Must We Repent of Augustine? by Daniel Yordy

I share all this about repenting of having listened to Buddy Cobb because Christ is made personal in each of us and to show you an exact correlation to a far, far larger intellect that holds all Christianity in its icy grip.

Before we look directly at Augustine, let me recount that darkest of all centuries in the history of the Christian church, AD 311-410. Across that darkest of centuries, the lowest point of the fall into Roman darkness, there strides five men - Constantine, Athanasius, Damasus I, Jerome, and Augustine. The crimes committed against the gospel of Jesus Christ by these five men are beyond belief. Yet they each hold absolute sway over all of western Christianity, Catholic, Protestant, evangelical, charismatic, and even deeper-truth.

Constantine began the orgy of darkness by turning the cross of Jesus Christ into the symbol of the psychopathic hubris of wicked men, slaughtering and ruling over the "weak." It was Constantine, a pagan, who turned the Christian church completely upside down. Christians today who celebrate the hired/slave serial killers some call "soldiers" continue under the egotistical power of Constantine.

Now, Constantine was the key that unlocked the door to the darkness. Read through the account of his life on Wikipedia. Constantine was the epitome of the power of human ego to dominate all others. Other tyrants equal Constantine, none surpass him. Athanasius was Constantine's ticket to total domination, "Christianity," that is, forcing everyone to "believe" the same thing.

Athanasius banished the Lord Jesus Christ from the One who walks among us, who now lives as us in this world, turning Him into "God the Son," far above, far away, something God Himself never, ever says. Athanasius took the definition Lucifer holds of himself and placed it upon the word God speaks, the undergirding fabric of our being. Athanasius separated Christ from us. In fact, the "Christ" of Athanasius looks more like Constantine's view of himself as Apollo, the sun god, than it does the Lord Jesus, who revealed God through weakness and through a life laid down for others.

Damasus I brought all the symbols and ritualism of satanic Babylon into the Christian church, so that godly Spirit-filled pastors today find it needful to spend much money and time erecting the most satanic symbol of human debauchery, the penis-pyramid, over the entrance to their church, or over the baptismal font. Why? Why? Why? - They have never repented of Damasus.

Jerome removed the understanding held by all early Christians for three centuries that God's judgment in Hades, the place the dead are held, was for an age, for a season, for redemption. He took the word "an age" found all through the New Testament and turned it into "eternal," forever and ever. By doing so, he created the conviction that rules all through what is called Christianity today that God tortures forever those whom He refuses to save in a place named after, of all things, the Germanic corpse goddess, and that whatever any of the great torturers of history did, they were only copying God.

The "Christian" Republican hopefuls for President all endorsed torture as a valid American practice in a recent "debate," demonstrating the wicked hold Jerome has over their hearts. In fact my son just informed me yesterday that he was taught by his Bible teacher in the "Christian" school that God favors torture in this world as a means of discovering the truth.

Yes, we must repent of ever having listened to these guys, yet it is not so much they, but rather Augustine, last of the five and the capstone of all that rules over what we call "Christianity."

Why Augustine?

From Augustine until Luther, a period covering one thousand, one hundred years, most all people in the western world who learned to read, read Augustine first. They may have read the Bible or the lives of the saints, some also read Aristotle. But regardless, all read Augustine first. Then, as Luther and others translated the Bible into the common language of the people, many began to read the Bible ALONGSIDE Augustine.

The truth is, it is not Christ-ianity, it is Augustin-ianity. When people read the Bible, they read it through Augustine, when they read Aristotle, they read him through Augustine. When they looked at life and this world and God and eternity, they saw all of it only through Augustine.

From Luther until the 1800's, when other "books" began to circulate as normal reading, Augustine continued to be read equally with the Bible. No, we may not have read Augustine ourselves, it doesn't matter. You really have no idea how familiar his words are to you. They fill all the fabric of what you think about as you look at "Christianity" and as you read "the Bible."

All Catholicism is Augustinian. Luther and Calvin were fully Augustinian. The Anabaptists were Augustinian. Methodism and all Pentecostal churches are Augustinian. Even the move of God was about half Augustinian. In fact, take a bunch of happy pagan teenagers in any western country who have never been in a church and hardly know what Christianity is, and the truth is, their minds, their outlooks, the way they think, have been shaped, for or against, by Augustine.

