. 5. Leon Morris, "Faith," The IllustratedBible Dictionary,1:496. 6. B. B. Warfield, "Faith," A Dictionaryof the Bible, ed.James Hastings (1900), 1:827-28; Paul van Imschoot, "Faith," trans. Leonard A. Bushinski, C.S.Sp., in EncyclopedicDictionaryof the Bible, ed. A. van den Born and adapt. Louis F. Hartman (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), cols. 744-45; "Faith," The EerdmansBibleDictionary,rev. and ed. Allen C. Myers et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), p. 373; Karl Paul Donfried (1940- ), "Faith," Harper'sBible Dictionary,ed. Paul]. Achtemeier et al. (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985), p. 298. 7. Johannes Baptist Bauer (1927-) and Heinrich Zimmerman (1915?- ), "Faith," Encyclopediaof BiblicalTheology,ed. Johannes B. Bauer, 3 vols. (London: Sheed and Ward, 1970), l:244;Jean Duplacy (1916-83), "Faith," trans. William J. Young, Dictionaryof BiblicalTheology,2d ed., ed. Xavier Leon-Dufour and trans. P. Joseph Cahill, S. J.,et al. (New York: Seabury Press, 1973), p. 158. 8. William Douglas Mackenzie ( 1859-1936) and Hugh R. Mackintosh, "Faith," Funk and WagnallsNew StandardBible Dictionary,ed. Melancthon W. Jacobus, Elbert C. Lane, and Andrew C. Zenos, 3d ed. (Philadelphia: Blakiston Co., 1936), p. 256;James Barr, "Faith: In OT," Dictionaryof the Bible, ed.James Hastings and rev. Frederick C. Grant and H. H. Rowley (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963), p. 288; Gordon Wenham, Faith in the Old Testament (Leicester, U.K.: Theological Students' Fellowship, 1976?), p. 19.

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expressive of faith. The additional three are qawah,"to wait for," yahal, "to hope, hope for," and hakah, "to wait for." 9 The locus classicus is Gen. 15:6 (NASV),which, using >aman,declares concerning Abram: "Then he believedin the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Examples of the use of batah are numerous. "My heart trusts in him, and I am helped" (Ps. 28:7b, NIV). "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this" (Ps. 37:5). "When I am afraid, I will trust in you" (Ps. 56:3). "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid" (Isa. 12:2a). "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trustsin you" (Isa. 26:3). Here a "decisive climax in the use of batachfor the whole attitude of faith ... is to be found in the influence oflsaiah" on the formation of religious terminology .10 Hiisah may be found in the Psalms. "Blessed are all who take refuge in him" (2:12c). Moreover, "let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you" (25:20b, c). The Lord "delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refugein him" (37:40b, c). The Psalms are also the locale for the usage of the verbs expressive of hope: qawah, yahal, and hakah. "Wait for the LORD" (27:14a, NIV). "Wait for the LORD, and keep his way" (37:34a). "I have put my hope in your word" (119:Slb). "O Israel, put your hope in the LORD" (130:7a), indeed "both now and forevermore" (131:3b). "We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and shield" (33:20). Trust or faith in Yahweh, according to the Old Testament, is grounded in the covenant 11 and the Exodus (Exod. 14:31). Some see both a collective faith and an individual faith in the Old Testament, united in Abraham, "the believer par excellence"(Gen. 15:6). 12 For others there is no doctrine of faith in the Old Testament, only examples of faith. 13 The object of faith is God, and its basis is the faithfulness ofGod. 14 The Old Testament does not hesitate to identify unbelief (Num. 14: 11; Deut. 32:20; Ps. 78:22). 15 How is faith according to the Old Testament to be compared with faith according to the New Testament? One can make the comparison either by declaring it to be "relatively far less prominent 9. E. C. Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," The Interpreter'sDictwnaryof the Bible, 2:222-23; Brunner, The ChristianDoctrineof the Church,Faith, and the Consummation, pp. 152-55. 10. Artur Weiser, "pisteuii,pistis,pistos, etc.,-The Old Testament Concept," TheologicalDictionaryof the New Testament,6: 192. 11. Findlay, "Faith," p. 255; Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," 2:225-26; Bauer and Zimmerman, "Faith," 1:243; Robert William Lyon (1929- ), "Faith," Baker Encyclopediaof the Bible, ed. Walter A. Elwell, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), 1:761. 12. Philippe Henri Menoud, "Faith," A Companionto the Bible, p. 105. 13. Mackenzie and Mackintosh, "Faith," p. 256. 14. Ibid.; Donfried, "Faith," p. 298. 15. "Faith," The EerdmansBible Dictionary,p. 374.

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in the OT than in the NT" 16 or by holding that only in certain passages (Gen. 15:6; Hab. 2:4; Ps. 27:13; 116:10; 119:66) does faith "assume the personal value which is of its essence in the NT." 17

II. INTERTESTAMENT AL AND LATER JUDAISM Although there was continuity concerning the meaning of faith between the Old Testament and the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, 18 in the latter there came to be more emphasis on belief in the commands, statutes, or law of God (Ecclus. 32:24; 33:3). 19 Hence faith came to be keeping the Torah, including the Sabbath, the feasts, the sacrifices, and the temple. 2 ° Furthermore, in Diaspora Judaism, with its contact with the Hellenistic world, there was more emphasis on the intellectual aspect of faith. 21 When Gentiles became proselytes to Judaism, faith came to be "acceptance of a truer religion, "22 as in J th. 14: 10. In the Qumran community the terms for faith and trust were less prominent than in the Old Testament, and there was more emphasis on the faithfulness of God. 23

III. NEW TESTAMENT Unlike the Old Testament with its multiplicity of terms, the New Testament employed a single family of Greek words to convey the concept of believing or faith. "The noun pistisand the verb pisteuoboth occur more than 240 times, while the adjective pistos is found sixty-seven times." 24 Furthermore, the New Testament concept of faith is even more central to and pervasive of the New Testament writings than was the Old Testament concept vis-a-vis the books of the Old Testament. 25 A. SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

In several passages faith is specifically connected with physical healing, normally as an essential condition (Matt. 8: 10 and par.; 9:2 and par.; 9:28; Mark 5:34 and par.; 9:19, 24 and par.; 10:52 and par.; Luke 17: 19). Faith is the opposite of fear (Mark 4:40 and par.; 5:36 and par.) and of worry ( Matt. 6:30 and par.) and the condition of answered 16. George Herbert Box (1869-1933), "Faith," A Dictionaryof Christand the Gospels, ed. James Hastings, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908), 1:568. 17. Findlay, "Faith," p. 256. 18. On the faith of Abraham see 1 Mace. 2:52; Jub. 18: 1-19. 19. Barr, "Faith: In OT," p. 289. 20. Calvin Mercer,Jr., "Faith," MercerDictionaryof the Bible, pp. 289-90. 21. Imschoot, "Faith," col. 745; Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," p. 228. 22. Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," p. 228. 23. Barr, "Faith: In OT," p. 289. 24. Leon Morris, "Faith," The New Bible Dictionary,ed. J. D. Douglas, p. 411. 25. Imschoot, "Faith," col. 745.

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petition (Mark 11 :24). Believing is coupled with blessedness in the context of the fulfillment of promise (Luke 1:45 ), with salvation and forgiveness (Luke 7 :50; 8: 12), and with seeing (Mark 15:32). The object of faith can be God (Mark 11:22) or Jesus (Matt. 27:42c). There are degrees of believing (Matt. 17:20; Luke 17:5-6 and par.), and there is the possibility of the failure of faith (Luke 22:32). Faith means accepting the ministry of John the Baptist (Mark 11 :31 and par.) or the reports of Jesus' resurrection (Luke 24: 11, 41), even as false Christs are not to be believed (Mark 13:21 and par.). The Synoptics, and not solely the Gospel of John, refer to unbelief (Luke 1:20; Mark 6:6 and par.; 9:24; Luke 22:67). Edwyn Cyril Blackman ( 1908- ) was probably correct in stating that, although in the Synoptics pisteueinis variously followed by different prepositions and cases (eisand the accusative, epiand the accusative, epi and the dative, and en and the dative), there is no fundamental distinction of meaning. 26 Calvin Mercer,Jr. (1953- ), has seemingly gone too far in minimizing the role of faith in the Synoptics. 27 Walter Alexander Whitehouse (1915-) sought to identify the central thread in the Synoptic understanding of faith as the "confident conviction that God, through His Messiah, was able to do what he had promised through the prophets. It is decisive response to the proffered resources of God, directly present now in the flesh of his Son." 28 For Emil Brunner, "pistisis above all related to the miraculous power of God manifesting itself in the Person of Jesus. "29 B. PAULINE EPISTLES (EXCEPT PASTORALS)

The noun pistisand the verb pisteuein"occur almost 200 times in the thirteen Pauline Epistles," that is, including the Pastorals, and the noun "occurs nearly three times oftener than the verb. "30 In Galatians and Romans, where Paul's controversy with the Judaizers is most apparent, faith is most often the sinner's absolute reliance on God and God's grace as contrasted with reliance on works. 111 In Rom. 1:17 Paul shifted the meaning from the faithfulness of human beings (Hab. 2:4) to the trustful dependence of human beings on God. Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, and hence Abraham is faith's 26. "Faith, Faithfulness," 2:224. 27. "Faith," p. 290. 28. "Faith," A Theologi,cal WordBook of the Bible,ed. Alan Richardson (New York: Macmillan, 1957), p. 76. 29. The ChristianDoctrineof the Church,Faith,and the Consummation,p. 163. 30. Mackenzie and Mackintosh, "Faith," p. 257. 31. William Henry Paine Hatch (1875-1972), The PaulineIdea of Faithin Its Relation toJewishand HellenisticReligion,Harvard Theological Studies, no. 2 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1917), p. 32, concluded that pistis for Paul had four distinct meanings: "convictionor belief,""trust," ''faith,"and ''faithfulnessor fidelity."

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great exemplar (Gal. 3:6; Rom. 4:3).32 Faith is "in" (en) Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26; Eph. 1:15) and "of' (genitive) Christ (Gal. 2:15- 16; 3:22; Rom. 3:22, 26). Human beings are to believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 10:9). Faith is derived from what has been heard and what has been heard from the word or preaching of Christ (Gal. 3:2, 5; Rom. 10:17). Humans are justified, not through works of the law, but through faith in Christ (Gal. 2: 16; 3:24; Rom. 5: 1; 10:4; Phil. 3:9), are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8), and become sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26). Indeed through faith one receives the promised Holy Spirit (Gal. 3: 14) and has boldness and confidence of access to God (Eph. 3: 12). Paul referred to "the obedience of faith" (Rom. 1:6; 16:26), acknowledged weakness in faith (Rom. 14:1-2), listed "faith" as one of the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:9a), and identified faith as one of three theological virtues (1 Cor. 13:13) and yet one which has the quality of hope (Gal. 5:5; Rom. 15:13). Believing and not believing are dear antitheses (Rom. 11:20; 2 Cor. 6:15). Paul's range of meaning extended "from that of'fidelity' (Rom. 3:3; Gal. 5:22; 2 Thess. 1:4; 2 Tim. 4:7) to certainty of belief and conscience (see Rom. 14:23) and finally to the idea of faith in the truly religious sense." 33 For E. C. Blackman there was no major "development" in the usage of faith from the Synoptics to Paul except that the noun had for Paul deeper significance, 34 but, according to Calvin Mercer, Jr., there was a "significant shift." 35 Paul's doctrine of faith, Karl Paul Donfried declared, is the "broadest and profoundest articulation of the concept of faith in early Christianity." 36 C. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Luke frequently employed participles of pisteuein to convey the idea of "believers. "37 Repeatedly the same verb conveyed the idea of saving trust in Jesus Christ. 38 Believing in Christ could be expressed by epi and its object (9:42; 11:17; 16:31; 22:19), byeis and its object (20:21; 24:24), and by the dative case without a preposition (18:8). Faith is also directed to God (16:34; 27:25). Human beings are justified by faith (13:39), saved through faith (16:31), forgiven through faith (10:43), given the Holy Spirit by believing (19:2), purified in heart through faith (15:9), and 32. That Abraham was important to New Testament writers other than Paul and to the early Church Fathers has been made apparent by Jeffrey Stephen Siker ( 1955- ), DisinheritingtheJews:Abrahamin Early ChristianControversy (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991). 33. Bauer and Zimmerman, "Faith," p. 250. For a definition of the Pauline concept of faith, see Hatch, The Pauline Idea of Faith, p. 65. 34. "Faith, Faithfulness," 2:224. 35. "Faith," p. 291. 36. "Faith," p. 300. 37. Acts 2:44; 4:32; 10:43; 13:39; 15:5; 18:27; 19:18; 21:25; 22:19. 38. Acts 4:4; 8:13; 11:17, 21; 13:12, 48; 14:1, 23; 15:7; 17:12, 34; 18:8; 21:20.

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sanctified by faith (26: 18). Bodily healing is dependent upon faith (3: 16; 14:9). Believing could have as it object the law and the prophets (24: 14; 26:27), the preaching of the gospel by Philip (8: 12), and the gospel truth of salvation (15: 11). Stephen and Barnabas were said to be "full of faith" (6:5; 11 :24), and Luke alluded to the opening of "the door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27). Occasionally "the faith" meant the Christian religion (6:7; 13:8; 14:22; 16:5). D. EPISTLE OF JAMES

The chief emphasis respecting faith is that "faith" without or unaccompanied by "works" is inadequate. The context is not, as in Paul, the Judaizing controversy, but rather Jewish Christian ethics. Faith which does not clothe or feed the needy is dead (2: 14-17). Works authenticate true faith (2:18). Even "the demons believe" in the inadequate sense (2: 19). Abraham's faith was "completed by works" in his offering oflsaac (2:21-23, RSV). So was that of Rahab in receiving messengers (2:25). Faith "without deeds is useless" (2:20, NIV). Hence one "is justified by what he does and not by faith alone" (2:24). Any contradiction between Paul and James on faith and works is "only apparent, "39 not genuine. They used the same words with different meanings. 4 °For James true faith is "not antinomian." 41 James rejected "a nominal monotheism which neither affects behavior nor calls forth personal trust." 42 Leon Morris sees "works" for James as the equivalent of "the fruit of the Spirit" for Paul. 43 The epistle also refers to the testing of faith (1 :3), to asking in faith without doubt (1:6), to the richness in faith of the poor (2:5), and to the "prayer of faith" as saving "the sick man" (5:15, RSV, JB). E. EPISTLES OF PETER

In First Peter "faith" is colored by the impending persecution of the Christians by the Roman imperial government so that therein "faith" has the quality of perseverance. An eternal, heavenly inheritance is being kept for those who are being guarded by God's power "through faith" unto or for an eschatological salvation (1 :5). Jesus Christ is both the object of faith (1:8) and the agent or means of believing in God (1:21). 44 Such faith, predicated on Jesus' resurrection, is joyful trust in the pres39. "Faith, Faithful," The Modem Reader'sDictionaryof the Bible, ed. Stephen C. Neill, John Goodwin, and Arthur Dowle (New York: Association Press, 1966), p. 106. 40. D. Macrae Tod, "Faith," Dictionaryof theApostolicChurch,ed. James Hastings, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916), 1:389. 41. Mackenzie and Mackintosh, "Faith," p. 258. 42. Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," 2:234. 43. "Faith," New Bible Dictionary,p. 368. 44. Tod, "Faith," 1:391.

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ently invisible Jesus Christ and has as its "goal" the "salvation" of"souls" (l:8, NIV). Believing, wherein Jesus is precious, is in contrast with not believing, wherein Jesus is the stone of stumbling (2:7-8). In Second Peter "faith" is a precious gift "through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ" ( 1:1, NIV, TEV, JB ), and it is to be supplemented with "virtue," "knowledge," "self-control," "steadfastness," "godliness," "brotherly affection," and "love" (1:5-7, RSV). F. EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

For various modern scholars45 Heb. 11: 1 provides the key to the concept of faith in the entire epistle: faith is "the substance" (KJV, NEB) or "the assurof "things hoped for" (KJV, RSV) (elpizomenon)and ance" (RSV) (hypostasis) "the evidence" (KJV) or "the conviction" (RSV) or "the existence" (JB) (pragrnatonelegchos)of"things not seen" (KJV, RSV) (oublepomenon).Others find the key idea to be the prevailing idea of faith as persevering hope 46 or the concept of faith as "the human response to the word of God. "47 The stress on faith as confidence in the invisible in Hebrews is different from the central Pauline usage of "faith," although Paul occasionally contrasts faith and sight (2 Cor. 5:7). The author repeatedly refers to unbelief, presumably on the part of some within the covenant relationship (3: 12, 19), and contrasts "those who shrink back and are destroyed" (RSV, NIV) with "those who have faith and keep their souls" (RSV) (10:39). The foundational faith is "toward God" (6: l, ~' RSV), but Christians, with "full assurance of faith" (enplirophorig,pisteos)(10:22a, KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV) in Jesus as high priest, are to "imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" (6:12, NIV). Throughout chapters 11 and 12 faith is a "characteristic of the people ofGod." 48 The roster of Old Testament exemplars of faith in the God of yet unfulfilled promises (ch. 11) reaches its climax in Jesus, who is faith's "author and finisher" (KJV) or "pioneer and perfecter" (RSV, NIV) (archigonkai tel,eiotin)(12:2). G. GOSPEL AND FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

In the Gospel according to John the verb pisteuein is used 98 times and the noun pistis does not appear at all. This verb is used more often in this gospel than it is employed by any other New Testament author. 49 In First John the verb is used nine times and the noun once (5:4). 50 Believing is the criterion of a right relation with God through Jesus, the Word and Son of God, and not believing is the opposite. The claim has been made that the J ohannine concept of faith has no parallels outside Christian 45. Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," 2:234; Imschoot, "Faith," col. 748. 46. Warfield, "Faith," 1:835. 47. Tod, "Faith," 1:391. 48. Morris, "Faith," New Bible Dictionary,p. 368; Lyon, "Faith," 1:763. 49. Morris, "Faith," New Bible Dictionary,p. 367. 50. Mackenzie and Mackintosh, "Faith," p. 257.

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literature except possibly in the Dead Sea Scrolls. 51 Some interpret believing in the J ohannine writings as primarily assent to revealed truth with Jesus normally as its object. 52 Others see it as normally having a "soteriological" sense. 53 Yet others find in believing a blending of credence, trust, knowledge, and receiving. 54 Most frequently believing "in" or "on Jesus" is expressed by "'on him"' (eisauton)55 or by "'on me"' or '"in me"'(eis eme),56 but occasionally it is expressed by '"on [or "'in"']his name"' (eisto onomaautou),57 by '"in the name of God's only Son"' (eisto onomatou monogenoushuiou tou theou),58 by "'in the Son"' (eiston huion),59 and by "'in the Son of man"' (eiston huion tou anthriipou).60 Believing also at times is directed toward God, 61 is "'in him who sent me"' (tgpempsantime),62 is "'in the one whom he has sent"' (eishon 64 and is apesteilenekeinos),63 is "'that you sent me"' (hoti sy me apesteil,as), '"that I am in the Father, and the Father in me."' 65 But believing is also frequently used in the absolute sense with no specified object. 66 Believing is not thirsting (6:35) and is coming out of darkness into the light which is Jesus (12:35-36, 46). Believing in Jesus is believing in God the Father as the one sendingJesus (12:44; 16:27, 30; 17:8, 21). Believing is presently having "eternal life" (3:15, 16, 36; 6:40), not being condemned (3:18), not perishing (3:16), and not experiencing eternal death (11:26). Believing is worshiping Jesus (9:38), seeing the glory of God in the raising of Lazarus (11 :40; 12: 11), and rendering credible the resurrection of Jesus (20:8, 25, 27, 29). It is the central purpose for the writing of this Gospel (20:31). On the other hand, unbelievers, whom Jesus foreknew (6:64), do not belong to Jesus' sheep (10:26) and are already condemned (3: 18), for not believing is both due to divine blinding and hardening (12:37--41) and to human sin (16:8-9).

51. Mercer, "Faith," p. 291. 52. Imschoot, "Faith," col. 748. 53. Box, "Faith," 1:569. 54. Lyon, "Faith," 1:763. 55.John 3:18; 4:39; 6:40; 7:31, 39, 48; 8:30; 9:36; 10:42; 11:45 (KJV). 56.John 6:35; 7:37; 11:25, 26; 12:44, 46; 14:1, 12; 17:20 (KJV). 57.John 1:12; 2:23 (KJV). 58.John 3:18 (JB). See Morris, "Faith," New BibleDictionary, p. 367. 59.John 3:36 (RSV, NEB, NIV,JB, TEV). 60.John 9:35 (RSV, NEB, NIV,JB, TEV). 61.John 14:1. 62.John 5:24 (NEB, TEV). 63. John 6:29 (NEB, NIV). 64.John 11:42; 17:8, 21 (TEV). 65. John 14:10, 11 (KJV, RSV, NEB). 66.John 1:7, 50; 4:42, 53; 6:47; 11:15, 40; 14:29; 16:31; 19:35; 20:8, 29. See Blackman, "Faith, Faithfulness," 2:234.

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In the First Epistle of John, although the verb "to believe" is employed (3:23; 4:16; 5:1, 5, 10, 13), the verb "to confess" (homologein) (2:23; 4:2, 3, 15) conveys a kindred meaning. H. REVELATION

In the Apocalypse the noun "faith" has the quality of faithfulness unto martyrdom. 67 The words "my faith" (KJV, RSV) (tin pistin mou) in 2:13 have been recently translated "your faith in me" (fEV, JB, NEB, NIV). Commonly faith is connected with "endurance" (hypomonel(2:19; 13:10; 14: 12, RSV) and with keeping God's commandments ( 14: 12). It can be the "faith of the saints" (hi pistis ton hagi,on)(13:10, RSV) and the "faith of Jesus" (14:12) (KJV, RSV), or "faith in Jesus" (Phillips, JB), or being or remaining "faithful to Jesus" (fEV, NIV). I. PASTORAL EPISTLES AND EPISTLE OF JUDE

In these writings one finds usages of the verb "believe" 68 and of the noun "faith" 69 which are similar to the usages in other New Testament books. But quite distinctive to these writings is the use of the noun "faith" with the article adjective "the" to refer to the Christian message or to the body of Christian truth or teaching. 70 One reads in the Pastoral Epistles of saving faith (2 Tim. 3: 15), the sincerity of faith (2 Tim. 1:5), the faith of God's elect (Tit. 1:1), assured faith (1 Tim. 3:13; 2 Tim. 1:12), the building up of faith Gude 20), continued faith (1 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:10, 14), shared faith (Tit. 1:4), an example in faith ( 1 Tim. 4: 12), shipwrecked faith ( 1 Tim. 1: 19), and false faith (2 Tim. 3:8).

IV. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE A. PATRISTIC AGE

Believing, or faith, was neither a major doctrine nor a major issue in controversy for the Church Fathers. 71The early Fathers stated that salvation comes through "repentance" and "faith." This does not mean, however, that they at once had a full and proper conception of faith and repentance. Faith was generally regarded as the outstanding instrument for the reception of the 67. Stauffer, New TestamentTheology,p. 172. 68. 2 Tim. 1:12; 3:14;Jude 5. 69.1 Tim.1:4, 14;2:7, 15;3:13;4:12;6:11;2Tim. l:5, 13;3:10, 15;Tit. l:l,4; 2:2; Jude 20. 70. 1 Tim. 1:2; 3:9; 4:1, 6; 5:8, 21; Tit. l:13;Jude 3. See James 2:1. Some passages are difficult to classify: 1 Tim. 6: 12; 2 Tim. 3:8; 4:7. The exception: the Acts of the Apostles. 71. "Faith" does not appear in the index of Kelly, Early ChristianDoctrines,p. 494.

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merits of Christ, and was often called the sole means of salvation. It was understood to consist in true knowledge of God, confidence in Him, and self-committal to Him, and to have as its special object Jesus Christ and His atoning blood. This faith ... was regarded as the means of justification .... It cannot be said, however, that a clear conception of faith emerged in the thinking of the first three centuries. In their emphasis on faith the Fathers largely repeated what they found in the Bible .... The prevalent idea seems to be that of a merely intellectual assent to the truth, but in some cases it apparently includes the idea of self-surrender. Yet it generally falls far short of the full and rich conception of it as saving trust in Jesus Christ. 72 For Augustine of Hippo faith had both epistemological and soteriological significance. First, Augustine declared that "faith precedes reason" because nisi credideritis,non intelligetis,unless you believe, you will not understand. He thus opposed Tertullian's view that faith recommends itself in proportion to its absurdity. The priority offides, faith, he regarded as eminently reasonable .... Augustine's undeviating conviction was that fides is the gateway to understanding-the way to the Kingdom which none enters except as a little child. This ... is the Gospel wisdom, sapientia, which must replace the proud sufficiency of classical knowledge or scientia.Faith is the lowly door by which the "heart," bowing to enter, is cleansed in order that at length the whole mind may apprehend the universal abiding Truth-may see God .... The principle may be stated simply. It is the doctrine of the primacy of the will in all knowledge .... The completion of cognition lies with affection. Thus full cognition is re-cognition.The possibility of so-called "objectivity" in knowledge is given in the fact that there may be cognitiowithout agnitio, acknowledgment .... That is to say, God may be known while not being acknowledged .... Faith is what moves the will, or, better, it is a certain movement of the will.73 Second, faith, for Augustine, was the gift of God whereby human beings may receive and lay hold of the benefits of God's saving activity in Jesus

72. Louis Berkhof, The Historyof ChristianDoctrines(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), pp. 203-4. First published in 1937. See also William Ralph Inge (1860-1954), Faith (London: Duckworth, 1909), pp. 24-31. 73. Robert Earl Cushman (1913- ), "Faith and Reason," in A Companionto the •Study of St. Augustine, ed. Roy W. Battenhouse (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), pp. 287-88, 289-90.

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Christ. He defined faith as "concerning the will of him who believes, even so far as to show that it appertains to grace." Such faith is "given" by God. 74 B. MEDIEVAL ERA

Anselm of Canterbury in the eleventh century retained and amplified Augustine's approach to faith and understanding. "For I do not seek to understand in order to believe but I believe in order to understand. For I believe even this: that I shall not understand unless I believe." 75 Whereas Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century could say that faith is the result of God's inward movement by grace, 76 he also held that faith is basically assent77 to the doctrines of Christianity, with "implicit faith" being sufficient for the lesser doctrines, 78 is a virtue, 79 is meritorious, 80 is formed by love,81 and is one of several gifts.82 In the fourteenth century William of Ockham reckoned faith to be "knowledge" and "assent" vis-a-vis"the biblical revelation." In baptism God infuses into the baptizand a "habit" by which "he is able to assent to any article of faith" (fidesirifusa).Later, through instruction and Bible reading one obtains an acquired faith (fidesacquisita). Implicit faith (fidesimplicita)may be sufficient for the laity in respect to less central doctrines. 83 Gabriel Biel ( ? -1495) also differentiated infused faith and acquired faith. 84 C. REFORMATION AND POST-REFORMATION ERAS

With Luther came a recovery of the primacy of fiduciary faith. For Luther faith has as its object God, or Christ, "in his word" (Paul Althaus) 85 or "the peculiar, positive revelations of God in the words and works of Christ" (Seeberg). 86 Believing is "an unconditionally personal act" 87 in which one hears and receives the word of God 88 or the "benefits of God. "89 In place of 74. On Graceand Free Will 28, 17 (NPNF); On the Predestinationof the Saints 3. 75. Proslogion1, in Anselm of Canterbury,ed. and trans. Hopkins and Richardson, 1:93. 76. Summa Theologica2/2. 6.1. 77. Ibid. 2/2. 1.2. 78. Ibid. 2/2. 1.6; 2/2. 2. 5-8. 79. Ibid. 2/2. 4.5. 80. Ibid. 2/2. 2.9. 81. Ibid. 2/2. 4.3. 82. Ibid. 2/2. 1-46. 83. Reinhold Seeberg (1859-1935), Text-bookof the Historyof Doctrines,trans. Charles E. Hay, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1954), 2:195-96. 84. Heiko Augustin us Oberman ( 1930- ), The Harvest of Medieval Theology: GabrielBiel and Late MedievalNominalism(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963; Durham, N.C.: Labyrinth Press, 1983), pp. 68-89. 85. The Theologyof Martin Luther, pp. 43, 44. 86. Text-bookof the Historyof Doctrines,2:252. 87. Althaus, The Theologyof Martin Luther, p. 54. 88. Ibid., p. 46. 89. Seeberg, Text-bookof the Historyof Doctrines,2:254.

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acquired faith, which for Luther was too man-acquired, and of infused faith, which was impotent as to forgiveness of sins,90 the Wittenberg Reformer saw faith as wrought by Christ or the Holy Spirit as the sole condition of justification before God and forgiveness by God and as issuing in new life and good works. 91 Luther did not completely abandon, however, faith as assent to doctrinal truth, especially as he treated the Scriptures, Christology, and the Trinity. 92 Kindred definitions were supplied by Philip Melanchthon 93 and by Martin Bucer. 94 Calvin rejected the Roman doctrine of implicit faith, allowing the term to be used only for the preparation for faith, and rejected the Scholastic distinction between "unformed faith" and "formed faith," insisting that faith is prior to and engenders love. 95 Calvin defined faith as "a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit." 96 A "supernatural gift" of the Holy Spirit, faith is like an empty vessel one brings to receive Christ, 97 and "the knowledge of faith consists in assurance rather than in comprehension." 98 Faith issues in repentance, and justification is through faith alone. 99 Anabaptist understandings of faith were similar to those of the magisterial Reformers except for greater emphasis upon true faith as leading to fruit-bearing and to suffering. Balthasar Hubmaierwrote: "This confidence and sincere trust in God through Jesus Christ, that is, through the favor, grace, and good will which God the Father has for his most-beloved Son Jesus Christ, is exactly true faith." 100 It is "the realization of the unspeakable 90. Ibid., 2:254, n. 2; 2:263. 91. Ibid., 2:263, 260-62, 256, 258-60. 92. Althaus, The Theologyof Martin Luther, pp. 50-53. 93. Loci Communes(1555 ed.), ch. 11, in Melanchthonon ChristianDoctrine,trans. and ed. Clyde L. Manschreck, LPT (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), pp. 158-59. 94. Preface to Metaphraseset enarratioin epistolamD. Pauli apostoliad Romanos ( 1562), p. 6, as trans. by D. F. Wright in CommonPlacesof Martin Bucer, CLRC (Appleford, Berkshire, U.K.: Sutton Courtenay Press, 1972), p. 196, n. 1. 95. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.), 3.2.2-5; 3.2.8-10, 41. 96. Ibid., 3.2.7. 97. Ibid., 3.1.4; 3.11.7. 98. Ibid., 3.2.14 (trans. Battles). 99. Ibid., 3.3.l; 3.11.19. See Niesel, The Theologyof Calvin, pp. 120-39; Wendel, Calvin: The Originsand Developmentof His ReligiousThought, pp. 233-63; Kendall, Calvin and English Puritanismto 1649, pp. 13-28. 100. On the ChristianBaptismof Believers(1525), in BalthasarHubmaier:Theologian of Anabaptism,trans. and ed. H. Wayne Pipkin and John H. Yoder, Classics of the Radical Reformation (Scottdale, Pa., Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1989), p. 116.

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mercy of God, ... which he bears to us through ... Christ." 101 True faith issues in confession of faith, love, and good works. 102 According to Menno Simons, faith is accepting the gospel through the Holy Spirit and casting "the whole heart" on "the grace, Word and promises of the Lord," it being the gift of God. 103 Such true faith is indeed a fruit-bearing faith. 104 For Peter Rideman (1506-56), a Hutterite, true faith is God's gift, given only to those who fear God. . . . It dispelleth all wavering and doubt, and maketh our heart hold surely, steadfastly and firmly to God, through all tribulation. 105 James Arminius provided some differing interpretations of the nature of faith. Justifying faith "is not peculiar to the elect" human beings, for some believers can finally "fall away from faith and salvation." "Faith is not an effect of election, but is a necessary requisite foreseen by God in those who are to be elected." It is "the act of believing," not the righteousness of Christ, which is "imputed to us for [r ]ighteousness," and God does not use our faith as an "instrument" in justifying us. "Faith is not the pure gift of God, but depends partly on the grace of God, and partly on the powers of [f]ree [w]ill." 106 Faith is the assent of the mind to divinely revealed truth as produced by the Holy Spirit with Christ as well as God the Father as its object. 107 It is "not bestowed according to an absolute will of saving some particular men" but rather is "a condition required in the object to be saved." 108 Moreover, "historical faith passes over into saving faith when exercised."109 That the doctrine of faith of English Puritans and the Westminster standards was strictly a replay of Calvin's doctrine has been refuted by R. T. Kendall. William Perkins retained Calvin's order of faith before repentance and his doctrine 110 of the temporary faith of the non-elect but added Theodore Beza's emphasis on a voluntaristic view of faith and his seeking 101. A ChristianCatechism( 1526), in BalthasarHubmaier,p. 348. 102. Apologia(1528), art. 1, in BalthasarHubmaier, pp. 526-27. 103. Foundationof ChristianDoctrine(1539) 1.3, in The CompleteWorksof Menno Simons,c. 1496-1561, trans. Leonard Verduin anded.John Christian Wenger (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1956), pp. 115-16. 104. Ibid., 1.6, in CompleteWorks,p. 130; ChristianBaptism (1539) in Complete Works,p. 241; The True ChristianFaith (c. 1541), 5, in CompleteWorks,pp. 341-43. 105. Account of Our Religion, Doctrineand Faith (1540), trans. Kathleen E. Hasenberg (Bromdon, U. K.: Plough Publishing House, 1950), p. 46. 106. Apologyor Defence(1609), arts. 1, 2, 4, 24, 26, 27, in The WritingsofJames Arminius, l :278-82, 285-89, 355-58, 363-66. 107. Private Disputations(1610), no. 44, in The WritingsofJames Arminius, 2:109-11. 108. CertainArticlesto Be DiligentlyExaminedand Weighed,19.9, in The Writingsof James Arminius, 2:500. 109. Bangs, Arminius:A Study in the Dutch Reformation,p. 272, based on a letter by Arminius on 31 January 1606. 110. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.), 3.2.11-12.

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of assurance through internal evidence of sanctification (2 Pet. 1: 10) and also added from the Heidelberg theologians the federal theology with its covenant of works and of grace. The Westminster Assembly placed repentance before the assurance of faith, scarcely mentioned temporary faith, referred to saving faith in voluntaristic, non- persuasionary terms, and separated saving faith from assurance. Ill D. MODERN ERA

In Schleiermacher the feeling of absolute dependence upon God, "which is the same thing, of being in relation with God," 112 tended to overshadow the concept of faith, which Schleiermacher discussed in relation to justification and to good works. 113 For Kierkegaard the quintessential "knight" of faith was Abraham, who not only, with Sarah, believed God's promise as to posterity but also himself believed God's command to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham "believed and did not doubt, he believed the preposterous." Therein was the "teleological suspension of the ethical" in view of "an absolute duty toward God." 114 Faith was "a leap of despair," and "the conviction that with God all things are possible" is "'the absurd.'" 115 Vatican Council I (1870) defined faith as "a supernatural virtue, whereby, inspired and assisted by the grace of God, we believe the things which he has revealed are true; not because of the intrinsic truth of the things, viewed by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God himself' as Revealer. Such faith is "by no means a blind action of the mind," and yet it comes only through "the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit." It is both "a gift of God" and "a work appertaining to salvation" and is essential to justification and to eternal life. God has also provided "exterior proofs of his revelation," namely, "miracles and prophecies," and faith rests upon the substructure of reason. 116 During and after the two world wars Protestant authors produced significant monographs on faith. William Ralph Inge, rejecting the ideas that faith is "pure feeling," acceptance of an infallible Church, acceptance of an infallible Bible, "an act of the will," a matter of pragmatics, secured by reason, or based on aesthetics, sought to identify faith as a "vague instinct" 111. Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinismto 1649, pp. 1-9, 21-24, 32-41, 51, 62-76, 197-213. See Westminster Confession of Faith, arts. 14, 15, 18. 112. The ChristianFaith, p. 12. 113. Ibid., pp. 503-5, 517-24. 114. "Fear and Trembling" in Fear and Tremblingand The Sicknessunto Death, trans. Walter Lowrie (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1954), pp. 31-37, esp. 35; 64-91. 115. Mackintosh, Typesof Modern Theology:Schleiermacher to Barth, p. 233. See also Claude Welch, ProtestantThought in the NineteenthCentury,Volume1, 1799-1870 (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1972), pp. 301-2. 116. DogmaticConstitutionon the CatholicFaith, chs. 3-4, in Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,2:242-51.

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that combines "intellectual conviction and moral trust." 117 On the other hand, J. Gresham Machen attempted to shore up the intellectual aspect of faith. 118 Donald M. Baillie, somewhat like Inge, refused to identify faith with "tradition" or "authority,"with "reason"and "philosophy,"or with "the will-to-believe" or to base it on "religious experience." Rather faith is "moral conviction" that leads to "religious conviction." 119 Harry Francis Lovell Cocks (1894-?) differentiated "natural faith," or the identification of faith with religious experience in the Schleiermacher-Kant tradition, from "saving faith," or the "acknowledgment" and "worship" of God by justified and regenerated sinners. 120 Cocks's book serves as a reminder that the Neoorthodox theologians gave considerable emphasis to faith. Colin Brown has identified a shift in Karl Barth's understanding of faith. In The Epistleto theRomans faith meant in a Kierkegaardian sense "launching out in confidence into the unknowable," whereas in ChurchDogmaticsfaith clearly had its object,Jesus Christ, and could be defined, as had Melanchthon and other Reformers, "as none otherthan trust in thepromiseof mercy."For Barth faith is always "the positive human response which revelation seeks." 121 Donald Bloesch sees in Barth's doctrine that faith is "both a work of the Spirit within us and a work of the human subject who is acted upon by grace" and has "both cognitive and ethical dimensions." For Barth, however, faith is no full correlative to "the redemptive event" itself, for "Christ is the ontic dimension and faith the noetic dimension of salvation." 122 On this very issue we find G. C. Berkouwer's criticism of Emil Brunner's doctrine of faith, namely, that Brunner made our believing to be on the same plane with Christ's redemptive work. But Brunner was at least in part veering from Barth's favorable stance concerning eschatological universalism. 123 Less ambiguous is the fact that Brunner's doctrine of faith as interpersonal was influenced by the distinction between I/thou and I/it types of knowing which Martin Buber and Ferdinand Ebner (1882-1931) had made. Hence for

117. Faith, esp. pp. 41-42, 223. 118. What Is Faith? (New York: Macmillan; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1925). 119. Faith in Godand Its ChristianConsummation(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1927),esp.pp.54,80, 129,152,190. 120. By FaithAlone (London: James Clarke and Co., Ltd., 1943), esp. pp. 8, 76. 121. Karl Barth and the ChristianMessage(London: Tyndale Press, 1967), pp. 44-47. According to Brown, the Reformers blended cognition (notitia), assent (assensus),and trust or commitment (fiducia). 122.Jesus ls Victor!Karl Barth's Doctrineof Salvation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976), pp. 35, 107. 123. The Triumph of Gracein the Theologyof Karl Barth, trans. Harry R. Boer (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), p. 264; Bloesch,Jesus Is Victor!,p. 124.

