Theology

Calvin on the Beatific Vision

January 2, 2019 by wagraham Leave a Comment

While John Calvin rightly preferred the biblical idiom of union with Christ to the words “deification” or “beatific vision,” Calvin’s theology still has overlaps with earlier Christian theology (and the later Puritan emphasis on the beatific vision). To my mind, Calvin matches the Bible’s presentation of these matters by speaking of communion with Christ.

Here are three passages where Calvin speaks about the beatific vision (the vision of God, deification, etc.). It is key to note two things: first, Calvin never sees any sort of essential transformation between God and people. We participate qualitatively, not by essence. Second, Calvin sees the vision of God as the end of salvation, but he is reticent to say much more because it goes beyond our ability to grasp. [Read more…] about Calvin on the Beatific Vision

The Father Was not Angry with the Son at the Cross

January 1, 2019 by wagraham 18 Comments

The Father was not angry at the Son at the cross. And neither do the Gospels emphasize Jesus’ pain during his ordeal although he surely suffered physically. What they do emphasize is Jesus’ cry of dereliction (“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”).

The notion that the Father (or God) is angry with the Son misunderstands Trinitarian orthodoxy, Reformed theology, and the clear emphasis of Scripture. Here’s why. [Read more…] about The Father Was not Angry with the Son at the Cross

Infused Righteousness: A Doctrine with Good Intentions Coopted to Bad Ends

December 31, 2018 by wagraham 2 Comments

Infused righteousness means that God imparts grace to a person so that this person can do good works. This particular understanding of grace arose in order to shut down any possible pelagian theology: Pelagians believe that by nature people can do good works that God looks upon with favour.

But if we can do good works by nature and so enter into God’s favour, that produces a twofold problem: first it denies that we are by nature sinners; second it makes our good works apart from grace meritorious before God. But the Bible denies both.

So faithful Christians used the language of infused righteousness to indicate that initial justification could only happen through the grace of God and not through any good thing in us.

John Owen Argues Someone Can Deny Imputation And Still Be Saved

December 30, 2018 by wagraham 2 Comments

John Owen argues that denying true doctrine does not mean that you are unsaved. He writes, “Men may be really saved by that grace which doctrinally they do deny; and they may be justified by the imputation of that righteousness, which, in opinion, they deny to be imputed.”

So someone may deny imputation by justification or other key doctrines and be saved. Why? He explains, “for the faith of it is included in that general assent which they give unto the truth of the gospel, and such an adherence unto Christ may ensue thereon, as that their mistake of the way whereby they are saved by him shall not defraud them of a real interest therein.”

The point is that assenting to the Gospel of Jesus that he died, rose, and ascended for and for our salvation sufficiently provides us salvation. Or in the Reformed idiom, assenting to the promise of God makes one a Christian. [Read more…] about John Owen Argues Someone Can Deny Imputation And Still Be Saved

The Holy Spirit Is Lord and Giver of Life

December 7, 2018 by wagraham Leave a Comment

The Holy Spirit is not a mere energy, force, or power. He does not only sanctify as if the Spirit’s activity exclusively focused on our personal sanctification. That sounds like the theology of expressive individualism (what can the Spirit do for me?) rather than the theology of the Bible. In reality, the Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life. [Read more…] about The Holy Spirit Is Lord and Giver of Life

Evil Does not Exist

November 25, 2018 by wagraham 16 Comments

Evil does not exist. If it did, then God would not exist. And all suffering at the hand of evil people would cease to have significance. Yet God created the world out of the overflow of his goodness, and he made all creation “very good” (Gen 1:31). Since nothing exists outside of what God made, then either God created evil or evil does not exist. But God did not create evil. So evil does not exist. It can only corrupt good things.

Augustine recognized this when he wrote, “For you evil does not exist at all, and not only for you but for your created universe, because there is nothing outside it which could break in and destroy the order which you have imposed upon it” (Augustine, Confessions, 7.13). Hundreds of years later, Thomas Aquinas wrote, “For evil is the absence of the good, which is natural and due a thing” (Summa 1.49).

And this is good news because if evil exists God would not and our suffering would be meaningless. Here’s why. [Read more…] about Evil Does not Exist