I even see Augustine just a little bit in George Warnock's The Feast of Tabernacles, though when you arrive at his account of the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in the life of the church, he gives you a view of leaving Augustine behind forever.

There is only one group I know of who broke free in critical ways from Augustine, and that was the Quakers. That is, until the Welsh revival and the Jessie Penn-Lewis/Norman Grubb connection. From AD 410 until 1905, Augustine ruled over all the Christian church with few exceptions. From the early Pentecostal outpourings until today, God has been separating us bit by bit from the harsh grip of that overwhelming intellect.

Anytime we hear or read someone say, "Let's get back to 'the Bible (so we do not get deceived)", they do not mean the Bible at all, they mean "Augustine."

Now, knowing this fact about the overwhelming influence Augustine has over all Christian discourse, I decided to pull Augustine off my book shelf and read him. My thought was to read the entire book, not the largest of the Great Books series, but not the smallest either.

I don't think, now, that I will. Augustine frightens me. Let me tell you why.

First, I read a ways into his Confessions. Now, if anyone was wordy, it was this guy, yet Augustine's Confessions is one of the most read books in history. Although there was clearly a mighty anointing upon his words, I found myself in sorrow as I read, primarily because of two things very noticeable to me. First, there was no love relationship between Augustine and the person of the Lord Jesus. His was the view of most Christians since, that Jesus is high and exalted in a carnal sense, that He sits above and commands, and we, here beneath, obey. Second, Augustine, like Tertullian and Jerome before him, despised the human and equated the physical with evil. It was this open disgust of his own humanity, a feeling never shown by Jesus, that sorrowed me.

Then, I skipped over The City of God because I wanted to see what Augustine said in On Christian Doctrine. In the introduction to that book, Augustine raised the issue of how do we interpret the Bible. Foolishly, I was hoping he would suggest that we hear by the Spirit and that we believe what God says, starting with the gospel of Christ that Paul preached. Augustine did the opposite. After establishing the need for "correct" Bible interpretation, he began immediately to pronounce "correct Christian doctrine." In other words, first have this doctrine about God and salvation firmly in your head, then you can "read the Bible" correctly.

Then I read 4-5 pages of Augustine's "correct Christian doctrine" through which alone we are to read anything God says in the Bible.

Augustine's words were 100% familiar. I had heard these words in the Mennonite church, in the Baptist churches I visited in childhood, in the Assemblies of God churches, in the charismatic movement, in Christian books and teachings. I realized that all anyone has ever done is simply repeat Augustine, and then, go looking at the Bible for one purpose - to prove in some way that Augustine is "correct."

In that moment of understanding, all personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus in my heart and mind vanished. The knowledge of Augustinian Christianity seized me. With horror, I realized that I have been teaching you false heresy this whole time. I saw that all I have written over the last few years is filled with darkness and blasphemy against the truth. I cried out for mercy for my great sin. I have taught you great error all through these letters!

Thankfully, I'm not stupid, and I knew exactly what was going on and what God was teaching me. I grabbed my Bible, hoping to find there some reassurance that Christ was indeed my life. I opened to passages of the New Testament that once gave me great comfort in the Lord. I saw no comfort there, nor any knowledge that Christ is my life, that I live in Him and that He fills all of me. Rather, those same words that had taught me Christ before, now whipped me with the harsh cries of "Christianity."

I set aside my Bible and turned to something else. I knew that this was God's doing, that there was no need to "fight" against anything. I knew it would pass. By the next day, Augustine was no longer pressing upon me, and I did what I always do, I looked inside myself and "saw" Christ. I looked at Him and saw me.

I neither need nor want to read Augustine. I know Augustine; I know all that he says, as do you.

Let me explain something. I place at the beginning of all my teaching, the Goal of the Believer, or Home as It Really Is. In that series, I hammer as strongly as I can against the idea that the goal of the believer is go to heaven after death. I do that because I know the power that "go to heaven" holds over the minds and hearts of most Christians. You can lead them into the wondrous truths of God's purpose for man on this earth, you can show them that Christ is indeed their life, but at some point along the way, they will most certainly hit up against, "but, we'll only really know AFTER we die and go to heaven." And you've lost them.

More than that, "go to heaven" rules so strongly that most Christians will not even listen to any other possible purpose or goal God might actually say. Thus, if "heaven" is not shattered and destroyed, they will never be able to hear the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I realize now that "go to heaven" is just one package, powerful, yes, but only one part of the real problem.