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Brunner faith is an act of decision or a venture that involves "personal correspondence" and personal relationship. 124

V. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION A. NECESSITY AND IMPORTANCE

From the biblical and postbiblical studies it should be evident that in the Christian understanding believing, or faith, is an indispensable condition of a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. It is difficult to exaggerate the centrality and significance of faith. B. IMPORTANT CONTRASTS

1. Faith and Unbelief Believing is to be set in sharp and significant contrast to not believing, or unbelief, as utterly distinct alternatives. Especially is unbelief a major theme in the Gospel of John. 2. True Faith and Superficial or Spurious Faith True believing should also be differentiated so far as possible from a spurious or superficial faith, often identified as "mere profession of faith." We have seen that Calvin and English Puritans made a place for this distinction. Does spurious or superficial faith include among its types one who begins with genuine faith and subsequently loses such, or is it confined to those whose faith never attains to the quality of genuineness? Dale Moody during the early years of his teaching frequently declared to his students, "The faith that fizzles before the finish has had a flaw from the first." Subsequently Moody abandoned such language and concluded that "superficial believers are not the only type that falls away."125 This topic will be treated later more fully.126 C. ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS

Important to the delineation of the doctrine of faith is the identifying and clarifying of its essential components. Three recent statements of these components may be compared:

124. Paul King Jewett, Emil Brunner's Conceptof Revelation(London: James Clarke and Co., 1954), pp. 49-82; idem, Emil Brunner:An Introductionto the Man and His Thought (Chicago: Inter-Varsity Press, 1961), pp. 22-28. Also see Lorenz Volken, Der Glaubebei Emil Brunner (Freiburg, Switzerland: Paulusverlag, 1947). 125. The Wordof Truth, p. 349. 126. See below, ch. 69, esp. IV, F.

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I John Murrav 127 1. Knowledge: as to "who Christ is, what he has done, and what he is able to do"

William Hordern 128 1. Credentia: "the acceptance of propositions, information, conclusions, directions, etc., without demanding normal evidence or proof' (more Roman Catholic than Protestant)

T.L. Garrett

2. Conviction or Assent: "not only an assent to the truth respecting Christ but also a recognition of the exact correspondance ... between the truth of Christ and our need as lost sinners"

2. Fiducia: "to take him[God] at his word," "to make a decision," to take "the leap of faith"

2. Trust: the reliance on God's mercy and grace in Christ for the forgiveness of one's own sins and one's acceptance by God

3. Trust: "in the person of Christ, the Son of God ... [and] entrustment of ourselves to him"

3. Fides: the "cognitive element," which includes "a relationship to God"

3. Commitment: the surrender of one's total self or being to Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit for obedient discioleship

'

i

I

I . Assent: the recognition that God has acted savingly in his Son, Jesus the Messiah

VI. REPENTANCE AND FAITH From the separate studies of repentance and faith some common conclusions can now be drawn. A. Repentance and faith are not acts to be performed by human beings on

the basis of which or by virtue of which these persons come to have a right or true relationship with God. Hence they are not "works" in the classic theological meaning of that term. B. Repentance and faith are not arbitrary requirements which God has with little meaning imposed on human beings. Rather they are essential spiritual attitudes which must be wrought in sinful humans and/or assumed by sinful humans if the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is to become effective in them. As noted earlier concern-

127. Redemption-Accomplishedand Applied (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), pp. 137-38. Anthony Hoekema, Saved by Grace,pp. 140-43, identified the same three components, differentiated.

but "knowledge" and "assent" were not sharply

128. The Casefor a New ReformationTheology(Philadelphia: 1959), pp. 34-35.

Westminster Press,

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ing repentance, 129 namely, that it may be identified as both "a grace" and "a duty," so faith may be described as both "grace" and "duty." 130 C. Repentance and faith are both necessary. Some New Testament passages mention only repentance (for example, Acts 2:38), and other New Testament passages mention only believing, or faith (for example, Acts 16:31 ). Still other New Testament passages mention both (for example, Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21). But the lack of mention of one in any text does not imply that the other is unnecessary. D. Strict Calvinists have normally insisted that regeneration precedes in time faith and repentance, for a spiritually dead person cannot believe and repent. Arminians have normally taught that repentance and faith precede in time regeneration, for otherwise human beings are born anew without their consent. Such in~istence on chronological sequence may need to yield to the distinction that regeneration is primarily God's work and repentance and faith are primarily human responses. 131 E. Repentance and faith are correlatives, though such a statement does not blur their distinctive meanings. They are not so much two distinct attitudes as they are two aspects of one attitude. One centers more on sin, the other more on God or Jesus Christ. As Conner declared, The inward turning from sin is repentance; turning to Christ as Saviour is faith. Each implies the other. Neither is possible without the other. At the same time and in the same act that one turns from sin he turns to Christ. 132

129. See above, ch. 57, IV, 5. 130. Dagg, A Manual of Theology,p. 262-63. 131. The question of the order (repentance/faith, or faith/repentance) has been treated in the opening paragraph of this chapter. 132. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 195.

CHAPTER59

CONFESSION; CONVERSION From the twin attitudes of repentance and faith we turn to the outward and ordinarily verbal "confession" of that faith in Jesus Christ and to the experience and concept of"conversion." Although the term "confess" in both testaments is often used so as to refer to the confession of sin, here we are concerned with those uses of "confess" which have faith or Jesus Christ as their object. Moreover, we will examine the nature and meaning of "conversion," giving particular attention to the question as to whether conversion is essentially a human or a divine activity.

I. CONFESSION A. OLD TESTAMENT

The Hebrew verb yadah, which more often is translated "to praise," 1 less frequently is rendered "to confess," 2 and occasionally is translated "to acknowledge," 3 literally means "to throw out the hand." The noun t6diih similarly is rendered "praise" 4 or "confession. "5 When yiidiih is translated "confess," the word normally means the confession of sin. Only in Solomon's prayer of dedication for the temple (1 Kings 8:33, 35; par. 2 Chr. 6:24, 26) is the "name" of Yahweh the object of the confessing, and even there the context speaks of the forgiveness of sin. 6 Such confession

1. Fifty-one times in the KJV, forty of which are in the Psalms. Robert Young,

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

AnalyticalConcordanceto the Bible, 12th American ed., p. 766. Eighteen times in the KJV (ibid., p. 196). Five times in the KJV (ibid., p. 12). Four times in the KJV (ibid., p. 766). Two times in the KJV (ibid., p. 196). Charles Archibald Anderson Scott (1859-1941), "Confession," A Dictionaryof the Bible, ed.James Hastings (1900), 1:464, attempted to trace the confession of Yahweh's name to Abram's calling upon that name (Gen. 13:4).

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tended to be in the context of corporate worship. 7 The concept of the acknowledgment of Yahweh's person, name, and works is, however, more widespread than the uses of yadiih. Indeed the acknowledgment of God as God and the proclamation of personal trust in Him meets us continually in the lives or on the lips of patriarchs, prophets, and psalmists. The Book of Psalms in particular is a storehouse of confessional utterances in prayer and song .... 8 B. NEW TESTAMENT

The Greek verb homologein,most often translated "to confess," means literally "to say or speak the same thing," the verb exomologein,meaning "to speak out the same," is usually rendered "to confess," and the noun homologiais translated "confession." The implication seems to be that the one who confesses Christ is saying what God says about him or what fellow confessors are saying. 9 Whereas the New Testament, like the Old, refers both to the confession of sin and to the confession of the divine name, in the New Testament these two actions are not as closely connected in specific texts as in the Old Testament. Moreover, in the New Testament confessing normally is specifically the confessing of Jesus Christ. Confession of Jesus Christ according to his own words is necessary to valid discipleship (Matt. 10:32; par. Luke 12:8), and the threat of "religious and social ostracism" 10 kept many Jews from confessing Jesus as the Christ (John 9:22; 12:42). 11Jesus himself offered confession of praise to the Father (Matt. 11:25; par. Luke 10:21) and made "the good confession" before Pontius Pilate (1 Tim. 6:13, RSV, NIV). Early Christians were expected to confess, perhaps hymnically, that "Jesus is Lord" (Phil. 2:11), 12 a confession made possible by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). That confession must necessarily be oral, the outward expression of faith in the heart (Rom. 10:9-10). 13 7. W. A. Quanbeck, "Confession," The Interpreter'sDictionaryof the Bible, 1:667; "Confession," The EerdmansBible Dictionary,rev. ed.,p. 231. 8. John Christopher Lambert, "Confession of Faith," Dictionaryof the Bible, ed. James Hastings (1937), p. 151. 9. "Confession," The EerdmansBible Dictionary,rev. ed., p. 231. 10. Quanbeck, "Confession," 1:668. 11. Sometimes "confess" meant only to "admit" or "allow" (John 1:20; Acts 24:14; Heb. 11:13). "Confession," The New InternationalDictionaryof the Bible, pictorial ed., ed. J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), p. 230. 12. See Martin, CarmenChristi(1983 ed.), pp. 271-83. 13. In Rom. 10:9-10 and Phil. 2: 11 "to confess" is "to make a profession of faith" in that the object of the confessing is expressed in terms of what was probably an early Christian confessional utterance. J. Y. Campbell, "Confess, Confession," A TheologicalWordBook of the Bible, p. 51.

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The confession could also be said to be that of the gospel (2 Cor. 9:13). Its public character 14 may be associated with baptism (1 Tim. 6:12). "Confession" (RSV) or "profession" (KJV)became a synonym for the Christian religion (Heb. 3:1; 4:14; 10:23). When heresy arose, confession of Jesus Christ became more explicit, that is, as incarnate (1 John 4:2; 2John 7) and as "the Son of God" (1 John 4: 15). Spurious confession of God characterized the false teachers (Tit. 1:16). Confession took the form of praise (Rom. 15:9; Heb. 13: 15) and will be associated with the final judgment (Rom. 14: 11b ). C. HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

1. Patristic Era In both the New Testament age and the early patristic era "to confess Christ" was openly to identify with him in the face of ostracism, ridicule, or outright persecution, even unto death, and that confessing was marked by the reception of Christian baptism. From those earliest and briefest Christian confessional affirmations such as ''Jesus is Lord" (Rom. 10:9-10; Phil. 2:5) and such as those found in 1 Cor. 8:5-6, 1 Tim. 3: 16, and Matt. 28: 19 there developed no later than the second century "the rule of faith" which eventuated in the Apostles' Creed. 15 To confess the Christian faith, after the advent of Marcionite, Montanist, Arian, and other heresies, came increasingly to involve the acknowledgment of orthodox confessional statements, or creeds. After the advent of the great Roman imperial persecutions the term "confessors" came to be applied to those who suffered for their Christian faith such as by torture or imprisonment but who were not martyrs. 16 Augustine of Hippo in his Confessions emphasized the confession of praise to God and the confession of sin rather than confession of faith. 17 14. "In the papyri homologeinis the official formula for publicly announcing a contract, sale, receipt, etc." Samuel Dickey (1872-?) and Melancthon Williams Jacobus (1855-1937), "Confess, Confession," Funk and WagnallsNew StandardBibl,eDictionary,3d ed., p. 144. 15. Andrew Ewbank Burn (1864-1927), The Apostles'Creed(London: Rivingtons, 1907); Oscar Cullmann, The EarliestChristianConfessions,trans. J. K. S. Reid (London: Lutteiworth Press, 1949);]. N. D. Kelly, Early ChristianCreeds,2d ed. (New York: David McKay Co., Inc., 1960), esp. pp. 1-61; Vernon H. Neufeld (1920- ), The EarliestChristianConfessions(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963); Stauffer, New TestamentTheology,pp. 235-57; Everett Ferguson, "Confession of Faith," Encyclopediaof Early Christianity,pp. 222-23. 16. Walker, A Historyof the ChristianChurch,rev. ed., 1959, pp. 92-93; "Confessor," The OxfordDictionaryof the ChristianChurch,ed. F. L. Cross (London: Oxford University Press, 1957), p. 327. 17. Bonner, St. Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies,pp. 48-51; Peter Robert Lamont Brown ( 1935- ), Augustine of Hippo:A Biography(London: Faber and Faber, 1967), pp. 175-76.

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2. Reformation and Post-Reformation Eras Because the several Protestant state churches of Europe adopted and utilized various "confessions of faith" framed during and after the Reformation, the family divisions within Protestantism came to be identified in Continental Europe as "confessions," whereas in Great Britain and the United States the term "denominations" was the preferred term. Hence confessing one's faith involved, at least to some extent, the avowal of one or more confessions of faith. For Anabaptists of the sixteenth century and for their successors in the heritage of "believers' churches," a personal and open confession of faith in Jesus Christ, together with baptism as a confessed believer, was regarded as an essential prerequisite to church membership. 18 3. Modern Era In modern usage the term "profession of faith" has ironically come to be used at least by some, partly under the influence of Pietism, in reference to a spurious or superficial confession of Christ. The terms "a mere profession of faith," "professed Christians," and "lip service" are examples of such usage, which may indeed reflect defective standards of Christian discipleship and an acculturation of the churches. Even in churches that reckon themselves to be in the heritage of believers' churches it has become commonplace for pastors to confess the faith for or report the faith of new converts rather to afford the individuals the opportunity for any public and oral confession of Christ.

II. CONVERSION A. OLD TESTAMENT

The idea of turning or being turned to God is found in the Old Testament. The claim has been made that there are about 118 uses of the Hebrew verb sub"in a moral and religious sense." 19 But only four times in the KJV is sub rendered "convert" (Ps. 19:7; 51:13; Isa. 1:27; 6:10). 20 Some have emphasized that conversion in the Old Testament was essentially national rather than individual, especially for the eighth- and seventh-century prophets. Interpreters from Theodore of Mopsuestia to W. Robertson Smith, 18. Donald Floyd Durnbaugh (1927- ), The Believers'Church:The History and Characterof Radical Protestantism(New York: Macmillan, 1968), p. 32; Franklin H. Littell, "The Concept of the Believers' Church," The Conceptof the Believers'Church, ed. James Leo Garrett, Jr. (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1969), pp. 27-29. 19. George William Peters (1907-88), "The Meaning of Conversion," Bibliotheca Sacra 120 (July-September 1963): 235, reprinted in Millard]. Erickson, ed., The New Life: Readings in Christian Theology(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1979), p. 62. 20. Young, Analytical Concordanceto the Bible, p. 202.

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Samuel Rolles Driver (1846-1914), and John Baillie have taken Psalm 51 as an utterance of the nation and not of David himself. 21 For Driver, Jacob's wrestling with the angel at the Brook Jabbok (Gen. 32 :24-30) was a conversion, 22 for Baillie Ezek. 36:25-31 was a call to conversion, 23 and for Wilbem Elias Best ( 1919- ) beholding the serpent of brass (Num. 21) resulted in conversion. 24 B. OTHER RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES

Did the concept of conversion or at least the experience of conversion occur in the ancient world outside the faith of Israel? Arthur Darby Nock ( 1902-63) found that, whereas most ancient religions could be taken as "useful supplements and not as substitutes" to other religions-a process Nock labelled "adhesion," there were examples of "conversion" to be found in Orphism, the mission of the Indian King Asoka, the conversion of Lucius to the cult of Isis, and conversions to a particular philosophical school.25 According to William Paterson (1860-1939), conversions could be identified among Brahmans, Buddhists, the Eleusinian and the Orphic mysteries, and the Cynics and Stoics.26 Alfred Clair Undetwood (1885-1948) found conversions in bhakti Hinduism, with Gautama and among the early adherents to Buddhism, among Islamic sufis and with al-Ghazali (1058-1111), and with Honen (1133-1212) and Nichiren (1222-1282) in Japan, but he found virtually no evidence in China or Egypt.27 C. NEW TESTAMENT

The Greek verbs used in the New Testament to convey the concept of conversion are strephein, "to tum," and epistrephein,"to turn back" or "to return," and the noun is epistrophi, "turning" or "conversion." Their usages are few in number. 1. Synoptic Gospels

John the Baptist was to "'turn (epistrepsei) many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God"' and "'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children"' (Luke 1:16, 17b, RSV).According to Mark 4: l lc-12 (RSV), a quotation of Isa. 6:9-10, Jesus stated the negative purpose of parables in reference to 21. John Baillie, Baptismand Conversion(New York: Charles Scribners' Sons, 1963), pp. 58-61. 22. "Jacob," A Dictionaryof the Bible, ed. Hastings (1900), 2:529-30, 533. 23. Baillie, Baptismand Conversion,p. 59. 24. Regenerationand Conversion(Grand Rapids: Guardian Press, 1975), pp. 89-92. 25. Conversion:The Old and the New in Religionfrom Alexanderthe Greatto Augustine of Hippo (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), pp. 26-32, 44-47, 138-55, 164-86. 26. Conversion(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1939), pp. 1-24. 27. Conversion:Christianand Non-Christian;A Comparativeand PsychologicalStudy (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1925), pp. 46-99.

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unbelievers: "'for those outside everything is in parables; so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should tum again (poteepistrepsosin), and be forgiven."' 28 The saying of Jesus (Matt. 18:3) reads in the IgV: '"Except ye be converted (stra-phite),29 and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."' The ASV's '"except ye turn,"' the RSVs '"unless you tum,"' the NEB's '"unless you tum round,"' and the '"unless you change"' ofTEV,JB, and NIV seem not to preserve the passive voice of the Greek verb. The saying seemingly refers to beingturned or changed. When addressing Simon Peter and declaring that he had prayed for him, Jesus instructed him: "'when you have turned again (poteepistrepsas),strengthen your brethren'" (Luke 22:326, RSV).The conversion of Simon Peter has attracted the attention of modem Christians, especially the question as to its time of occurrence. Was it when Peter was first called by Jesus (John 1:42), or when Peter left his fishing (Luke 5:8, 11), or at Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:31-33 and par.), or after Jesus' resurrection (John 21:15-19)? 30 2. Acts of the Apostles The texts employing epistrepheinand epistrophi are instructive. In his appeal to his hearers at the temple in Jerusalem Peter admonished them both to "'repent"' and to "'tum to God"' (epistrepsate)(3:19, TEV, NEB, JB, NIV). The "residents ofLydda and Sharon ... turned (epestrepsan)to the Lord" (9:35, RSV), and at Antioch a "great number" of believers "turned (epestrepsen)to the Lord" (11:21, RSV, TEV, NIV). In Antioch of Pisidia Paul called upon his hearers to tum (epistrephein)from '"worthless things"' (TEV, NIV) or "'empty idols'" (JB) to the living Creator (14: 15), and in Antioch of Syria he reported to the church "the conversion (epistrophin) of the Gentiles" (15:3, KJV, NEB, RSV). James alluded to '"the Gentiles who are turning (epistrephousin)to God"' (15:19, TEV, NEB, NIV). Before King Agrippa II Paul referred both to his divine commission "'to turn"' (epistrepsai)Gentiles "'from darkness to light'" (26: 18, KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV) and to his having preached to Jews and Gentiles to "'repent and tum (epistrephein)to God"' (26:20). Acts contains three accounts (9: 1-19; 22:3-21; 26: 1-23) of what for centuries has been identified as the "conversion" of Saul of Tarsus, or of the Apostle Paul.Johan Christiaan Beker ( 1924-99) has found that "Paul's conversion experience is absorbed by the greater reality of his apostolic calling," or commission to the Gentiles, 31 and thus Beker has downplayed 28. Matt. 13:15 and john 12:40 (RSV) read "lest they ... turn for me to heal them," whereas Luke 8:10 omits the statement. Similar statements are found in john 12:40c and Acts 28:27g. 29. 2nd aorist passive subjunctive of strephein. 30. Erik Routley, The GiftofConversi,"to set free, aid, give victory to, or save." The nouns y~ua>h, yesa>,and tesua>hall convey the

1. James Barr is doubtful that the religion of the Old Testament was

soteriocentric. See his "An Aspect of Salvation in the Old Testament" in Man and His Salvation:Studiesin Memoryof S. G. F. Brandon, ed. Eric J. Sharpe and John R. Hinnells (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1973), pp. 39-52.

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1otmeans "the meaning of "safety, or salvation," and the participle mosa • savmg one. n'>The most common context for the employment of yasa1 and its cognates was deliverance from one's enemies. Some of these occasions of divine deliverance from enemies were historically specified: from Egyptian bondage 3 and in the wilderness; 4 from the Midianites through Gideon;" from the Philistines; 6 of David from Saul and from Absalom; 7 of Judah under Jehoshaphat from Moab andAmmon; 8 of Jerusalem under Hezekiah from Sennacherib's army;9 and of Judah from Babylonian exile and as a returning remnant. 10 Other occasions of deliverance from enemies pertained to specified groups or were quite general: of the righteous from the wicked; 11 of the poor or needy; 12 of the humble or downcast;1 3 and in general. 14 Such deliverance by Yahweh from enemies was to be proclaimed or made known to the nations. 15 Occasionally yiisaJand its cognates expressed deliverance from sins or transgressions, 16 and rarely they referred to deliverance from sickness unto death, especially in the case of Hezekiah. 17 This deliverance reflected God's righteousness 18 and his love 19 and is everlasting. 20 It could not come through idols 21 or astrologers. 22

b. Na.sal The verb nasal, "to draw out" or "pull out," in the hiphil stem could mean "to deliver" and in the niphal stem "to be delivered" or "escape." At times 2. On "Jesus as Savior," see Vol. 1, ch. 41, V. 3. Exod. 14:13, 30; 15:2; 1 Sam. 10:19; Ps. 106:8, 10. 4. Ps. 78:22. 5. Judg. 6:36-37; 7:7. 6. 1 Sam. 7:8; 14:6, 23; 17:47; 2 Sam. 3: 18; 1 Chr. 11: 14. 7. Ps. 3:7a; 57:3a; 59:2. 8. 2Chr.20:17. 9. Isa. 37:20, 35; 2 Kings 19:19, 34; 2 Chr. 32:22. 10. Ps. 69:35a; 106:47a; Isa. 45: 17; 46: 13; 60: 18; 62: 1; Jer. 30: 10-11; 31 :7; 42: 11; 46:27; Ezek. 34:22; 36:29a; Zeph. 3: 17a; Zech. 8:7, 13; 9: 16a; 10:6a. 11. Ps. l 4:7a; 35:3, 9; 37:39-40; 119:94; Neh. 9:27. 12. Job 5: 15; Ps. 34:6; 72:4, 13; 109:31. 13. 2 Sam. 22:28a;Job 22:29; Ps. 18:27; 34:18; 149:4b. 14. Ps. 7:1; 9:14; 17:7; 18:2; 27:1; 35:9; 44:6-7; 55:16; 60:5; 69:1, 29, 35a; 71:2; l 18:14b, 21b, 25; Isa. 59:17. 15. Ps. 71:15b; 96:2b; 98:2-3; Isa. 49:6d; 52:7b, 10b. 16. Ps. 79:9; 85:4, 7; Isa. 59:l;Jer. 3:23. 17. Ps. 68:20; Isa. 38:20. 18. Isa. 63: 1. 19. Ps. 6:4; 31:16; 108:6; 109:26. 20. Isa. 45:17; 51:6c, Sc, d. 21. Isa. 45:20b; 46:7e; Jer. 2:28-29. 22. Isa. 47:13b-d.

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the divine deliverance was historically specified: from the Egyptians; 23 David from Saul;24 from Sennacherib; 25 and from the king ofBabylon. 26 At other times the deliverance was from numerous enemies, 27 from troubles, 28 from false prophets, 29 from sin and guilt, 30 and from death. 31 c.Palat

The verb palat, "to escape," which means in the piel and hiphil stems "to deliver," was used of divine deliverance. Especially was this true of deliverance from enemies and wicked persons. 32 God delivers those who trust in him 33 according to his divine righteousness. 34 d.Malat

The verb malat, "to escape," in the piel and hiphil stems means "to deliver." It was used in reference to Yahweh's deliverance from Babylon, 35 and from death, 36 and of the weak. 37 e. S'mb

The verb s'zab,which in the piel stem means "to set free" or "liberate," was used in the book of Daniel concerning the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace 38 and of Daniel from the den of lions. 39 2. Summary of the Teaching The language of salvation/deliverance appeared more frequently in the Prophets and the Writings than in the Pentateuch. The most recurrent usage pertained to deliverance from one's enemies or from dangers or troubles, and these texts are often historically specific. Less often one reads of divine deliverance from sin or from death. Yahweh's deliverance

23. Exod. 3:8; 5:23; 12:27; 18:4, 8, 9, l0;Judg. 6:9; 1 Sam. 10:18. 24. 1 Sam. 26:24; 2 Sam. 12:7d; 22:1, 18, 49. 25. Isa. 38:6; 2 Kings 18:30b, 33, 35; 2 Chr. 32:11, 13b, 14, 15, 17b. 26. Jer. 42: l lc. 27. I Sam. 12: 10; 2 Kings 17:39; Neh. 9:28d. 28. Ps. 34:17b, 19; 40:13; 54:7a. 29. Ezek. 13:2la, 23b. 30. Ps. 39:8a; 51: 14a. 31. Ps. 33:19a; 56:13a; 86:13b. 32. Ps. 17:13a; 18:48a; 37:40; 43:lb; 71:4; 82:4. 33. Ps. 22:8; 91:14a. 34. Ps. 31:lc. 35. Isa. 46:4c;Jer. 39:18a. 36. Ps. 107:20b; 116:4b;Jer. 39:18b. 37. Ps. 41:1. 38. 3:15c, 17, 28b. 39. 6:16b, 20b, 27.

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is always consistent with his character, whether in respect to righteousness or to love, and is conditioned on human trust. It is Yahweh who delivers and is the Savior. 40 B. JEWISH AND GENTILE EXPECTATIONS OF SALVATION PRIOR TO THE ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST

Following the Seleucid rule and Maccabean independence and during Roman rule, Palestinian Jews couched the hope of divine salvation primarily in terms of forthcoming emancipation from Roman rule and the inauguration of Messiah's rule. According to The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs the coming salvation was to be through a lesser Messiah of Judah and a greater Messiah ofLevi. 41 Furthermore, 1 (Ethiopic) Enoch indicates that divine salvation of the righteous would come through a "Son of Man," a divine figure coming to earth. 42 Pharisaic expectations were expressed in the Psalms of Solomon, wherein a Davidic, essentially human Messiah would in God's own time overthrow the Romans and establish his reign over regathered Jews and Gentile converts. 43 By the first century AD 4 Ezra expressed a clear doctrine of the fewness of the saved. 44 For the Essenes the coming deliverance would be through a prophet like Moses, a royal Messiah, and a priestly Messiah. 45 Whereas the Sadducees had little interest in divine salvation, the Zealots were militant advocates of revolt against Rome. 46 Gentile notions of salvation were chiefly threefold. The Roman imperial cult, commencing with Augustus Caesar, who was called sotir and who was said to have brought "salvation" (salutem) to the Roman people, led to more pronounced emperor worship in the East than in Rome itself. Alternative cultic claims as to salvation were found in the mystery religions, which offered a salvation via ritual which was "for the most part both irrational and non-ethical," in magic, which promised salvation in the sense of the control of demons "by knowing and uttering the correct password," and in astrology, a form of fatalism according to 40. Edward Michael Banks Green, The Meaning of Salvation, pp. 25-29, has found that victory, vindication, free and complete well-being, and costliness constitute the "content" of the Old Testament doctrine of salvation. On the principal Old Testament texts expressive of God as Savior (Ps. 18:46b; Isa. 43:3a; 45:15, 21c; Hab. 3:18b), see F. F. Bruce, "'Our God and Saviour': A Recurring Biblical Pattern," in The Saviour God:ComparativeStudies in the Conceptof Salvation Presentedto Edwin OliverJames, ed. S. G. F. Brandon (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1963), pp. 51-66. 41. Testament of Gad 8:1. 42. 1 Enoch46:l-3; 48:7; 50:3; 51:2; 61:8; 62:2; 69:29. 43. Psalms of Solomon 17:23-27, 36, 38, 41; 18:6, 8. 44. 4 Ezra 7:60; 8:3, 38-39. 45. lQS 9.11; lQSa 2:11-22. 46. Green, The Meaning of Salvation, pp. 55-71.

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which "a right reading of the stars which govern human destiny will ... unlock the secrets of the future." Salvation by knowledge (gnosis)was the characteristic of what would become Gnosticism and of the Hermetic writings, but the Stoics had no place for life after death. 47 C. NEW TESTAMENT

The vocabulary of the New Testament concept of salvation, defined precisely, consists of the Greek verb sgzein,"to save" or "to heal," the noun sotiria, "salvation," the noun sotirion, "safety" or "salvation," the verb diasgzein,"to bring safely through, rescue, save," and the noun siitir, "Savior." Because of the widespread usage of these terms in the New Testament, it seems best to examine the various types of New Testament writings.

1. Mark and Matthew The Gospel of Mark expresses the concept of salvation by the verb sgzein, which is sometimes translated "to make whole" or "to heal" rather than "to save." Uses in reference to bodily healing include the man with the withered hand (3:4), Jairus's daughter (5:23), the woman with a twelve-year hemorrhage and her faith (5:28, 34),Jesus' ministry of healing (6:56), and Bartimaeus's healing through faith (10:52). The verb sgzein is used of extended life in the sense of deliverance from death (15:30, 31), of the saving of life in response to the gospel (8:35), of the fewness of the saved (10:26), and of eschatological salvation through perseverance and the shortening of the time of distress (13: 13, 20). All of these texts, with the single exception of 5:23, have a parallel in Matthew, in Luke, or in both. Mark emphasizes faith and touching Jesus. 48 Peculiar to Matthew is the association of Yahweh's salvation with the name of Jesus (1:21), the use of sijzein in the account of the disciples' entreating of Jesus to save them from the storm on the Sea of Galilee (8:25), and the inclusion of the perseverance saying in the mission of the Twelve (10:22) as well as in the Little Apocalypse.

2. Luke-Acts The concept of salvation is even more pervasive in the Gospel of Luke, as the distinctive passages make clear. The nounsotiria appears three times in Zechariah's prophecy (1 :69, 71, 77), and the noun sotirionwas used by Simeon (2:30) and in the quotation of Isa. 40:3-5 in reference to John the Baptist (3:6). 49 One additional use of sgzeinpertains to physical healing, that of the one grateful leper (17:19). The same verb is used of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet (7:50), in the Lucan rendering of the parable of the sower (8:12), in the saving oflife saying as placed in 47. Ibid., pp. 72-88. 48. Ibid., pp. 119-21. 49. The noun sotir is used of God as Savior (1:45) and of Jesus as Savior (2:11).

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the Little Apocalypse (17:33), of the rich young ruler (18:26), and in the "seek and save" saying found in the Zacchaeus narrative (19:10), in which context the noun sotiria is also employed (19:9). Whereas Luke shares with the other Synoptists the concept of healing as salvation, he stresses even more that Jesus is Savior of the Gentiles and that salvation is "inextricably linked" with his person. 50 In Acts "[s]ozeinoccurs thirteen times, diasozeinfive, sotiria six, sotir twice, [and] sotfriononce." 51 "The salvation brought by Jesus is the theme of the entire apostolic age. " 52 The theme is to be found in the sermons of Peter and of Paul and in the narrative of Acts. Salvation is offered to "'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord"' (2:21, NIV) as Joel had promised, the verb is used in a free rendering of Deuteronomy 32:5 (2:40), and report was given daily concerning "those who were being saved" (2:4 7b, RSV, TEV, NIV). The Synoptic use of sozeinis retained in 4:9 and 14:9. Salvation is exclusively in Jesus inasmuch as '"there is no other name ... by which we must be saved'" (4:12, RSV, NIV). The passive mood of the verb is used of Cornelius and his household (11:14), and Paul at Antioch of Pisidia declared that the "'message of salvation"' (TEV, JB,NIV) had been sent to Jews and proselytes (13:26) and used the noun in translating Isa. 49:6 (13:47). Christians from Judea were teaching in Antioch of Syria that circumcision was necessary to salvation ( 15: 1), and Peter declared that salvation was through the grace of Christ for Gentiles and for Jews (15:11). A slave girl caught up in divination could refer to '"the way of salvation"' ( 16: 17b, KJV, RSV), the Philippian jailer's question involved the verb sgzein,whether as to the effects of the earthquake or expressive of hunger for God and deliverance ( 16:30), 53 and Paul in reply used the same verb ( 16:31 ). The verb was used of rescue from a Mediterranean storm (27:20, 31), even as the noun was used for health (27:34) and of divine salvation as "'sent to the Gentiles"' (28:28, RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV).

3.John's Gospel and Epistles The Gospel of John somewhat sparingly employs sgzeinsix times, sotiria once (4:22), and sotir once (4:42). 54 The Son of God was sent into the world "to save it" (Phillips) (3: 17), and his testimony is intended for the saving of human beings (5:34). The one who enters the sheepfold through Jesus as shepherd '"will be saved"' (10:9, RSV, TEV, NIV), Lazarus's getting well is described by a form of sgzein ( 11: 12), and Jesus prayed in 50. Green, The Meaning of Salvation, pp. 125-26. 51. Ibid., p. 125. 52. William Adams Brown, "Salvation, Saviour," A Dictionaryof the Bible, ed. James Hastings (1902), 4:365. 53. Green, The Meaning of Salvation, pp. 149-50. 54. Ibid., p. 131.

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Gethsemane to the Father to "save" him from his great "hour" of suffering and death (12:27, RSV,JB, NEB, NIV). In 1John neither "save" nor "salvation" is utilized, but sotir appears in 4: 14.55 According to John, salvation is closely related to eternal life, interpreted as present as well as future, and is intended for all humanity. 56

4. Pauline Epistles "St. Paul has a great deal more to say about salvation than any other New Testament writer: about as much, in fact, as all the rest of them put together." Having made that assertion, Michael Green proceeded to claim that salvation "has, perhaps, a better claim than either [justification or union with Christ] to come near to the heart of Christianity according to Paul. "57 Paul, with the Pastoral Epistles included, has utilized sgzein 28 times, sotiria 17 times, sotir 12 times, and sotirion and sotirios,an adjective, once each. Michael Green has treated the Pauline doctrine of salvation under three headings: "salvation as a past event," "as a present experience," and "as a future hope." 58 Yet Paul's various usages of the sgzeinfamily cannot all be completely fitted into such a pattern. 59 Salvation is the purpose of the incarnation of the Son of God (1 Tim. 1:15; Tit. 2:11). Human beings have been "destined" (RSV, NEB) or "appointed" (KJV) to receive salvation "through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (RSV) (1 Thess. 5:9; 2Thess. 2:13). God intends to save '"a remnant"' (KJV, RSV, NEB,JB) among the Jews (Rom. 9:27), even as Paul prayed for his fellow Jews (Rom. 10:1) and labored for the salvation of "some" (Rom. 11:14), and "so all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26, RSV, NIV). But because of Israel's stumbling "salvation has come to the Gentiles" (Rom. 11: 11, RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV). Of both Jew and Gentile it is true that "'everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved"' (Rom. 10:13, RSV, TEV, NIV). Indeed, God "wants" (TEV, NIV) or "desires" (RSV) "all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4). Salvation is indeed a past occurrence describable in the aorist tense (2 Tim. 1:9; Tit. 3:5). We are saved from God's wrath (Rom. 5:9) and through Jesus' life (Rom. 5: 10), and by God's grace and not by our works (Eph. 2:5, 8). Today is the time of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2), and "the word of truth" is "the gospel" of "salvation" (Eph. 1:13, RSV, NIV). Salvation comes after one has been made wise through the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:15). Godly sorrow and repentance lead to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10), even 55. Ibid., p. 208. 56. Ibid., pp. 131, 133. 57. Ibid., p. 152. 58. Ibid., pp. 153-89. 59. This present statement is somewhat ironical inasmuch as Green, p. 171, n. 1, criticized T. W. Manson, A. M. Hunter, and C. Ryder Smith for deserting "Paul's actual linguistic usage" and developing "allied themes."

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as do faith and confession (Rom. 10:9, 10), but those refusing to love the truth will not be saved (2 Thess. 2: 10). But salvation is also a present process (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15), as the present participle indicates. For the Christian warfare one needs the "hope of salvation as a helmet" (1 Thess. 5:8, TEV, NIV) or "the helmet of salvation" (Eph. 6: 17, KJV, RSV, NIV). Salvation is in actuality a continuing goal for those who "hold firmly" to the preached word (1 Cor. 15: 2, TEV, NIV), for those who stand in unity and without fear against all opposition (Phil. 1:28), for those who "persevere" in "life" and "doctrine" and save both themselves and their "hearers" (1 Tim. 4:16, NIV), and for those who "continue to work out" their "salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2: 12, NIV). Furthermore, salvation is the goal of the mission to the Gentiles (1 Thess 2:16; 1 Cor. 10:33) and the result of God's power for Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 1: 16) and of a message which some reckon as foolishness (1 Cor. 1:21). Paul adapted to the limit of compromise in order to "save some" (1 Cor. 9:22, KJV, RSV, NIV), his distress and endurance resulted in the salvation of others (2 Cor. 1: 16; 2 Tim. 2: 10), and his own imprisonment was salutary (Phil. 1: 19). Even a believer's witness by life is intended to lead to the salvation of his/her spouse (1 Cor. 7:16). Salvation is also eschatological. Hopefully an excommunicated person will be saved at Christ's coming (1 Cor. 5:5). Even ifrewards for apostolic labors are lost, the laborer "will be saved" (1 Cor. 3:15, RSV, TEV, NIV). Indeed "we were saved" in the "hope" of final "adoption as sons" (Rom. 8:23-24, RSV), and "salvation is nearer ... than when we first believed" (Rom. 13:11, RSV, NIV).

5. General Epistles Salvation, for Peter, was distinctly eschatological (1 Pet. 1:5), indeed the "goal" of"faith" (1 Pet. 1:9, NIV), concerning which the Old Testament prophets "searched" (l Pet. 1:10, RSV, NIV). The occupants of Noah's ark experienced salvation (l Pet. 3:20), and so have those baptized through the resurrection of Jesus (1 Pet. 3:21). If it is hard for the righteous to be saved ( 1 Pet. 4: 18, NEB, NIV) and we are to "grow up to salvation" (1 Pet. 2:26, RSV,JB), there is a shared salvation Qude 3), and the opportunity for salvation may be extended by the Lord's patience (2 Pet. 3:15). The Lord's people were delivered from Egypt Qude 5), and others are to be snatched from the fire of punishment Qude 23a). 2 Peter employs "Savior" five times, all in reference to Jesus, and Jude uses it once in reference to God. James asked rhetorically: Can one be saved by faith without deeds? (2:14). Indeed the "implanted word" does "save" (1:216, RSV), and only the "one lawgiver and judge" (RSV, NEB, NIV) can "save" and "destroy" (4: 12a). The "prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well"

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(5: 15a, NIV), and he who "turns a sinner away from his error will save him from death and cover many sins" (5:20). According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Noah built an ark to "save his family" (11:7, JB, NIV), and God sent angels to serve the human inheritors of salvation (1: 14). God made Jesus, the "pioneer" of "salvation," to be "perfect through suffering" (2: 10, RSV, NIV), God being the only one who could save him from death (5: 7), and Jesus is "the source of eternal salvation" (RSV, Phillips, JB, TEV, NEB, NIV) for "all who obey him" (RSV, JB, NEB, NIV) (5:9). There is no escape for those who "neglect" (RSV, JB) or "ignore" (NEB, NIV) "such a great salvation" (RSV, TEV, NIV) (2:3), but the author was confident concerning his readers as to those "better things" (RSV, Phillips, NIV) that "belong to" (TEV) or "accompany salvation" (NIV) (6:9). Jesus can completely save through his intercession "those who come to God through him" (7 :25, TEV, NIV). Finally, Christ "will appear a second time" (RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV) to bring salvation to those awaiting him (9:28).