Something has always bothered me that I did not understand. I have known for many years, and more so now, that almost all Christians simply do not give a damn about what God actually says in the New Testament. I say that crudely, yes, but somehow no other words show the thing as it really is.

Now I understand the complete package of why that is so. "Go to heaven" was only one portion of that total package. Augustine is the whole thing.

Christians do not care what God actually says, they're not interested. The only thing important to them is what Augustine says. And they will fight you, call you a heretic and a false teacher, and burn you at the stake if you dare to suggest that what God actually says does not agree with what Augustine says. To them, the only possible way to read the Bible is to take Augustine and to force his intellect upon every word there.

There is not one place in the New Testament where the apostles ever equated or linked "salvation" with going to a place called heaven after you die. Christians don't care. In their minds, "going to heaven is salvation," that is, "where you spend eternity," MUST fill the New Testament, so there is no point at all to inquire otherwise.

I remember the moment when I knew that salvation and "heaven" are in no way connected by God. It was from a private study during my college years at Blueberry, writing down every verse in the New Testament containing "salvation" and every verse containing "heaven." God never puts the two together. It took great courage of heart to say to myself, "God never ever says that salvation has anything to do with where you go after you die." It takes even greater courage to say that openly and publicly. I knew full well the covering of darkness that sits upon all Christianity, striking down on every hand what God might actually say.

Now, let me get a bit dicey and personal here. You, my dear reader, brother and sister, are more Augustinian than you know. You do not read the Bible entirely through the eyes of Christ. I have no doubt that you read the Bible partly through the eyes of Christ, but also partly through Augustine. Thus when you read some things, you cannot see or hear the revelation of Jesus Christ, but you see and hear Augustin-ianity.

I do not say this to condemn, but only to enlighten and to show part of the battle the Lord Jesus has placed before us. I include myself entirely inside that same picture.

Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 3: "But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away."

Paul, of course, knew nothing about a future Augustine. Here, he was referring to the natural Jew, yet these same words apply absolutely to us. Let me rephrase Paul's words to fit our situation today.

"But the minds of all Christians are blinded. For until this day the same veil of Augustine remains unlifted in the reading of the Bible, Old Testament and New, because the veil of Augustine is taken away only when we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is living now as us in this world, that we are utterly in Him and that He reveals Himself in and as every part of our humanity. But even to this day, when Christians read the New Testament, the veil of Augustine lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one TURNS TO the Lord, the veil is taken away."

To turn is to repent. To repent is to walk out from behind the tree trunk and stand openly in the full light of God with no reference to any "self" or "no self" whatsoever. To live in the Lord is to walk always in the full consciousness of that same light.

When I look at me, I see Christ. When I look at Christ, I see me. "I am dead" is capable of becoming just as much of a fetish as "death to self." I do not refer to myself as a "self" being bent to Christ, neither do I refer to myself as a "not self." I see only Christ, yet not as a false merging that actually erases either Jesus or me, but in sweet communion, person to person, He in I and I in He, His consciousness inside of mine and my consciousness inside of His.

I walked through the mall yesterday afternoon while my lovely daughter spent time with her friends. First, let me reassure you, I am in no danger of actually laughing and dancing and leaping and singing in the middle of a crowded mall filled with shoppers. But I sure felt like it. I walked with the full and immediate awareness of the consciousness and person of Jesus inside of me and of my consciousness and person inside of Him. We walked together, He and I, through the mall. Yet much more than David's, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me." Not "with" me only, but together in one another, side by side as equals, inside each other's heart and person, fully and for real.

This is Christ; this is "turning to" the Lord.

Constantine, Athanasius, Damasus, Jerome, and Augustine strode across the years of that darkest of centuries as anti-apostles - their task: to blast this union utterly apart and to replace it with a "Christianity" that could never find its way back, even though it "reads" the New Testament. To do this they worked in two directions. Constantine and Athanasius targeted Jesus, turning him into Apollo the sun god - "God the Son" high above, far away from man on this earth. Damasus and Jerome targeted man, turning him into a despicable and abhorrent worm, worthy of nothing more than to be flung into hell fire forever, allowing the few who met the correct "Christian" requirements by the skin of their teeth into the bliss of "heaven."

It's fascinating that the world Paul lived in had no such knowledge of man. Paul said, "No man ever hated his own flesh, but loves and cherishes it." He had no idea of the twisted perversion coming in the future where all "Christians" would be taught to despise and hate their own flesh.