6. Revelation Salvation belongs to God (7: 10, 19:1), the very salvation that has come with Jesus Christ for the overcoming of Satan (12:10). The word "salvation" "is through and through eschatological," "heads a list of praises to God," and "is clearly the most expressive and comprehensive word with which John can describe the mighty works of God." Michael Green finds in the three texts using "salvation" three dominating themes: "forgiveness" (7:10), "victory" (12:10), and "vindication of God's righteous judgment" (19:1).60 Salvation according to the Old Testament was primarily deliverance from one's enemies, with deliverance from sin and from death being less often mentioned. The New Testament emphasis was different. In the Synoptic Gospels salvation meant physical healing by Jesus through faith. In Luke the messianic salvation was anticipated by pious Jews, meant the saving of life, and was for Gentiles, and in Acts salvation was affirmed as being only through Jesus. In John and Paul salvation is the purpose of the incarnation; for John it is closely related to eternal life, and for Paul it has past, present, and future dimensions. Salvation is related to election, and yet God desires all to be saved. In 1 Peter salvation is eschatological, in Hebrews Jesus is its "pioneer," and in Revelation salvation involves victory and vindication. D. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION

The postbiblical expressions of the doctrine of salvation have tended to be so attached to or even subordinate to the postbiblical doctrines of justification, regeneration, forgiveness, union with Christ, sanctification, and the like as not to afford a significantly distinct history. It should be 60. Green, The Meaning of Salvation, pp. 210-15.

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noted, however, that evangelical Christianity during the modern era has tended to employ the terms "save," "salvation," "being saved," and "Savior" more frequently and habitually than did the New Testament as a whole with the result that "salvation" has come to have for evangelicals a central function and comprehensive usage almost unknown during previous centuries. 61 In such usage, however, salvation as past event has been much more dominant than salvation as present process or salvation as future consummation. Furthermore, the preempting of this centrality of salvation by the concept of liberation in the work of twentieth-century liberation theologians will be discussed later in the present chapter. 62 Indeed we need now to give expression to the three-tense or threestage understanding of salvation (sotiriaand sgzein). Several twentieth- century Protestant theologians 63 have espoused this view, namely, that salvation is past act or event, present continuing process, and future consummation. New Testament texts have been cited as reflective of each: past act (Luke 19:9; Tit. 3:5; 2 Tim. 1:9); present process (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15), and future consummation (Rom. 13: 11; 1 Pet. I :5). Such a view builds on the New Testament emphasis on salvation from sin and death rather than on the Old Testament emphasis on divine salvation from one's human enemies. Consequently Christians can affirm: we have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. Salvation is also said to follow a fourfold pattern: "from the pleasure of sin" (chiefly regeneration), "from the penalty of sin" (justification; repentance and faith), "from the power of sin" (sanctification), and "from the presence of sin" (glorification). 64 Salvation is also said to be that of the whole human person: "the body," "the affections," "the imagination," "the memory," and "thewill." 65 Theologians have discussed the

61. B. B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation (rev. ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1935 ), cited as the principal alternatives to the Calvinistic doctrine of salvation "autosoterism," "sacerdotalism," and "universalism." 62. Arne Sovik, Salvation Today (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1973); Denis Edwards, WhatAre They Saying aboutSalvation? (Mahwah, N. J.: Paulist Press, 1986). 63. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Salvation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1944), pp. 3-5; W. T. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 139-45; Arthur Walkington Pink (1886-1952), The Doctrineof Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), pp. 106-7; George David Henderson (1888-? ), The Salvation of God (2d ed.; Edinburgh: B. McCall Barbour, 1960), pp. 17-27, 35-54; Herschel H. Hobbs, Fundamentalsof Our Faith, pp. 101-12; Donald G. Bloesch, The ChristianLife and Salvation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), pp. 42-43; Dale Moody, The Wordo/Truth, p. 311. 64. Pink, The Doctrineof Salvation, pp. 109-32. 65. Edwin Kenneth Lee, The Meaning of Salvation (London: A. R. Mowbray and Co. Ltd., 1959), pp. 59-75.

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issues as to whether salvation is chiefly personal and only quite secondarily social or is equally personal and social. 66

II. REDEMPTION Some scholars have used the term "redemption," along with creation, as one of two rubrics under which to gather virtually all the doctrines of the Bible.67 Others have employed "redemption" as a synonym for atonement, or the saving work of Christ. 68 The term will be used here in a more restricted sense to refer to that body of teaching derived from the usages of the families of biblical words normally translated "redeem" or "redemption." A. OLD TESTAMENT

Two families of Hebrew words were used to express the idea of redemption in the Old Testament.

1. Ga~al The verb gaJal means "to redeem" or "buy back," especially through the nearest kinsman. When indicating the action of God, the verb is most often used of redemption from bondage or oppression or from one's enemies. Yahweh instructed Moses to say to the Israelites, "'I will redeem you with arm outstretched and with mighty acts of judgement"' (Exod. 6:6c, NEB). According to the Song of Moses and Miriam, "'In thy constant love thou hast led the people whom thou didst ransom"' (Exod. 15:13a). There are other usages relative to oppression or enemies. 69 Sometimes the context suggests divine protection. 70 Occasionally gaJal connotes redemption from sin 71 or from death. 72 The participle "Redeemer" (g6Jel)is frequently used. 73

66. Harris Franklin Rall, Religion as Salvation (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1953), pp. 101-4, 198-208; Lee, The Meaning of Salvation, pp. 76-89. 6 7. Albert Cornelius Knudson ( 1874-1953 ), The Doctrineof Redemption (New York: Abingdon Press, 1933). Knudson was treating Old Testament theology. 68. John Dick Fleming (1863- ? ), Redemption: The ChristianDoctrine Set in the Light of History (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1921 ); Joseph Lachowski, C. M., The Conceptof Redemptionaccordingto the Gospelof St. john (Diss., Pontificium Athenaeum Angelicum, Rome, 1958). 69. Ps. 69:18; 72:14a; 77:15; 106:lOb; 107:2a; Isa. 43:lb; 48:20; 52:3; Lam. 3:58; Mic. 4: 10d. 70. Isa. 52:9; 63:9. 71. Isa. 44:22. 72. Ps. 103:4a; Hos. 13:14a. 73.Job 19:25a; Ps. 19:14; 78:35b; Prov. 23:lla; Isa. 41:14; 43:14a; 44:6a, 24a; 47:4; 48:17a; 49:7a, 26c; 54:5, Sb; 59:20; 60:16b; 63:16b;Jer. 50:34a.

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2. Padah

The verb ptidah means "to loose," "redeem by paying a price," or "set free." Like ga>al,its most frequent usage is that of redemption from oppression, slavery, or enemies. The Deuteronomist, denying that Israel had been chosen because of population, records: "it was because the LORD loved you and stood by his oath to your forefathers, that he brought you out with his strong hand and redeemedyou from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt" (7:8, NEB). The language and meaning recur in Deuteronomy 74 and throughout the Prophets 75 and the Writings. 76 Ptidah is used in the Pentateuch of the redemption and consecration of the firstborn sons among the Israelites. 77 It is employed sometimes in the more general sense of deliverance from trouble or distress. 78 It can convey the concept of redemption from sin 79 or from death. 80 God's desire to redeem can be frustrated by human nonrepentance. 81 B. NEW TESTAMENT

Two families of Greek words convey the concept of redemption New Testament.

in the

1. Lytroun and Its Cognates The verb lytrounmeans "to release on receipt of ransom," "redeem," or "liberate." Four nouns are related to this verb. Lytron,"ransom," is found in the well-known ransom text in the Synoptics (Mark 10:45; Matt. 20:28). Lytrosis, "ransoming" or "redemption," is used three times, whereas apolytrosis,"ransom release" or "redemption," is used nine times. Antuytron,"corresponding price" or "ransom," appears only in 1 Tim. 2:6. Some of the uses of lytroun and its cognates are not distinctly eschatological in meaning. They rather interpret redemption as a past event (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 3:24; 1 Tim. 2:6), that is, redemption "from all iniquity" (Tit. 2: 14, KJV, RSV) or "from the futile ways inherited from your fathers" ( 1 Pet. 1: 18, RSV), or as a present reality that brings the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:15b). Other texts employing lytroun and its cognates are distinctly eschatological. Zechariah (Luke 1:68) and Anna (Luke 2:38) saw in the advent of Jesus the fulfillment of promised redemption. For some and for a time the hope oflsrael's redemption was frustrated (Luke 24:2 la), but according to the Little Apocalypse "redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28, RSV, 74. 9:26; 13:5b; 15:15a; 24:18a. 75. Mic. 6:4a;Jer. 15:2lb; 31:11; Zech. 10:8b. 76. 2 Sam. 7:23b, d;Job 6:23; Ps. 31:5b; 34:22a; 71:23; 1 Chr. 17:21; Neh. 1:10. 77. Exod. 13:13b, 15b; 34:20b; Num. 18:15. 78. 2 Sam. 4:9; 1 Kings 1:29; Ps. 25:22. 79. Ps. 26:11; 103:8; Isa. 1:27; 50:2. 80. Job 4:20; Ps. 44:26; 49: 15. 81. Hos. 7:13.

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NIV). Eschatological redemption is expressed in connection with the "first fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23, KJV, RSV,JB, NIV), the "guarantee" (RSV, TEV) or "pledge" (Phillips, NEB, JB) (Eph. 1: 14), and the sealing by the Spirit (Eph. 4:30). The redemption by Jesus as high priest is described as "eternal" (Heb. 9: 12).

2. Agorazein and Its Cognate The verb agorazein,"to buy at the market (agora)" or "redeem," is used six times to express God's or Christ's redemptive activity, and the intensive compound verb exagorazein,"to buy up" or "redeem," is employed twice. These uses, being noneschatological, focus on the costliness of the redemption (1 Cor. 6:20), redemption "from the curse of the law" (Gal. 3: 13a, KJV, RSV, NEB, NIV) or of "those who were under the law" (Gal. 4:5, RSV, TEV), redemption as being of some among humankind (Rev. 14:3b, 4c) and for God (Rev. 5:9c), the denial of the Redeemer by false prophets (2 Pet. 2:1), and the danger ofreenslavement (1 Cor. 7:23). How was this language of redemption likely to have been understood by the first-century readers? Jewish Christians probably associated it with Jesus' own ransom saying and perhaps also with the giiJalandpadiih passages in the Old Testament, especially those citing the Exodus, and with Isaiah 53. Gentile Christians most likely were reminded of the slave markets in the Roman Empire with the practice of monetary manumission. 82 Whereas in the Old Testament redemption was often identified as redemption from bondage, oppression, or enemies, in the New Testament it was most often identified as redemption from sin or sins. C. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION

83

Redemption in Old Testament usage was, as noted above, weighted toward divine deliverancefrom Israel's enemies. Such deliverance from enemies was also expressed by the term "salvation." 84 For today's Christians God's redemption may not be primarily from international enemies or invading armies but rather from the enemies of alienation, loneliness, proneness to suicide, drug addiction, despair, threat of crime, ethnic and racial violence, unemployment, poverty, and the like. Redemption implies that sin has the characteristic of bondage or unfreedom. The human plight involves the ensnarement of moral evil. God's 82. Green, The Meaning of Salvation, p. 167. Henry Beach Carre (1871-1928), Paul's Doctrineof Redemption(New York: Macmillan, 1914), esp. p. 21, interpreted Paul's doctrine of human redemption as "part of' cosmic redemption, that is, "the freeing of man from the dominion of the demonic powers, in particular, Sin and Death." 83. The doctrine of redemption in the narrow sense does not have a notable postbiblical history; hence we proceed to the systematic formulation. 84. See above, I, A, 1.

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redemptive activity in Jesus Christ means an unloosingfrom the bondage of sin and the consequent entry into the freedom of the children of God. For twenty-first-century Christians "redemption" may not convey meaningfully the idea ofa ransom payment in a slave market or on a battlefield. But for a generation that has become keenly aware of hostage-taking, the idea of a repurchasein order to liberate captives should not be alien. At least the costliness of such redemption should be clear. As did Paul the apostle, present-day Christians can closely connect redemption and the forgiveness of sins. The buying back of persons is by the sending away of sin. Hence redemption has as its correlative remmion. Redemption, being not only past and present but also future, points to the eschaton: parousia, resurrection, judgment and the rest. Final redemption will include the body, and hence redemption will encompass resurrectionfrom the dead. In Roman Catholic theology redemption can be so interpreted as to include the fellowship of the church. 85 In contemporary feminist theology redemption can be the liberation of women. 86

III. LIBERATION Liberation has not been one of the commonly employed rubrics in Protestant or Roman Catholic theology since the Protestant Reformation, but it is a biblical concept, and it has come to great prominence during the last one-third of the twentieth century. Hence it warrants specific treatment. A. OLD TESTAMENT

Two Hebrew verbs normally convey the idea of Yahweh's causing the Israelites to go out from Egyptian bondage. 1. YMa-'

The verb yiisii>in the hiphil stem means "to cause to go out or come forth" or "to lead out." The KJV rendering is "bring forth" or "bring out." It was repeatedly used in reference to the Exodus from Egypt and

85. Boniface A. Willems (1926- ), The Reality of Redemption(New York: Herder and Herder; London: Burns & Oates Ltd., 1970), pp. 61-126. 86. Mary Grey (1941- ), Redeemingthe Dream:Feminism,Redemption,and Christian Tradition (London: S. P. C. K., 1989), esp. pp. 1-14. Grey has written favorably of the concept of female sin as "choosing to be victim" of discrimination and abuse (pp. 14-19), of the contemporary Goddess movement (pp. 52-60), and ofreinterpreting the death of Jesus "as the culmination of the great refusal and blockage of the dynamic of mutuality in relation" (p. 125).

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its bondage. 87 At times it was used in the context of Israelite complaints in the wilderness, 88 of Yahweh's use of Moses and Aaron, 89 or of Yahweh's leading Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans. 90 It could refer generally to divine deliverance from enemies 91 or troubles 92 or to Yahweh's future gathering and restoration of the people. 93

2. 'Al,i,h The verb >ii,[ii,hin the hiphil stem means "to cause to go up," "to lead up," or "to take up." The KJV rendering is "bring up." It was repeatedly used of Yahweh's bringing the Israelites up from Egypt. 94 The context often was that oflsraelite grumbling 95 or Israelite idolatrous, covenant-breaking disobedience. 96 The word was also used of divine deliverance from Babylon. 97 B. NEW TESTAMENT

The Greek verb eleutheroun, meaning "to make free," "to set at liberty," or "to liberate from bondage," and its cognates are the principal conveyors of the concept of liberation in the New Testament. The noun eleutheria means "freedom" or "liberty," and the adjective eleutherosor eleutherameans "free" and is used substantively to mean "free person." 1. Gospel of John

In his discourse with believingJews,Jesus declared: "'If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (eleutherosei)"'(8:316-32, RSV). His hearers answered: "'We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, "You will be made free (eleutheroi)"?"'(8:33). Jewish political memory was short-lived! Neither 87. Exod. 3:10, 11, 12; 6:6, 7; 7:4, 5; 12:42, 51; 13:3, 9, 14, 16; 16:32; 18:1; 20:2; 29:46; Lev. 19:36; 23:43; 25:38, 42, 55; 26:13, 45; Num. 15:41; 20:16; 23:22; 24:8; Deut. 4:20, 37; 5:6, 15; 6:12, 21, 23; 7:8, 19; 13:5, 10; 16:1; 26:8; 29:25;Josh. 24:5-6;Judg. 2:12; 6:8; 1 Kings 8:16, 21, 51, 53; 9:9; 2 Chr. 6:5; 7:22; Ps. 105:37, 43; 136:ll;Jer. 7:22; 11:4; 31:32; 32:21; 34:13; Ezek. 20:6, 9, 14, 22; Dan. 9:15. 88. Exod. 16:3, 6; 32:11, 12; Deut. 1:27; 9:12, 26, 28. 89. Exod. 6:13, 27; 1 Sam. 12:8. 90. Gen. 15:7; Neh. 9:7. 91. 1 Sam. 22:49; Ps. 18:19. 92. Ps. 25:17; 107:14, 28; 143:11. 93. Ezek. 20:34, 41; 34:13. 94. Exod. 3:8, 17; 33:1; Deut. 20:l;Josh. 24:17;Judg. 6:8; 1 Sam. 8:8; 10:18; 12:6; 2 Sam. 7:6; 1 Chr. 17:5; Isa. 63:ll;Jer. 16:14; 23:7; Amos 2:10; 3:1; 9:7; Mic. 6:4. 95. Exod. 17:3; 32:1, 4, 8, 23; Num. 14:13; 16:13; 21:5;Judg. 6:13. 96. 1 Kings 12:28; 2 Kings 17:7, 36; Neh. 9: 18; Jer. 2:6; 11:7. 97.Jer. 16:15; 23:8; 27:22.

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Egyptian bondage nor Babylonian captivity nor Seleucid rule-to say nothing of present Roman rule-could be allowed to intersect with Jesus' utterance. Religious bondage seemed even more unlikely. In reply Jesus said: '"every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. So if the Son makes you free (eleutherose"), you will be free (eleutheroiesesthe)indeed"' (8:34-36). There follows a discussion as to whether the paternity of the listeners is in Abraham or the devil (8:38-44). 98

2. Pauline Epistles According to Paul, Hagar's son Ishmael had an ordinary birth, but Isaac, the son of Sarai, "the free woman" (eleutheras),was born through promise (Gal. 4:22-23, NIV). Hagar represents Mount Sinai, or the present city of Jerusalem, "because she is in slavery with her children" (4:25), whereas Sarai represents "the Jerusalem that is above," which is "free" (eleuthera),and is "our mother," for we are children "of the free woman" (eleutheras)(4:26, 31). "For freedom (eleutheria)Christ has set us free (eumtherosen); stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery" (5:1, RSV). The freedom celebrated in Galatians was made possible by the emancipation from sin described in Romans. Formerly as "slaves to sin" Christians had been "free from the control of righteousness" (eleutheroi... ti dikaiosuni) (Rom. 6:20, NEB, NIV). Now, "having been set free (eleutherothentes)from sin" (6:18, 22, RSV), they have become "slaves to righteousness" (6: 18, NIV) and "to God" (6:22a). Paul exultingly declared: "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free (ileutherosen) from the law of sin and death" (8:2, RSV). It is truly the Holy Spirit who brings freedom (2 Cor. 3: 17). Such freedom applies to matters of conscience (1 Cor. 10:29) and to apostleship (1 Cor. 9:1), even though it is joined with a voluntary bondage for the evangelization of many (1 Cor. 9:19). The eschaton will bring the "glorious freedom of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21, TEV, NIV). 3. General Epistles James wrote of "the perfect law" "that gives freedom" (eleutherias)(NIV) or "sets men free" (TEV) when they persevere in doing what it enjoins (1:25). One ought so to "speak" and "act" as to be ''.judged under the law ofliberty (eleutherias)"(RSV) or "the law that gives freedom" (NIV) (2: 12). Believers are to live in responsible freedom, not with freedom as a "screen for wrongdoing" (1 Pet. 2:16, NEB). 98. Frederick Herzog, LiberationTheology:Liberationin the Light of the Fourth Gospel (New York: Seabury Press, 1972), responding to black theology more than to Latin American, took John's Gospel as the "interpretive key to liberation history," for in it "we can almost touch with our hands the first full-fledged theological wrestling with Jesus of Nazareth as liberator" (pp. ix-x).

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C. CONTEMPORARY LIBERATION THEOLOGY

"Liberation has become a key idea in modern theology as justification, regeneration, sanctification and reconciliation have at other times." 99 Although the term "liberation theology" has often been identified principally with a Latin American movement, the concept of freedom was emphasized in both Christian and non-Christian thought in Europe and North America prior to the rise of Latin American liberation theology. Twentieth-century European theologians had explicated various concepts of freedom: Rudolf Bultmann's "freedom as existence," Paul Tillich's "freedom to be," Karl Barth's "freedom in Christ," and Nicolas Berdyaev's "freedom to create." 100 Jurgen Moltmann's Theologyof Hope (1964; ET, 1967), 101 primarily eschatological in nature, and his The Gospelof Liberation (ET, 1973) 102 served as stimuli for the expectation of the liberation of oppressed peoples. Peter Crafts Hodgson differentiated Christian freedom in its four stages of"creation, fall, redemption, [and] consummation" from modern Western, largely nontheistic "rival freedoms": "politicaleconomic" (Marx), "rational-psychoanalytic" (Freud), "tragic-existential" (Camus, Sartre), "ecstatic-vitalistic" (polytheisms of nature, counter culture), and "pragmatic-technocratic" (Skinner). 103 Other European and North American thinkers said to have influenced liberation theology, especially of the Latin American type, were Ernst Bloch ( 1885-1977), JosefHromadka (1889-1969), Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Louis Lehmann (1906-94), and Paul Ricoeur. 104 Others who by example oflife influenced Latin American theologians of liberation were Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967), Camilo Torres (? -1966), Helder Pessoa Camara (1909-99), and Ernesto Cardenal (1925- ).105 Liberation theology became c. 1962 or c. 1968106 an identifiable theological movement in Latin America with the subsequent writings of Protestant theologians such as Rubero Alvesand Jose Miguez-Bonino and Roman Catholic theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez, Juan Luis Segundo, SJ., Jose Porfirio Miranda (1924- ), Enrique Dussel (1934- ), HugoAssmann (1933- ), 99. Moody, The Wordof Truth, p. 335. 100. Robert Tappan Osborn (1926- ), Freedomin Modern Theology(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967). 101. Trans.James W. Leitch (New York: Harper and Row). 102. Trans. H. Wayne Pipkin (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1973). l 03. New Birth of Freedom:A Theologyof Bondageand Liberation(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), esp. pp. 42-112. 104. Raymond C. Hundley, Radical LiberationTheology:An EvangelicalResponse (Wilmore, Ky.: Bristol Books, 1987), pp. 131-32. 105. Deane William Ferm (1927- ), Third WorldLiberationTheologies:An Introductory Survey (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1986), pp. 12-14; Hundley, Radical LiberationTheology,pp. 129-31. 106. Hundley, Radical LiberationTheology,pp. 4-10; Ferm, Third WorldLiberation Theologies:An IntroductorySurvey, pp. 10-11.

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Jose Comblin (1923- ), Jon Sobrino, SJ., Leonardo Boff, O.F.M., Clodovis Boff ( 1944-), and Jose Severino Croatto. These theologians responded to the economic, social, political, and cultural situations of their Latin American history and context. Black and feminist theologians in the United States belong to the larger movement of liberation theology. Among the former have been James H. Cone,James Deotis Roberts, Sr., Warner Raymond Traynham, Gayraud Stephen Wilmore ( 1921- ), and William Ronald Jones ( 1933- ), and among the latter have been Rosemary Radford Ruether, Letty M. Russell (1929- ), Mary Daly, Sallie McFague, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, and Jane Schaberg. African and Asian theologians have also given expression to the theme of liberation and are now recognized as being within the larger movement of liberation theology. 107 Inasmuch as the present task is not to interpret and evaluate all aspects of liberation theology, we must necessarily focus upon the concept or concepts of liberation as expressed in that movement, especially its Latin American phase. Three concerns 108 will be paramount. First, the liberationist view of the Bible and authority has affected its understanding ofliberation. The movement's theological method negatively rejects beginning with the inspired, normative Scriptures and then making applications to the contemporary scene and instead adopts the method of beginning theological reflection with contemporary "social praxis." 109 Among liberationists one finds the denial of the supernatural aspect of special revelation, the ascription of myths to the Bible, and the view that the Gospels are the creative product of the early church rather

107. For representative authors, see Deane William Ferm, Profilesin Liberation: 36 PortraitsofThird World Theologians(Mystic, Conn.: Twenty-Third Publications, 1958), pp. 7-111, and idem, Third WorldLiberationTheologies:An IntroductorySurvey, pp. 59-99. 108. The three concerns to be discussed here are quite similar to, if not identical with, the three major emphases in Instructionon CertainAspectsof the Theology of Liberation,Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 6 August 1984 (Washington, D. C.: United State Catholic Conference, n.d.), namely, "Marxist analysis," "truth and violence," and "a new hermeneutic." 109. Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theologyof Liberation:History,Politicsand Salvation, trans. and ed. Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1973), pp. 45-50. For a critique of the theological method ofliberation theology, especially that of Gustavo Gutierrez, see Juan Gutierrez, The New LibertarianGospel:Pitfallsof the Theologyof Liberation,trans. Paul Burns (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1977). For an elaboration of the method and a review of its Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant critics, see Arthur F. McGovern, S. J ., LiberationTheologyand Its Critics:Towardan Assessment(Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1989), pp. 23-61.

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than an authentic record of the life and sayings of Jesus.11° The Exodus from Egypt is the central biblical text ofliberation theology; it completes creation and is fulfilled in Christ. 111 The Exodus as event, according to Croatto, can be differentiated from the Exodus as word and as promise so as to make possible the modern "resignification" of the Exodus. The Exodus as event "is still unconcluded,"for its memory "becomes a provocative Word, an announcement ofliberation for us, the oppressed peoples of the Third World." 112 Jesus is the "new Moses" or "last Liberator." 113 Indeed "the Christ-event subsumes and extends the kerygma of the Exodus." 114 Hence for most 115 liberation theologians the incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus are interpreted in the light of the Exodus rather than the Exodus being interpreted in terms of Jesus Christ. This fact has far-reaching implications for the relation of the two testaments. 110. Hundley, Radical LiberationTheology,pp. 23-34, based on Rubem Alves, "Theses for a Reconstruction of Theology," Documents-IDOC(31 October 1970), pp. 4, 14; idem, "Theology and the Liberation of Man," in In Search of a Theologyof Development(Geneva: Committee on Society, Development and Peace, 1970), p. 82; Leonardo Boff, "Las imagenes de Jesus en el cristianismo liberal del Brasil," Cristianismoy Sociedad13:46 (1975): 33-34; idem,jesus ChristLiberator:A CriticalChristology for Our Time, trans. Patrick Hughes (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1978), pp. 176-77. 111. Gutierrez, A Theologyof Liberation,pp. 155-60. 112. Exodus:A Hermeneuticsof Freedom,trans. Salvator Attanasio (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1978), pp. 12-16. SeeJ. Andrew Kirk, LiberationTheology: An EvangelicalViewfrom the Third World (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1979), pp. 147-52. For other interpretations of the Exodus theme, see McGovern, LiberationTheologyand Its Critics,pp. 65-69. For an alternative understanding of the Exodus as miraculous "withdrawal" and "diaspora," see John Howard Yoder (1927-97), "Withdrawal and Diaspora: The Two Faces of Liberation," in Daniel S. Schipani, ed., Freedomand Discipkship:Liberation Theologyin an AnabaptistPerspective(Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1989), pp. 76-84. 113. Boff,]esus ChristLiberator,pp. 171-74. 114. Croatto, Exodus, p. 80. On liberationist interpretation of the New Testament book of Revelation, see Christopher Rowland and Mark Corner, LiberatingExegesis:The Challengeof LiberationTheologyto BiblicalStudies, Biblical Foundations in Theology (London: S. P. C. K., 1990), pp. 131-55. 115. Segundo, The LiberationofTheology,trans.John Drury (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1976), p. 112, and Santos Sabugal (1937- ), Liberaciony secularizacion?(Barcelona: Herder, 1978), pp. 39-40, on the other hand, have magnified the religious even more than the sociopolitical in the interpretation of the Exodus. Sabugal (p. 77) takes salvation through Christ "as the new and definitive Exodus" as a central idea "that recurs throughout all of the New Testament literature." Emilio A. Nufiez, LiberationTheology, trans. Paul E. Sywulka (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), pp. 191-92. For a nonliberationist approach, see Robin Ernest Nixon, The Exodusin the New Testament(London: Tyndale Press, 1963).

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Second, liberation theologians have not only focused on but also have given an idiosyncratic interpretation to the concept of liberation and the role of Jesus as Liberator. Gutierrez set forth three "levels of meaning" of liberation: (1) "economic, social, and political liberation"; (2) "liberation which leads to the creation of a new man in a new society of solidarity"; (3) "liberation from sin and entrance into communion with God and with all men." 116 According to Gutierrez, these are not "parallel or chronologically successive processes" but rather "three ["interdependent"] levels of meaning ofa single, complex process." 117 Emilio Antonio Nunez (1923- ), in evaluating liberation theology, has taken Gutierrez's second level to be a utopianism that unites the first and second levels,118 and such utopia is to be realized, according to Gutierrez, through socialism.119 Therefore, if liberation from sin cannot be separated from social, economic, and political liberation of oppressed peoples and classes and the two are kept together by an attained socialism, then the liberating work of Christ is incomplete unless supplemented by present-day human activity. Croatto doubts that Jesus was a Zealot or that his message appeared as "a strategy of political liberation." But liberation theologians should, he suggests, correct the Gospel of Matthew's spiritualizing of Jesus' words about the poor and make clear that Jesus' actions "provide the indirect but indispensable foundation for a radical liberation." 120 But the facts that Jesus did not pursue the Zealot objective or seek to utilize military force and that the New Testament writers interpreted his death/resurrection in nonrevolutionary language are unfortunately somewhat neglected in the liberationist theology of today. According to W. Dayton Roberts, "The hero image of the theology of liberation seems to fit Judas Maccabeus better than Jesus of Nazareth." 121 The third consideration, therefore, is the concept of violence in liberation theology. Leonardo Boff limits violence committed by Christians to that offered in response to the violence employed by oppressors. 122 Comblin holds that "there are times when one faces an unavoidable option: no action, which only condones an oppressor's continuance of violence, or action that runs the risk ofviolence." 123 For Miguez-Bonino "the violence of oppressors 116. A Theologyof Liberation,p. 235; see also pp. 36-37. 117. Ibid., p. 37. 118. LiberationTheology,pp. 195-97. 119. Gutierrez, A Theologyof Liberation,p. 237. 120. Exodus:A Hermeneuticsof Freedom,pp. 62, 57. 121. "Where Has Liberation Theology Gone Wrong?" ChristianityToday, 19 October 1979, p. 1401. On the modern development of the concept of Jesus as a revolutionary, see Ernst Bammel, "The Revolution Theory from Reimarus to Brandon," in Bammel and C. F. D. Moule, eds.,jesus and the Politicsof His Day (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 11-68. 122. Ferm, Third WorldLiberationTheologi,es: An IntroductorySurvey, p. 30. 123. Ibid., 45.

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sometimes demands violence in return." 124 Pablo Richard ( 1939- ) interprets the book of Exodus as "a violent book" and regards violence as "inevitable." 125 Croatto, taking the same view of the book of Exodus, concludes that justice "is a radical good that demands of love (paradoxical as it may seem) a violent action." 126 That liberation theology has rightly made clear that corrupt governments and oppressive economic systems commit "institutional violence" has been recognized. 127 That liberation theology has authentically represented the Lord of the church on the use of violence (Matt. 5: 21-22, 38-42; 26:51-56) is far from clear. Nor have its advocates pursued diligently and openmindedly the way of nonviolence. 128 Latin American liberation theology has made it difficult for Roman Catholics or Evangelical Protestants to ignore the awesome injustices and suffering of poor and oppressed Third World peoples, 129 and this will likely be a major aspect of its abiding legacy. But its use of the Bible, its concepts of liberation, and its advocacy of violence are the kinds of issues that will likely cause many to question, if not to reject, some of the basic tenets of this movement. In addition, liberation theology seems not to be willing to acknowledge that liberators can subsequently become oppressors. Moreover, its heavy dependence upon Marxist thought and its strong critique of capitalism while offering almost no critique of socialism-issues not treated here-will almost certainly, in view of recent 124. Ibid., p. 116. Mfguez-Bonino, "Violence and Liberation," Christianity and Crisis, 10 July 1972, pp. 169-72; idem, Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation, pp. 114-18. 125. Ferm, Third World Liberation Theologies:An Introductory Survey, p. 30, based on Richard, "Biblical Theology of Confrontation with Idols," in Richard et al., The Idols of Death and the God of Life: A Theology, trans. Barbara E. Campbell and Bonnie Shepard (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983), p. 7. 126. Exodus: A Hermeneutics of Freedom, pp. 29, 30. Also concerning violence, see Segundo, Liberation of Theology, pp. 156-65. 127. Justice Conrad Anderson ( 1929- ), "The Church and Liberation Theology," Southwestern]ournal of Theology 19 (Spring 1977): 35. 128. See Andre Trocme,jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution, trans. Michael H. Shank and Marlin E. Miller (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1973; French orig., 1961); Oscar Cullmann,Jesus and the Revolutionaries, trans. Gareth Putnam (New York: Harper and Row, 1970); Martin Hengel, WasJesus a Revolutionist? trans. William Klassen, Facet Books, Biblical Series, no. 28 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971; German orig., 1970); and John Howard Yoder, The Politics ojjesus: VicitAgnus Noster (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972). 129. Clark H. Pinnock, "A Call for the Liberation of North American Christians," in Carl E. Armerding, ed., Evangelicals and Liberation (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1979), pp. 128-36; Harvie M. Conn, "Theologies of Liberation: Toward a Common View," in Stanley N. Gundry and Alan F. Johnson, eds., Tensions in Contemporary Theology (2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983), p. 418-29.

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developments in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, lead to some reassessment of liberation theology. Socioeconomic and political revolution must not be allowed to swallowup and displace the liberation of human beings from sin, death, and demonic powers with eternal as well as temporal consequences. 130 The biblical concepts of salvation, redemption, and liberation have been examined so as to make clear their unique meanings as well as their similarities, and the modern usages of salvation and ofliberation, by evangelicals and by liberationists respectively, critically interpreted. Now we must turn to two other themes, namely, union with Christ and assurance.

130. For a new kind of Christian theology ofliberation, see Humberto Belli and Ronald H. Nash (1936- ), Beyond Liberation Theology(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992).

CHAPTER64

UNION WITH CHRIST; ASSURANCE Two topics that are quite significant for the doctrine of the Christian life, or the present and experienced reality of the saving work of God in Jesus Christ, are union with Christ and assurance. One asks the question as to the nature of the intimacy between God and believers, whereas the other asks whether one can know with confidence that he/she has such saving intimacy.

I. UNION WITH CHRIST Some theologians have taken union with Christ to be comprehensive in scope. According to H. R. Mackintosh, "union with Christ is a brief name for all that the apostles meant by salvation." 1 Millard]. Erickson seemed to be sympathetic to that perspective when he referred to "union with Christ" as "an inclusive term for the whole of salvation" so that "the various other doctrines are simply subparts." 2 Other theologians have reckoned union with Christ as the central truth within Christian soteriology. According to Albert Schweitzer, for Paul "being-in-Christ" is "the source of everything connected with redemption. "3 For John Murray it is "the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation." "It is not simply a phase of the application of redemption; it underlies every aspect of redemption." 4 Lewis Benedict Smedes (1921- ) held that union with Christ "is at once the center and circumference of authentic [Christian] human existence. "5 Writing of the theology of Paul, James Stuart Stewart found that "union with Christ, rather than justification or election or eschatology, or indeed any of the I. The Doctrineof the PersonofJesus Christ,p. 334. 2. ChristianTheology,p. 948. 3. The Mysticismof Paul theApostle,trans. William Montgomery (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1931), p. 124. 4. Redemption-Accomplishedand Applied, pp. 201, 205. 5. All Things Made New: A Theologyof Man's Union with Christ(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), p. 7.

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other great apostolic themes, is the real clue to an understanding of Paul's thought and experience." 6 Still other theologians have assumed a third posture, namely, that union with Christ is one of several important concepts employed in the New Testament and by later, especially modern, Christian theology to describe what God in Jesus Christ does to and for and in those who truly repent and believe in Jesus. A. H. Strong,7 E. Y. Mullins, 8 and W. T. Conner 9 followed such a course. A. OLD TESTAMENT

The Old Testament seems to contain no specific idea of union with Yahweh that would be comparable to the New Testament concept of union with Christ. The concept of the covenant carries with it such an obligation of bindingness as to imply a continuing relationship, and the promised new covenant anticipated the writing of God's law in human minds or on human hearts so that these humans would know Yahweh Qer. 31:33-34). B. NEW TESTAMENT

The concept of union with Christ, expressed indeed in diverse language, is to be found almost exclusively in two strands of the New Testament, namely, the epistles of Paul and the Gospel of John.

1. Pauline Epistles a. The Phrases "in Christ," "in Christ Jesus," and "in the Lord"

Among the various modes of expression relative to union with Christ which Paul utilized, none is more important than the phrases "in Christ" (en christg), "in Christ Jesus" (en christg Iisou), and "in the Lord" (en tg kurig). More than a century ago Gustav Adolf Deissmann (1866-1937) pioneered in the exposition of this Pauline formula. 10 Later Deissmann reported 164 occurrences of this formula in the epistles of Paul, 11 whereas H. R. Mackintosh subsequently reported that these phrases are to be found "nearly 240 times in the [Pauline] Epistles we have accepted 6. A Man in Christ,p. vii. 7. SystematicTheology,pp. 793-809. Strong (p. 793) held that union with Christ logically though not chronologically "precedes both regeneration and justification." 8. The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,pp. 409-16. Mullins's opening statement (p. 409) shows that he also inclined to the comprehensive view. 9. A Systemof ChristianDoctrine,pp. 431-34; The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 150-56. 10. Die neutestamentlicheFormel"in Christojesu" (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 1892). 11. Paul: A Study in Socialand ReligiousHistory,trans. William E. Wilson (2d rev. ed.; New York: Harper and Row, 1957; 1st ed., 1912), p. 140.

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as genuine." 12 How these two scholars arrived at such disparate numbers is not clear, inasmuch as both seemed to accept as genuine all the letters except the Pastoral Epistles, 13 but that the phrases were frequently used by and important to the thought of Paul is clear. Ernest Best (191 7- ), 14 following with modification the fivefold scheme of Albrecht Oepke ( 1881-1955 ), 15 has set forth a ninefold classification of the uses of these phrases. Since, however, such is more syntactical than theological, we seek a more theological approach. First, the phrases were used by Paul to express what God has done, is doing, or will do in Christ. 16 Second, the phrases were employed to express Christian attitudes and actions. 17 Third, they were used in Paul's pleadings and appeals to his readers. 18 A fourth usage of the phrases pertained to Paul's fellow believers and fellow workers. 19 Fifth, Paul utilized these phrases to convey the concept of unifying solidarity of believers. 20 The twentieth-century theologians 21 who have insisted that "in Christ" conveys also the meaning of being in Christ's body or church can find support in the fourth and fifth usages of the phrases, but hardly in the others. Sixth, the phrases were occasionally used in respect to family life. 22 Paul also wrote of Christ's being in the believers or disciples. 23 This Pauline usage may be compared with that in the allegory of the vine and the branches (John 15:4a).

12. The Doctrine of the Person ofJesus Christ, p. 56. 13. Ibid., p. 49; Deissmann, Paul, pp. 18-25. It is possible that only Mackintosh may have included the "in him" and "in whom" passages. 14. One Body in Christ: A Study in the Relationship of the Church to Christ in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (London: S. P. C. K., 1955), pp. 1-8. 15. "en," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Kittel, 2:541-42. 16. 1 Thess. 4:16; 5:18; Gal. 2:4, 17; 3:14; 5:6; 1 Cor. 7:22; 15:22; 2 Cor. 2:14; 3:14; 5:17, 19; Rom. 3:24; 6:11, 23; 8:1, 2, 39; Eph. 1:3, 6, 13a, 20; 2:6, 7, 13; 3:6, 10, 11, 21; 4:32; 5:8; Phil. 2:1, 5; 3:14; 4:7, 19; 2 Tim. 1:1, 9; 2:1, 10. 17. 1 Thess. 3:8; Gal. 3:26; 1 Cor. 1:31; 4:176; 15:19, 31, 58; 2 Cor. 10:17; Rom. 14:14; 15:17; 16:12; Eph. 1:12, 15; 6:10; Phil. 1:13, 26; 2:19, 24; 3:1, 3, 9; 4:1, 4, 10; Col. 1:4; 1 Tim. 1:14; 3:13; 2 Tim. 1:13; 3:12, 15. 18. 1 Thess. 4:1; 5:12; 2 Thess. 3:4, 12; Gal. 5:10; 2 Cor. 2:17; 12:19; Rom. 9:1; Eph. 4: 17; Phil. 4:2; Col. 4: 17; Philem. 8. 19. 1 Cor. 3:1; 4:10, 15, 17a; 9:1-2; 16:19, 24; Rom. 16:2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 13, 22; Eph. 6:21; Col. 1:28, 4:7; Philem. 16, 20, 23. 20. 1 Thess. 1:1; 2:14; 2 Thess. 1:1; Gal. 1:22; 3:28; 1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1, 14; 4:21; Col. 1:2. 21. Best, One Body in Christ, pp. 19-30; Schweitzer, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, pp. 116-17, 122-27. 22. 1 Cor. 7:39; 11:11; Eph. 6:1; Col. 3:18, 20. 23. Gal. 2:20; 4:19; 2 Cor. 13:3, 5; Rom. 8:10; Col. 1:27.