Then Augustine took all of that and wove it into an entire fabric of "Christian theology," placing it upon all that God speaks so that no Christian can hear what God actually says, but only what Augustine says God ought to have said.

So what does Augustine say God ought to have said? I will bring in three things here only. On the one hand, to attempt to go through all of Augustine and show point by point how he strips what God actually says of its power and meaning and replaces it with "Christianity," would be a dark and dreary task. I have no inclination to do it. On the other hand, all of my writing, all the way through is a continual refutation of Augustine. It is the hold of Augustine over the minds of Christians that I have been engaged against from the start.

I have passed a milestone in finally sharing the things publicly that God has placed in my heart over the years. Someone found my website by typing into Google search the words, "Daniel Yordy false teacher." This kind of accusation intrigues and fascinates me to no end. Over the next few days I read through all of more than three dozen of my articles, searching for anywhere I may have said something God does not Himself say in the New Testament.

The truth is, I am a "false teacher" only because I attack Augustine. And I do attack Augustine's hold over my brethren. And guess what! I will win, that is, Christ wins through me.

But understand this, Augustine is 700 pages in the Great Books, that means 1500 pages in regular book size. Every single one of those 700 large pages sits upon our thinking and rules how we read the Bible and approach God. People say concerning the fulfillment of the Third Feast in the life of the church, "What you teach is so confusing, it seems to make a "simple" gospel so complicated." They are interpreting their "confusion" wrongly. The complexity of Augustine fills their thinking. What we teach has no relationship with that way of thinking; it is built on an entire other set of assumptions about God and life and the gospel and who and what we are.

When we speak out of our assumptions, the gospel is clear and pure and simple, but to those who sit in Augustine, our teaching seems distorted and whacky and complicated. In equal measure, however, as we think and speak out of our assumptions a clear and pure and simple gospel, we look at the "gospel" most Christians push, and it appears to us distorted and whacky and complicated.

Here is Augustine's first piece of doctrine that all must have hammered upon their brains before they read and interpret one word of Scripture.

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. . . The Trinity, one God, of Whom are all things, through Whom are all things, in Whom are all things. Thus the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself is a complete substance, and yet they are all one substance. The Father is not the Son, nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son; but the Father is only Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is only Holy Spirit. To all three belong the same eternity, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power . . .
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Now, it is clear that Augustine speaks of God and truth and Scripture. But he begins with something God never says, "Trinity," he inserts something God does say, but with a slightly different meaning than what God actually says, and then he proceeds with things that sound as if God did and should have said them. (Now, as I read again through these words, even while editing this letter again, a shadow of darkness emerges from them to lie across my spirit; a darkness I gladly turn away from.)

The problem is that God is not the creation of human intellect. He is a living, breathing Person, existing in dimensions and ways that we do not presently know. The Lord Jesus came to show us who and what the Father really is. God is meek and lowly of heart; He reveals Himself in weakness. When He is invited to dinner, He sits at the lowest place. When He has a chance to prove that He has what it takes, He stumbles and falls on His face in the mud. He lays down His life; He comes to serve.

Now, most of what Augustine says in these lines God never ever says. From these words, we get "God the Son," and "God the Holy Spirit," things also that God never ever says. When we say things about God that God Himself never says, we create an "alongside" god, one who looks like the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, but who is not the same One.

However, so much argument in "Christianity" circles around trying, so very hard, to prove that Augustine's definition of "God" is correct and to force that definition on the words of the New Testament. This is one-half of the removal from the knowledge of Christianity the wonderful reality that Christ lives as us in this world.

If we do not know Him IN our weakness, we will never know Him in His power. To claim that we can define Him in His power, speaking words He does not say, when we show no sign of knowing Him IN our weakness, is to delude ourselves.

Now, let me urge you not to be mistaken by the cries of, "Well, I just believe that's the way it is." Human "believing" isn't worth twat. We cannot create God by "believing." Faith does not believe things about God. Faith is specific to the word God speaks; that is, faith simply receives into itself what God actually says, and then reproduces in the flesh that same life and reality. And faith does so simply by agreeing with God.

But "Augustin-ianity" swinging in causes us to doubt what God actually says.

Here is another piece from Augustine. However, I include first the declaration of the Council of Nicaea, which creed almost all Christians hold as "gospel truth." Then, followed by Augustine's restatement of this same "truth."