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Deissmann concluded that Paul was "the inventor of the formula" "in Christ," 24 but John Kelman Sutherland Reid (1910- ), following upon James S. Stewart's emphasis on Matt. 18:20 25 and Charles Archibald Anderson Scott's (1859-1941) pointing to the predominance of the preposition meta, "with," rather than of en, "in," in the Synoptic Gospels, 26 later concluded: However novel the use made by St. Paul of the phrase "in Christ," and however unprecedented the emphasis which it acquires in his theology, the idea itself is not a pure invention. There is elsewhere in the New Testament an element of dominical origin upon which St. Paul has seized. 27 On the meaning of the Pauline formula modern scholarship has also been somewhat divided. Deissmann advanced the position that the formula stands for a Spirit-Christ mysticism, though with a local significance. 28 Johannes Weiss, while referring to "Christ-mysticism," expressed doubt that Paul had any notion of fusion with Christ wherein his own individuality was lost and preferred to state that the formula "denotes simply belonging to Christ, being bound together with him and the brethren." 29 William Morgan (1862-1928) found that the formula had an "elasticity" and plurality of meanings so as to make any single primary meaning unlikely, but he doubted Deissmann's local meaning. 3°C. A. A. Scott, abandoning the mystical approach, found some passages requiring a local significance so that Christ is thought of"as in some sense the habitation or dwelling-place of the Christian," but he majored on the solidarity of Christ and his church. 31 Fritz Neugebauer, also shifting from mysticism, understood "in Christ" as expressive of the salvation-history event of Jesus' death/resurrection and took "in the Lord" normally to describe the mode of Christian 24. Die neutestamentliche Formel "in Christojesu," p. 70, as trans. and quot. by J. K. S. Reid, Our Life in Christ, Library of History and Doctrine (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963), p. 13. Deissmann reported that the formula "occurs 24 times in the Johannine corpus (including the Apocalypse), only 8 times in Acts and 1 Peter, and nowhere else in the New Testament" (Reid, p. 12). 25. A Man in Christ, p. 156. 26. Christianity according to St. Paul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927),p.152. 27. Reid, Our Life in Christ, pp. 15-16. 28. Die neutestamentliche Formel "in Christojesu," pp. 17-18; Paul, pp. 140-44. 29. The History of Primitive Christianity, compl. by Rudolf Knopf, trans. by Frederick C. Grant, Arthur Haire Forster, Paul Stevens Kramer, and Sherman Elbridge Johnson and ed. by Frederick C. Grant, 2 vols. (New York: Wilson-Erickson, Inc. 1937), 2:463, 468-70. 30. The Religion and Theology of Paul (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1917), pp. 117-19. 31. Christianity according to St. Paul, pp. 151-58.

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living. 32 Reid, finding in Deissmann an undefined mysticism and a Christology obscuring the incarnation, opted for "elasticity" in the Pauline usage yet concluded that the central meaning of "in Christ" is "the ultimate basis of being a Christian and of the life that emanates from this. "33 b. Compound Greek Verbs Containing the Prefix syn ("with")

Paul also expressed the believers' union with Christ through the use of Greek verbs having the prefix syn, "with," which verbs convey the sharing of the verbal action. Occasionally the prefix is not attached to the verb but instead functions as a preposition. "I have been crucified with Christ" (Christg sunestauromai)(Gal. 2:20a, RSV, JB, NEB, NIV). The Colossian believers presumably had "died with Christ" (JB, TEV, NIV) (apethanete syn Christg) to "the elemental spirits of the universe" (RSV, NEB) (Col. 2:20). To those at Rome the apostle declared that "[w]e were buried ... with him" (sunetaphimenautg) "by baptism into death" (Rom. 6:4, RSV).34 Likewise, we who were "dead through our trespasses" God "made ... alive together with Christ" (synezoopoiisento Christg) (Eph. 2:5, RSV), and those who "have been raised with Christ" (synigerthite to Christg)are to live on a higher plane (Col. 3: l, RSV, NIV). The children of God are to be his heirs and "co-heirs with Christ" (JB, NIV) "provided" (RSV) they "suffer with him" (KJV, RSV) (synpaschomen)so as also to "be glorified with him" (RSV) (syndoxasthomen)(Rom. 8: 17). Hence, according to Paul, believers are united with Jesus Christ in suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and glorification. c. Major Metaphors

A third Pauline means of expressing the Christian's intimate relation to Jesus Christ was metaphors. Christ is the head (keph.ali),and the church is his body (soma)(Eph. 1:22-23; 4:15-16; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:19). Both by implication and by assertion Christ is the bridegroom and the church his bride (gyni) (Eph. 5:22-25; see Rev. 19:7). Christ is the sole foundation (themelion),and the labors of Christians are the true building materials (1 Cor. 3:11-15). 35 d. Miscellaneous Texts

Other Pauline passages imply the idea of an intimate life-giving or strength-giving union with Christ. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21, KJV, RSV). "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4: 13, NIV). 32. In Christus:Eine Untersuchungzum PaulinischenGlaubensverstdndnis (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1961). Per H. Alan Brehm. 33. Our Life in Christ,pp. 16-31, esp. 30. 34. JB: "when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death." 35. In Eph. 2:20 Paul refers to the "apostles and prophets" as the themelionand to "Christ Jesus" as the "cornerstone" (akrogoniaiou).

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2. Gospel ofjohn The concept of the union of believers with Jesus Christ is expressed in the Gospel of John by use of variant language and in various passages. Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man means having eternal life (John 6:53-54) and remaining in Christ as Christ also remains in the eater-drinker (John 6:56). The sheep '"know"' (ginoskousi)the "'good shepherd"' even as he knows them, '"hear"' (akouousin)the shepherd's voice, and '"follow"' (akolouthousin)him (John 10: l 4-l 5a, 27). When the Holy Spirit has been given, Jesus promised, believers will know that they are "'in"' Christ and that Christ is in them (John 14:20). Indeed, the Father and the Son "'will come to him"' and make their "home" (RSV,Phillips, JB, NIV) or "abode" (KJV) or "'dwelling"' (NEB) (monin) "'with'" (par') the one who loves and obeys the Son (John 14:23). In the allegory of the vine and the branches the true branches abide in the vine (the Son) and the love thereof and the vine abides in the branches (John 15:4a, 9-10) and so bears much fruit (John 15:5), but the unconnected branches wither and are gathered and burned (John 15:6).Jesus prayed to the Father for the unity of his disciples present and future: "'that they also may be in us"' (RSV), "'I in them and thou in me,'" and indeed "'I in them"' "'so that the world may know that thou hast sent me"' (John 17:21, 23a, 26, 23b, RSV). C. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE

Through the centuries theologians have held two understandings of union with Christ which we will reckon to be at variance with the New Testament teaching. They are the sacramental and the absorptive mystical views.

1. Sacramental View In Roman Catholic theology the Eucharist is taken to be the chief means for the effectuation of union with Christ. This teaching can be traced to Thomas Aquinas, who asserted that the "Eucharist is the sacrament of ecclesiastical unity, which is brought about by many being one in Christ,"36 and to Pope Eugenius IV's (hp. 1431-47) bull dealingwith sacraments and addressed to the Armenians, which declared of the Eucharist: "The effect of this sacrament, which is wrought in the soul of those who eat worthily, is the joining (adunatio)of the person to Christ." 37 Ludwig Ott listed as acertain opinion, not as a dogma, the teaching that the "chief fruit of the Eucharist is an intrinsic union of the recipient with Christ." 38 There has been no concurrent move to connect baptism and union with Christ. 36. Summa Theologi,ca3.82.2. reply 3. 37. Decretumpro Armenis, in Bull, Exultate Deo, 22 November 1439, in Denziger, ed., EnchiridionSymbolorum:Definitionumet Declarationumde Rebus Fideiet Marum, item 698 or p. 257. 38. Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma, p. 394.

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This sacramental view of union rests to a great extent on the Eucharistic interpretation of John 6:52-58. 39 According to that text, the one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of Man "has eternal life" (v. 54a), remains in the Son of Man even as the Son of Man remains in him (v. 56), and will be raised "at the last day" (v. 54b). If Jesus is referring to his forthcoming Last Supper or if the primitive church is putting words in Jesus' mouth after having observed the Lord's Supper, then the Euchar\stic conclusion would seem to be likely. But as an authentic dominical saying the text can be interpreted as referring to faith-union rather than Eucharistic union without denying that the Eucharist can serve to confirm or strengthen an already existent union.

2. Absorptive Mystical View The Christian doctrine of union with Christ can be construed as Christian mysticism. It is mystical "in the sense that a Power outside of and beyond man lays hold of him, comes into his life and takes possession of him," but such an understanding of mysticism is quite different from "an unconscious state or superconscious rapture." 40 "The believer has abso39. Some non-Roman Catholics have interpreted John 6:52-56 as referring to the Eucharist: Wilbert Francis Howard (1880-1952) (Methodist), Christianity according to St.john (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1946), pp. 143-47, 149-50, 209; Edwyn Clement Hoskyns (Anglican), The Fourth Gospel, ed. Francis Noel Davey (2d rev. ed.; London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1947), pp. 297-99; Oscar Cullmann (Lutheran), Early Christian Worship, trans. A. Stewart Todd and James B. Torrance, vol. 10, Studies in Biblical Theology (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1953), pp. 93-102; Alan Richardson (Anglican), An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, pp. 372-73, 377; C. K. Barrett (Anglican), The Gospel according to St.john, p. 247; and L. Goppelt (Lutheran), Theology of the New Testament, 2:301-3. But other Protestant exegetes in the modern period have interpreted the text in non-Eucharistic terms: this discourse and the Lord's Supper pointing to the "same divine fact," Frederic Louis Godet (1812-1900), Commentary on the Gospel ofjohn, trans. Timothy Dwight, 2 vols. (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1886), 2:35-42; "personal appropriation of the Incarnate Son," Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), The Gospel according to St.john, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1908), re 6:53-57; verse 62 as evidence, Hugo Odeberg (1898-? ), The Fourth Gospel: Interpreted in Its Relation to Contemporaneous Religious Currents in Palestine and the Hellenistic-Oriental World (Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1929), 1:267-68; "spiritual feeding upon Christ," G. E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, p. 285; and not necessarily physical ingesting, L. Morris, New Testament Theology, pp. 285-86. Among the Church Fathers one finds both the non-Eucharistic interpretation (Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.6; Origen, On Prayer 27:2-4) and the Eucharistic (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel according to St.john 4.2; Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on the Gospel according to St.John, 26.15-18). Per Lacoste Munn. 40. Conner, The Gospel of Redemption, p. 152.

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lutely become the organ or instrument of the Lord, and is drawn, spirit, soul, and body, into His dominating and recreating life .... The bond uniting Christ and Christians is such that the same predications can be made ofboth." 41 Such Christian mysticism involves fellowship, intimacy of relationship, and communion. On the other hand, there has come to be within or on the edge of the Christian tradition a view of union with God that involves the ultimate absorption into or fusion with God of the believers. Cuthbert Butler found that the mysticism of Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, and Bernard of Clairvaux was contemplative and prior to the influence of PseudoDionysius on the West.42 For John Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) union with deity involved self-abandonment and self-renunciation, and, God being differentiated from Godhead, one is to seek union with the Godhead. 43 Like tritheism in relation to the doctrine of the Trinity, absorptive mysticism is the dangerous extreme for those given to Christian mysticism. Communion becomes absorptive union, thus removing the line of demarcation between Creator and creature, God and human beings. Very closely related to absorptive mysticism is the doctrine of deification, or the concept that believers/ disciples will be made in some sense divine. Building upon 2 Pet. 1:4b, "become partakers of the divine nature" (theiaskoinonoi physeos),several of the Greek Fathers elaborated a doctrine of salvific deification, and it was later expressed in the Anglican tradition. 44 D. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION

1. Its Trinitarian Dimension Union with Christ reflects the doctrine of the Trinity, "for through him [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2: 18, RSV). a. Union with Christ as Union with the Crucified and Risen Lord

The union is possible because of and on the basis of Jesus' saving death and resurrection. 45 His saving work, not the created being of humans or human deeds ofrighteousness, is the "basis" for the union. 46 That union is with the risen and ascended Lord Jesus. It is not the mere recollection 41. Mackintosh, The Doctrineof the PersonofJesus Christ,p. 56. 42. Modern Mysticism:The Teachingof Ss. Augustine, Gregoryand Bernard on Contemplationand the ContemplativeLife (2d. ed., London: Constable, 1926), esp. pp. 123-32. 43. Ray C. Petry (1903-92), "Meister Eckhart, Introduction," in Petry, ed., Late MedievalMysticism,vol. 13, LCC (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1957), pp. 171-76. 44. Arthur Macdonald Allchin (1930- ), Participationin God:A ForgottenStrand in Anglican Tradition (Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1988). 45. Stewart, A Man in Christ,pp. 186-94. 46. Hoekema, Saved by Grace,pp. 57-59.

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of the historical Jesus or the lingering influence of his friendship or the posthumous example of his martyrdom.47 b. Union with Christ as Union by or through the Holy Spirit Union with Christ is no more possible without the Holy Spirit than is the birth from above so possible. '"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you,"' Jesus promised his disciples. '"In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you"' Qohn 14:18, 20, RSV). According to Paul, "no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3b, RSV, NIV). Our being "changed into his [the Lord's) likeness" by degrees of glory "comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, RSV). c. Union with Christ as Union with God the Father48 To know the Son of God is to know the Father Qohn 1:18). To see the Son is to see the Father Qohn 14:9b). Likewise, to be united with the Son is to be in union with the Father, and the roots of that union are in the electing purpose of God (Eph. 1:3-6). 49

2. Its Essential Condition: Faith For the one in whom Christ lives lives "by faith in the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20b, c, RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV), and the same Christ indwells human beings "through faith" (Eph. 3: 17a). Even as the finality of this union will not be the absorption of human beings into deity, so also the present continuity of that union does not reduce believers to robots. It does not obliterate "the believer's personal qualities and characteristics," but "throws these into greater relief. "50

3. Its Ethical Consequences Those who have been raised to new life with Christ (Col. 3:1) and now live in Christ (Col. 2:6) are expected to put to death the sins related to the "earthly" (ta epi tis gis) (Col. 3:5-10) and to put on the qualities (Col. 3:12-14) associated with "things that are above" (ta ano) (Col. 3:1, 2, RSV). Union with Christ, for Paul, was "not only ... the mainstay" of his "religion, but also ... the sheet-anchorof his ethics."51

47. 48. 49. 50. 51.

Mullins, The ChristianReligion in Its DoctrinalExpression,p. 413. Stewart, A Man in Christ,pp. 170-73. Hoekema, Saved by Grace,pp. 56-57. Stewart, A Man in Christ,p. 166. Ibid., p. 194.

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4. Its Ecclesial Significance To be united with Christ is to be united with his people, his ekklisia. The New Testament writers had no place for "Lone Ranger Christianity." 52 An institutional connection can never be a valid substitute for personal faith, but to be in Christ means in some meaningful sense to be in Christ's church.

5. Its Abiding or Enduring Quality Union with Christ is never merely punctiliar in the sense in which justification or regeneration may be seen as punctiliar. Union with Christ means the state of being united as well as the initial act of being united with Christ. The abiding quality of the union is a major evidence of the genuineness of claims to such union (John 15: 1-9). According to Smedes, "Christ communicates Himself in a way that changes us without diminishing us, transforms us without deifying us, Christianizes us without making us Christs." 53

II. ASSURANCE Can one know with confidence that he/she has been justified, born again, adopted, forgiven, reconciled, saved, redeemed, and/or liberated? An affirmative answer to this question leads to the doctrine of assurance. A. NEW TESTAMENT

1. The Problem of Assurance Becoming a disciple of Christ or a Christian was normally construed during the apostolic era as a conscious and voluntary happening. 54 Repentance, believing in Christ, and confessing Christ were responses marked by conscious awareness and explicit deliberateness. Furthermore, the fruits of such transformation by Jesus Christ, namely, peace, love, joy, trust, and hope, were also, it would seem, consciously experienced. Whereas in the Old Testament era the Israelites' confidence as to their relationship with Yahweh was rooted in the Exodus and the covenant and Yahweh's faithfulness (Exod. 19:3-6; Deut. 4:20, 35-38; 7:7-9; Ps. 105), in the New Testament era the confidence of Christians as to their relationship to God was rooted in the saving work of Jesus Christ as applied to or efficacious in their own lives. In the former the collective 52. The efforts to locate this term in the published works of Dale Moody have been unsuccessful, but his longtime professorial colleague, Wayne E. Ward, has indicated that Moody used the term in his lectures as early as 1947-48. Ward to James Leo Garrett, Jr., 6 November 1992. 53. All Things Made New, p. 188. 54. Exception might be claimed by those who insist that the "new birth" or "birth from above" occurs in the subconscious state. See above, ch. 61, IV, A.

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relationship tended to outweigh the individual; in the latter the individual relationship tended to outweigh the collective. Did all Christians of the New Testament era, however, have a firm and unshakable confidence or assurance that they had been accepted by God and had become by faith the children of God? Did their conscious exercise of what they took to be repentance and believing necessarily mean that God had accepted them? Any tendency to negative answers to these questions makes desirable that which we call "assurance." Indeed, the need for and the availability of such assurance are to be found within the New Testament.

2. Evidences That Foster Assurance: 1 John The First Epistle of John seems to have been a tract on Christian assurance, the very writing of which suggests that there were Christians and probably also would-be Christians during the first century AD who lacked adequate or full assurance. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know (eidite)that you have eternal life" (5:13, NIV). "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding (dianoian),so that we may know (ginoskomen)him who is true. And we are in him who is true-even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life" (5:20). First John mentions several evidences or characteristics of the life in Jesus Christ so that one may clarify his/her relationship with Christ and thus either establish or strengthen assurance or else remove any basis for assurance. 55 a. Evidence of a New Lifestyle Four distinct aspects of this evidence are indicated in I John. (1) Obedienceto or keeping of God'scommands

"We can be sure we know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar .... Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did" (2:3-4, 6, NIV). "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them" (3:24a). (2)A life of righteousness "If you know that he [God] is righteous, you know that everyone who

does what is right (pas ho poion tin dikaiosynin)has been born of him" (2:29). "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning (ouk hamartanei).No one who continues to sin has either seen him [God] or known him" (3:6). "No one who is born of God will continue to sin (hamartianou poiei), 55. Clyde Lamont Breland ( 1895- ? ), Assuranceof Divine Fellowship:A Popul,ar Expositionof the First Epistleofjohn (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1939); Herbert W. Butt, Testsof Eternal Life (Swengel, Pa.: Reiner Publications, n.d.).

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because God's seed remains (menei) in him; he cannot sin (ou dynatai hamartanein), because he has been born of God" (3:9). (3) Overcoming the evil one (Satan) The letter was written because its recipients had "overcome the evil one," had "known the Father," and had had "the word of God" to live in them (2: 13-14). Concerning "anyone born of God" it may be said that "the evil one does not touch him." Whereas "we are children of God," "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (5:18-19). (4) Overcoming the world Here "world" is not used to refer to all the created order or to all humanity but rather to human beings and human society in sinful disobedience against God. Overcoming the world, which is indeed a victory through faith, is by "everyone born of God" or by the one "who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (5:3-5). b. Evidence of the Love of Fellow Christians

"Whoever loves his brother lives in the light," but "whoever hates his brother is in" and "walks around in the darkness" (2: 1Oa, l la). "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers .... Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him" (3: 14a, 15). "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ... [L]et us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence" (3: 17-19). "Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (4: 7b-8). "No one has ever seen God; but ifwe love each other, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us" (4: 12). "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (4:16b). "If anyone says 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (4:20). c. Evidence of Having Received the Holy Spirit

"And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us" (3:24b). "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (4:13). 56 d. Evidence of Confession of Jesus as the Christ and as the Incarnate Son of God

The one "who denies that Jesus is Christ" is "the liar" and "the antichrist." "No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also" (2:22-23). "Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus 56. See 1 John 2:20; Rom. 8:9, 14.

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Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God" (4:2b-3a). "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God" (4: 15). "Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child" (5:1, RSV).57 3. The Holy Spirit and the Love of God: Paul

Paul affords both direct and indirect testimony, as well as his personal testimony (2 Tim. 1:12), in behalf of Christian assurance. The Holy Spirit gives joint testimony "with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16, RSV).58 Paul also strongly affirmed the assured nonseparation of believers by any or all of nine agencies or factors "from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39, NIV), thus leaving to the individual the assurance of his/her being among the believers.

4. Full Assurance: Hebrews The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews admonished his readers to "draw near" to Jesus as high priest "with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (en plirophorig,59 pisteiis) "with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" and with "bodies washed with pure water" (10:22, RSV). Likewise, to those in danger of falling away the author expressed his desire that they might show the "same diligence" (KJV, NIV) or "eagerness" (TEV) or "earnestness" (RSV, JB), as they had in their previous "work" and "love," toward "the full assurance of hope (prostin plirophorian tes elpidos)until the end" (6: 10-11, RSV). B. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE

The doctrine of assurance has been denied in the Catholic tradition and affirmed in the Protestant heritage. 60

1. Augustine of Hippo Augustine made the certainty of one's salvation to depend on God's predestination and the gift of perseverance, but he held that by the will of God, who causes the persevering to live among the nonpersevering, unambiguous assurance was not necessarily given to the predestined ones, unless perchance by special revelation. 61 57. See 1 John 5:5. 58. See above, ch. 54, III, A, for a more extended treatment of this passage and its interpretation by the Wesleys. 59. Literally, the condition of being "fully borne." 60. According to Denney, The Death of Christ,pp. 288-89, in the Roman Catholic Church assurance "is regarded as essentially akin to presumption; in the Protestant churches it is a privilege or a duty; but in the New Testament religion it is simply a fact." 61. The Cityof God 11.12; On Rebukeand Grace6-7 (or 9-10); On the Gift of Perseverance8 (19); McGiffert, Historyof ChristianThought, 2:96.

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2. Gregory the Great

Pope Gregory I played down the possibility of genuine assurance. He declared: "The holy church mixes hope and fear for her faithful ones." 62 To a woman at the imperial court who inquired of him as to assurance Gregory replied: "You ought not to be made secure about your sins. " 63 Gregory explained: "The mother of negligence ought to be security; therefore, you ought not to have security in this life." 64

3. Bernard of Clairvaux Bernard also denied the possibility of genuine assurance, emphasizing that "care" or "anxiety" (sollicitudo) is "part of the will of God for his children." 65 What man can say, I am of the elect; I am among those who are predestined to life; I am of the number of the faithful? Who, I ask, can say such things? ... We have no certainty: but we have the consolation of a trustworthy hope, which prevents our being tortured by an agony of doubt. ... God denies us assurance, but only that he may prevent us from growing careless. And so we must bow humbly beneath God's mighty hand, ever anxious (solliciti), and in fear and trembling. 66

4. Martin Luther Certain modem scholars 67 have been quite certain that Luther held to a strong and explicit doctrine of Christian assurance. J. S. Whale has written: For Luther, assurance was a duty, since the promises of God are, in effect, commands. Indeed, assurance is not simply permissible; it is an obligation; the believer ought to hope (sperare debet). Luther does not say that the believer may hope (sperare licet), nor does his use of the word hope here imply a lower level of assurance than faith, as though the believer's justification were still a matter of expectation. For Luther, as for St. Paul, the present is the 'earnest' of a consummation in eternity; faith and hope involve one another, and to believe in Christ ... is what hope means. It is a Christian privilege to be assured that God will not 62. Moralia in job 20. 5. 13, as quot. by John S. Whale, The Protestant Tradition: An Essay in Interpretation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955), p. 67. 63. Regi,strum epistularum 7:25, as quot. by Whale, The Protestant Tradition, p. 67. 64. Ibid., as quot. by Whale, The Protestant Tradition, p. 84, n. 1. 65. Whale, The Protestant Tradition, p. 85. 66. In sept. serm. 1.1, as quot. by Friedrich Heiler, Der Katholizismus: Seine /dee und seine Erscheinung (Munich: Ernst Reinhardt, 1923), p. 580, and requot. and trans. by Whale, The Protestant Tradition, p. 85. 67. Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine, p. 274; Whale, The Protestant Tradition, pp. 83-91; Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology, 1:235-36.

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cast us out (John vi.37). Our relation to the Father through the work of Christ for us and in us, is new and permanent. 68 But authors of leading twentieth-century monographs concerning the theology of Luther were utterly silent on the subject of assurance, 69 and Luther's followers came to the position that one truly justified can subsequently fall from grace. 70

5.John Calvin Recognizing the need for assurance, Calvin held that it comes only by constant trust in God's forgiveness of sins and is evidenced by good works. Assurance brings boldness and joy even amid earthly dangers but even so does not eliminate all fear. Assurance should not "degenerate into pride and presumption" but should be anchored in the "unchangeable Word of God" and should issue in liberty of conscience in the face of human scruples about trivia. 71 According to Calvin, "the elect are given assurance of their election, either at the time of repentance or before they die," 72 and they are certain not only of "present salvation" but also of "perseverance in the faith to the very end. "73 6. The Council ofTrent Trent pronounced as presumptuous any declaration concerning the certainty of one's own justification or predestination-as if the justified person could not sin again, or, if he should, could "promise himself an assured repentance." Trent, following Augustine, left absolute assurance to some "special revelation." 74

68. The ProtestantTradition,p. 84. 69. Neither "assurance" nor "apostasy" nor "perseverance" appears in the subject index of the following: Althaus, The Theologyof Martin Luther, pp. 461, 463; Watson, Let GodBe God!pp. 198, 201; Rupp, The Righteousnessof God: Luther Studies, pp. 369, 370. 70. John Theodore Mueller (1885-? ), ChristianDogmatics(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934), pp. 436--40, allowed for such possibility. "Those who persevere in faith do so alone by divine grace; those who fall from faith must blame themselves for their apostasy ... " (p. 440). Also, Bloesch, Essential,sof EvangelicalTheology,1:236-37. 71. Ronald S. Wallace, Calvin'sDoctrineof the ChristianLife (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1959), pp. 299-312, esp. 306, 307. Almost all the references are in Calvin's commentaries and sermons rather than in the Institutes. 72. Moody, The Wordof Truth, p. 359. 73. Bloesch, Essential,sof EvangelicalTheology,1:236. 74. 6th Session, 13 January 1547, "Decree on Justification," ch. 12.

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7. Reformed and Baptist Confessions of Faith The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), making assurance primary, interpreted it as belonging to the essence of faith. 75 The Synod of Dort ( 1619) taught that assurance comes to the elect "in due time," "in various degrees and in different measures" as the elect observe "in themselves" the "fruits" of the election, but "enormous sins" can cause the elect to lose "for a time" "the sense of God's favor." 76 According to the Westminster Confession (1647), which contains a four-part article on "Assurance of Grace and Salvation," true believers may "in this life" obtain assurance upon a threefold basis: "the divine truth of the promises of salvation," "the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made," and "the testimony of the Spirit of adoption." Such assurance "does not belong to the essence of faith," for a true believer may have to "wait long" for it and, once he has it, it may be "shaken" or "diminished" before being later "revived. "77 The Second London Confession of Particular Baptists (1677) retained the Westminster Confession's article on assurance, making a few minor alterations, 78 and so did the Philadelphia Baptist Confession (1742) in America, 79 but the Orthodox Creed of General Baptists (1679) deleted this article as it recast the Westminster Confession. 80

8.John and Charles Wesley The Wesleys affirmed the possibility and availability ofassurance, 81 especially through the direct witness of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8: 16), which they regarded as distinct from the indirect witness of the believer's "spirit" (Rom. 8: 16), which was identified with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 75. Questions 1, 2, 58; Louis Berkhof, The Assuranceof Faith (Grand Rapids: Smitter Book Co., 1928), pp. 24-26. 76. Canons, 1st head, art. 12; 5th head, art. 5, in Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom, 3:583-84, 593. 77. Ch. 18. Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinismto 1649, has given considerable attention to the doctrine of assurance as he "traces the doctrine of faith from Calvin to [William] Perkins to the Westminster Assembly" (p. viii), and M. Charles Bell, Calvin and ScottishTheology:The Doctrineof Assurance(Edinburgh: Handsel Press, 1985), has done the same as he traces Scottish theology from Calvin through Samuel Rutherford (1600-61) to John McLeod Campbell. It is noteworthy that the Marrow theologians, Thomas Boston, Ebenezer Erskine , and John Brown ( 1722-87), uniformly held that assurance is of the essence of faith (pp. 159-60, 166-68, 172). 78. Ch. 18, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, pp. 274-75. 79. Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, pp. 348-53. 80. Ibid., pp. 295-334. 81. Even though John Wesley once stated that he did not use the term "assurance" because it is not biblical, he did use it. Yates, The Doctrineof Assurance, with SpecialReferencetojohn Wesley,pp. 133-35.

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5:22-23). 82 John Wesley allowed for degrees of assurance 83 and seems to have "changed his early opinion that assurance is necessary to salvation. "84 He also attributed assurance to Christian perfection, 85 and his doctrine of present assurance was coupled with his doctrine of a possible future falling from grace. 86

9. Martinism Southern Baptists in Texas had a localized controversy about assurance during the 1890s when they, led by B. H. Carroll, rejected the teaching of Matthew Thomas Martin (1842-98) "that complete assurance of salvation or the absence of any doubt as to" salvation "is essential to saving faith and to baptism and must continue unabated throughout one's Christian life, else one is not truly saved." 87 C. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION

1. Assurance and the Authenticity of Special Revelation The Christian assurance of personal salvation is more than and other than the reasonable certainty as to the authenticity or validity of the Christian revelation of God. The certainty or high probability as to special revelation belongs to Christian apologetics. 88 Assurance pertains rather to the reasonable certainty that an individual human being has been justified, forgiven, born from above, reconciled to God, etc. Some Christian theologians have tended to limit Christian certainty to faith in divine revelation. Gustav Aulen, for example, strongly resisted any efforts to establish certainty by scientific proof, ethical pragmatics, or personal experience. 89 The quest for personal assurance, however, does not vitiate the objective nature of God's revelatory and redemptive work but rather supplements it. John Clifford Penn Cockerton has made a 82. See above, ch. 54, III, A, and ibid., pp. 91-102, 111-27. 83. Yates, The Doctrineof Assurance,pp. 128-32. 84. Colin Wilbur Williams (1921- ),john Wesley'sTheologyToday (New York: Abingdon Press, 1960), p. 112. 85. Ibid., pp. 187-88; Harald Lindstrom (1905- ), Wesleyand Sanctification:A Study in the Doctrineof Salvation (London: Epworth Press, 1946), pp. 154-55. 86. Cannon, The Theologyofjohn Wesley,pp. 142-43, 215-20. 87. James Leo Garrett, Jr. "Waco Baptist Association, 1860-1985: A Noteworthy Model for Texas and Southern Baptists," TexasBaptist History6 (1986):25-26, based on James Lafayette Walker (1851-?) and C. P. Lumpkin, Historyof the WacoBaptistAssociationof Texas (Waco: Byrne-Hill, 1897),pp. 123-47, 159-60, 161,183,195. 88. During the first seventeen centuries of Christian history Christian apologists greatly depended on fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and New Testament miracles. 89. The Faith of the ChristianChurch,pp. 105-14.

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place for both assurance as to the gospel and assurance as to personal salvation. 90

2. Assurance and "the Essence of Faith" We have noted that the Heidelberg Catechism accepted and the Westminster Confession did not accept the idea that assurance is "of the essence of faith," which means that to have genuine faith one must have assurance as well. The Puritan heritage was keenly aware of struggles for assurance. Not many today would press the case for assurance as of the essence of faith. In fact, three nineteenth-century theologians, one Reformed, one Wesleyan, and one Anglican, demonstrated a high degree of agreement that assurance is not necessarily the possession of all Christians. To make assurance of personal salvation essential to faith, is contrary to Scripture and to the experience of God's people .... Those who make assurance the essence of faith, generally reduce faith to a mere intellectual assent. 91 Assurance may not be so of the essence of justifying faith that the absence of the one is proof positive of the lack of the other. 92 [A] believer may never arrive at this assured hope, which Paul expresses, and yet be saved.... Faith .. is the root, and assurance is the flower. Doubtless you can never have the flowerwithout the root; but it is no less certain you may have the root and not the flower.93 There may also be degrees of assurance, that is, an assurance with initial faith and assurance when faith is "more mature." 94

3. Assurance as Both Objective and Subjective Assurance involves both the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of the believer's spirit. It may concern both the identifiable attitudinal and ethical fruitage of the life in Jesus Christ and the inner and secret persuasion or confidence of a filial relationship with God.

90. To Be Sure: ChristianAssurance-Presumption or Privilege,Christian Foundations (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967), pp. 24--51. 91. Charles Hodge, SystematicTheology,3: 106. 92. Sheldon, Systemof ChristianDoctrine(1912 rev. ed.), p. 470. 93. John Charles Ryle (1816-1900), ''Assurance":The Full-GrownFaith of the Believer (9th ed.; London: Charles]. Thynne and Jarvis Ltd, 1923), pp. 19, 23. 94. Cockerton, To Be Sure, p. 70.

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4. Assurance as a Blessing to Be Sought and Cultivated john Charles Ryle suggested reasons why Christians have not attained to assurance: "a defective view of the doctrine of justification" as punctiliar, "slothfulness about growth in grace," and "an inconsistent walk in life." 95 He also identified reasons why such assurance is so much to be desired: "the present comfort and peace it affords," its tendency "to make a Christian an active working Christian," its tendency "to make a Christian a decided Christian," and its tendency "to make the holiest Christians."96 Assurance, according to Louis Berkhof, is to be "cultivated" by the means of grace as a glorious gift and privilege. 97 Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, wash' d in His blood. 98

95. 96. 97. 98.

"Assurance,"pp. 42-52. Ibid., pp. 26-42. TheAssuranceof Faith, pp. 76-86. Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915).

CHAPTER65

DISCIPLESHIP The older systematic theologies or dogmatics, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, did not treat discipleship as one of their topics or categories. Neither did discipleship constitute an important topic for interconfessional polemic. It, however, is so central to the four New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and has been so recovered during the twentieth century that a present-day Christian theologian would be remiss if he should neglect or bypass this topic, even though the systematic theologies written since 1980 have not made it a specific topic for treatment.

I. OLD TESTAMENT The construct of the plural of the Hebrew noun ( 1afJ,iiri)for "hind part" or "extremity" was used in the Old Testament with verbs of going to connote the idea of following Yahweh. Such language was applied to Caleb and Joshua. Caleb '"has a different spirit and has followed me fully"' (Num. 14:24a, RSV). "'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt ... shall see the land ... because they have not wholly followed me; none except Caleb ... and Joshua ... , for they have wholly followed the LORD'" (Num. 32: 11-12). A similar usage occurred in Deut. 1:36. Caleb also testified as to his wholly following Yahweh (Josh. 14:Sb), Moses concurred (Josh. 14:9b), and the writer connected his following Yahweh with the possession by Caleb and his descendants of Hebron (Josh. 14:14).

II. NEW TESTAMENT The noun mathitis, "disciple," occurs in Mark, Matthew, Luke,John, and Acts but is not used in any of the New Testament epistles or in Revelation. 1 1. Young, Analytical Concordanceto the Bible, pp. 257-58. Mathetes appears 46

times in Mark, 73 in Matthew, 37 in Luke, and 78 in John. Robert Paul Meye (1929- ),Jesus and the Twelve: Discipleshipand Revelation in Mark's Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), p. 98.

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It was used in classical Greek to refer to the pupils of Greek philosophers as well as to "those engaged in learning in general." Mathitis was not used in the Septuagint, although the verb manthanein was used 55 times, presumably because the Old Testament had no pattern of teacher-disciples comparable to the later rabbis. By the first century AD in Palestinian Judaism there were rabbis and their schools, whereas "Qumran cloistered itself in the desert." For Jesus, being a disciple involved not only "intellectual content" but also "personal obedience." 2 A. DISCIPLES AND THE TWELVE APOSTLES

Recent New Testament scholars have given attention to the concept of disciples in the Synoptic Gospels, especially Mark. Much of this study has focused on the use of the terms "disciples," "the Twelve," and "apostles" and the combinations of these. 3 In Mark the term "the Twelve" (dodeka) is prominent, being used ten times (3:14; 4:10; 6:7; 9:35; 10:32; 11:1; 14: 10, 17, 20, 43 ). In several instances "the Twelve" and "disciples" are "usedinterchangeably"(6:35;9:31,35; 10:32; 11:11, 14; 14:17,20,32). 4 In Matthew the use of "the twelve disciples" (10:1; 11:1; 20:17; 26:20; 28: 16) outnumbers the use of "the twelve apostles" (10:2), and "the Twelve" occurs only in the phrase "one of the Twelve," which is applied to Judas (26: 14, 4 7).5 In Luke "disciples" is used of the Twelve or of the apostles (9:12, 14, 16, 18; 22:11, 14, 39, 45), but also "the Twelve are chosen from a larger group of disciples (6: 13)" (also 6: 17), and reference is made to "the whole multitude of the disciples" (to plithos ton mathiton) (19:37, RSV).6 In the Gospel of John mathitis is used 77 times, whereas "the Twelve" is found in only two contexts (6:67, 70, 71; 20:24), and "apostles" is never used. In 6:2-3 Jesus' "disciples" are differentiated from "a great crowd of people" (NIV) (ochlospolys) that "followed him." In 6:60-71 "the Twelve" are differentiated from those "many of his disciples" (polloi ek ton mathiton autou) who "turned back and no longer followed him" (6:66), whereas in 20:24-26 "the Twelve" and the "disciples" are synonymous. 2. Meye,jesus and the Twelve, pp. 93-97. 3. Sean Freyne, The Twelve:Disciplesand Apostles;A Study in the Theologyof the First Three Gospels(London: Sheed and Ward, 1968), p. 13.John Raymond Donahue, S. J. ( 1933- ), The Theologyand Setting of Discipleshipin the Gospelof Mark (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1983), pp. 5-6, rejecting both the Bultmannian view that "all references to the twelve" [in Mark] are the result of Markan editorializing and Meye's view that "all references are traditional," has opted for "a mixture of tradition and Markan redaction." See also Michael James Wilkins (1949- ), "Discipleship," DictionaryofJesus and the Gospels,ed.Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight (Downers Grove, Ill., Leicester, U. K.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), pp. 182-89. 4. Meye,Jesus and the Twelve, p. 98. 5. Freyne, The Twelve, p. 151. 6. Ibid., pp. 208-10.