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And although the Archbishop be among the bishops as an elder brother, who hath the care of his brethren, and to whom they owe obedience because he is over them; yet the patriarch is to all those who are under his power, just as he who holds the seat of Rome is the head and prince of all patriarchs; inasmuch as he is first, as was Peter, to whom power is given over all Christian princes, and over all their peoples, as he who is the Vicar of Christ our Lord over all peoples and over the whole Christian Church, and whoever shall contradict this, is excommunicated by the synod." (Council of Nicaea)

"He who is separated from the body of the Catholic Church, however laudable his conduct may otherwise seem, will never enjoy eternal life, and the anger of God remains on him by reason of the crime of which he is guilty in living separated from Christ." (Augustine)

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 It is interesting to read the arguments of classical Catholicism, that only those who have submitted to the Catholic hierarchy of "covering" are saved, all else are damned, no matter how much they might "believe" that Jesus is their Savior. I see in the Catholic argument the exact same argument we were given in the move of God, that knowing the fullness of God meant submitting to the hierarchy of covering. The principles and arguments are the same; the only difference is an apostolic ministry versus Pope and Bishops.

The vast majority of all Christians live under this same belief, that by being a member of a "group" called by the name of their own church, they are "in" with God.

I was asked by a reader to comment on a piece of "kingdom of God" writing he had found. This piece had some good things to say, but then it turned to the same definition of "Christ" pushed by Augustin-ianity, you see the words from the Council of Nicaea, "power over." That piece argued that Christianity has never known the unity of Christ BECAUSE . . .

Hogwash! All believers in Christ have always known the perfect unity of Christ the gospel proclaims. What has not known unity is this structure over God's people. And that structure will NEVER EVER know unity simply because it is not Christ. Who cares what any structure over God's people does or doesn't do? That kind of "unity" is the tower of Babel pointing straight "down"; it is confusion. Christ is One; His body is one. Anointed and gifted ministries attempting to move "in power" over Christ's body, no matter how much God and the idea of God thrills their souls, cannot and never will be one, for that is not Christ.

Again, if you read the life of Constantine in Wikipedia, you will see the reason for this kind of "power over" unity pushed by the Council of Nicaea: control. The moment you see the words "power over," you know that Lucifer is talking, not the Always Talking of God, the Lord Jesus.

Then, Augustine's statement that was the last straw, blowing away from me the present knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as my life in fullness right now.

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In what way did He come but this, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us"? Just as when we speak, in order that we have in our minds may enter through the heart into the mind of the hearer, the word which we have in our hearts becomes an outward sound and is called speech; and yet our thought does not lose itself in the sound, but remains complete in itself, and takes the form of speech without being modified in its own nature by the change: so the Divine Word, though suffering no change of nature, yet became flesh, that he might dwell among us.
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Now, reading through these words again, we might be tempted to think, "Wow, those words sound very similar to the things this Yordy teaches." Augustine is certainly talking about the Word made flesh.

How, then, did these words blow Christ my life right out of my knowledge and understanding? Let me explain; the distinction is so very important.

A Brief Introduction to Trinitarian Theology by Joseph Tkach

Through June Melanson

A Brief Introduction to Trinitarian Theology

If we want the most accurate picture of God, we don’t need to look any further than Jesus Christ. In Jesus we meet God as God really is. “He who has seen me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of the Father. No one has ever seen God, but Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father, has made him known (John 1:18).

In Jesus’ words and actions, we hear and see what matters most to every human being—that the Father loves us unconditionally. He sent Jesus out of his immeasurable love and his unbending commitment to human redemption. To know Jesus is to know God, which means that what we believe about Jesus is our theology.

In one way or another, we all have a theology. Simply stated, theology is “God knowledge.” In other words, whatever we believe to be true about God is our theology.

And certainly every church and denomination has a theology. It’s the framework that undergirds and informs their doctrines and practices.

Trinitarian theology sees the doctrine of the Trinity as the central and foundational doctrine that forms the basis for how we read the Bible and how we understand all points of theology.

It deals with not only the “how” and the “why” of doctrines and practices, but most importantly, it begins with the “who.” It asks, “Who is the God made known in Jesus Christ, and who are we in relation to him?”

Trinitarian theology, then, does not simply refer to a belief in the doctrine of the Trinity (the Bible teaching that there is one God, who is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit). It refers to a Christ-centered way of understanding who God is.

Christ-centered

Trinitarian theology is first and foremost Christ-centered. As noted by Thomas F. Torrance (a leading Trinitarian theologian of the 20th century), Jesus is the unique Word of God to humanity and the unique Word of humanity to God. Because of this, even Holy Scripture is under his Lordship.

Jesus indicates that he is the key to understanding Scripture. He said to a group of Jewish religious leaders in John 5:39-40: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

We seek to read and interpret the Bible through the lens of who Jesus is. He is the basis and logic of our theology—for he alone is the final and the full self-revelation of God.

Relationship-centered

Because it is Christ-centered, Trinitarian theology is by its very nature relational. Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, has become one with our flesh in order to be our saving substitute and to represent us as his brothers and sisters in the very presence of the Father (see John 1:14; Ephesians 1:9-10, 20-23).

Because of Christ, we have a relationship with God! The Holy Spirit dwells in us. We belong to the Father and are, in Christ, the beloved of the Father.

This means that the Christian life and faith are primarily about four kinds of personal relationship:

the internal relationships of holy love shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit from all eternity,

the relationship of the eternal Son with humanity in Jesus Christ incarnate,

the relationship of humanity with the Father through the Son and by the Spirit, and

the relationship of humans with one another as children of the Father redeemed by Jesus Christ.

Early history

In the 20th century, Trinitarian theology was advanced in the West largely through the work of Karl Barth and his students, especially Thomas F. Torrance and his brother James B. Torrance.

But this theology is as old as the Church itself. Trinitarian theology formed the basis of early Christian teaching. This is reflected in the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed and the Definition of Chalcedon. Early prominent Trinitarian teachers and theologians included Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Gregory of Nazianzus.

Irenaeus (died A.D. 202) was a disciple of Polycarp (who had studied with the apostle John). Irenaeus sought to show that the gospel of salvation taught by the apostles and handed down from them is centered on Jesus. He saw that the Bible presents the Incarnation as a new point of beginning for humanity. Through the Incarnation, the entire human race was “born again” in Jesus, delivered from the sin and death that had enslaved the world since Adam. In Jesus, humanity has a new beginning and a new identity.

The biblical foundation of Irenaeus’ thinking included Paul’s statements in Romans 5, where Jesus is presented to us as the “second” (or “final”) Adam of the human race. “In Jesus,” wrote Irenaeus, “God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man [Adam], that He might kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man...” (Against Heresies, III.18.7).

Irenaeus understood that Jesus took all humanity into himself, both as our representative before God and as our perfect substitute before God, thereby renewing the human race through his life, death, resurrection and ascension.

Irenaeus taught that this renewing, or re-creating, of the human race in Jesus through the Incarnation is not merely a work done “by” Jesus. Our salvation involves much more than just the forgiveness of our sins. It means our entire re-creation “in” and “through” Jesus.

Athanasius (died A.D. 373) defended the gospel against false teachers who denied the Son’s eternal divinity. This defense led to the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity affirmed at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. In his treatise On the Incarnation, Athanasius wrote the following:

Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death in the place of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die…. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection… (section 8).

What then was God to do? What else could He possibly do, being God, but renew His Image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know Him? And how could this be done, save by the coming of the very Image Himself, our Savior Jesus Christ?…

The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father, Who could recreate man made after the Image. Thus it happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord’s body; yet because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished. Death there had to be, and death for all, so that the due of all might be paid (section 13).

Wherefore the Word…being Himself incapable of death, assumed a mortal body, that He might offer it as his own in the place of all, and suffering for the sake of all through His union with it, “might bring to nought him that had the power over death, that is, the devil, and might deliver them who all their lifetime were enslaved by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15) (section 20).

By his death salvation has come to all men, and all creation has been redeemed (section 37).

Athanasius and Irenaeus emphasized that the Incarnation, when the Son of God became a human being, affected all humanity. God chose to save humanity through the birth, life, sacrificial death and resurrection of the Incarnate Son of God. This is the essence of the gospel understood by the early church and revealed in the Scriptures.

Gregory of Nazianzus (died A.D. 389) wrote of how Christ shared in our broken humanity through his Incarnation:

That which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole. (Epistle 101)

Christ united himself with our actual condition, that is, with fallen humanity, not a pre-fall humanity, in order to redeem it. As J.B. Torrance was fond of saying, the doctor became the patient in order to heal us. It’s important for us to know that God, in Christ, really loves us enough to embrace us at our sinful worst.