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In Acts mathitis and "apostles" each appear 28 times, and "the Twelve" is used only once (6:2), in which text it refers to the twelve apostles, who are distinct from "the disciples." "Apostles" as used in Acts normally means the Twelve, except in 14:4, 14, where reference is made to Paul and Barnabas as "apostles." "Disciples" in Acts normally means all the Christians in a given place. B. DISCIPLESHIP AS FOLLOWSHIP

The principal New Testament term relative to following Jesus is the verb akolouthoun, "to follow." It is derived from the copulative a and the noun keleuthos, "road," thus suggesting that "to follow" is to "walk the same road as" another. Akolouthoun occurs 89 times when translated by the English verb "follow" in the KJV. Seventy-seven of these uses are in the four Gospels. Not all the usages connote following Jesus. Philip Qohn l:43b) and Levi (Matthew) (Mark 2:14b) were commanded by Jesus to "follow" him, and Simon (Peter) and Andrew (Mark 1:18) were said to have done so. "'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross andfollow me"' (Mark 8:34b, NIV).Jesus emphasized the cost of following him (Matt. 8:19-22; Mark 10:21-22).Jesus' sheep "follow" him Qohn 10:27) and "have the lightoflife" Qohn 8:12c). After his denial of Jesus, Simon Peter received from the risen Lord a double reiteration of the mandate to follow Jesus Qohn 21:19b, 22c). The compound verbsunakolouthoun, "to follow along with," was used of "the women who had followed him from Galilee" (Luke 23:49b, NIV), and the compound verb epakolouthoun, "to follow upon," was employed of Christians who in face of persecution and after the "example" of Jesus Christ "follow in his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21, RSV, TEV, NEB, NIV). The expression deute opiso, "to come behind" or "to follow," was utilized in Jesus' "'fishers of men"' command (Matt. 4:19). The noun mimitis, "imitator" or "follower," was used by Paul to refer to imitating God (Eph. 5:la) and to imitating Paul insofar as he imitated Jesus Christ (1 Thess. l:6a; 1 Cor. 11:1). Discipleship as followship is intensely personal, for it means following the person, the will, and the example of Jesus. It is unconditional in the sense that the disciple is not to set limits or reservations on his following. C. DISCIPLESHIP AS LEARNING 7

The word "disciple" (mathitis) meant primarily a learner or pupil and was the opposite of "teacher" (didaskalos). The verbal form of this word was used intransitively to mean "to be the disciple of one" or "to follow the precepts of one" in the case of Joseph of Arimathea (Matt. 27:57, 7. Most of the remainder of this chapter is a revision of the author's Evangelism for Discipleship(Louisville, Ky.: pvt. ptg., 1964), pp. 51-60.

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marginal reading), whereas the transitive use meant, as in Jesus' Great Commission (Matt. 28: 19), "to make a disciple." To be a disciple of Jesus meant to be under the continued instruction of Jesus as Teacher and Lord in the attitude oflearning and applying the revealed will of the Master Teacher. Jesus demonstrated in various ways the relation of teaching to discipleship. Three specific instances are instructive.Jesus took the towel and "began to wash the disciples' feet" (KJV, RSV, TEV,JB, NIV), declaring to the protesting Peter, "'Unless I wash you, you have no part with me"' (NIV) (John 13:5, 8). Again Jesus declared, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35, RSV). Moreover, one of his disciples came to him with the request, '"Lord, teach (didaxon) us to pray, as John taught his disciples"' (Luke 11: 1, RSV, NEB), and the Model Prayer was given (Luke 11:2-4). Then and now Jesus calls his disciples from pride and egocentricity to humble service, from animosities, broken relationships, and hatred to brotherly love, and from preoccupation and prayerlessness to serious prayer. D. DISCIPLESHIP AS DISCIPLINE

Although mathitis is derived from a completely different Greek root than the word "discipline" 8 (Paideia), the two English words "disciple" and "discipline" come from the same Latin verb, discere, "to learn." Closer examination will show that between these two terms there is a basic correlation. 1. Living under the Yoke ofJesus Discipleship is discipline in that it means living under Jesus' "yoke." "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke (zygon)upon you and learn (mathete)from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11 :28-30, RSV). Jesus spoke specifically of a yoke, which was an instrument oflabor and submission. Yet he described his yoke as "easy." According to D. Elton Trueblood, Jesus used the yoke in relation both to "the call for comfort"

8. See Eph. 6:4 ("nurture," KJV; "instruction," NEB; "training," NIV); 2 Tim. 3:16 ("instruction," KJV, TEV; "training," RSV, NIV) and Heb. 12:5, 7, 11 ("chastening," KJV, Phillips; "discipline," RSV, NEB, NIV).

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and "the call for disturbance." Paradoxically Jesus "offers rest to the burdened by asking them to share His burden. "9 In view of the many oral traditions that had been added to the Torah, Jesus' yoke would be "easy." But the symbols of Christian discipleship do not include a couch or a pillow but rather a yoke and a cross!

2. Continuance in Christ Discipleship is the discipline of continuance in Christ. '"If you continue (meinite)in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free"' Gohn 8:3lb-32, RSV). Not every usage of "disciple" in the Gospels is equivalent to full, continued, and genuine discipleship. "After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him" Gohn 6:66). True discipleship was not possible without an intimate relationship with the Disciplizer. "'Abide in me"' as the branches must necessarily abide organically in the vine Gohn 15:1-8, esp. 4). 3. Fruit-bearing Living under Jesus' yoke and abiding in him are expected to result in fruit-bearing. '"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples"' Qohn 15:8, RSV). The vine was expected to produce grapes. Likewise, followers of Jesus (that is, disciples) are expected to produce recognizable fruit because of their living dependence on the Lord Jesus. 4. Community Discipline Discipleship as discipline was not confined to the individual disciple's relation to his Lord but embraced the community of disciples. The church inJerusalem was marked by the collective or corporate discipline of discipleship. Its members "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42, RSV). This was the positive aspect. Negatively discipline meant the brotherly rebuke or admonition (Matt. 18: 15-17) and ultimately excommunication (1 Cor. 5).

5. Divine Chastening According to Heb. 12:5-11, discipleship as discipline may involve a divine chastening. Whereas the KJV renders paideia (vv. 5, 7, 8, 11) as "chastening," the RSV, NEB, and NIV translate it "discipline." It is a discipline that befits sonship. The disciple is also a child or son of God. As son or daughter, he/she is to expect the parental discipline of the almighty Father. Such discipline is described in terms of punishment (v. 9. The Yokeof Christand Other Sermons(New York: Harper and Bros., 1958), pp. 17-21.

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6b, JB, NIV), may involve suffering (v. 7a, JB, TEV), and is intended to produce holiness (v. 10). E. DISCIPLESHIP AS CROSS-BEARING

"'Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple"' (Luke 14:27, TEV).

1. Cross-Bearing and Repentance Cross-bearing can be to some extent correlated with repentance. The disciple of Jesus '"must deny himself (aparnisasthoheauton) and take up his cross (aratoton stauron autou) and follow me (akoloutheitomoi)'" (Mark 8:34, NIV). The verb "deny" can mean to forget one's self and one's own interests. The renunciation of self-will and self-rule is basic to turning from sin (repentance) and to God (conversion). 2. Counting the Cost of Discipleship

Cross-bearing involves counting the cost of being disciples of Jesus. Such discipleship must have priority above family allegiances (Luke 14:26). Even as the tower builder needs to count the cost of completing the tower and as the king needs to assess his military resources before engaging in battle another king with a larger army, so the disciple of Jesus needs to count the cost of following him (Luke 14:28-33). The salt needs to preserve its saltiness lest it be thrown away as useless (Luke 14:34-35). 3. Faithfulness under Persecution and Even to Martyrdom

The mathitis is also to be a "witness" (martys),and the martys came to be known for dying for his faith. Four times in the Gospels we find the saying of Jesus, '"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master"' (Matt. 10:24, RSV), although in slightly differing language. Luke (6:40) locates the saying in the Sermon on the Mount, giving stress to the teacher-disciple relationship, whereas John 13: 16 cites it in connection with Jesus' washing the feet of his disciples with emphasis on the master-servant relationship. In Matt. 10:24-25 and in John 15:20, however, the saying is specifically connected with persecution and suffering. In Paul's reference to Stephen's death (Acts 22:20) martysmay be translated "witness" (RSV,JB, TEV, NEB) or "martyr" (KJV, Phillips, NIV). In Rev. 2: 13, however, Antipas as martys "was killed" (apektanthi), and in Rev. 17:6a ton martyron Iesou is normally translated "the martyrs of Jesus" (KJV, RSV,JB), and when rendered otherwise, the word is necessarily connected with "blood." F. DISCIPLESHIP AS MAKING DISCIPLES

Discipleship, according to Jesus, means participation in the making of other disciples. "'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men"' (halieis anthropon) (Matt. 4:19b, KJV, RSV,JB). In the Matthean form of the Great

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Commission (28: 19-20) the only finite verb is "make disciples" (mathiteusate),whereas "go," "baptizing," and "teaching" are participles (Poreuthentes,baptizontes,didaskontes).The principal action of this commission is the making of disciples, or "disciplizing." Those on whom the Holy Spirit has come in power are to be witnesses of Jesus (Acts 1:8). All who are privileged to be among "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" are responsibly to "declare (exdggeilite)the wonderful deeds of him who called" them "out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9, RSV). Witness for the sake of making disciples belongs to the entire "people of God" (laostheou) ( 1 Pet. 2:10, KJV, Phillips, NEB,JB, NIV).

III. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE A. ANABAPTISM

According to Harold Stauffer Bender (1897-1962), the first of three "central teachings" of sixteenth-century Anabaptism is its "new conception of the essence of Christianity as discipleship." The whole life was to be brought literally under the lordship of Christ in a covenant of discipleship .... The great word of the Anabaptists was not 'faith' as it was with the reformers, but 'following' (NachfolgeChristi).10 "Negatively, the Anabaptist conception of discipleship" meant "the rejection of all historical relativities," that is, "all historical adaptations to the institutions of society which were regarded as a compromise of the pure Gospel." to the GreatCommissiun,""wveand nonresistance," Positively, it meant "obedience "sufferingin the spiritof crossbearing,"and "the separatedlifeofholiness."11 The Anabaptist commitment to discipleship often led to persecution and martyrdom. The most notable and widely read account of such martyrdoms was of Netherlandish origin, Het Offerdes Herren, which was first published in 1562 and which became in its later form Martyrs' Mirror, published in 1660. 12 Noteworthy among these martyr accounts is that of Felix Manz (c. 1498-1527), the Swiss Anabaptist who after four imprisonments was drowned in the Limmat River in Zurich for the

10. "The Anabaptist Vision," ChurchHistory 13 (March 1944): 3-24; also Mennonite QuarterlyReview 18 (April 1944): 67-88; also Guy F. Hershberger, ed., The Recoveryof theAnabaptistVision:A SixtiethAnniversaryTributeto Haro/,dS. Bender (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1957), pp. 29-54. Bender (n. 26) cited in support of his interpretation of discipleship in Anabaptism Johannes Kiihn, Toleranzund Ojfenbarung(Leipzig, 1923), p. 224. 11. John Lawrence Burkholder ( 1917- ), "The Anabaptist Vision of Discipleship," in Hershberger, ed., The Recoveryof theAnabaptistVision,pp. 135-51. 12. Williams, The Radical Reformation,pp. 499-500.

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"crime" of rebaptism. Henry Bullinger (1504-75), no sympathetic reporter, recorded that Manz's mother from the river's bank admonished her son not to recant and that he sang out while being tied, "'Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.'" 13 B. DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

No twentieth-century Christian and no single monograph contributed more, it seems, to the recovery of the significance of discipleship than Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his Nachfolge (ET, The Cost of Discipleship).14 When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person .... Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship .... Discipleship without Jesus Christ is a way of our own choosing.

15

According to Bonhoeffer, costly discipleship is rooted in the costly grace of God. Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace .... Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field .... Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.16 C. CONTEMPORARY SALVATION VERSUS LORDSHIP CONTROVERSY

During recent years discipleship has been a disputed issue in the controversy concerning salvation versus lordship which has arisen within Dispensationalism 17 but which has implications outside that movement. 18 Zane Clark 13. Ekkehard Krajewski,Leben und Sterbendes Zurcher TauferfuhrersFelix Manz (Kassel:J. G. Oncken, 1957), pp. 147-48. 14. (Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1937); trans. Reginald H. Fuller and Irmgard Booth in rev. and unabr. ed. (NewYork: Macmillan, 1949; rev. ed., London: SCM Press Ltd.; New York: Macmillan, 1959). 15. The Cost of Discipleship(1959 ed.), pp. 49-50. 16. Ibid., pp. 35-37. 17. For a definition, see below, ch. 84, III, B, 4, a. 18. Everett F. Harrison and John R. W. Stott, "Must Christ Be Lord to Be Savior?" Eternity IO (September 1959): 13-18, 36-37, 48; Millard]. Erickson,

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Hodges (1932- )19 and Charles Caldwell Ryrie20 have espoused the salvation side, whereas John F. MacArthur,Jr., 21 has represented the lordship side. The salvation school, seeking to defend the freedom and purity of God's grace, (1) majors on faith in the sense of "believing divinely revealed facts" and downgrades initial repentance as necessary for salvation; (2) sharply differentiates "salvation" and "discipleship," Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord, and "salvation" and "fellowship with God"; (3) rejects works as the basis for assurance of salvation; and (4) affirms both the "irreversible character of the change wrought ... by regeneration and the sure continuance of believers unto final salvation." 22 The lordship school, on the other hand, (I) stresses the necessity of repentance for conversion/salvation; (2) insists that saving faith or salvation involves discipleship; (3) teaches that true faith '"encompasses obedience'"; (4) refuses to disconnect Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord so as to suggest that for salvation only Jesus as Savior must be accepted; (5) interprets Jesus as Lord not only in the sense of deity but also as "sovereign mastery"; (6) regards the Christian life as marked by difficulty and agony; and (7) teaches that the evidence of God's saving work is in the "fruit of transformed behavior" and in perseverance to final salvation. 23 The salvation school fears that legalism is tolerated by the lordship school, whereas the lordship school deplores "the great number of nominal Christians." Richard Alan Day ( 1948- ) has compared the concept of faith of the salvation school with eighteenth-century Sandemanianism. 24 The full integration of the doctrine of discipleship into contemporary soteriology would seem to call for a more favorable assessment of the lordship school.

"Lordship Theology: The Current Controversy," Southwesternjournal of Theology 33 (Spring 1991): 5. 19. The Hungry Inherit: RefreshingInsights on Salvation,Discipleship,and Rewards (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972); The Gospelunder Siege (Dallas: Redenci6n Viva, 1981); Gracein Eclipse:A Study on Eternal Rewards (Dallas: Redenci6n Viva, 1985; 2d ed., 1987); AbsolutelyFree!A BiblicalReply to LordshipSalvation (Dallas: Redenci6n Viva; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989). 20. Balancingthe ChristianLife (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969); So GreatSalvation: What It Means to BelieveinJesus Christ(Wheaton, Ill.: Scripture Press Publications, Inc., 1989). 21. The GospelaccordingtoJesus: What DoesJesus Mean When He Says "FollowMe"? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977). 22. Erickson, "Lordship Theology," pp. 6-9. 23. Ibid., pp. 9-11. See also Robert Lee Hamblin (1928- ), The Doctrineof Lordship (Nashville: Convention Press, 1990), esp. pp. 14, 59-70. 24. "The Lordship Salvation Controversy," The TheologicalEducatorno. 45 (Spring 1992): 23-29. See also Day's Lordship:What DoesIt Mean? (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993).

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IV. SYSTEMATIC SUMMARY Discipleship stretches from the initial becoming of a disciple through continuance in Christ to the death of the disciple. It involves an attachment to the person of Jesus Christ in terms of followship along the road or way of Christ. It means living under the yoke and lordship of Christ, receiving the teaching of Christ, bearing one's cross after Christ in suffering and persecution, and making of other disciples after the commission of Christ. Significant new resources are available for the training and equipping of Christians as disciples,25 and being a disciple is related to being a saint.

25. J. Dwight Pentecost, Designfor Discipleship(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971 ); Carl Wilson ( 1924- ), With Christin the Schoolof DiscipleBui/,ding:A Study of Christ'sMethod of Bui/,dingDisciples(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976);John D. Hendrix (1935-) and Lloyd Thomas Householder (1929- ), eds., The Equipping of Disciples(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1977); LeRoy Eims ( 1925- ), The LostArt of DiscipleMaking (Grand Rapids: Zondervan; Colorado Springs, Colo.: Nav Press, 1978); Allen Hadidian (1950- ), Discipleship(Chicago: Moody Press, 1979); Bill Hull (1946- ),Jesus ChristDisciplemaker(Colorado Springs, Colo.: Nav Press, 1984); William Edward Thiele (1930- ), Christis Lord: The Doctrineof Lordship(Nashville: Convention Press, 1987); idem, Fruitful Discipleship(New Orleans: Insight Press, 1994); Neil T. Anderson ( 1942- ), Victoryover the Darkness:Realizing the Powerof Your Identity in Christ (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1990); Avery T. Willis (1934-) and Kay Moore, Masterlife:LeaderGuide (Nashville: LifeWay Press, 1997); and Todd Hahn (1968-) and David Verhaagen, GenXersafter God:Helping a Generation PursueJesus (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998).

CHAPTER66

SANCTIFICATION What the righteousness of God is to justification the holiness of God is to sanctification. The Latin words from which the English words "sanctify" and "sanctification" are derived, sanctus, "holy," andfacere, "to make," help to make evident such a linguistic and conceptual relationship. Our previous examination, therefore, of God as holy 1 must serve as background to the doctrine of sanctification. Because the nature and the attainment of sanctification are subjects on which there have been and are important differences among the Christian denominations, we do well to give serious and careful attention to the biblical aspect of the doctrine.

I. OLD TEST AMENT The Hebrew verb qadasor qades,"to be holy" or "to be clean," is used chiefly in the Old Testament in stems other than the kal stem. In the niphal stem Yahweh is repeatedly said "to be sanctified" (KJV) or "to show himself holy" (NIV).2 The piel stem is used to express the sanctification or consecration of various objects: the Sabbath, 3 firstborn males,4 the people of Israel, 5 Aaron and his sons,6 the Levites,7 the tabernacle, 8 the altar and

1. See Vol. 1, ch. 15. 2. Num. 20:13; Isa. 5:16; Ezek. 20:41; 28:22, 25; 38:16; 39:27. Also the showing of his name as holy: Ezek. 36:23. 3. Gen. 2:3; Deut. 5:12; Neh. 13:22. 4. Exod. 13:2. 5. Exod. 19:10, 14;Josh. 7:13;Joel 2:16. In a ceremonial sense, Ezek. 44:19; 46:20. 6. Exod. 28:41; 29:33, 44; 40:13; Lev. 8:12, 30. 7. 2 Chr. 29:5. 8. Exod. 29:44; 30:29; Num. 7:1.

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its furnishings,9 the temple, 10 a fast, 11 and the like. The piel is also employed in the formula, "'I am the Lord, who makes you [or "him" or "them"] holy"' (NIV). 12 In the hiphil stern various objects are said to be sanctified: the temple and its contents, 13 the firstborn males of humans and of animals, 14 one's own house, 15 a portion of the family's land, 16 a field one has purchased, 17 and daily food for Levites. 18 Jeremiah was sanctified before his birth (1:5), and Israelites were to "regard as holy" 19 and "keep as holy" the name of Yahweh, 20 even though Moses and Aaron did not "honor as holy" (NIV) Yahweh before the Israelites. 21 In the hithpael stern the people oflsrael are called to sanctify themselves, 22 especially in view of a forthcoming event, 23 and the Levites, 24 the priests, 25 both Levites and priests, 26 and priestly farnilies 27 are commanded to consecrate themselves ceremonially, while Yahweh shows his own holiness. 28 In the light of its quotation in the New Testament, no text in the Old Testament is more important for the doctrine of sanctification than that which was first set in the context of laws regarding clean and unclean foods: "I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy" (Lev. 11:44-45, NIV).29 The adjective qad6s,"holy," when used substantively in the plural, is normally translated "saints" or "holy ones." 30 But the English word "saints" 9. Exod. 29:36-37; 40:10-11; Lev. 8:10-11, 15; Num. 7:1. 10. 2 Chr. 29:5, 17. 11.Joel 1:14; 2:15. 12. Exod. 31:13; Lev. 20:8; 21:8, 15, 23; 22:9, 16; Ezek. 20:12; 37:28. 13. 2 Chr. 7:16, 20; 29:19; 30:8. 14. Lev. 27:26; Num. 8:17; Deut. 15:19. 15. Lev. 27:14-15. 16. Lev. 27:16-19. 17. Lev. 27:22. 18. Neb. 12:47. 19. Isa. 8:13. 20. Isa. 29:23. 21. Num. 20:12; 27:14. 22. Lev. l l:44a; 20:7. 23. Num. ll:18;Josh. 3:5; 7:13; 1 Sam. 16:5. 24. 2 Chr. 29:5, 15, 34; 35:6. 25. Exod. 19:22; 2 Chr. 5:11; 30:3, 24. 26. 1 Chr. 15:12, 14; 2 Chr. 30:15. 27. 2 Chr. 31:18. 28. Ezek. 38:23. 29. See also Lev. 19:2; 20:7. 30. Deut. 33:3; Job 5: 1; 15: 15; Ps. 16:3; 34:9; 89:5, 7; Zech. 14:5. Also qidzsin Dan. 7:18, 21, 22, 25, 27.

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has also been used to translate hasul (plural, "pious ones"). 31 For a cognate of qadasto be applied to human beings is an aspect of the secondary or derived meaning of holiness. 32

II. NEW TESTAMENT The Greek verb hagi,azein,"to make holy" or "to sanctify," is used more than two dozen times in the New Testament, these usages being both passive and active. The noun hagiasmos,"separation" or "sanctification," is used five times, 33 and the plural noun hagioi, "saints," is utilized more than sixty times. A. PASSAGES USING

hagiazein AND hagiasmos

1. Pauline Epistles The apostle, who can say that Christ has become our "sanctification" ( 1 Cor. 1:30), uses the verb hagiazeinin the aorist tense to refer to the past event of sanctification (1 Cor. 1:2; 6: 11), employs the noun to refer to the present overcoming of fornication (1 Thess. 4:3, 4), and uses the verb seemingly to refer to the eschatological sanctification of believers or of the church (1 Thess. 5:23; Eph. 5:26). In respect to the Pauline apostleship to the Gentiles "the offering of the Gentiles" is said to be "sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:16, RSV). Christians are to be "a vessel" (KJV, Phillips, RSV, JB) or "an instrument" (NIV)"sanctified" (KJV) or "consecrated" (RSV) or "dedicated" (TEV, NEB) or "made holy" (NIV) so as to be "useful to the Master" (NIV) and "ready for any good work" (RSV) (2 Tim. 2:21). 34 2. Hebrews and First Peter At times the reference seems to be initial sanctification (Heb. 10: 10; 1 Pet. 1:2), and elsewhere sanctification is said to depend on Christ's once-for-all offering (Heb. 10:14), on his "blood of the covenant" (Heb. 10:29), or on his suffering "outside the gate" (Heb. 13:12, RSV, JB, NEB). The God who sanctifies and those who are sanctified "have all one origin" (RSV)or "are all of one stock" (NEB) or "are of the same family" (NIV), and hence "Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Heb. 2: 11, NIV). Christians are to

31. 1 Sam. 2:9a: 2 Chr. 6:4lc; Ps. 30:4; 31:23a; 37:28a; 50:5; 52:9c; 79:2b; 85:8b; 97:l0b; 116:15; 132:9b, 16b; 145:lOb; 148:14; 149:1, 5, 9b; Prov. 2:8. 32. See Vol. 1, ch. 15, I, D. 33. 1 Thess. 4:3, 4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Cor. 1:30; 1 Pet. 1:2. 34. Other uses pertain to the sanctification of unbelieving spouses (1 Cor. 7: 14) and of so-called forbidden foods (1 Tim. 4:5).

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"sanctify" (KJV)35 Christ as Lord in their hearts, being ready to offer a defense of their Christian hope ( 1 Pet. 3: 15).36

3. Gospel ofJohn The Father "consecrated and sent into the world" his Son (John 10:36, RSV, JB, NEB), the Son prayed to the Father that he would '"[s]anctify"' the disciples "'in the truth"' (John 17: 17, RSV), and for the disciples' sake the Son prayed, '"I consecrate myself" (John 17:19, RSV,JB, NEB). B. PASSAGES USING

hagioi

1. Pauline Epistles Commonly the letters of Paul commence with reference to the "saints" (hagioi) in a given locality,37 and occasionally the term is used in greetings given at the end of epistles. 38 The predominant usage of"saints" by Paul is as a synonym for "Christians." 39 At times Paul alludes to the love of certain groups of saints (Eph. 1: 15; Col. 1:4) or of one saint (Philem. 5) for all other saints. The term "saints" is also used eschatologically ( 1 Thess. 3: 13; 2 Thess. 1: 10; 1 Cor. 6:2). 2. Acts of the Apostles

In Acts "saints" functions as a synonym for Christians (9: 13, 32; 26: 10), but in one passage "saints" and "widows" are both mentioned as if distinguishable groups (9:41 ). 3. Hebrews and]ude The term "saints" refers to all original Christians (Jude 4), to all Christians being greeted (Heb. 13:24), to the Christians being served by the recipients of the letter (Heb. 6: 10), and to all Christians who will accompany Christ's parousia (Jude 14). 4. Revelation

Generally the Apocalypse continues the usage of "saints" as a synonym for Christians. Allusions are made to "the prayers of (all) the saints" (5:8; 8:3, 4, RSV,JB, NIV) and to "the endurance (and faith) of the saints" (13:10; 14: 12, RSV). The beast is able "to make war on the saints and to conquer them" (13:7, RSV), and the "great harlot" (Phillips, RSV) or "prostitute" 35. Most modern versions prefer to translate the verb as "reverence" (RSV,JB, TEV, NEB). 36. Hagiazein is used to signify the cleansing of the flesh of humans through the blood and ashes of animals offered in sacrifice (Heb. 9: 13). 37. 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; Rom. 1:7; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:2. 38. 2 Cor. 13:13; Rom. 16:15; Phil. 4:21, 22. 39. l Cor. 6:1; 14:33; 16:l, 15; 2 Cor. 8:4; 9:1, 12; Rom. 8:27; 12:13; 15:25, 26; 16:2; Eph. 1:18; 2:19; 3:8, 18; 4:12; 5:3; 6:18; Col. 1:12, 26; l Tim. 5:10.

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(TEV, NIV) (17:2), or Babylon (18:21), is "drunk with" (17:6) or is found to have (18:24) the blood of prophets, saints, and martyrs. 40 In judgment the "prophets and saints" will be rewarded as God's servants (11: 18), the "righteous deeds of the saints" will be the "fine linen" of the Lamb's bride (19:8, RSV), and "the camp of the saints" (KJV, RSV,JB) and "the beloved city" (KJV, RSV) will be surrounded by Satan and the nations before the latter will be finally consumed by fire (20:9). 41

Ill. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE

42

A. ROMAN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE

Earlier 43 attention has been given to the fact that the Council of Trent so defined justification as to make it equivalent to and confluent with sanctification. Consequently post-Tridentine Roman Catholic theology has rejected the distinction, made by many Protestants, between justification as act and sanctification as process. The quest for holiness, therefore, is to be continual, and the eschatological aspect of sanctification has tended in modern Roman Catholic theology to be cared for both by the doctrine of purgatory and by an emphasis on the beatific vision of God. 44 The Council of Trent also gave dogmatic status to the doctrine of the "intercession and invocation of saints," the "saints" being those who have been included in the Roman Catholic Church's calendar of saints. According to Trent, "the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men," so that "it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, aid [and] help for obtaining benefits from God, through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Such invocation is not "repugnant to the Word of God" or

40. See a similar usage in 16:6. 41. In Ralph Earle (1907-95), Sanctificationin the New Testament(Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1988), the selection and interpretation of texts has been influenced by a prior commitment to and by testimonies concerning a postconversional experience of entire sanctification. 42. The principal twentieth-century histories of the doctrine of "Christian perfection" attempted to find examples of and hence to trace the peculiarly Wesleyan/holiness concept of Christian perfection, or entire sanctification, prior to and/or up to Wesley's time: R. Newton Flew, The Idea of Perfectionin ChristianTheology:An HistoricalStudy of the ChristianIdealfor the PresentLife (London: Oxford University Press, 1934; rpt. ed., New York: Humanities Press, 1968);John Burritt Galloway (1885-1985),A Study of Holinessfrom the Early ChurchFathers(Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1950); William Marvin Greathouse, From theApostlesto Wesley:ChristianPerfectionin Historical Perspective(Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1979). 43. See above, ch. 60, III, C, l. 44. See Ott, Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma, pp. 476-79, 482-85.

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"opposed to the honor of the one mediatorof God and men, Christjesus."45 The saints who are thus to be invoked and whose intercession is to be sought 46 have been listed in the calendar of saints after an elaborate process of beatification and canonization for each. 47 But Roman Catholic theology also teaches that all those who, enjoying the beatific vision of God, are in heaven are to be reckoned as saints. According to Edward Myers, the "normal meaning" both in ancient and in modern times of the word "saints" is "the Elect, those who have attained the end for which they were made, in the Kingdom of God. "48 B. PROTESTANT REFORMERS

We have previously49 given attention to the teaching of Martin Bucer and John Calvin, who began to make explicit the Protestant, and especially the Reformed, distinction between initial justification and continual or durative sanctification. This fundamental distinction between act and process was destined to have a widespread impact upon Protestant theology. C. POST-REFORMATION AND MODERN ERAS

I. Puritans

Sanctification was a leading concern of the Puritans, even if it cannot be said to have been their most important doctrine. 50 It was seen as successive to justification and continual up to death. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress(1678) cannot be understood apart from the Christian life as pilgrimage, and later writers such as the English Presbyterian, Walter Marshall (1628-80), 51 produced monographs on sanctification.

45. "On the Invocation, Veneration, and Relics of Saints, and on Sacred Images," 4 December 1563, in Schaff, The Creedsof Christendom,2:200. 46. Ott, Fundamentalsof CatholicDogma, pp. 318-19, has traced the invocation of saints to Hippolytus of Rome and its preceding practice, the veneration of martyrs, to the Martyrdomof Polycarp. 47. Sullivan, The Externalsof the CatholicChurch:A Handbookof CatholicUsage,pp. 332-37. 48. "The Mystical Body of Christ," in George D. Smith, ed., The Teachingof the CatholicChurch,p. 685. 49. See above, ch. 60, III, C, 2. 50. William Haller (1885-1974), The Rise of Puritanism,or, The Way to the New Jerusalem Set Forthin Pulpit and Pressfrom ThomasCartwrighttojohn Lilburne andjohn Milton, 1570-1643 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938; New York: Harper and Bros., 1957), p. 83, identified as "the central dogma of Puritanism" the concept of "an all-embracing determinism, theologically formulated as the doctrine of predestination." 51. The Gospel-Mystery of Sanctification(1st publ. 1692; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954).

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2.John and Charles Wesley John Wesley gave major emphasis 52 to a doctrine of sanctification which, described variously as "Christian perfection," "entire sanctification," and "the second blessing," centered upon a momentary or punctiliar experience after one has been justified. 53 According to Harald Gustav Ake Lindstrom, To the Reformers perfection was perfection in faith, but to Wesley it was an inherent ethical perfection in love and obedience .... Both Calvin and Luther thought inherent ethical perfection came only with death, Wesley that entire sanctification could be realized during life on earth. 54 But, asserted Colin W. Williams, "Wesley's problem" was "how to define a perfection that is imperfect," and he sought to solve it by differentiating sin as "conscious separation from God," with respect to which one can be perfect, from sin as the lack of"absolute conformity to the perfect will of God," with respect to which no human being can be perfect. 55 William Edwin Robert Sangster (1900-60), preferred to refer to Wesley's doctrine as "perfect love,"56 and, for William M. Greathouse, "[f]aiihperfectedin lovethroughthe 57 fal,lnessof theSpiritis theessenceof the Wesleyandoctrineof Christianperfection."

By way of evaluation George Croft Cell ( 1875-193 7) stated: "The Wesleyan reconstruction of the Christian ethic oflife is an original and unique synthesis of the Protestant ethic of grace with the Catholic ethic of holiness. "58 But Charles Wesley, it seems, in later years moved away from his brother John by interpreting sanctification as "restoration of the imagoDei,"by reckoning it as unqualified as to freedom from sin, gradual as to time, and closely associated with suffering, and by tilting toward the view that sanctification occurs ''.just prior to death. "59

52. See especially his A Plain Accountof ChristianPerfection(1st publ. c. 1765; London: Epworth Press, 1952). 53. Ibid., esp. pp. 5, 24, 34, 96. But neither John Wesley nor Charles Wesley, it seems, claimed personally to have had the experience of Christian perfection. It was to the early Methodist, John William Fletcher ( 1729-85 ), that the statement was attributed, "I am freed from sin." W. E. R. Sangster, The Path to Perfection:An Examinationand RestatementofJohn Wesley'sDoctrineof Christian Perfection(New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1943), pp. 161-63. 54. Wesleyand Sanctification,pp. 136-37. 55.John Wesley'sTheologyToday,pp. 168, 170. 56. The Path to Perfection,pp. 142-49. 57. From theApostlesto Wesley,p. 112. 58. The Rediscoveryofjohn Wesley(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1935), p. 347. 59. John Rodger Tyson ( 1952- ), CharlesWesleyon Sanctification:A Biographical and TheologicalStudy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), pp. 227-301, but esp.241,249-50,259,262,284-85,295,297,299.

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3. Charles G. Finney Finney interpreted sanctification as the voluntary human act and state of self-consecration to God. It is not "a state of the intellect" or "a mere feeling of any kind" but "a phenomenon of the will." It means "the act of consecrating one's self, or anything else to the service of God .... " It expresses "a state or attitude of voluntary consecration to God, a continued act of consecration .... " It is "exactly synonymous or identical with a state of obedience, or conformity to the law of God." Entire sanctification, for Finney, is "attainable in this life," but the sanctified do sin, do struggle with temptation, do need the means of grace, and do need "further progress in holiness." 60 If for John Wesley sanctification was a momentary experience essentially wrought by God the Spirit, for Finney it was a continuous state voluntarily entered by human beings. 4. Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Holiness Movement Arising in the United States during the last decades of the nineteenth century in reaction to its perception that Methodism had forsaken its heritage of holiness, this movement became the chief conduit for the transmission of John Wesley's doctrine of entire sanctification to the twentieth century. According to Russell Raymond Byrum, "entire sanctification" is needed because of depravity in those who have been regenerated, occurs after regeneration, is "distinct" in "nature" from the baptism with the Holy Spirit but occurs "at the same time," eradicates "the evil dispositions resulting from" the perversion of original human nature, and is "attainable" during this present life prior to death. 61 For H. Orton Wiley, entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience oflove made perfect. It is wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service. Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is wrought instantaneously

60. Lectureson SystematicTheology,ed.]. H. Fairchild (Engl. ed., 1851; 1st Amer. ed., 1878; Whittier, Calif.: Colporter Kemp, 1946), pp. 404-8. But Asa Mahan (1800-89), also president of Oberlin College, embraced the Wesleyan experience and doctrine of Christian perfection: ChristianPerfection{1st publ. 1839; reprint ed.: Salem, Ohio: Schmul Publishers, 1975). See Wiley, ChristianTheology,2:457. 61. ChristianTheology,pp. 448-65, 468. Byrum was a theologian of the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.).

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by faith, preceded by entire consecration; and to this work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness. 62

5. Keswick The term "Keswick" refers primarily to the annual summer assemblies held since 1875 in the town having that name in northwestern England and secondarily to the teaching expounded in those assemblies. 63 With participants from various Protestant denominations, the assemblies were intended "'for the Promotion of Practical Holiness."' 64 A periodical closely associated with Keswick explained: We believe the Word of God teaches that the normal Christian life is one of uniform sustained victory over known sin; and that no temptation is permitted to happen to us without a way of escape being provided by God, so that we may be able to bear it. ... [Hence] the normal experience of the child of God should be one of victory instead of constant defeat, one of liberty instead of grinding bondage, one of "perfect peace" instead of restless worry. It shows that in Christ there is provided for every believer victory, liberty, and rest, and that this may be obtained not by a life-long struggle after an impossible ideal but by the surrender of the individual to God, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 65 62. Christian Theology, 2:466-67. Wiley was a theologian of the Church of the Nazarene. Those branches of the Pentecostal movement in the United States which arose from the Holiness movement have retained the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification and made baptism in or with the Spirit to be the third essential experience (e.g., Church of God, Cleveland, Tenn., Pentecostal Holiness Church, and Church of God in Christ), whereas those branches which derived from Baptist or Reformed roots have taught positional and progressive sanctification as distinguishable from baptism in or with the Spirit (e.g., Assemblies of God, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel). Stanley Monroe Horton (1916- ), "The Pentecostal Perspective," in Five Views on Sanctification (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), pp. 105-28, and Russell P. Spittler, "The Pentecostal View," in Donald L. Alexander, ed., Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1988), pp. 135-37, 139-40. The latest study is Charles Stephen Danzey (1957- ), "The Holy Spirit in Christian Initiation in the Theologies of Donald Gee, Stanley M. Horton, and]. Rodman Williams: Reformed Influences in Pentecostalism" (Ph.D. diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1995). 63. J. Robertson McQuilkin, "The Keswick Perspective," in Five Views on Sanctification, pp. 152-53. 64. Steven Barabas ( 1905-83 ), So Great Salvation: The History and Message of the Keswick Convention (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1952), p. 108, quoting Charles F. Harford, ed., The Keswick Convention: Its Message, Its Method, and Its Men (London: Marshall Brothers, 1907), p. 4. 65. Ibid., p. 84, quoting Harford, ed., The Keswick Convention, p. 6.

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"Keswick is not a doctrinal system," observed John Robertson McQuilkin (1927- ), for "no Keswick leader has written a treatise on its teaching," "there is no official theological statement," and "a broad variety of doctrinal positions have been held and taught." But there is "a common theological ground" that is "basically mainstream Protestant theology. "66 Its five-day program normally focused on a succession of daily themes: sin (first day); God's provision-the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit (second day); consecration (third day); life in the Spirit (fourth day); and service (fifth day). 67 With its emphasis on the "normal" Christian life as victorious, what has Keswick done with respect to the doctrine of sanctification? B. B. Warfield criticized Keswick teaching at least indirectly in his articles against the teachings of William Edwin Boardman (1810-86), Charles Gallaudet Trumbull (1872-1941), Theodore Jellinghaus (1841-1913), and the German Heiligungsbewegung.68 Keswick leaders have denied, in reply, that Keswick has taught sinless perfection in the present life. 69 Moreover, these leaders have denied that sanctification is automatic, that it involves very gradual growth, that it eradicates the sin principle, and that it is self-executed suppression of the "old nature." They rather affirm that there is "positional," "experimental" or "day-by-day," and "ultimate" sanctification and, above all, that sanctification is by faith with the cross of Christ as its "ground" and the Holy Spirit as its "Agent." 70 Wiley was probably correct in noting that Keswick teaches "no cleansing from inbred sin" but wrongly criticized the movement for teaching that holiness is "a matter of imputation instead of impartation." 71 The strong Keswick emphasis on consecration may lead observers to conclude that sanctification, for Keswick, is not essentially the work of God, 72 but the stress on consecration by faith is designed to prevent sanctification from being interpreted as by divine fiat.

IV. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION

73

There are at least three reasons why serious attention should be given to the doctrine of sanctification today. One is that the plurality of interpretations of the doctrine has left many Christians confused and without any 66. "The Keswick Perspective," pp. 153, 154. 67. Ibid., pp. 154-56. 68. Perfectionism,2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1931), 2:461-611; 1:303-99. 69. Barabas, So GreatSalvation, pp. 98-100. 70. Ibid., pp. 69-75, 84-98. 71. ChristianTheology,2:463. 72. As the present author did earlier in Evangelismfor Discipleship,p. 68. 73. Some of the remainder of this chapter is a revision of the author's Evangelismfor Discipleship,pp. 61- 74.

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clear understanding. A second is that there is widespread neglect of and indifference to holiness or sanctification on the part of many in Western society. They would see holiness as a new Pharisaism or would wish to relegate sanctification to the archives of their grandparents. 74 A third reason for studying sanctification is that becoming "holy" or being made "holy" is no mere marginal note or subsidiary adjunct to Christian teaching (1 Pet. 1:16). Rather it is veritably the goal and end of God's saving and redeeming activity. A. BASIC MEANING: DEDICATION

The primary meaning of sanctification is dedication or consecration. It involves a set-apartness that is basic to qad6sand to hagi,os.The entire biblical conception of sanctification is rooted in the truth that God is "holy" and affirms that humans need to become "holy." The set- apartness inherent in sanctification is intended to lead ultimately to Godlikeness. We, therefore, reject the alternative answer, namely, that sanctification is primarily purification or cleansing, as set forth by R. R. Byrum. 75 Such a definition encounters hermeneutical difficulties relative to John 17:19, "'I sanctify'" (KJV, NIV) or "'consecrate"' (RSV,JB, NEB) or "'dedicate"' (TEV) "'myself.'" How can one apply the basic meaning of purification to this text without making Jesus a purified person? Consecration or dedication, on the other hand, seems to be the text's basic idea. B. SCOPE: ALL CHRISTIANS

Who are the "saints" or the "sanctified ones"? In the New Testament sainthood was ascribed to all Christians by the very usage of "saints" as a synonym for believers or Christians. In his letters Paul repeatedly used hagi,oito refer to the totality of Christians in a given locality. He did not employ the term to refer to a group of especially devout ones who had segregated themselves or had been set apart by others or by God from the total company of believers. He wrote to and about "saints" in Corinth, some of whom were living in a most unsaintly manner (1 Cor. 5). The truth that all Christians are saints is today denied either explicitly or implicitly by two alternative positions, the Roman Catholic and the Perfectionist Protestant. 76 Roman Catholic hagiology is a somewhat 74. Stephen Charles Neill, ChristianHoliness(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960), pp. 44-63, identifies this trend as "the conformist error." 75. ChristianTheology,pp. 448-49. According to Byrum, sanctification "means primarily to cleanse, and also includes the idea of consecration." It is "a purification of men's hearts from depravity subsequently to regeneration." On Byrum, see W. T. Conner, What Is a Saint? (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1948), pp. 9-14. 76. Anthony A. Hoekema, Karl Barth's Doctrineof Sanctification(Grand Rapids: Calvin Theological Seminary, 1965), pp. 20-22, faulted Barth for teaching an "objectivesanctificationof all men" "deJure" and a particular sanctification of certain human beings in whom the Holy Spirit was at work "defacto."

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ambiguous mixture of two teachings, one of which says that the saints are all the elect who are in heaven and the other of which limits "saints" to those who have been formally included in the church's calendar of saints to be invoked. These two groups or bodies of saints seem not to be identical, and thus there is a double answer, for Roman Catholics, as to the identity of saints, but neither answer allows for living saints on the earth. The modem Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification or perfection 77 also seems to deny that all Christians are indeed saints. Even when such teaching allows for a positional sanctification that precedes entire sanctification, the emphasis still remains on entire sanctification, an event which, it is said, has not yet been experienced by all those who have been justified. Does the New Testament afford any basis for teaching that the number of sanctified ones is fewer than the number of justified ones? Ought we to separate these two important terms so as to make one to refer to one distinct act of grace and the other to refer to an altogether separate act of divine grace? Paul wrote: "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6: 11, RSV). If Paul had followed the modem doctrine of entire sanctification, he would have corrected his poor word order by writing 'Justified" before writing "sanctified"! Sometimes there is a failure to discern when in the New Testament the word teleiosconnotes maturity rather than absolute perfection. In some forms of the doctrine of entire sanctification a lowered or more constricted concept of sin may be implicit. Hence sanctification may be understood as the absence of overt sins or of conscious, voluntary, and identifiable sins, with the result that the deeper involvements of human beings and human society in sin may be obscured. The claim to realized perfection stands in marked contrast to the claims of some of the most devoted followers of Jesus Christ throughout the centuries who in the times of their spiritual triumphs have not hesitated to declare, as did Paul (Phil. 3:12-14), that they had not yet reached the "mark," or the goal of Christlikeness. G. C. Berkouwer has wisely observed: "Perfectionism is a premature seizure of the glory that will be .... "78 77. The leading twentieth-century Baptist advocate of entire sanctification has been James Sidlow Baxter ( 1903- ), author of ChristianHolinessRestudiedand Restated(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977), a reprint edition in one volume of three previously published monographs. Baxter rejected both the "eradication" theory of"indwelling sin," or "inbred sin," which he traced to John Wesley, and the "counteractiontheory," involving "an inwardjoint-crucifixion with Christ,"which he identified with Keswick (pp. 45-54, 57-69). Instead, taking the "old man" (KJV) or "old self' (RSV, NIV) of Romans 6:6 to be "the wholehuman racein Adam" rather than inbred sin, he posited entire sanctification as based on union with the risen Lord and issuing in transformation of character (pp. 73-104, 59, 145-72). 78. Faith and Sanctification,trans.John Vriend, Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952), p. 67.

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Although all Christians may be said to be "saints," all Christians obviously are not equally Godlike or mature, and all do not stand at the same mark in spiritual growth. Martin Luther declared in classic fashion that a Christian person is simulJustus et peccator,"at the same time a justified person and a sinner," thus pointing to the truth that the one justified is not completely free from the reality of sin and that he/she must struggle against sin in his present life. It would also seem proper to declare that a Christian is simul sanctificatuset peccator,"at the same time a sanctified person and a sinner." C. WORK OF GOD THROUGH FAITH

1. Work of the Triune God Sanctification, according to the New Testament, is the work of the triune God. When Paul prayed, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly ... at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:23, RSV), the term "God of peace" was most likely a reference to God the Father. Paul wrote elsewhere (1 Cor. 1:30), "He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Christ, then, is made our sanctification. A third Pauline statement (2 Thess. 2:13) reads: "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, ... because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." It is common to emphasize the unique role of the Holy Spirit in sanctification. This is right and proper. But it is not amiss to recognize that sanctification is in a sense also the work of the Father and of the Son. It is the work of the triune God. 79 2. The Passive Verb in the New Testament That sanctification is God's work is made clear by the recurring use of the passive voice of hagiazein in the New Testament. In the Old Testament one often finds the words, "Sanctify yourselves," but the New Testament pattern is "Be ye sanctified." As the work of God sanctification, to be sure, is not something that occurs contrary to the human person's consent, but God is the Sanctifier. 80 3. Not Essentially a Human Act or State Finney's definition of sanctification can be faulted for its turning sanctification from a divine activity to a human phenomenon, an act or state of self-consecration to God. Likewise, Harold Wayland Tribble ( 1899- 1986) placed sanctification in his chapter on "The Human Side of Christian Experience" along with repentance, faith, and confession, while still 79. Arthur W. Pink, The Doctrineof Sanctification(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1955), pp. 95-100. 80. See Erickson, ChristianTheology,pp. 969-71.

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identifying the Holy Spirit as its agent, rather than in his chapter on "The Divine Side of Christian Experience" along with forgiveness, regeneration,justification, and adoption. 81 Thus Tribble tended to interpret sanctification more as a human response of the Christian than as a work of God.

4. Conditioned upon Faith and Obedience Like justification, sanctification is by the grace of God through faith. Human beings cannot be made holy in any perfected sense without their voluntary or active participation. God is not the Sanctifier of robots but of human creatures. The "biblical teaching on sanctification appears in both the indicative ... and the imperative .... "82 The faith essential to sanctification may indeed have more of the dimension of surrender than of trust or assent. Here the Keswick movement is helpful by its stress upon the victorious dimension of the Christian life and the absolute necessity of faith for that victory. Although sanctification is not synonymous with "moral improvement," it does call for "active obedience." 83 Sanctification is both a divine gift and a human task. It is gift and task-not sequentially but simultaneously, not separably but cohesively and organically. It means being set aside for God's use and it means Christian growth. It means dedication and it means transformation. It is a work of God and at the same time it is a responsibility of the Christian believer. 84 D. TIMES

1. The Reformed View From the magisterial Reformers, especially those of the Reformed heritage, came the traditional nineteenth-century, especially American, Protestant view that justification is a momentary or singular occurrence (punctiliar) and sanctification is an extended process (durative). 85 One needs to ask whether such a differentiation is based upon the usages of these terms by New Testament writers and hence the usage is fully sustained by biblical theology. It seems that the apostle Paul never extended the terms "to be 81. Our Doctrines(rev. ed.: Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1936), pp. 74-103. 82. Sinclair B. Ferguson (1948- ), "The Reformed View," in Alexander, ed., ChristianSpirituality,p. 67. 83. Kenneth Francis William Prior ( 1926- ), The Way of Holiness:The Christian Doctrineof Sanctification(Chicago: Inter-Varsity Press, 1967), pp. 22, 47-48. 84. Tull, The Atoning Gospel,p. 74. 85. Belgic Confession (1561), arts. 22-24; Irish Articles of Religion (1615), arts. 34-35; Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), arts. 11, 13; Finney, Lectures on SystematicTheology,pp. 382-481; Hodge, SystematicTheology(1871-73), 3: 114-258; Boyce, Abstractof SystematicTheology(1887), pp. 394-404, 409-25; Strong, SystematicTheology(1907), pp. 849-81.

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justified" or ''.justification" so as to embrace the entire Christian life, although his usage probably did embrace the final judgment. But, on the other hand, concerning "to be sanctified" and "sanctification" there are some basic problems. Chief of these is the fact that in the New Testament these terms are employed at times to refer to becoming a Christian and at other times to the final attainment of complete sanctification or holiness as well as in still other settings to connote continued or gradual or present sanctification. If indeed there are punctiliar and eschatological usages of such terms in the New Testament, why should systematic theology continue to define sanctification only in the durative or progressive sense? 2. The Wesleyan View The Wesleyan/Holiness doctrine of sanctification has been so focused upon an instantaneous or crisis and continuous post-conversional experience of entire sanctification that the punctiliar and the eschatological dimensions of sanctification, though not denied, 86 have been relatively insignificant. 3. The Three-Stage View It seems more accurate to understand sanctification as two Southern Baptist theologians, W. T. Conner 87 and Dale Moody,88 did, namely, in terms of tenses or stages (two for Conner, three for Moody).89 First, there is initial sanctification, which Conner labeled "positional" and Moody "possessive." This aspect of sanctification coincides with being justified or being born again. In Paul's use of the noun hagiasmosin 2 Thess, 2: 13 (where it is coupled with "in the beginning") and I Cor. 1:30, in his use of the verb hagia:zein in I Cor. 6: 11, and in his use of the aorist participle of the verb hagi,a:zein in 1 Cor. 1:2, the initial meaning seems to inhere in the texts. The same is true of the verbal use in I Pet. I :2. It is possible also to consider that 86. Wiley, ChristianTheology,2:480-81, referred briefly to "initial" or "partial" sanctification and only in passing to sanctification in relation to glorification. Baxter, "Our High Calling," in ChristianHolinessRestudiedand Restated,pp. 13-25, esp. 23, wrote of both "positional" and "experiential" sanctification, including under the latter both regeneration and entire sanctification. 87. Systemof ChristianDoctrine,p. 468; The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 193-94. 88. The Wordof Truth, p. 323-25. 89. Hoekema, Saved by Grace,pp. 202-9, also recognized two tenses: "definitive" and "progressive." Is there a Baptist doctrine of the nature of sanctification? This question was raised indirectly by E. Glenn Hinson's (1930-) "A Contemplative Response," in Alexander, ed., ChristianSpirituality,pp. 168-89. Whereas the other four authors in the same volume wrote to explicate their own confessional doctrines of sanctification (Lutheran, Reformed, Wesleyan, Pentecostal), Hinson, a Baptist, set forth the "contemplative" or mystical doctrine. Did Hinson do so because the contemplative doctrine was his own, or because there was no Baptist doctrine to explicate? Is the Baptist doctrine of sanctification a replay of the Reformed doctrine, or does it have its own nuances?

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Paul's use of hagioiimplies those who have previously been sanctified and hence are now "saints." But initial sanctification must not be allowed to stand alone as if all-sufficient. The assertion of the Lutheran theologian, Gerhard Olaf Forde ( 1927- ), that sanctification is "simply the art of getting usedtojustification"90 seems to suggest an overplay of initial sanctification. Second, Conner, Moody, and Hoekema have identified another stage as "progressive" sanctification. Presumably this means the sanctification which takes place between one's becoming a Christian and one's physical death. Cited in reference to this second stage are the Pauline allusions to sanctification in relation to abstaining from immorality (1 Thess. 4:3) and to making perfect "holiness" by cleansing from "defilement" (2 Cor. 7: 1) and the Petrine use of the Levitical command concerning holiness (1 Pet. 1:15-16). It is not clear whether "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly" (1 Thess. 5:23a, RSV) should be indicative of the second stage or of the eschatological. In the second stage sanctification is allied with Christian growth, 91 or growth in grace, or Christian maturity and with overcoming sin and evil. The Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification, or Christian perfection, makes the second stage to be a highly significant "second work of grace," instantaneous yet continuing, unless lost, until death and the life beyond. 92 But the metaphorical use of"circumcision of the heart," even more than the metaphorical use of entry into Canaan, in reference to "entire sanctification" suggests, we are told, its momentary or punctiliar nature. 93 Third, in Moody's terminology there is a "perfected" or eschatological aspect of sanctification. Pertinent New Testament texts include Paul's references to "hearts unblamable in holiness" at the second coming of Jesus (1 Thess. 3:13a, RSV) and to the church's final sanctification and presentation to Christ (Eph. 5:25-27) and the allusion in Heb. 12:14 to "the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." This third aspect of sanctification, only attainable in or after death, is closely associated with glorification, for the "final goal of sanctification" is "the glory of God." 94 It is, therefore, proper to say that we have been sanctified, we are being sanctified, and we shall be sanctified. E.MEANS

What are the modalities or means most likely to be used by God or made effective in Christians for the sanctification of the people of God? 90. "The Lutheran View," in Alexander, ed., ChristianSpirituality,pp. 13, 23, 27, 29. 91. See 2 Thess. 1:3; Eph. 4:15; Phil. 1:9; Heb. 6:1; 1 Pet. 2:2; 3:18. Prior, The Way of Holiness,pp. 72-84. 92. Laurence Willard Wood (1941- ), PentecostalGrace(Wilmore, Ky.: Francis Asbury Publishing Co., Inc., 1980), pp. 115-24. 93. Ibid., pp. 137-75, 37-100. 94. Hoekema, Saved by Grace,pp. 231-32.

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1. The Law of God Some would answer this question by making the law of God to be the major means or even the sole means. Reformed theologians such as Anthony Hoekema and G. C. Berkouwer have attributed to the law an important role in sanctification. Denying that law-keeping can earn for us our salvation, Hoekema yet insisted that we are to keep God's law (presumably moral law) "as a way of expressing gratitude to him for the gift of salvation." This keeping Hoekema identified with Calvin's "third use" of the law. Citing Rom. 8:3-4 and 13:8-lO,James 1:25, and ljohn 2:3-5, he stated that the "Christian life ... must be a law-formed life" in the sense of "a living by the Spirit" in a via media "'between legalism and lawlessness."'95 Hence, for Hoekema, the law "is one of the most important means whereby God sanctifies us." 96According to Berkouwer, "The law of God in the life of believers ... is definitely not an external force opposed to a spontaneous faith or a spontaneous love." 97 But Rousas John Rushdoony ( 1916- ), the chief formulator of Christian Reconstructionism, or Dominion theology, advocates total dependence on the law of God for sanctification. Rushdoony, it should be noted, defines "law of God" so as to include all the Mosaic code, including the civil and ceremonial aspects. He argues: The redeemed are recalled to the original purpose of man, to exercise dominion under God, to be covenant-keepers, and to fulfill "the righteousness of the law" (Rom. 8:4). The law remains central to God's purpose. Man has been re-established into God's original purpose and calling. Man's justification is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ; man's sanctificationis by means of the law of God. 98 Can this be anything less than a modern form of the ancient J udaizing heresy (Gal. 3:2-5)?

2. Various Means At the end of the nineteenth century J. P. Boyce held that the primary means of sanctification is "the truth of God" (John 17:17; 2 Pet. 3:18) and listed seven "secondary" or "subordinate" means: providences of God (through temptation, illness, or perplexity), good works performed by Christians, prayer, the Lord's Day, the "association of believers in 95. Here Hoekema is quoting Gary N. Weisinger, III, The ReformedDoctrineof Sanctification,no. 9, Fundamentals of the Faith (Washington, DC: Christianity Today, n.d.), p. 24. 96. Hoekema, Saved by Grace,pp. 225-28. 97. Faith and Sanctification,p. 166. 98. Institutesof BiblicalLaw, 2 vols. (vol. 1: Nutley, N.J.: Craig Press, 1973), 1:3-4.

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church relations," the preaching ministry, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. 99 At the end of the twentieth century Sinclair Buchanan Ferguson identified four principal means of sanctification: the Scriptures, "the providences" (affiictions), "the fellowship of the church," and "the sacraments." 100 We have so interpreted sanctification that it belongs to becoming a Christian, to the Christian life, and to the Christian hope. Then, when our sufferings all are past, O! let us pure and perfect be, And gain our calling's prize at last. For ever sanctified in Thee. 101 From being made holy or like God we now turn to the Christian responsibility under God for the material aspects of the created order.

99. Abstractof SystematicTheology,pp. 417-21. 100. "The Reformed View," pp. 67-74. 101. Charles Wesley.

CHAPTER67

STEWARDSHIP The English words "steward" and "stewardship" are probably derived from an Old English word meaning "warden of the sty" or "keeper of the pigs." 1 Such inelegant etymology has nothing directly to do with the meanings of the biblical terms translated "steward" and "stewardship." The word "stewardship," whose biblical usage at times has nothing to do with material things per se, has come to be used in theology and church life as the general or encompassing term for the Christian responsibility for and use of material things. Even so, this general doctrinal function of the term does not preclude its being applied to one's body, time, talents or spiritual gifts, and influence. 2 1. In the English language "the word in time came to be used to designate the manager of an estate; one in control of domestic affairs; the member of a college who presided at the table; the head servant who transacted financial and legal business; one who held court in the absence of the lord; the lord steward of the king's household." (James Edgar Dillard [1879-1953], Bible Stewardship:A Brief Study of the Meaning and Practiceof Stewardshipin Bible Times with Applicationsto Our Own Day [Nashville: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1941], pp. 15-16). 2. Frederick Alfred Agar (1872-? ), The Stewardshipof Life (New York: Revell, 1920); Charles Augustus Cook (1856-1940), The Larger Stewardship(Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1923); Luther Ellsworth Lovejoy (1864-1936), Stewardshipfor All of Life (Nash ville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1924; 2d ed.: New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1929); Frank Elisha Burkhalter (1880-1963), Living Abundantly:A Study in ChristianStewardship(Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1942); Sterrie Austin Wellman (1879- ? ) Your Stewardshipand Mine: Its Blessingsand Responsibilities(Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1950), pp. 55-102; J. E. Dillard, Good Stewards (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1953), pp. 34-76; Merrill Dennis Moore (1904-98), Found Faithful: Christian Stewardshipin Personaland Church Life (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1953), pp. 47-50; Milo Franklin Kauffman (1898-1988), The Challengeof Christian Stewardship(Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1955), pp. 32-43; Remus C. Rein

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Furthermore, whereas for the past century "stewardship" has been treated chiefly in reference to the giving of money and other property to Christian churches as an expression of Christian gratitude and accountability in the context of a maturing Christian life, during recent years the term has also been applied to responsibility for the environment-earth, waterways, and atmosphere.

I. OLD TESTAMENT One significant recent study of Christian stewardship has bypassed or failed to treat the Old Testament, 3 but the Old Testament background is essential to a fully developed biblical doctrine of stewardship. The word "steward" appears only five times in the KJV Old Testament (Gen. 15:2; 43:19; 44:1, 4; 1 Chr. 28:1), the five texts employing three different Hebrew terms. But in Gen. 43:16 where the KJV uses "ruler," the RSV and the NIV give "steward," in Isa. 22: 15 where the KJV employs "treasurer," the RSV and the NIV use "steward," and in Dan. 1: 11 where the KJV has "prince," the RSV employs "steward." These are "technical or literal" 4 uses which express no concept of stewardship to Yahweh. They do make clear that "thestewardwas one whohandledtheproperty or administeredthe affairs of another."5 In such technical usage "the factual character of the office of steward is developed, upon which its more figurative use in the Christian gospels and epistles depends." 6 But Isa. 22: 15-25 with its case of Shebna makes clear that the steward was "neither ultimately authoritative nor irreplaceable," and if he should begin "to behave as if he were himself unambiguously in charge he shall be dealt with very severely." 7

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

( 1905- ), Adventuresin ChristianStewardship(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1955), pp. 9-51; Virginia Shackelford Ely (1899-1984), Stewardship: Witnessingfor Christ(Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1962), pp. 5-43, 63-96; George August Emmanuel Salstrand (1908-74), A GoodSteward (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1965), pp. 39-49; Roy Wilbur Howell, Saved to Serve:Accenton Stewardship(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1965); Albert Alfred McClellan (1912- ), ChristianStewardship(Nashville: Convention Press, 1966), pp. 1-87, 108-26;James Glencaim Thomson Fairfield (1926- ), All That WeAre We Give (Scottdale, Pa., Kitchener, Ont.: Herald Press, 1977); Richard Bryan Cunningham (1932- ), CreativeStewardship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1979), pp. 56-69. Gene Arnold Getz ( 1932- ), A BiblicalTheologyof Material Possessions(Chicago: Moody Press, 1990). Douglas john Hall (1928- ), The Steward:A BiblicalSymbolComeof Age, Library of Christian Stewardship (New York: Friendship Press, 1982), p. 17. Dillard, Bible Stewardship,p. 19. Hall, The Steward:A BiblicalSymbolComeof Age, p. 17. Ibid., p. 18.

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The Old Testament teaching about accountability for material things presupposes two great Old Testament themes, namely, God's creation of all things and the goodness of the created order. 8 With these presuppositions in mind we proceed to examine six aspects of stewardship in the Old Testament. A. DIVINE OWNERSHIP OF ALL THINGS

Repeatedly the Old Testament affirms that Yahweh owns the earth and all creatures on the earth. "The earth is the LORD'S and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein" (Ps. 24: 1, RSV). "For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills" (Ps. 50: 10). "In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land" (Ps. 95:4-5, NIV). "Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine" Qob41:l lb, RSV). "'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool"' (Isa. 66: la, RSV, NIV). "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts" (Hag. 2:8). Divine ownership must be a major consideration in the human use of material things. In a special sense the land of Canaan both belonged to God because of creation and had been given to Abraham and his descendants "as an everlasting possession" (Gen. 17:8, NIV).9 The land was to be subject to the sabbath rest every seventh year (Lev. 25: 1-7) and to the year of jubilee every fiftieth year (Lev. 25:8-55). These practices, together with the law of redemption of ancestral land (Lev. 25:23-25), were designed to foster the prosperity of the land and to preserve family ownership. Even the law of the offering of the first fruits of the land in the house of Yahweh (Exod. 23: 19a) can be understood as an expression of stewardship. 10 B. HUMANITY'S RELATIVE BUT REAL DOMINION OVER THE REST OF THE CREATED ORDER

Earlier 11 attention has been given to the concept of dominion as one of the possible views as to the meaning of the imagoDei. Now that concept must be related to human accountability unto God. Human beings were given 8. See Vol. 1, ch. 24, II, A, 3, 4. 9. The granting of Canaan presupposed that the people of Israel belonged to Yahweh. Cicero Hunt McClure (1913- ), "A Study of the Old Testament Teachings on Stewardship" (Th.D. diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1954), pp. 5-22. See also James Leo Green (1912-94), "The Place of Material Things in the Purpose of God and the Life of Man," in William L. Hendricks, ed., ResourceUnlimited(Nashville: Stewardship Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1972), pp. 53- 78. 10. Holmes Rolston (1900-77), Stewardshipin the New TestamentChurch:A Study in the Teachingsof Saint Paul concerningChristianStewardship(Richmond, Va.: John Knox Press, 1946), pp. 16-19. 11. See Vol. 1, ch. 30, II, B.

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by the Creator the privilege and the responsibility of exercising a relative dominion over the animals of the sea, of the atmosphere, and on the earth (Gen. 1:26b, 28b; Ps. 8:6-8). According to the psalmist, Yahweh made "man" to be "ruler over the works" of Yahweh's "hands" (Ps. 8:6, NIV). Trees and plant life were intended as human food and as animal food (Gen. 1:29-30). Surely, however, such dominion was intended to be consistent with the Creator's purpose for all creatures. The mandate as to dominion has become important for any theological approach to ecological issues 12 and for Christian Reconstructionism, which is also known as Dominion theology. 13 C. PROHIBITION AGAINST COVETOUSNESS

The tenth 14 commandment of the Decalogue (Exod. 20:17; Deut. 5:2) clearly prohibited the coveting of that which belongs to one's neighbor. Hence respect for property is obligatory, and violation of that respect is a breach of human accountability. D. MATERIAL PROSPERITY AS INDICATIVE OF DIVINE BLESSING AND ENABLEMENT

The Israelites were said to be a people whose wealth or material prosperity or whose capacity to acquire such was given by or derived from God. Beware lest you say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth." You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day (Deut. 8:17-18, RSV). Numerous and abundant blessings would be given to the people oflsrael (Deut. 28:1-14), provided that they obey the commands of Yahweh (Deut. 28:1, 2b, 9b, 13b). They will be "'the head"' and not "'the tail'" and shall "'tend upward only, and not downward"' (Deut. 28:13a). According to David, speaking just prior to his death in the presence of the assembled people, Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name (1 Chr. 29:12-13, NIV). 12. See below, VI, A. 13. See above, ch. 66, IV, E, 1; see below, ch. 83, IV, D; ch. 84, III, C, 2. 14. According to Roman Catholic and Lutheran usage, Exod. 20: 17 constitutes the ninth and tenth commandments.

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In a more personal and less collective sense prosperity is reckoned to be God's gift: "[W]hen God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work-this is a gift of God" (Eccl. 5: 19). The Old Testament never presses what might appear to be a corollary to this teaching about prosperity, namely, that the poor have the disfavor of Yahweh. Rather Yahweh champions the cause of the poor. 15 E. OFFERINGS FOR PLACES OF WORSHIP

In the Old Testament the congregation of Israel more than once made specific offerings for the construction, the furnishing, or the renovation of places of worship. 16 The people gave for "the construction of the tabernacle; the construction of Solomon's temple; the repair of the temple under J ehoash; the repair of the temple under Josiah; and the reconstruction of the temple under Ezra." 17 There were also the half- shekel 18 brought to the tabernacle/temple, described as an "offering," as "atonement money" (Exod. 30: 13, 16, NIV), and as a "tax" (2 Chr. 24:6, 9), and the one-third shekel (Neh. 10:32-33). F. THE TITHE(S)

The evidence for the giving of tithes by ancient peoples outside the biblical story is extensive. According to Henry Lansdell ( 1841-1919), The picture-writings of Egypt, the cuneiform tablets of Babylonia, and early writers of Greece and Rome inform us that before the Bible was written, and apart therefrom, it was an almost universal practice among civilised nations for people to pay tithes to their gods; but none tell [sic] us when, or where, the practice began, or who issued the law for its observance. 19 During the patriarchal era Abraham gave to Melchizedek a tithe, or tenth, of the spoil after military victory (Gen. 14:206) and Jacob vowed at Bethel to give a tithe to God (Gen. 28:226).

15. Exod. 23:10-11; Lev. 19:9-10, 15; 25:35-37; Deut. 10:18-19; 15:7-11; 24:14-15, 19-22; Ps. 12:5; 34:6; 72:4, 12-14; 82:2-4; 113:7-8; 140:12; Amos 2:6-7; 4:1-3; 5:11-12; 8:4-8; Isa. 3:14-15; 25:4; 41:17. Per R. Stanton Norman. 16. Exod. 25:2-7; 35:4-9, 21-29; 36:4-7; Num. 7:1-89; 2 Kings 12:4-15; 22:3-7 (also 2 Chr. 24:4-14); 1 Chr. 29:2-9,14; Ezra 1:4; 7:15-17. 17. McClure, "A Study of the Old Testament Teachings on Stewardship," p. 47. 18. Exod. 30:11-16; 38:25-26; 2 Chr. 24:6, 9. 19. The Tithe in Scripture (London: S. P. C. K., 1908; rpt. ed.: Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1963), p. 7.

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Modem Protestant authors 20 have tended to follow early Judaism by interpreting the various tithes mentioned in the Pentateuch as separate and distinct tithes. Accordingly, the "first" tithe would be the Lord's tithe described in Lev. 27:30-33. It included both agricultural products and animal herds randomly selected without substitution. This tithe, it seems, was to be given to and administered by the Levites as compensation for their service in the tabernacle (Num. 18:8, 21, 24), and the Levites were expected to give a tithe of that which they received to the priests (Num. 18:25-29). A second, or festival, tithe (Deut. 14:22-26), also consisting of agricultural products and animal herds, could, because of one's distance from the temple, be converted into money which in tum could be used to buy meat and drink for use in celebration at the temple. Deut. 12:5-7 also provided for eating by the donor and his family. The third tithe, a charity tithe, was to be given every third year and put in storage for the benefit of Levites, "the aliens, the fatherless and the widows" (Deut. 14:28-29, NIV; also Deut. 26:12-15). But modem critical scholarship has provided an alternative answer. G. Ernest Wright, after considering the view that Numbers 18 "represents a later stage of development than that in Deut. 14," then concluded that Deuteronomy 14 "reflects the custom of north Israel," whereas Numbers 18 reflects the tithing practice of Judah and the temple inJerusalem. 21 According to such a conclusion, differing northern and southern practices as to the tithe would not necessitate the giving of a second and third tithe by the same donors. For Lukas Vischer (1926- ), the texts in Leviticus and in Numbers being from the postexilic era, there was "practically no evidence of the tithe in pre-Deuteronomic times," and the tithe "was transformed more and more from a harvest sacrifice" to a "cultic tax." 22 But Page Hutto Kelley interpreted Num. 18:21-28 and Lev. 27:30-33 as embodying "storehouse giving," a practice which he found to have been stressed after the Babylonian exile, when "[t]emple worship was no longer under the patronage of Israel's kings" and "had to be supported entirely by the people's free will offerings," thus necessitating storage rooms (Neh. 13:4-13). 23 Mal. 3:8-9 gives expression to a divine rebuke for the failure of the covenant people to bring their "tithes and offerings" into "the store-

20. Lansdell, The Tithe in Scripture,pp. 23-36; Dillard, Bible Stewardship,pp. 31-34; Moore, Found Faithful, pp. 23-24; Milo Kauffman, Stewardsof God (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1975), pp. 183-85. 21. "The Book of Deuteronomy: Introduction and Exegesis, The Interpreter's Bible, 2:425 (re Num. 14:22-29). 22. Tithing in the Early Church,trans. Robert C. Schultz, Facet Books, Historical Series, no. 3 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), pp. 3-5. 23. Malachi:Rekindling the Firesof Faith (Nashville: Convention Press, 1986), pp. 96-97. Per Dan Gentry Kent.

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house, "24 and this was set in a larger context of a call to repentance (3: 7b) and a promise of blessing (3: 10-12). 25

II. INTERTESTAMENTAL JUDAISM Tobit, the pious Jew, claimed to have practiced the threefold tithe, taking the first tithe to Jerusalem for the priests and Levites, using the second as a festival tithe, and making the third the charity tithe (Tob. 1:6-8). Judith reported to Holofernes that the Jews were about to commit the great sin of eating, because oflack of food and drink, the "first fruits" and "tithes" that had been "consecrated and set aside for the priests" in Jerusalem Uth, 11:10-15, RSV). Then after the victory over the Assyrian army, the Jews offered "their burnt offering, their freewill offerings, and their "gifts" to God Uth. 16: 18). The tithe and the first fruits were to be given generously and cheerfully (Ecclus. 35:8-11). 26The army of Judas Maccabeus offered "first fruits" and "tithes" in Jerusalem before attacking and defeating the army of Lysias, the deputy of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (1 Mace. 3:49), and King Demetrius promised to lift the tax burden from the Jews so that the Jerusalem tithes would be untaxed and completely used for religious purposes (1 Mace. 10:31). The Talmud contains numerous details concerning Pharisaic tithing,27 and the tractate "Seeds" in the Mishna instructions about tithing agricultural products. 28

24. Page H. Kelley, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,Haggai, Zachariah,Malachi,vol. 14, Layman's Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1984), p. 158, noted that the LXX version of v. 8c can be translated "because the tithes and first fruits are with you still"; that is, they have not been given and gathered into the storehouse. 25. Tai to Almar Kantonen ( 1900- ), A Theologyfor ChristianStewardship(Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1956), p. 22, called Mal. 3: 10-11 a "sub-Christian text" that "is as incompatible with the spirit of the gospel as the curse which a vengeful psalmist pronounces on the babies of Babylon." 26. Kelley, Malachi, p. 98; Dillard, Bible Stewardship,p. 37. 27. Dillard, Bible Stewardship,p. 37. 28. Kelley, Malachi, p. 98. For greater detail on the intertestamental concepts and practice, see Russell Bruce Corley (1943- ), "The Intertestamental Perspective of Stewardship," Southwesternjournal of Theology13 (Spring 1971): 15-24. According to Frederick C. Grant, The EconomicBackgroundof the Gospels (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), p. 95, the "[a]rtisans, fishermen, [and] tradesmen" and the Diaspora Jews paid no tithe during the time of Jesus, for the tithe was essentially agricultural.

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III. NEW TESTAMENT Oikonomia AND ITS COGNATE 29 The English word "stewardship" is sometimes used to translate the Greek noun oikonomia,derived from oikos,"house" or "household," and nemein,"to divide, distribute, or apportion." The KJV uses "stewardship" only in Luke 16:2, 3, 4 and employs "dispensation" in 1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10; 3:2; and Col. 1:25. The RSV uses "stewardship" in Eph. 3:2. Other commonly used words include "trust" (NEB, NIV) and "responsibility" (Phillips, JB) in 1 Cor. 9: 17, "plan" (RSV,TEV) in Eph. 1: 10, and "task" (NEB, TEV) in Col. 1:25. Today's text of 1 Tim. 1:4 contains oikonomia("God's plan," NEB, TEV; "God's work," NIV; "the design of God," JB), whereas the KJV evidently followed a text containing oikodomia("edifying," KJV). Oikonomoi, "stewards," can clearly refer to non-material reality (1 Cor. 4: l, "the mysteries of God," KJV, JB, RSV), and oikonomiacharacteristically does. 30 Merrill Dennis Moore noted that Jesus "never spoke of tenancyas the idea in a 31 Christian's relation to God, but always stewardship." The teaching of the New Testament concerning the stewardship of material things, as shall become evident, is far more extensive than its uses of oikonomia. A. THE NOUN

B. SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

1. Nonparabolic Sayings Of importance for the stewardship of material things are various nonparabolic sayings of Jesus. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (tautapanta)will be given to you as well (Matt. 6:33, NIV). Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6:19-21).

29. For classical Greek and Septuagint uses of oikonomosand oikonomia,see Otto Michel, "oikonomos," "oikonomia," TheologicalDictionaryof the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), 5: 149-53. 30. Helge Brattglird ( 1920- ), God'sStewards:A TheologicalStudy of the Principles and Practicesof Stewardship,trans. Gene J. Lund (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1963), pp. 31-41. 31. Found Faithful, p. 32. Moore defined a "tenant" as one "who paid a certain portion as rental of the property, while all the remainder was his own."

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No one can be a slave to two masters; he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6:24, TEV). For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world (ton kosmon holon) and forfeits his life? (Matt. 16:26a, RSV). Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15, NIV). Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:10-12). To the rich young ruler Jesus said: "'There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me"' (Mark 10:21 b, JB ). "'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God'" (Mark 10:25, RSV, NIV). Of the poor widow contributing to the temple treasury Jesus said: "'[T]his poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury"' because "'they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living"' (Mark 12:43b-44, RSV). His only recorded utterance relative to the tithe 32 reads as follows: 'Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-:iustice, mercy and faithfulness. You ought to have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former" (Matt. 23:23, NIV; par. Luke 11:42).

2. Parables Although numerous parables of Jesus may be said to pertain to the larger stewardship of life and of the kingdom of God, certain ones do directly relate to the stewardship of material things. In the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21) Jesus described a farmer who had accumulated 32. Except the incidental reference in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:12).

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such bounteous crops as to plan to build greater storage barns for future use, but at that moment he died.Jesus commented: "'So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God"' (v. 21, JB ). Luke 16: 1-9 has been variously identified as the parable of "the unjust steward," 33 the "shrewd manager" (TEV, NIV), "the crafty steward" OB), and the "clever rogue" (Phillips). The manager of a rich man's affairs is fired, but before leaving he reduces the amount of indebtedness of the rich man's various debtors and then is commended by the rich man for his shrewdness. The parable closes with an enigmatic saying of Jesus (v. 9): '"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings"' (NIV). The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16: 19-31) contrasts the luxurious wealth of the rich man while alive and the concurrent poverty and ill health of the beggar Lazarus with Lazarus's postmortal presence with Abraham and the rich man's suffering in Hades. In the parable of the pounds or "gold coins" (TEV) (Luke 19: 11-27) a nobleman who before going abroad for a time gave to ten of his servants ten gold coins each with the instruction to them to trade or do business with these coins while he was absent. Upon his return he learned that one servant had made ten more coins and another five more, and these were commended and rewarded. But the third servant, who had kept the coin "in a napkin" and had earned nothing, was rebuked by the nobleman and had his coin given to the servant who had earned ten more coins.Jesus' climactic word was: '"to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away"' (v. 26, RSV). Similarly in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30) a master going on a journey entrusts his three servants with talents or coins, one receiving five, another two, and the yet another one. The results were the same as in the parable of the pounds except that the third servant is thrown into the darkness, or Gehenna. 34 C. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Paul in his address to the Ephesian elders quoted and hence preserved the saying of Jesus, "'It is more blessed to give than to receive"' (Acts 20:35c, KJV, RSV, NIV), which is comparable to the saying, "'You have received without paying, so give without being paid"' (Matt. 10:8e, TEV).35 The church at Jerusalem engaged, at least for a time, in voluntary community of goods. "All the believers were together (epitoauto) and had 33. George Arthur Buttrick ( 1892-1980), The ParablesofJesus (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1928), pp. 116-25. 34. On the relationship between these last two parables, see ibid., pp. 242-46, nn. 5-10. 35. See Earle Vaydor Pierce (1869-1959), The SupremeBeatitude(New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1947), pp. 13-27.

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everything in common (eichon hapanta koina)" (Acts 2:44, NIV). They "sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all (diemerizon auta pasin), as any had need" (kathoti an tis chreian eichen) (2:45, RSV). Seemingly this pattern was not preserved in later years at Jerusalem or utilized elsewhere. 36 D. PAULINE EPISTLES

The Pauline teaching about the giving of money was primarily issued in the context of Paul's efforts to encourage the Gentile churches derived from his apostolic ministry to contribute an offering for needy Jewish Christians inJudea (1 Cor. 16:1-2; 2 Cor. 8:1-9:15; Rom. 15:25-28). 37 If the Gentile Christians have received spiritual blessings from Jewish Christians, it is only right that Jewish Christians should receive material blessings from Gentile Christians (Rom. 15:27). Christian giving should be motivated by agape (1 Cor. 13:3), should follow the basic giving of oneself to Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 8:5), and should be informed and motivated by Christ's willing impoverishment for our sakes (2 Cor. 8:9). It should be regular (1 Cor. 16:2), generous (2 Cor. 8:2; 9:5), and cheerful (2 Cor. 9:7c). A generous sowing will yield a generous harvest of righteousness, thanksgiving, and obedience (2 Cor. 9:6-15). Moreover, "those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel" (1 Cor. 9:14, NIV; see also Gal. 6:6), even though Paul himself had not taken advantage of such support (1 Cor. 9: 15-18). Paul's epistles contain no reference to the tithe.

IV. NON-CHRISTIAN VIEWS Non-Christian religions and philosophies have posited various views concerning material things. Gnostics, for example, reckoned matter as intrinsically evil and the product of quasi-divine beings far removed from primal deity. Accordingly the destiny of human beings is for the soul to escape from the evil body. For Manicheans material things were caught up in the great struggle between darkness and light. Rather than manage or administer material things, humans, whose bodies consist of portions of light enfleshed in darkness, should be indifferent to material things. For Hindus material things are illusory or unreal and have no real value, whereas for Buddhists material things are real but of little value in the human extirpation of desire and quest of Nirvana. 38

36. Rolston, Stewardshipin the New TestamentChurch,pp. 27-36. 37. Ibid., pp. 63-74. See below, ch. 72, III, D. 38. See the author's "A Christian View of Material Things," in Hendricks, ed., ResourceUnlimited,pp. 87-91.

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V. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE A. PRE-MODERN ERAS

The stewardship of material things was not a major theological theme during the patristic, the medieval, or the Reformation periods. Nevertheless gifts of material things were included during the patristic era in Eucharistic worship, 39 and compulsory tithes, which approximated taxation, became a normative practice in state-established Christianity as early as the eighth century. 40 During the history of Christianity there have been three major alternatives to the private ownership of property. First, the monastic movement, reacting against the worldliness of contemporary Christianity and calling on its adherents to take vows of poverty, placed the ownership of property in the monastic community. Monastic foundations through the extensive acquisition of property have sometimes been marked by the same inordinate possessiveness that had earlier evoked the monastic vow of poverty, as may be seen in the Josephite monasteries of sixteenth-century Russia. Second, there were those who sought to restore the early model of the Jerusalem church through the surrender of private ownership to a communitarian church, and the Hutterian Brethren have been a notable example of such. Third, the socialist movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sometimes under Christian impetus and otherwise not, has advocated and worked for "the nationalization of major industries and of the means of transportation and communication, presumably in order "to remove or curtail the excessive accumulation of property by the few or the favored." The monastic solution centered in the monastic community, the Christian communitarian solution in the communitarian church, and the socialistic solution centered in the national community. All three challenged the unlimited development of individual or private ownership of property. Monasticism's challenge is in the name of spirituality; Christian communitarianism's challenge is in the name of neoapostolic Christianity; socialism's challenge39. Justin Martyr, J Apology65; Hippolytus, The ApostolicTradition4.2; 23.1. In describing Eucharistic worship during the first three centuries, Oscar Hardman (1880-1964),A Historyof ChristianWorship(Nashville: Cokesbury Press, 1937), pp. 32-33, referred to "the presentation to the bishop ofleavened bread and a cup of mingled wine and water ... to be blessed by him, and other gifts of the people, such as oil, milk, fruit, and vegetables, and additional bread and wine, for subsequent distribution among the poorer brethren." 40. Henry Lansdell, The SacredTenth, or, Studiesin Tithe-GivingAncient and Modern, 2 vols. (London: S. P. C. K.; New York: E. S. Gorham, 1906), 1:230-31, traced civil legislation requiring all to pay tithes to Pepin, the Frankish king, in AD 764.

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of family and group ownership as well as of individual ownership-is in the name of societal justice. 41 Each of these alternatives altered somewhat the individual Christian's ability to exercise a stewardship of material things. The earliest reference to tithes in a Baptist confession of faith pertained to the English tax-tithe for the Church of England and not to voluntary giving. 42 The neglect of voluntary giving by members of Protestant churches early in the modem period was evidenced by assessments, pew rents, solicitation of merchants, church suppers and raffies, and highpressure campaigns. B. AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE MODERN ERA

During the latter nineteenth century and the early twentieth in Protestant churches there developed the more regular practice of voluntary giving, including tithing, for the support of local congregations and of denominational endeavors, especially international and national missions.43 The churches in the United States, chiefly but not exclusively Protestant, have given leadership to Christians of the world in the practice and the formulated Christian teaching or doctrine of the stewardship of material things, largely because of their non-establishment by the civil government and the accompanying implicit voluntaryism. 44 The literature of a practical bent relative to church-oriented stewardship has been massive.45 41. Garrett, "A Christian View of Material Things," pp. 92-93. 42. Standard Confession of General Baptists (1660), art. 16, in Lumpkin, Baptist Confessionsof Faith, p. 230. 43. Lansdell, The SacredTenth, vol. 2, traced the recovery of voluntary tithing to the beginning of the twentieth century, and George A. E. Salstrand, The Story of Stewardshipin the United Statesof America(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1956), narrated the practice of giving in American Protestant denominations through the era of World War II. 44. "Voluntaryism" refers to the pattern of church support through voluntary giving of its members, whereas "voluntarism" is a philosophical-theological term associated with free will (Franklin Hamlin Littell [1917- ], The Free Church [Boston: Starr King Press, 1957), pp. 61-62). 45. Out of this vast number of monographs the following are noteworthy in addition to those previously cited in this chapter: Guy Louis Morrill, You and Yours:God'sPurposein Things (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922); Walter Nathan Johnson (1875-1952), StewardshipVitalized(Nashville: Sunday School Board, Southern Baptist Convention, 1926); Francis John McConnell (1871-1953), ChristianMaterialism:Inquiriesinto the Getting,Spendingand Giving of Money (New York: Friendship Press, 1936); William Luther Muncy, Jr. (1901-87), Fellowshipwith God through ChristianStewardship(Kansas City, Kan.: Central Seminary Press, 1949); Alphin Carl Conrad (1905-85), The Divine Economy:A Study in Stewardship(Kansas City, Kan.: Central Seminary Press, 1954); Roy Lemon Smith (1887-1963), StewardshipStudies (New York: Abingdon Press, 1954); Raymond Marion Olson (1910- ), StewardsAppointed:

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Hanns Lilje ( 1899-1977), the Lutheran bishop of Hannover, declared in middle of the twentieth century concerning the doctrine and practice of Christian stewardship: To know that with all that we are and all that we have we are God's stewards is the answer to a particularly deep yearning of Ten Studies in Christian Stewardship Based on Luther's Small Catechism (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1958); Hiley Henry Ward (1929), CreativeGiving (New York: Macmillan Co., 1958); Robert Jean Hastings (1924-97), My Money and God (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1961); Christian

Stewardshipand EcumenicalConfrontation:Lecturesand Study Outlinesof a Consultation Organizedby the Departmenton the Laity and the EcumenicalInstitute of the World Councilof Churches,Bossey,Switzerland,August 31-September6, 1961 (New York: Department of Stewardship and Benevolence, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S. A., 1962);James Mark, The Questionof ChristianStewardship(London: SCM Press, 1964); Otto A. Piper, The Christian Meaning of Money, Library of Christian Stewardship (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965); Alfred Martin (1916- ), Not My Own (Chicago: Moody Press, 1968); Hendricks, ed., ResourceUnlimited;Carl Walter Berner, Sr. ( 1902- ), The Powerof Pure Stewardship(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1970); Henry B. Clark ( 1930- ), Escapefrom the Money Trap (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1973); Cecil Armstrong Ray (1922- ), Living the ResponsibleLife (Nashville: Convention Press, 1974); Wallace E. Fisher (1918- ),A New Climatefor Stewardship(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976); Turner Norman Clinard ( 1917-81 ), Respondingto God:The Life of Stewardship (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1980); Cecil A. Ray, How to Specializein ChristianLiving: What the Bible Teachesabout ChristianStewardship(Nashville: Convention Press, 1982); Waldo J. Werning ( 1921- ), ChristianStewards:Confronted and Committed(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982); Lee E. Davis and Ernest D. Standerfer, ChristianStewardshipin Action (Nashville: Convention Press, 1982);John M. Montgomery, Money, Power,Greed:Has the ChurchBeen Sold Out? (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1987); Donald W. Hinze, To Give and GiveAgain: A ChristianImperativefor Generosity(New York: Pilgrim Press, 1990);John Reumann, Stewardshipand the Economyof God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Indianapolis: Ecumenical Center for Stewardship Studies, 1992); Bobby L. Eklund and Terry Austin, Partnerswith God:Bible Truths about Giving (Nashville: Convention Press, 1994); Ben Gill (1939- ), Stewardship:The BiblicalBasisfor Living (Arlington, Tex.: Summit Publishing Group, 1996); John Ronsvalle and Sylvia Ronsvalle, Behind the Stained Glass Windows:Money Dynamicsin the Church(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996); CelebratingGod'sGenerosity(Scottdale, Pa., Waterloo, Ont.: Herald Press, 1997); and Ronald E. Vallet ( 1929- ), Congregationsat the Crossroads: Rememberingto Be Householdsof God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Manlius, NY: REV/Ross Publishing, 1998). On the recent decline in monetary giving in the mainline Protestant denominations, see James R. Wood ( 1933- ), "Liberal Protestant Social Action in a Period of Decline," in Robert Wuthnow and Virginia A. Hodgkinson, eds., Faithand Philanthropyin America:Exploring the Role of Religion in America'sVoluntarySector(San Francisco:Jossey-Bass, 1990), pp. 174-84.

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the time in which we live, namely, the yearning for a vita nova, a complete renewal of our life. Here the insights of our American brethren in the faith have, in the perspective of church history, something like the same significance as the lessons which the German Lutheran Reformation has taught us about justification by grace, or the Communion of the Brethren [Brudergemeine] about the unity of God's children. 46 In appropriating insights concerning stewardship Christians in Germany have had difficulty with respect to vocabulary. 47

VI. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION During the first half of the twentieth century the doctrine of stewardship could be treated almost completely as the responsible action in giving money for the support of the church and its far-flung ministries, even when it was acknowledged that stewardship also involves answerability to God and the steward's maturing as a Christian. But by the end of the same century it became virtually impossible to delineate Christian stewardship without the inclusion also of that cluster of issues which have come to be associated with the environment or ecology. A. STEWARDSHIP OF ALL NATURAL AND MATERIAL THINGS ON THE PART OF SOCIETIES, GOVERNMENTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

This form of stewardship is particularly acute now because of massive pollution of the earth, the waters, and the atmosphere and because of human overconsumption and human deprivation. Christians approach such worldwide issues from the God-given human dominion (Gen. 1:26, 28) to be exercised under the lordship of God as Creator. There are specifically ecological issues that call for a more responsible stewardship: litter and waste as a mounting problem; the spread of industrially produced acid rain; the depletion of agricultural lands; widespread deforestation, especially in the tropical rain forests; pollution of rivers and lakes; depletion of natural resources; and widespread human hunger and malnutrition. There are essentially moral issues that are associated with the ecological issues: the motivation of greed in Western, especially American,

46. "Foreword" to Heinrich Rendtorff, Als die guten Haushalter (Neuendettelsau: Freimund-Verlag, 1953), as trans. and quot. by Kantonen,A Theologyfor ChristianStewardship,p. 3. 47. The terms employed have included Haushalterschaft(household management), Treuhanderschaft(trusteeship), and Liebesdankbarkeit(gratitude oflove) (Hall, The Steward:A BiblicalSymbolComeof Age, p. 141, n. 2).

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consumer culture; 48 the rampant insistence on ease and pleasure for some at the expense of other human beings; the tendency toward unrestrained development and consumption; the "now" mentality with its instant gratification; and the likely paucity of earth's resources for future human generations. The intensification of these issues has evoked a new body of writings with respect to the burgeoning Christian theology of ecology. 49 These issues are truly ethical in nature, but for Christians they cannot be 48. In the mid-1980s it was reported that every day "McDonald's restaurants serve the equivalent of 2,250 head of cattle" in the form of hamburgers, and that each day residents of the United States eat 4 million pounds of bacon and 1/4 million pounds of lobster (Tom Parker, In One Day: The ThingsAmericansDo in a Day [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1984], p. 35). 49. Francis A. Schaeffer, Pollutionand the Death of Man: The ChristianViewof Ecology (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House; London: Coverdale House; Toronto: Home Evangel Books, 1970); Frederick Elder, Crisisin Eden:A Religious Study of Man and Environment (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970); Thomas Sieger Derr (1931- ), Ecologyand Human Liberation(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973; under title, Ecologyand Human Need, 1975); Mary Evelyn Jegen and Bruno Manno, eds., The Earth ls the Lord's:Essayson Stewardship (New York: Paulist Press, 1978); Odil Hannes Steck ( 1935- ), Worldand Environment, trans. from German (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1980); Loren Wilkinson, ed., Earthkeeping:ChristianStewardshipof Natural Resources(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980; rev. ed., 1991); C. A. Cesaretti and Stephen Cummins, eds., Let the Earth Blessthe Lord:A ChristianPerspectiveon Land Use (New York: Seabury Press, 1981); Ron Elsdon (1944- ), Bent World:A Christian Responseto the EnvironmentalCrisis(Leicester, U. K., Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 198l);John Carmody (1939- ), Ecologyand Religion: Towarda New ChristianTheologyof Nature (Ramsey, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1983); Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, A WorldlySpirituality:The Call to RedeemLife on Earth (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1984); Robert L. Stivers (1940- ),

Hunger, Technologyand Limits to Growth:ChristianResponsibility for ThreeEthical Issues (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984); Jurgen Moltmann, God in Creation:A New Theologyof Creationand the Spirit of God, trans. Margaret Kohl (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985), esp. ch. 2; Dieter T. Hessel, ed., For Creation'sSake: Preaching,Ecology,andjustice (Philadelphia: Geneva Press, 1985); Sean McDonagh, S.S. C. (1935- ), To Carefor the Earth:A Call to a New Theology(London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1986; Santa Fe, N. M.: Bear and Co., 1987); Bernard F. Evans and Gregory D. Cusack, eds., Theologyof the Land (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1987); Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, ed., Tending the Garden:Essayson the Gospeland the Earth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987); Richard Cartwright Austin (1934- ), Hopefor the Land: Nature in the Bible (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988); Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Ecologyand Life:AcceptingOur Environmental Responsibility,Issues of Christian Conscience (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1988); Jurgen Moltmann, Creatinga just Future: The Politicsof Peaceand the Ethicsof Creationin a ThreatenedWorld, trans.John Bowden (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1989), ch. 3; Sean

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answered in isolation from the doctrine of creation and its corollaries. Nor should the fact that adherents of the New Age movement are actively involved in ecological issues prevent Christians, who are citizens as well as believers, from participation in those efforts, large or small, toward a more responsible use of the planetary resources. 50 John Hick's assessment can arouse the indifferent Christian conscience:

McDonagh, The Greeningof the Church (London: Geoffrey Chapman; Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1990); Ian Bradley, GodIs Green:Christianityand the Environment (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1990); Tim Cooper, GreenChristianity(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990); James A. Nash (1938- ), Loving Nature: EcologicalIntegrityand ChristianResponsibility(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991); Calvin B. DeWitt (1935- ), ed., The Environment and the Christian:What Can We Learnfrom the New Testament?(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991); Thomas Mary Berry, C. P., (1914-) and Thomas Clarke, S. J. ( 1918- ), Befriendingthe Earth:A Theologyof Reconciliationbetween Humans and the Earth, ed. by Stephen Dunn, C. P., and Anne Lonergan (Mystic, Conn.: Twenty-Third Publications, 1991); Anthony Campolo (1935), How to Rescuethe Earth without WorshippingNature:A Christian'sCall to Save Creation(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992); Ron Elsdon, GreenhouseTheology: BiblicalPerspectiveson Caringfor Creation(Eastbourne, U.K.: Monarch, 1992); Richard D. Land and Louis A. Moore, eds., The Earth Is the Lord's:Christians and the Environment (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992); Harold Paul Santmire ( 1935- ), The Travail of Nature: The AmbiguousEcologicalPromiseof ChristianTheology(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985; rpt. ed., Augsburg Fortress Press, 1992);John Francis Haught (1942- ), The Promiseo/Nature: Ecologyand CosmicPurpose(Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993);Janice E. Kirk ( 1935- ) and Donald R. Kirk, Cherishthe Earth: The Environmentand Scripture (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1993); Lawrence Osborn, Guardianof Creation: Nature in Theologyand the ChristianLife (Leicester, U.K.: Apollos, 1993); Lionel Basney, An Earth-CarefulWay of Life: ChristianStewardshipand the EnvironmentalCrisis(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994);James M. Gustafson ( 1925- ), A Senseof the Divine: The Natural Environmentfrom a TheocentricPerspective(Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1994); Max Oelschlaeger ( 1943- ), Caringfor Creation:An EcumenicalApproachto the EnvironmentalCrisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994); Richard A. Young (1944- ), Healing the Earth:A TheologicalPerspectiveon EnvironmentalProblemsand Their Solution (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994); Robert Booth Fowler, The Greeningof ProtestantThought (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995); Fred Van Dyke, David C. Mahan,Joseph K. Sheldon, and Raymond H. Brand, RedeemingCreation:The BiblicalBasisfor EnvironmentalStewardship (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996); Michael S. Northcott, The Environmentand ChristianEthics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); and Calvin B. DeWitt et al., Caringfor Creation:ResponsibleStewardshipof God'sHandiwork (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998). 50. But Christian involvement in ecological issues by no means gives sanction to the worship of the earth goddess Gaia (Tod Conner, "Is the Earth Alive?" ChristianityToday, 11 January 1993, pp. 22-25).

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Becoming a Christian and the Christian Life In being the first science-based culture, Christendom is also the first culture to experience the domination, possibly leading to the destruction, of human life by its own technology. For technology has created the self-consuming consumer society, with its selfish assumption of a continually rising standard ofliving. This assumption-together with the population explosion made possible by medical technology-is rapidly exhausting the earth's basic mineral and energy resources and creating the prospect of ecological disaster, perhaps in the early decades of the next century. Western civilisation may thus be in process of strangling itself by its own unbridled lust for ever greater wealth and luxury .... Christianity has so far offered no effective resistance to this trend, but is on the contrary deeply implicated in the self-destructive life-style and violent tradition of modern western man. The question is now whether Christian civilisation, having become the first bearer of the modern scientific spirit, can avoid being so dominated and corrupted by it that it leads the whole world to destruction. 51

B. STEWARDSHIP OF MATERIAL THINGS BY INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIAN FAMILIES, AND CHURCHES FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

1. The Health and Wealth Gospel: Analysis and Critique The contemporary Christian who seeks to be a responsible steward of those material resources which have been committed to his care is often confronted with another and competing message, the Health and Wealth Gospel, known also as the "faith movement." 52 Bruce Barron ( 1960- )53 has traced this movement to Edward Irving in early nineteenth-century Britain and certain other practitioners of healing, to the nineteenth-century American preachers of divine healing, 54 and to Pentecostal leaders. 55 But such tracing applies much more to the health side than the wealth side of the movement. The prosperity side Barron traces more directly to Oral Roberts's book, God's Formula for Success and Prosperity. 56 He sees Kenneth E. Hagin as

51. God Has Many Names:Britain's New Religi,ousPluralism (London: Macmillan, 1980), p. 96. 52. See above, ch. 49, II. 53. The Health and WealthGospel:What's Going On Todayin a Movement That Has Shapedthe Faith of Millions? (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1987), pp. 35-63. 54. A. J. Gordon, A. B. Simpson, and John Alexander Dowie. 55. Charles Fox Parham (1873-1929), Aimee Semple McPherson, and Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947). 56. (fulsa: Healing Waters, 1955).

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the one who fully joined the three themes of "healing, positive confession and prosperity." 57 On the other hand, Daniel R. McConnell ( 195 7- ) has contended 58 that the roots of the Health and Wealth Gospel are to be found in the ministry of E. W. Kenyon, who allegedly adopted New Thought metaphysics 59 through the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston and propagated it in his later ministry as a Baptist pastor in Pasadena, Los Angeles, and Seattle. McConnell has further claimed that Hagin adopted and circulated Kenyon's teachings despite his having disclaimed Kenyon as the source of his teaching. Such teachings in the main have been adopted by Kenneth W. Copeland (1937-) and Gloria Copeland ( 1942- ). Advocates of the Health and Wealth Gospel have employed several biblical passages in support of their teaching. One of these is 3 John 2, "Beloved, I pray that all may go well60 with you and that you may be in health; I know that it is well with your soul" (RSV). Oral Roberts since the 1950s and others have interpreted this text as a guarantee of prosperity. However, Read in context, 3 John 2 seems to be a personal wish for Gaius, the recipient of John's letter, not a divine promise for all Christians. Pentecostal scholar Gordon Fee has discovered that this verse is "the standard form of greeting in a personal letter in antiquity."61 Use also is made of Mark 10:29-30 (RSV): '"there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life."' Gloria and Kenneth Copeland have interpreted this text to mean that those who have ample faith can expect a hundredfold return in prosperity for Christian ministry or a gift to television ministries. 62 Do the Copelands expect a hundredfold increase in family members? Have the advocates of the Health and Wealth Gospel left everything to follow Jesus? More57. Barron, The Health and WealthGospel,pp. 62-63. 58. A DifferentGospel:A Historicaland BiblicalAnalysisof the Modern FaithMovement (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), pp. 3-76. Per Robert B. Stewart. 59. See the book written by the founder of the Unity School of Christianity, Charles S. Fillmore (1854-1948), Prosperity(Kansas City, Mo.: Unity School ofChristianity, 1936). 60. The KJV uses the verb "prosper." 61. Barron, The Health and WealthGospel,pp. 91-92. The quotation is from Fee, The Diseaseof the Health and WealthGospels(Costa Mesa, Calif.: Word for Today, 1979), p. 4. 62. Gloria Copeland, God'sWill Is Prosperity(Fort Worth: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1978), pp. 41-54; Kenneth Copeland, The Laws of Prosperity (Fort Worth: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1974), pp. 67, 87.

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over, the text immediately follows the account of the rich young ruler and Jesus' warning as to the difficulty with which rich persons enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10: 17-27). These same teachers connect the divine promises of the land of Canaan to Abraham (Gen. 17:8) and of prosperity to the Israelites (Deut. 28:4-6, 8, 11-12) with the Pauline word that "the blessing given to Abraham" comes to Gentile Christians as Abraham's "heirs" (Gal. 3: 14, 29, NIV) so as to conclude that present-day Christians have been "redeemed from the curse" (Gal. 3:13) ofpoverty. 63 But Paul spoke of "the curse of the law" and referred to receiving the Holy Spirit, not financial prosperity, as the intended result of the blessing through Abraham. 64 The use made of 2 Cor. 9:6 has probably been proper, and there is some indication that the Copelands have relativized financial prosperity after having been challenged as to how their message would be received among the poor of the Two-Thirds World. 65 In response to the Health and Wealth Gospel it must be emphasized that Christians as responsible stewards of material things are not to give their money or property to God via the church or parachurch movements with the motive of obtaining greater material possessions for themselves.

2. Restatement of the Christian Stewardship of Material Things for the Gospel and the Kingdom a. The Question of the Tithe

Various Protestant theologians have rejected the concept that the giving of a tithe of one's income is a law binding on all Christians or should be a condition of church membership. 66 According to T. A. Kantonen, tithing as law contradicts the Christian doctrine of gospel and law, lending "itself to a man-centered legalism which imperils true religion." But Kantonen affirmed the tithe when "freely and joyfully practiced by Christians." 67 For Lukas Vischer, "the reintroduction of the commandment to tithe not only dulls the sharpness of the challenge which Christ makes but also falsifies it in its very essence." Indeed, "Christ's challenge was diminished as soon as nothing more than the tithe was required; and its evangelical character was obscured when the amount of that which Christ challenges us to do was fixed a priori." Tithing can be justified on the basis of "the need to support the work of the church" and as "a way of confessing that we approve of and participate in the common work of the 63. G. Copeland, God's Willfor You (Fort Worth: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1972), pp. 36-41; K. Copeland, The Laws of Prosperity,pp. 47-52; G. Copeland, God's Will Is Prosperity,pp. 38-39. 64. Barron, The Health and Wealth Gospel,pp. 90-91. 65. Ibid., pp. 93-98. 66. As among Seventh-day Adventists and Latter-day Saints. 67. A Theologyfor Christian Stewardship,pp. 23, 24.

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congregation." 68 Robert Paul Roth (1919- )justified tithing not "as a simple scriptural command" but "in the light of ... the eschatological message" of the New Testament and of"the fundamental paradox of the two kingdoms" of those who have and who have not "the goods of this world." 69 For Alton Rudolph Fagan (1930-) the issue was the avoidance not only of tithing as law but also as "the major portion of either stewardship or giving" or as "the whole of stewardship." Rather tithing, like the law, can serve as schoolmaster or pedagogue. Declared Fagan: "... I have never known a person whose grasp and practice of stewardship went beyond the tithe who did not first begin with tithing." 70 The practice of the giving of a tithe by Christians can be defended by a "how much more" argument if not as law. If adherents of ancient religions gave tithes to their deities and if Jews under the Mosaic law were obligated to give a tithe, or as many as three tithes, together with offerings, 71 how much more ought Christians under the grace of God and the new covenant in Christ to feel compelled to give no less than a tithe of their incomes to God for the sake of the gospel? 72 Can serious Christians validly rationalize giving less than the tithe except in dire emergency? Should the tithe be given to the congregation of which one is a member? A Methodist congregation in Cincinnati led in 1895 in the practice of "storehouse tithing." 73 In 1942 W. T. Conner 74 debated the 68. Tithing in the Early Church,pp. 30, 31. 69. "A Twentieth Century Conception of Christian Tithing," in Thomas K. Thompson, ed., Stewardshipin ContemporaryTheology(New York: Association Press, 1960), pp. 142-54. 70. What the Bible Saysabout Stewardship(Nashville: Convention Press, 1976), pp. 48, 49. See also Brooks Hardy Wester (1917-88), "The Christian and the Tithe," Henry Franklin Paschal (1922?- ), "Tithing in the New Testament," Jerry Wade Horner ( 1936- ), "The Christian and the Tithe," in Hendricks, ed., ResourceUnlimited,pp. 158-202. 71. Grant, The EconomicBackgroundof the Gospels,pp. 92-97, 105, concluded that in the time of Jesus devout Jews were expected to contribute a dozen different tithes and offerings, in addition to the taxes demanded by the Roman government, and that the total of tithes, offerings, and taxes "must have approachedthe intolerableproportionof between30 and 40 per cent" and "mayhave beenhigherstill." See also Cunningham, CreativeStewardship,p. 102. 72. To the argument from silence based upon the absence of any reference to the tithe in Paul's epistles, George Brown Davis (1937- ), "Are Christians Supposed to Tithe?" CriswellTheologicalReview 2 (Fall 1987): 89, has replied by noting that Paul did not use "the word 'hell' (hades,ge'enna, tartarus)." 73. James Andrew Hensey (1866- ), StorehouseTithing, or StewardshipUp-to-Date (New York: Revell Press, 1922), esp. pp. 73-83; Roth, "A Twentieth Conception of Christian Tithing," p. 139. 74. "The Meaning of Stewardship," Baptist Standard 54 (7 May 1942): 2; "Stewardship of Possessions," ibid., 54 (21 May 1942): 5; "More about Storehouse Tithing," ibid., 54 (23 July 1942): 3; "The Foundation of Stewardship," ibid., 54 (30 July 1942): 2. Conner held that the New Testament does not "enjoin"

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subject with John William Cobb (1901-74) 75 and Jesse Yelvington (1892- ? ). 76 John R. Rice held that storehouse tithing was required of Jews but not of Christians and, seemingly to foster interdenominational causes and radio ministries, concluded that storehouse tithing through local churches as practiced by Christians was actually "harmful." 77 But R. T. Kendall has restated the case for storehouse tithing to a British audience. 78 The proliferation of parachurch organizations during recent decades has impeded its practice. Strong congregational life and serious congregational participation in the world mission of Christianity would seem to depend upon storehouse tithing or some other equivalent degree of giving. b. Stewards of All Possessions

The Christian doctrine of stewardship is not to be confined to the money or other possessions which Christians contribute to their churches for the ministries of those churches and for the evangelization of all peoples. It embraces the responsible utilization of all one's possessions for the glory of God. 79 How one expends or conserves the money or property not given specifically to Christian causes is also an area of responsibility before God. To spend money on substances that harm or destroy the human body, on utterly extravagant and wasteful luxuries, and in gambling for great awards through chance are instances that raise major questions concerning stewardship. Moreover, Christians by careful planning of the administration of their estates can and should by means of wills and trusts provide for an ongoing beyond-death stewardship of material things for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom of God.

"storehouse tithing" and that it is "a good plan," but not "a universal law of the Christian life." Conner had earlier opposed tithing as a law of the Christian life or as a test of fellowship in Baptist churches or in the Baptist denomination ("Are We To Have a New Test of Orthodoxy?" Baptist Standard, 38 [9 December 1926]: 9). 75. "Unity vs. the Unit," Baptist Standard 54 (12 February 1942): 1-2. 76. "The Question of Storehouse Tithing," Baptist Standard 54 (2 July 1942): 3; "Tithing: The Discussion Continued," ibid., 54 (6 August 1942): 2. 77. All About ChristianGiving (Murfreesboro, Tenn.: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1954), pp. 75-131. 78. Tithing (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982), pp. 79-81. Kendall, asserting that "tithing is not adiaphoron,"also argued for tithing on the basis that it blesses the work of God on earth, it pleases the God of heaven, and it brings to the tither spiritual release and blessing and often material blessings as well (pp. 29-37). 79. Richard B. Cunningham, "Principles and Procedures of Responsible Giving," in Hendricks, ed., ResourceUnlimited,pp. 219-44.

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c. Christian Giving to God for and through the Churches

The giving of money and other property to churches by Christians should be characterized by specific purposes and motives.80 The purposes include the honoring of God, since giving should be an act of worship; the adequate provision for the church's ministry both internally and externally; the avoidance of covetousness or avarice; and one's growth in Christian character and discipleship. 81 The seductive materialism of Western culture at the advent of the twenty-first century makes more imperative the faithful stewardship of Christians. 82 The awesome needs of fellow Christian believers and fellow human beings-whether in poverty, in hunger and starvation, or in time of natural disaster-add to the urgency of Christian stewardship. Christian giving can be the gateway to the extension of the educational and diakonal ministries of the congregation and to the more effective evangelistic and missionary outreach of the congregation through cooperative missions. Here we find the evangelical doctrine of"transubstantiation." Money is obediently and regularly given through the offerings of the congregation. Part of the offerings received by the congregation are in tum given to missionary, educational, and benevolent agencies. Such money is utilized so as to sustain persons who engage in the work of the gospel. Its very substance is changed or transformed. Money flows into human personality, which in tum is yielded to God as the instrument of ministry and mission. Christians should give money and other property to churches because of Christian and stewardly motivations. Giving should not be for ostentation or the praise of fellowhumans. It should not be out of a desire to bribe God for benefits or blessings. Rather it should be done regularly, generously, and cheerfully out of recognition of God's matchless grace. Love should be the highest of all motivations for Christian giving. Such love should be in the consciousness of the sovereignty of the Father, the lordship of Jesus Christ, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the words of Reginald H. Fuller, The disciple is one completely committed to God and His purpose in the world, and complete commitment means that he has handed over to Christ his whole life, everything he is and has. Henceforth he has a direct relation, as Bonhoeffer puts it, only with Christ. Christ may give back worldly possessions to himperhaps nothing, perhaps in part, perhaps in toto, as He decides 80. Cecil A. Ray, "The Christian and His Giving," in Hendricks, ed., Resource Unlimited,pp. 203-18. 81. George A. E. Salstrand, The Tithe: The Minimum Standardfor ChristianGiving (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1952), pp. 45-49. 82. John White (1924- ), The GoldenCow:Materialismin the 20th Century(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979). "The twentieth-century church has ... forgotten which master she belongs to, painting herself like a hussy in her silly pursuit of Lord Mammon. Or, to use another image, the church has gone a-whoring after a golden cow" (p. 67).

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Christian stewardship is integrally related to other Christian doctrines. Douglas John Hall has explicated its relationships with the doctrines of God, Christ, church, humankind, and last things, 84 and Helge Brattgard its relationships with creation, salvation, and sanctification. 85 We now turn in the unfolding of the Christian life from the stewardship of material things to the stewardship of spiritual resources as expressed through prayer.

83. In Reginald H. Fuller and Brian K. Rice, Christianity and the Affluent Society (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1966), p. 30. 84. The Steward: A Biblical Symbol Come of Age, pp. 41-48. 85. God's Stewards, pp. 138-88.

CHAPTER68

PRAYER Although there have been recurring complaints that Christian theology has turned the second-person language of prayer and praise into the thirdperson language of theological reflection, one should acknowledge that third-person language can be legitimately used even concerning prayer. Definitions concerning prayer have frequently employed the word "communion." According to Friedrich Heiler (1892-1967), prayer is "a living communion of the religious man with God, conceived as personal and present in experience, a communion which reflects the forms of the social relations of humanity." Indeed, "to pray means to speak to and have intercourse with God." 1 For W. T. Conner, prayer is "communion of the soul with God, that is, the conscious outgoing of the soul in spiritual fellowship with God." 2 Prayer, according to Karl Ruf Stolz (18841943), is "man's intercourse with God." 3 John Edgar McFadyen (18701933) stated: Prayer implies reciprocity. It is more than meditation, it is communion. It is a dialogue, not a monologue. It is not enough that man speak to God; he must believe that God can hear and, in some way, speak to him again. 4 James Hastings's (1852-1922) threefold definition includes "desire," "communion," and "petition. "5

1. Prayer:A Study in the Historyand Psychologyof Religi,on,trans. and ed. Samuel McComb and]. Edgar Park (London: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp. 358,362. 2. A Systemof ChristianDoctrine,p. 480; The Gospelof Redemptfon,p. 237. 3. The Psychologyof Prayer(New York: Abingdon Press, 1923), p. 18. 4. The Prayersof the Bible (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906), p. 20. 5. The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,The Great Christian Doctrines (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1915), pp. 21-43.

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These definitions, although they may not adequately define corporate or collective prayer, do point to the necessary objective dimension in prayer, namely, that of a reciprocal relationship between and activity of God and human beings. Even so, prayer is not to be limited to petition and intercession. Moreover, these definitions do not reduce prayer merely to its subjective or reflexive effects such as a sense of dependence, an opportunity for reflection, or a means of self-adjustment. In prayer there is both the reaching out in thought, aspiration, and spoken word after God and the waiting upon and listening to God in an attentive, receptive, and obedient attitude. Prayer, as P. T. Forsyth declared, is "paradoxically, both a gift and a conquest, a grace and a duty." 6

I. OLD TEST AMENT A. TERMINOLOGY

The principal Old Testament terms for prayer are the verb pallal and the This verb in the piel stem means "to think," "supcognate noun tYJ_i,lah. pose," or 'Judge," whereas in the hithpael stem it means "to supplicate," "pray," or "intercede for." The Old Testament contains more than seventy occurrences of the verb, of which Num. 11:2, 1 Sam. 12:23a, 2 Chr. 7: 14a, and Dan. 9 :4a are examples, and more than seventy occurrences of the noun, of which 1 Kings 8:28a, Ps. 54:2a; Ps. 102:la, and Isa. 38:5c are examples. B. SPECIFIC VERBATIM PRAYERS

The Old Testament records the contents of numerous prayers, some of which are lengthy. Prayers of confession of sin include those of Ezra after learning of Jewish intermarriage with Gentiles (Ezra 9:6-15) and after the people had confessed their sins (Neh. 9:5c-37) and of Daniel after his reading of Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy-year "desolation of Jerusalem" (NIV) (Dan. 9: 1-19). Prayers of thanksgiving include those of David after the Israelite leaders had freely given their precious metals and stones for the erection of the temple (1 Chr. 29: l0b-19, esp. v. 13), of Jonah for his deliverance (Jon. 2:2-9), and of Daniel after the revelation of the significance of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Dan. 2:20-23). Prayers of complaint include those of Moses at Taberah after the Israelites had begged for meat (Num. 11:11-15), of Joshua after the Israelite defeat at Ai (Josh. 7:7-9), of Jeremiah because of his persecutors (Jer. 15:15-18), of besieged Jerusalem (Lam. 2:20-22; 3:42-47), and of Job over the injustice of his suffering (10:2-21; 13:23-14:6). Prayers of petition include those of Abraham's servant for guidance in finding a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24: 12-14, 42-44), of Jacob for deliverance from Esau (Gen. 32:96. The Soul of Prayer(London: Independent Press Ltd., 1916, 1949), p. 13.

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12), of Solomon for wisdom (1 Kings 3:7-9), of Elijah for vindication of his servanthood (1 Kings 18:36b-37), of Hezekiah for deliverance from Sennacherib (2 Kings 19: 15b-19; Isa. 37: 16-20), and of Jeremiah for his own deliverance and for the punishment of his persecutors ( 17: 14-18; 18: 19-23). Prayers of intercession include those of Abraham for the residents of Sodom (Gen. l 8:23b-32), of Moses for the Israelites after the worship of the golden calf (Exod. 32: 11-13; Deut. 9:26b-29), and of Solomon for repentant Israelites at the dedication of the temple ( 1 Kings 8:23-53; 2 Chr. 6:14-42). 7

II. NEW TESTAMENT A. TERMINOLOGY

The New Testament uses a diversity oflanguage to express the experience of prayer. Five Greek verbs, some of which have cognate nouns, are so employed. 1. Verbs euchomai and proseuchomai and Noun proseuche

The verb euchomai,meaning "to pray (to God)" or "to wish for," is used at times of wishing (Acts 27:29; 2 Cor. 13:7, 9; 3 John 2). The compound verb, proseuchomai,normally translated "to pray," occurs nearly 80 times in the New Testament when the KJV renders it "pray." It is used, for example, in Luke's account of the giving of the Lord's Prayer (l l:2a), in Jesus' admonition to "[w]atch and pray" (Mark 14:38a, RSV, NIV), and in Paul's "pray continually" ( 1 Thess. 5: 17, NEB, NIV). The noun proseuchi,"prayer to God," occurs 36 times in the New Testament when the KJV renders it "prayer." For example, "'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations"' (Mark 11: 17, RSV), and "they devoted themselves ... to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). 2. Verb deomai and Noun deisis

The verb deomaihas multiple meanings: "to lack," "to desire," "to ask or beg," and "to pray." In twelve of its New Testament usages the KJV translates it "pray." For example, '"pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest"' (Matt. 9:38, RSV), and "After they prayed, ... they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly" (Acts 4:31, NIV). The noun deisis means "entreating," "prayer," and "supplication." Twelve times the KJV renders it "prayer." For example, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the 7. Mcfadyen, The Prayersof the Bible, pp. 241-300. See also the recent studies by Howard Peskett, "Prayer in the Old Testament outside the Psalms," and by Kyu Nam Jung, "Prayer in the Psalms," in Donald A. Carson, ed., Teach Us to Pray:Prayerin the Bibleand the World (Exeter, U. K.: Paternoster Press; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990), pp. 19-57. Per Bert B. Dominy.

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Israelites is that they may be saved" (Rom. 10: 1, NIV), and 'The prayer ofa righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5: 16b). Six times the KJV translates deisis "supplication." For example, "in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6, RSV), and "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men" (1 Tim. 2:1).

3. Verb erotao The verb erotao, meaning "to ask," "to beseech," and "to pray," is translated 13 times "pray" in the KJV. Examples include '"I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever"' (John 14:16, RSV) and '"I am praying for them"' (John l 7:9a). 4. Verb entygchanoand Noun enteuxis

The Greek verb tygchanomeans transitively "to reach" and "to obtain" and intransitively "to happen" and "to meet (another)." The compound verb entygchano means "to meet one for consultation or supplication" and hence "to intercede." Hence "the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:27b, RSV), and Jesus "is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him" (Heb. 7:25, JB). The verb hyperentygchanois used once: "[T]he Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26b, RSV), whereas the noun enteuxis, "intercession," is used twice (1 Tim. 2: 1; 4:5).

5. Verb parakaleo The verb parakaleo,which means "to call to one's side," "to speak to," "to admonish," "to entreat," and "to console," is six times translated in the KJV as "pray," but only one of these involves prayer to God (Matt. 26:53). B. LIFE AND MINISTRY OF JESUS: GOSPELS

I .Jesus' Habit of Praying James Mann Campbell (1840-1926) asserted: Jesus ... was a man of prayer. Prayer formed the warp and woof of his daily life. It was the atmosphere in which he lived and He was always in the spirit of moved and had his being .... prayer. ... The possession of the spirit of prayerfulness did not exalt him above the need of explicit acts of prayer. 8 He often prayed in solitary and remote places for extended periods of time (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; Mark 6:46 and par.; Matt. 14:23). He

8. The Place of Prayer in the Christian Religion (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1915), p. 21.

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prayed for a disciple such as Simon Peter (Luke 22:31-32), for little children (Matt. 19:13), and for his enemies (Luke 23:34). 9

2. Prayer and the Crises ofJesus' Ministry Jesus habitually prayed, chiefly, according to the Gospel of Luke, at critical times within his ministry: at his baptism (3:21), prior to the selection of the Twelve (6:12), before disclosing the nature of his messiahship (9:18), at his transfiguration (9:28-29), before the raising of Lazarus Qohn l l:4lc-42), at the Last Supper (22:19 and par.), in Gethsemane (22:40-45 and par.), and on the cross (23:34; Mark 15:34 and par.; Luke 23:46). 10 3.Jesus' Model Prayer The Model Prayer, or the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13; par. Luke 11:24), according to Luke, was given at the request of the disciples. The longer Matthean rendition consists of seven petitions, the first three of which are distinctly Godward in reference (the divine name, the divine kingdom, and the divine will) and the last four of which have manward aspects (food, forgiveness, temptation, Satan). The second and third petitions are correlatives in that they both point to happenings during or at the end of history. The sixth and seventh petitions are correlatives, especially if "temptation" be interpreted as inducement to sin or evil rather than testing and if apo tou ponirou be taken as a reference to Satan, as in NEB, TEV, JB, and NN. 11 The prayer moves from adoration to petition and from "Thy" to "us." 9. Ibid., pp. 43-48. 10. Ibid., pp. 27-42. On Jesus' prayers on the cross, see D. Elton Trueblood, The Lord'sPrayers(New York: Harper and Row, 1965), pp. 112-26; Donald Coggan (1909-2000), The Prayersof the New Testament(Washington, DC: Corpus Books, 1967), pp. 46-4 7, 53-56. 11. This paragraph is taken from the author's "A Theology of Prayer," Southwesternjournal of Theology15 (Spring 1972): 9. "Recent expositions of the Lord's Prayer include" (ibid., 10) the following: Walter Luthi (1901- ), The Lord'sPrayer:An Exposition,trans. Kurt Schoenenberger (Edinburgh: Olive and Boyd, 196l);John Lowe (1899-1960), The Lord'sPrayer(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962); Henri van den Bussche (1920- }, Understandingthe Lord's Prayer, trans. Charles Schaldenbrand (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1963); Christopher Francis Evans, The Lord'sPrayer(London: S. P. C. K., 1963); Joachim Jeremias, The Lord'sPrayer,trans.John Reumann, Facet Books, Biblical Series, no. 8 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964); Heinz Schiirmann, Prayingwith Christ:The "Our Father"for Today, trans. W. M. Ducey and Alphonse Simon (New York: Herder and Herder, 1964); Ernst Lohmeyer (1890-1946), The Lord'sPrayer,trans.John Bowden (London: Collins, 1965); Gerhard Ebeling, The Lord'sPrayerin Today'sWorld,trans.James W. Leitch (London: SCM Press, 1966); Charles Martin Layman (1904- }, The Lord's Prayerin Its BiblicalSetting (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1968); Philip B. Horner, Understandingthe Lord'sPrayer(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975); Jakob J. Petuchowski and Michael Brocke, eds., The Lord'sPrayerandJewish

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4. Prayer Addressed to God as Father (Abba) According to the Synoptic Gospels,Jesus prayed to God as "Father" (Matt. 11:25 and par.; Mark 14:36 and par.; Luke 23:34, 46)anddirectedhis disciples to address God in prayer as "Our Father" (Matt. 6:9 and par.). The Fourth Gospel also refers to Jesus' praying to God as "Father" (11:41; 12:27-28; 17:1, 5, 11, 21, 24, 25). In both the Synoptics (Matt. 6:6, 8, 14-15; 7:11 and par.; 7:21; Mark 11:25) and inJohn (15:16; 16:23, 26) the term "Father" is used in passages related to prayer. Unlike the Jews of that day,Jesus addressed God as Father by use of the Aramaic term abba,a term of familiarity "derived from the language of small children" but, prior to Jesus, extended to use as adult language. 12 Joachim Jeremias has suggested that the giving of the Lord's Prayer to the disciples authorized them to say "Abba,"just as Jesus did, and that Jesus forbade the use of "the address abba in everyday speech as a courtesy title (Matt. 23:9)" 13 so that the term could be reserved for God. 14 The high priestly prayer of John 17 has been previously examined. 15 5.Jesus' Teaching about Prayer In his teaching on prayer Jesus stressed both how to pray and that for which people should pray. His disciples were not to pray, as did the scribes and Pharisees, "'that they may be seen by men"' (Matt. 6:5-6, RSV); neither were they to "'heap up empty phrases"' as did the Gentiles, as if they would "'be heard for their many words"' (Matt. 6:7-8). ChrisLiturgy (New York: Seabury Press, 1978); Oswald CarlJulius Hoffmann (1913- ), The Lord'sPrayer(San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982); Leonardo Boff, The Lord'sPrayer,trans. Theodore Morrow (Melbourne: Dove Communications; Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1983);Jan Milic Lochman ( 1922- ), The Lord'sPrayer, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990); Nicholas Ayo, The Lord'sPrayer:A Survey Theologicaland Literary (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992); Arthur Paul Boers (1957- ), Lord, Teach Us To Pray:A New Look at the Lord'sPrayer (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1992); Warren McWilliams, Christand Narcissus: Prayerin a Self-CenteredWorld (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1992); Rudolf Schnackenburg ( 1914- ), All Things Are Possibleto Believers:Reflections on the Lord'sPrayerand the Sermonon the Mount, trans.James S. Currie (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1995; German orig., 1984); and Adrian John Simonis (1931- ), Our Father:Reflectionson the Lord'sPrayer, trans. Barbara Schultz-Verdon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999). 12.JoachimJeremias, The PrayersofJesus, trans.John Bowden, Studies in Biblical Theology, 2d ser., no. 6 (London: SCM Press, 1967), pp. 59, 60. 13. Ibid., p. 63. Jeremias also noted that such addressing of God in prayer as "Father" is to be found in "all five strata of the Gospel tradition": Mark, Q, L, M, and John (pp. 54, 57). 14. Most of this paragraph is taken from the author's "A Theology of Prayer," p. 6. 15. See Vol. 1, ch. 41, IV, C, 4.

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tian prayer ought not thus to be marked by ostentation or verbosity. The Temple should be '"a house of prayer for all the nations"' (Mark 11: 17 and par.).Jesus' followers must keep on asking, seeking, and knocking in expectancy of the Father's good blessings (Matt. 7:7-11). They are to pray in faith, forgiving the sins of others (Matt. 6: 14-15; Mark 11:24-25 and par.), and, according to the Fourth Gospel, in Jesus' name with confidence as to the granting of such petitions (14: 13-14; 15: 16b; 16:23-24, 26). Three of Jesus' parables deal specifically with prayer: the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5-13), the importunate widow (Luke 18:1-8), and the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). The first two of these teach persistence or importunity in prayer, while the third stresses humility and contrition.Jesus' disciples are to pray for their persecutors and, by implication, for their enemies (Matt. 5:43-45 and par.) and for "'the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest"' (Matt. 9:38, RSV, and par.). They are to "watch and pray" 16 in expectation of Jesus' parousia (Mark 13:33) and to pray that the great eschatological tribulation "may not happen in winter" (Mark 13:17-19 and par.). 17 C. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Praying occurred with respect to the Holy Spirit: prior to his coming on the Day of Pentecost (1 :14), prior to the Jerusalem church's being "filled with the Holy Spirit" (4:3lb), and for the reception of the Spirit by Samaritans (8: 15). Prayer was offered for the selection of church leaders: prior to the selection of Matthias as the replacement for Judas among the Twelve (1 :24), by the apostles for the Seven (6:6), by the church in Antioch of Syria prior to the commissioning of Barnabas and Saul (13:3), and by Paul and Barnabas at the installation of elders in Antioch of Pisidia (14:23). Luke reported the regular praying of the Twelve after selection of the Seven (6:4), of Cornelius as a God-fearer (10:2), and of the women gathered by the river at Philippi (16: 13, 16). He also noted the occasional prayers for Peter's release from prison (12:5), of Paul with the elders from Ephesus (20:36), and of sailors for a ship's safety until daybreak (27 :29). D. PAULINE EPISTLES

Paul gave attention to the manner of prayer. In the context of spiritual gifts he declared that one is to pray with his mind (tg noi) as well as with his spirit (tg pneumati) ( 1 Cor. 14: 15). In the context of equipage for the Christian struggle with evil powers he admonished the Ephesian Christians to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions (enpanti kairg) with all kinds of prayers and requests" (Eph. 6: 18, NIV). After acknowledging that the Spirit is the assurance of eschatological resurrection, Paul asserted that 16. Some manuscripts read "watch and pray" and others only "watch." 17. This paragraph has been taken from the author's "A Theology of Prayer," pp. 8-9.

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"the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Rom. 8:26b). 18 Paul affords significant instances of intercessory prayer. He referred to his praying for Thessalonian (1 Thess. 1:2-3; 2 Thess. 1:3, 11-12; 2:13), Roman (Rom. 1:8-10), Philippian (Phil. 1:3-5), and Colossian (Col. 1:3-5a) Christians. He alluded to his own praying for his unbelieving Jewish brothers (Rom. 10: 1) and urged upon Timothy that prayers of various kinds, possibly in corporate worship, be offered for civil rulers ( 1 Tim. 2: 1-2). Paul also verbalized within his epistles specific prayers for the Thessalonian (1 Thess. 3:11-13; 5:23; 2 Thess. 3:5), Corinthian (1 Cor. 1:4-9), Ephesian (Eph. 1:15-22; 3:14-19), and Colossian (Col. 1:9-12) Christians. He asked the Roman Christians to pray for him (Rom. 15:30-32). 19 Paul's great ungranted petition pertained to his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12:8-9). E. GENERAL EPISTLES

Access to God's "throne of grace" in prayer is through Jesus as high priest (Heb. 4: 14-16), who "always lives to intercede for" believers (Heb. 7:25, NIV). In view of the end of the age the one who prays is to "be self-controlled and alert" (1 Pet. 4:7, TEV), and mistreatment of wives by husbands can hinder praying (1 Pet. 3:7). Believers ought to pray expectantly for divine wisdom (James 1:5-6). Sometimes prayer is not offered, and sometimes it is offered "wrongly" (James 4:2c-3, RSV). A sick person should not only pray himself but also request the church's elders to pray in faith for him (James 5: 13-15 ), for the "prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16c, NIV). F. JOHANNINE EPISTLES AND REVELATION

Believers may have "confidence" to ask according to the will of the God who "hears" them with respect to such requests (1 John 5:14-15), and prayer should be offered for those who have not committed "sin which leads to death" (1 John 5:16, TEV). Prayer is offered for the physical health of Gaius, who is spiritually well (3 John 2). In an apocalyptic setting ascending incense is mixed by an angel with "the prayers" of ("all") the "saints" (KJV, RSV, JB, NIV) or of "all God's people" (NEB, TEV) (Rev. 8:3-4), and the Revelation concludes with a prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20c). But there are also prayers of doxology (5: 13; 7: 12),

18. See above, ch. 54, III, B. 19. Most of this paragraph has been taken from the author's "A Theology of Prayer," p. 16. See also William Henry Griffith Thomas, The Prayersof St. Paul (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1914).

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acclamation (4:11; 5:9,12), attributionofattributes (4:8; 15:3-4; 16:5-7), thanksgiving ( 11: 17-18), and hallelujahs ( 19: 1, 3, 4, 6). 20

III. HISTORY OF DOCTRINE A. PATRISTIC AGE

Three treatises concerning prayer survive among the extant ante-Nicene Christian writings: Tertullian's On Prayer(c. AD 204), 21 Origen's On Prayer (c. 233), 22 and Cyprian's On the LfJrd'sPrayer(c. 252). 23 Tertullian's treatise begins with an exposition of the seven clauses of the Lord's Prayer and then proceeds with instructions about the practice of prayer. In the fifth clause the bread is understood as Christ so that the petition is for perpetuity in him and indivisibility from the body of Christ. Cyprian's treatise was greatly dependent on that ofTertullian both as to structure and as to content. Both have been classified by Robert L. Simpson (1933- ) as belonging to the "catechetical tradition" of treatises on prayer. 24 Origen undertook various general considerations about prayer such as the meaning of the Greek words for prayer and objections to and advantages of prayer before expounding the Lord's Prayer and concluding with the practice of prayer. He interpreted '"our daily bread"' (ton arton himon ton epiousion)(Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3) as the Logos, the tree oflife, or the wisdom of God for the age to come. 25 Simpson less persuasively has classified Origen as belonging to the "mystical tradition" of treatises on prayer. 26 Of the post-Nicene treatises on prayer Simpson has classified Gregory of Nyssa's Homilieson the Lord'sPrayer27 as mystical 28 and Theodore of Mopsuestia's CatecheticalHomilies, no. 1129 (between 388 and 392) as catechetical. 30 B. MEDIEVAL ERA

Prayer between the rise of monasticism and the Protestant Reformation was, according to Henry Trevor Hughes (1910- ), essentially a struggle between "mystical and prophetic elements in prayer." The former, which 20. Esther Yue L. Ng, "Prayer in Revelation," in Carson, ed., Teach Us to Pray, pp. 120-21. 21. ANF, 3:681-91; trans. Ernest Evans (London: S.P.C.K., 1953). 22. LCC, 2:238-329; ACW, 19:15-140. 23. ANF, 5:447-57; trans. T. Herbert Bindley (London: S.P.C.K., 1914). 24. The Interpretationof Prayerin the Early Church,Library of History and Doctrine (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965), pp. 19-28. 25. On Prayer27. 26. The Interpretationof Prayerin the Early Church,pp. 32-34. 27. ACW, 18:21-84. 28. The Interpretationof Prayerin the Early Church,pp.34-39. 29. Trans. A. Mingana (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., 1932-33). 30. The Interpretationof Prayerin the Early Church,pp. 28-32.

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aims for absorptive union with God, enjoins passivity and withdrawal from the world, especially through the monastic life, whereas the latter, which seeks communion with God, involves redemption that issues in active work in a social context. 31 In Greek Orthodoxy a mystical form of prayer known as Hesychasm, or "quietude," began to be fostered by Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022), was later defended by Gregory Palamas ( 1296-1359), and was opposed by Barlaam the Calabrian (? -1350). Through controlled breathing, a bowed head, and one's eyes fixed upon one's navel, one could allegedly be enveloped by the very uncreated light that shone on Christ at his transfiguration. Palamas interpreted this light as belonging to the "energies" of God but not to God's "essence." Hence through such energies the transcendent God becomes immanent, enabling the Hesychasts to have an immediate relationship with God. 32 During what the West reckons as the medieval era the Roman Catholic Church and to some lesser extent the Eastern Orthodox churches embraced and subsequently taught and practiced the invocation of the Virgin Mary and of the canonized saints. The most extreme form of the necessary intercession by Mary for human salvation was that later advocated by Alfonso Maria di Liguori (1696-1787). 33 C. PROTESTANT REFORMATION

With the Reformers, according to Hughes, came a revival of prophetic prayer. Luther repeatedly emphasized the necessity, the practice, and the efficacy of earnest prayer, including petition and intercession. Both Luther 34 and Calvin 35 expounded the Lord's Prayer. Calvin firmly re-

31. PropheticPrayer:A Historyof the ChristianDoctrineof Prayerto the Reformation (London: Epworth Press, 1947), esp. p. 2. Hughes built upon Heiler's Prayer, esp. chs. 6-9. For a more favorable treatment of mystical prayer, see Alfred Leslie Lilley (1860-1948), Prayerin ChristianTheology:A Study of Some Momentsand Mastersof the ChristianLifefrom Clementof Alexandriato Fenelon (London: Student Christian Movement, 1925). 32. Timothy Ware (1934- ), The OrthodoxChurch (rev. ed.; Harmondsworth, U. K., Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1964), pp. 75-79; Reginald Michael French (1884-? ), The Eastern OrthodoxChurch (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1951 ), pp. 141-43; Kenneth Scott Latourette, A Historyof Christianity (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1953), pp. 570-71. 33. Liguori, The Gloriesof Mary, ed. Eugene Grimm, 2 vols. in 1, Complete Ascetical Works of St. Alfonsus de Liguori, vols. 7, 8 (Brooklyn, N. Y.: Redemptorist Fathers, 1931), pt. 1, chs. 4-9. See also 0. Zockler, "Liguori, Alfonso Maria di, and the Redemptorist Order," New Schaff-HerzogEncyclopedia of ReligiousKnowledge,6:487-88. 34. Institutesof the ChristianReligion (1559 ed.) 3.20.34-49. 35. Small Catechism3; Large Catechism3.

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jected prayers for the dead as unbiblical, but Luther allowed for prayer to or through the Virgin Mary. 36 D. TWENTIETH-CENTURY PROTESTANTS

Petitionary prayer and intercessory prayer were variously interpreted among twentieth-century Protestant theologians. Some upheld the view that such prayer affects the actions of God (H. H. Farmer, George A. Buttrick), others stressed that such prayer aligns the one who prays with the promises and will of God (Karl Barth, John R. Rice), and yet others regarded such prayer as effective chiefly in and through the one who prays (Harry Emerson Fosdick, Georgia Harkness,John Burnaby, 1891-? ).37

IV. SYSTEMATIC FORMULATION In light of the biblical postbiblical emphases rary need for authentic the Christian doctrine

teachings concerning and models of prayer, the and issues respecting prayer, and the contempoChristian prayer, what are the essential aspects of of prayer?

A. MOODS OF PRAYER

About five basic moods or varieties of prayer have been repeatedly identified. 38

1. Adoration, or Praise Adoration is the recognition of the worth, the majesty, and the honor of God as the eternal God of holy love. Adoration may be expressed initially by the addressing of God as "God," "Father," "Lord," "Almighty God," etc. It is expressed in the Lord's Prayer: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name"' (Matt. 6:9b, NIV). "Adoration is more than admiration" and is a blending of"confidence and fear." Adoration brings "the 36. Hughes, PropheticPrayer,pp. 113-30. 37. Thomas Furman Hewitt (1937- ), "The Theology oflntercessory Prayer: With Special Reference to Contemporary Protestant Theology" (Th.D. diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1968), pp. 101-94. 38. McFadyen, The Prayersof the Bible, pp. 43-66; Hastings, The ChristianDoctrine of Prayer,pp. 45-147; George A. Buttrick, Prayer(New York: Abingdon Press, 1942), pp. 215-25; Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 236--46; Georgia Harkness, Prayerand the CommonLife (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1948), pp. 42-85; Nels F. S. Ferre,A Theologyof ChristianPrayer(Nashville: Tidings, 1963), pp. 51-61; Fred Lewis Fisher ( 1911-90), Prayerin the New Testament(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964), pp. 58-98; Leroy Thomas Howe ( 1936- ), Prayerin a Secular World (Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1973), pp. 55-76; Fisher H. Humphreys, The Heart of Prayer (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1980), pp. 63-72. Richard James Foster (1942- ), Prayer:Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1992), has identified 21 types of prayer.

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worshipper spiritually to his knees" and fills "his consciousness full of a sense of the greatness and glory of the Worshipped, and of the worshipper's total dependence upon Him." 39

2. Thanksgiving "Thanksgiving is the expression of our recognition of God as the source of our blessings and an acknowledgment of the fact that God's gifts to us put us under obligations to the Giver. "40 This type of praying affirms the goodness of God's creation and of his provisions. Psalms 105, 106, and 107 are expressive of the prayer of thanksgiving. Prayers of thanksgiving abound in the epistles of Paul. 41 Prayers of thankfulness should be expressions of joy, especially when the Giver is acknowledged even more than the gifts. 42 3. Confession of Sin Prayer of confession is the acknowledgment of sin and its guilt vis-a-vis the holiness and righteousness of God. In the Old Testament prayers of confession sometimes followed upon calamity43 and included reference to the sins of the forefathers. 44 Psalm 51 is a notable instance of the prayer of confession. "Honest, rigorous self-examination with the stripping off of rationalizations and alibis is required," according to Georgia Harkness, but one should avoid "public confession of sin that runs into exhibitionism." 45

4. Petition "Pet tion mtans thaa we askeGod forsomethyng thatywe desire to happen." 46 It is the offering of direct and specificrequests to God in behalf of oneself and those of one's immediate circle. Some would mistakenly seek to confine prayer to petition. 47 The Old Testament records numerous petitionary prayers for food and for military victory, but the "supreme longing of the profounder souls of Israel was for God, not His gifts but Himself."48 39. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer, pp. 55, 59, 64, 57. 40. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 237. 41. Mcfadyen, The Prayersof the Bible, pp. 146-50. See 1 Thess. 1:2-3, 13; 3:9; 5:18; 2Thess. 1:3; 2:13; 1 Cor. 1:4; 15:57; 2 Cor. 8:6; 9:15; Rom. 1:8; 6:17-18; Eph. 1:15-16; 5:20; Phil. 1:3-5; 4:6; Col. 1:3-4; 2:7; 3:15, 17; 4:2; Philem. 4, 5. 42. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer, pp. 144-47. 43. For example,Judg. 10:9-10; Ezra 9:12-15; Neh. 9:26-27; Dan. 9:4-19. 44. For example, Ps. 106:6-7; Jer. 3:25; Ezra 9:7; Neh. 9:2; Dan. 9: 16. McFadyen, The Prayersof the Bible, pp. 54-56. 45. Prayerand the CommonLife, pp. 57, 56. 46. Fisher, Prayerin the New Testament,p. 71. 4 7. John R. Rice, Prayer:Asking and Receiving (Wheaton, Ill.: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1942), p. 54. 48. McFadyen, The Prayersof the Bible, pp. 43-49.

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Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Ps. 73:25-26, NIV). Jesus' teaching on prayer stressed the repeated asking, seeking, and knocking (Matt. 7:7-8 and par.), the boldness of a friend at midnight (Luke 11 :5-8), and the persistence of a widow seeking justice (Luke 18:1-8). Fred Lewis Fisher, after insisting that "we are not to think of God as the servant of man" or pray as "the means of imposing our will upon God," affirmed that petitionary prayer is needed not only because of the biblical mandates for it but also because "we cannot receive the best gifts of God until we become consciously aware of the fact that we need those particular gifts. "49

5. Intercession Intercession is "asking God for a blessing on someone else rather than on self." It is the offering of specific requests to God on behalf of other human beings and causes. Hence it is "a special form of petition." 50 Abraham interceded for the righteous residents of Sodom (Gen. 18:22-33), Moses for idolatrous (Exod. 32:31-32) and rebellious (Deut. 9:25-29) Israel, Samuel for his contemporaries (1 Sam. 7:5, 8; 12: 19, 23), and Paul for unbelieving Jews (Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1). Monica prayed for nine years for the conversion of her son, Augustine of Hippo. 51 Intercessory prayer not only affords blessing to the one who intercedes and evokes his effort in behalf of that which has been asked for but also anticipates the responsive action of God. 52 In the New Testament one finds intercession for civil rulers, for the salvation of lost humans, for the protection of others from dangers, for the support of missionaries, for the well-being of churches, for sinning Christians, and for bodily healing. 53 In intercession one may reach the Alpine heights of prayer. B. SETTINGS OF PRAYER

Individuals and groups may pray in various settings. 54 First, there is personal prayer, or prayer involving only one human being and God. Such prayer may be private prayer in that it occurs within one's own residence or workplace, or it may be public, as when one prays during times of silence in congregational worship. Such personal prayer may be silent or spoken; it may be occasional or a fixed or regular habit. 49. Prayerin the New Testament,pp. 71-76. 50. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 238. 51. Augustine, Confessions3.11.20. 52. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,pp. 118-29. 53. Fisher, Prayerin the New Testament,pp. 87-98. 54. Campbell, The Placeof Prayerin the ChristianReligion, pp. 245-72.

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Second, prayer may be offered by partners in prayer. Accordingly two or three believers agree to gather and to pray together. Normally such prayer is spoken. It may be occasional or regular. Third, there is family prayer. Therein members of a family pray together at appointed times such as early morning or at meals or on special occasions such as crises or festive occasions. Fourth, prayer occurs in a congregational context. Not only is prayer essential to a congregation's services of worship but also it is meaningfully experienced in men's groups, women's groups, youth groups, children's groups, and the like. In the Protestant heritage an important feature of church life and an indicator of its prayer level has been the congregation's midweek prayer meeting. 55 Fifth, prayer may occur in denominational and parachurch meetings, to which Christians have been drawn by common commitments to missionary, educational, and/or diakonal ministries. "The history of the Christian Church is, more than we know, the history of believing prayer." 56 0, where are kings and empires now, Of old that went and came? But Lord, thy church is praying yet, A thousand years the same. 57 Sixth, prayer may be offered in public assemblies, such as in legislative bodies, in political conventions, in civic gatherings, and in the meetings of voluntary associations, but whether public prayer ought to be permitted in public schools has become a highly controversial legal, constitutional, and political issue in the United States during the recent decades. 58 C. POSTURES IN PRAYER

At least four bodily postures have been employed as Christians have prayed to God. The commonly employed posture today, namely, sitting, does not necessarily have a biblical basis. The posture of standing is suggested by 1 Sam. 11 :9; 1 Kings 8:22; Mark 11 :25; and Luke 18: 11. The lifting of hands while praying (1 Tim. 2:8), a practice which Christians 55. For the history and significance of the prayer meeting in Baptist life, see Charles William Deweese (1944- ), Prayerin BaptistLife (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1986), esp. pp. 29-4 7, 98-101. 56. Ferre, A Theologyfor ChristianPrayer,p. 9. 57. Quot. by Campbell, The Placeof Prayerin the ChristianReligion, p. 245. 58. William Ker Muir, Jr. (1931- ), Prayerin the PublicSchools:Law and Attitude Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967);James Edward Wood, Jr. (1922- ), "Legislating Prayer in the Public Schools,"journal of Churchand State 23 (Spring 1981): 205-13; Daniel Doyle McGarry (1907- ), Public SchoolsTeachReligion without Godand Should Not Have a Monopoly:Secularism in AmericanPublicEducationand the Unconstitutionalityof Its ExclusiveGovernment Support (St. Louis: Thomas J. White Educational Foundation, 1986).

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derived from the Jews, seemingly was done while standing. Kneeling for prayer is sustained by the examples of Jesus (Luke 22:41), Stephen (Acts 7 :60), Peter (Acts 9:40), and Paul (Eph. 3: 14). Prostration on the ground is the Matthean description of Jesus' posture in the Garden of Gethsemane (26:39). 59 D. FORMS OF PRAYER

What form should prayer take when Christians gather to worship God? Historically there have been two principal forms, liturgical prayer and free prayer. Liturgical prayer means the employment of biblical prayers and/or prayers from the postbiblical liturgical history of Christianity, especially from the books of worship and of prayer, as the principal mode of contemporary prayer in congregational worship. Free prayer means the employment of prayers composed by contemporary worship leaders or participants as the principal mode of prayer in present-day congregational worship. The issue of liturgical versus free prayer "is not directly raised in the Bible. The only prescribed prayer in the Old Testament is that to be offered at the presentation of the first fruits [Deut. 26]; and, with the exception of the Lord's prayer, the New Testament prescribes no prayer at all." 60 The leading considerations for liturgical prayer are threefold: it puts the congregation into "continuity" with the Christian past and with today's worldwide Christian community, it can supply "propriety" and "order" (1 Cor. 14:40, JB), and it avoids the deficiencies of poorly equipped leaders of free worship. The case for free worship is likewise threefold: it is "more consonant" with the idea of prayer as "a real intercourse of the human heart with God," it avoids the difficulty in transferring historically contextualized prayers in the Bible and in postbiblical Christian history to the contemporary congregation, and it is likely to be an alternative to that formalism in which "noble prayers" are "babbled instead of being prayed." 61 Free prayer, often called "extempore prayer," is not truly extempore when leaders of worship prepare for worship, 62 and liturgical prayer is not devoid of variety and selectivity. E. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF PRAYER

Prayer is not intended to be the means of bringing "a reluctant God" to do the will of human beings. Such a statement does not preclude importunity or "wrestling" with God in prayer. Rather it seeks to bring human wills into subordination to God's will so that God can bless such human beings 59. Campbell, The Placeof Prayerin the ChristianReligion, pp. 253-55; Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,pp. 427-32. 60. Mcfadyen, The Prayersof the Bible, p. 222. 61. Ibid., pp. 224-28, 221, 228-29, 233. 62. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,pp. 434-35. See Franklin Morgan Segler (1907-88), ChristianWorship:Its Theologyand Practice(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1967), pp. 113-14, 117-20.

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and accomplish his will and purpose. 63 Fisher Humphreys describes prayer as "talking to God who listens to us and responds to us because he loves us. "64 The unbeliever prays in order to seek and obtain a right relationship with God; the Christian prays that he/she may be kept in close fellowship with God. The proper subject for prayer is "anything that is of concern" to human beings, for the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is interested in anything and everything that touches the lives of his human children." 65 F. OBJECTIONS TO PRAYER BY NONBELIEVERS

Some of the principal objections to prayer, especially petitionary and intercessory prayer, which have been raised by non-Christians need to be identified. First, from philosophical naturalism comes an objection which is usually phrased in the language of "natural law" and "scientific necessity." An "answer to prayer would involve the interruption of the established order" and hence would be "a violation of [natural] law."66 This is quite similar to the natural law objection to miracles, 67 and similar considerations are needed in reply. 68 Second, from pantheism and Christian Science comes the objection that petitionary and intercessory prayer cannot be effective because there is no personal God to grant such requests. 69 The issue here is ultimately the existence and attributes of a personal God. Third, from modem psychology comes the idea that prayer is nothing more than autosuggestion, or the projected wishful aspirations of human beings. Such thinking comes from the projectionism of Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. 70 The crux of the matter is: Is there a personal God of holy love who receives and responds to such projections? G. PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING PRAYER FOR BELIEVERS

Certain practical issues or questions in regard to prayer have been repeatedly raised by and among Christians.

1. ff'hyDisturb a Good and Wise Providence? If God is a good God who knows what is best for human beings, why should we bother him with impertinent petitions and intercessions? In reply one 63. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 239; also Harkness, Prayerand the Common Life, p. 28. 64. The Heart of Prayer,p. 11. 65. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,p. 239. 66. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,pp. 220, 224-35. 67. See Vol. 1, ch. 27, III, A. 68. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 242-44. 69. See Vol. 1, ch. 5, III, D, esp. 2. 70. Garrett, "A Theology of Prayer," p. 12.

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may assert that "prayer changes the conditions" for the outworking of God's providence and that "God's best gifts," as evidenced by both experience and reason, cannot be and are not bestowed "apart from prayer." 71

2. Is Not Prayer Useless in View of the Foreknowledge of God? Some people assume that the foreknowledge of God means a fatalistic foreordination of all events in which God is not free to act by answering the petitions and intercessions of human beings. It is God, not abstract foreknowledge, who is the Lord. His foreknowledge can encompass prayer. According to Jesus, God knows our human needs before we pray, and hence, while excessive verbosity in prayer is not appropriate, we are to pray (Matt. 6:8). 72 3. Does Prayer Change the Will of God? This may be the question of a sincere seeker or of one who has reduced prayer to nothing more than subjective effects upon the one who prays. Definition is needed. Ifby "the will of God" one means "God's ultimate purpose or plan for the universe" and for humanity, then prayer obviously does not alter the will of God. If, on the other hand, one means by "the will of God" a specific "executive volition" of God, then Christians have reason to affirm that "prayer does change the will of God." God is not the slave of abstract "immutability," and his answering prayer does not "make God the puppet ofmen." 73 According to P. T. Forsyth, prayer is "an encounter of wills-till one will or the other give way." Moreover, through prayer we "change the conduct, if not the will, of God to us." 74

4. Can God Grant the Conflicting Petitions and Intercessions of Human Beings and Groups? What happens when human prayers for contradictory effects are offered to God? "The Spaniards prayed for the success of their Armada: the English prayed against it." The question suggests that such prayers place God in an embarrassing quandary. As the Lord's Prayer would seem to suggest, answers to specific requests are conditioned on the hallowing of God's name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will. God is sufficiently wise to answer. 75

5. What about "Unanswered Prayer"? This question immediately poses a question of terminology. If prayer be rightly understood as communion with God, then true praying does not 71. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,pp. 252-59. 72. Conner, The Gospelof Redemption,pp. 241-42. 73. Ibid., pp. 240-41. 74. The Soul of Prayer,pp. 83, 84. 75. Hastings, The ChristianDoctrineof Prayer,pp. 245-49.

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result in "unanswered" prayer. To pray is to commune with God even if certain petitions or intercessions offered to God are not immediately answered in the affirmative. Hence the question needs to be restated in terms of "unanswered petitions and/or intercessions." The New Testament, especially the teaching of Jesus, provides some conditions of answered petition and intercession. Such answered praying depends on faith (Matt. 21 :22; James I :6), on persistence, or importunity (Matt. 7:7-8; Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8), and on praying in Jesus' name-or as his agent Qohn 14:13-14), while abiding in Jesus Qohn 15:7), asking according to the will of God (I John 5:14b), and being under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:26-27). Those who offer petitionary and intercessory prayer are well advised to recognize that God's response can be "negative" as well as "affirmative," can be "later" rather than "now," and can be in terms ofa response more blessed than that which has been requested. 76 H. SOME DANGEROUS EXTREMES IN PRAYING

The experience or act of prayer can lead to unwarranted extremes. First, there may be dangerous extremes either of overfamiliarity with God or of indirect, third-person praying. When persons speak somewhat flippantly of "the Man upstairs," their casual approach to God may have exceeded the proper Christian use of "Abba" ("Daddy") and reflect an absence of any awareness of the transcendence of the holy God. On the other hand, the recurring practice of third-person rather than second-person praying, especially in congregational worship, is indicative of an indirectness that has obscured the face-to-faceness that is essential to prayer. This is particularly a danger for pastors and others who lead in worship, for they may have allowed a sermon to the congregation to have invaded the prayer of the congregation to God. Second, there may be the dangerous extremes either of mystical absorption into deity or of making prayer a "grab-bag" for human schemes. Pantheistic mysticism, derived from N eo-Platonism, encourages those who pray to seek that ultimate union with God that is absorptive in nature. 77 Petitions and intercessions tend to be downgraded in importance. Legitimate communion gives way to a union wherein the human ceases to be human. On the other hand, there is the other dangerous extreme of reducing the admonitions to prayer, the conditions of faith and the will of God, and the promises of God to an assured human method of gaining without delay health, wealth, or success.78

76. Ibid., pp. 329-48. 77. See above, ch. 64, I, C, 2. 78. See above, ch. 49, II; ch. 67, VI, B, 1.

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I. INDISPENSABILITY AND URGENCY OF PRAYER

Prayer is imperative for Christians both for negative and positive reasons. It is indispensable because prayerlessness is the "worst sin," the "root of all deadly heresy," 79 and the enemy of victorious Christian living. 80 It is indis-

pensable because it brings the one who prays into the presence and fellowship of God. Ole Christian Hallesby ( 1879-1961) interpreted prayer both as "work"-"the most important work in the kingdom of God"-and as "wrestling" with God. 81 For Forsyth, prayer is not only "the great means of the Christian life" but also "the great end of that life." Ultimately "it is truer to say that we live the Christian life in order to pray than that we pray in order to live the Christian life." 82 Resisting the trend to treat prayer "as an appendix to biblical truth," Huber Lelland Drumwright, Jr. (1924-81), affirmed that the "doctrine of prayer is the integrating doctrine of the Bible. "83

79. Forsyth, The Soul of Prayer,pp. 11, 27. See also Jack Ray Taylor (1933- ), Prayer:Life'sLimitlessReach (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1977), pp. 34-40. 80. North American and European Christians have much to learn from the prayer habits and experiences of Two-Thirds World Christians. See Myung Hyuk Kim, "Lessons from the Prayer Habits of the Church in Korea," David Wang, "Lessons from the Prayer Habits of the Church in China," Pablo E. Perez, "Lessons from the Prayer Habits of the Church in Latin America," and Tite Tienou, "Lessons from the Prayer Habits of the Church in Africa," in Carson, ed., Teach Us to Pray, pp. 231-71. 81. Prayer,trans. Clarence]. Carlsen (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1931), pp. 61-118, esp. 68. 82. The Soul of Prayer,p. 16. 83. PrayerRediscovered(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1978), p. 9.

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ABIDING IN CHRIST Previously' we have expounded the doctrines of union with Christ and assurance so as to lead to the conclusions that the true believer in or disciple of Jesus Christ is joined to or united with Jesus Christ and may attain to the present assurance of that union. Closely related to these themes is the question which Christians have seriously discussed since the time of Augustine of Hippo, namely, "Will all true believers or disciples certainly continue in this relationship with Christ until death and into the life to come?" Older systems of and treatises on Christian theology have tended to denominate this issue according to the conclusion to be drawn by their authors. Those affirming the continuance with certainty have referred to "the perseverance of the saints," 2 a term that can be traced at least to Augustine,3 to "the (eternal) security of the believer," 4 or to the doctrine of "once saved, always saved." 5 Those denying that all will with certainty I. See above, ch. 64. 2. Patrick Hues Mell (1814-88), Predestinationand the Saints' Perseverance,Stated and Defended(Charleston, S. C.: Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1851; reprint ed., Fort Worth: Wicket Gate, c. 1984). 3. On the Gift of Perseverance(AD 428 or 429), NPNF, 1st ser., 5:521-52. 4. Edward Steane ( 1798-1882), The Securityof Believers:A SermonOccasionedby the Death of the Rev.John Dyer (London: G. B. Dyer, 1841); W. P. Bennett, The Securityof Believers(Owensboro, Ky.: Messenger Job Printing Co., 1895); Lewis Sperry Chafer, Salvation (Wheaton, Ill.: Van Kampen Press, 1917), pp. 96-137; Henry Allen Ironside (1876-1951), The Eternal Securityof the Believer (New York: Loizeaux Brothers, Inc., 1934?); Arthur W. Pink, Eternal Security (Grand Rapids: Guardian Press, 1974);John R. Tyson, "Eternal Security," Dictionaryof Christianityin America,ed. Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1990), pp. 402-3. 5. Albin Perry Lassiter (1935- ), OnceSaved,AlwaysSaved (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1975), and R. T. Kendall, Once Saved,AlwaysSaved (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983; Chicago: Moody Press, 1985).

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continue have tended to refer to the possibility of "apostasy," or "falling from grace" 6 for some while others continue in Christ. In the present chapter the concept of continuance in Christ will be identified by means of the biblically derived term, "abiding in Christ." Both the Gospel ofjohn 7 and the First Epistle ofjohn 8 employ the Greek verb menein, "to remain" or "to abide," to express the idea of the continuance of believers in union with Christ. 9

I. OLD TESTAMENT What does the Old Testament teach concerning the continuance in grace or the apostasy of the covenant people or of individual Israelites? The answer involves several considerations. A. THE COVENANT-FAITHFULNESS OF YAHWEH

The Hebrew noun ~ese