Who are you, Lord?

“Who are you, Lord?” was Paul’s anguished question on the Damascus Road, where he was confronted by the resurrected Jesus (Acts 9:5). He spent the rest of his life answering this question and then sharing the answer with all who would listen. The answer, revealed to us in Scripture, is the heart of the gospel and the focus of Trinitarian theology.

Jesus is fully God and fully human, and that will never change. His Incarnation did not end with his death or with his ascension. It continues forever. He was resurrected and ascended bodily. He will return bodily, the same as he departed. So when we say Jesus Christ, we are saying God, and we are also saying “humanity.”

As the One who is uniquely God (Creator and Sustainer of all) and also fully human, Jesus, in himself, is the unique union of God and humanity. In and through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, all humans are included in the life and love of God. As the apostle Paul wrote, the man Jesus is the one mediator for all people—past, present, and future (1 Timothy 2:5).

For all humanity

The scope of Christ’s vicarious human life extends to all who have ever lived.

Likewise, the Bible declares that Jesus died for everyone—and that his death applies to everyone now. Relevant passages include:

John 12:32: “I [Jesus], when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

2 Corinthians 5:14: “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.”

Colossians 1:19-20: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.”

1 Timothy 4:9-10: “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance…that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.”

Hebrews 2:9: “We see Jesus, who…suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

1 John 2:2: “[Jesus is] the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

See also John 1:29; 3:17; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Titus 2:11; and 1 John 4:14.

These passages make it plain that Jesus died for all humanity.

Jesus, the second Adam

In Romans 5, Paul addresses believers, but what he says applies to all humanity—believers and non-believers alike. According to Paul, through Jesus, all humans are…

Justified through the faith of Christ (vv. 1, 18).

At peace with God (v. 1).

Standing in his grace (v. 2).

Reconciled to God through the death of Jesus (v. 10).

Saved through Jesus’ life (v. 10).

This justification, reconciliation and salvation occurred:

When we were “still powerless” (v. 6).

When we were “still sinners” (v. 8).

When we were still “God’s enemies” (v. 10).

God did all this for us before we were even born. The benefit of what Jesus did so long ago extends to the past, to the present and into the future. Paul says, “how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life” (v. 10)—showing that salvation is not a one-time transaction, but an enduring relationship that God has with all humanity—a relationship forged within the person of Jesus Christ—the one who, in himself, has brought God and humanity together in peace.

Continuing in Romans 5, Paul compares the first Adam to Jesus, calling the latter the “second” or “final” Adam. Note Paul’s main points:

“Just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam]…[and] all sinned…” (v. 12).

“How much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ [the second Adam], overflow to the many?” (v. 15).

And, “just as the result of one trespass [that of the first Adam] was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness [that of Jesus, the second or final Adam] was justification that brings life for all men” (v. 18).

Jesus has not simply done something for us, he has done something with us by including us in his life, death, resurrection and ascension.

Therefore, we understand from Scripture that…

When Jesus died, all humanity died with him.

When Jesus rose, all humanity rose to new life with him.

When Jesus ascended, all humanity ascended and became seated with him at the Father’s side (Ephesians 2:4-6).

When people become believers, they begin to know Christ and enjoy their relationship with him.

Salvation is re-creation

The miracle of the Incarnation is not something that happened “once upon a time,” now past. It changed how the entire cosmos is “wired”—it is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Incarnation changed everything forever, reaching back to all human history, and reaching forward to encompass all time as it unfolds.

Paul speaks of this transformation in Romans 7:4, where he says that even while we are alive, we are already dead to the law by the body of Christ. Jesus’ death in human flesh for us, though a historic event, is a present reality that applies to all humanity (past, present and future). “You died,” Paul says to the Colossians, “and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Even before we literally die, therefore, we are already dead in Jesus’ death and alive in Jesus’ resurrection.

Our union with Christ in his life, death, resurrection and ascension is expressed in Ephesians 2:5-6. Here Paul asserts that just as we are dead already in the mystery of Jesus’ substitutionary death, we have also already been “made alive together with him” and we are “raised up together with him” and “seated together with him in the heavenly realms.” All this comes from God’s grace.

God’s union with humanity in Christ includes every human being, even those who lived before Jesus came.

The faith of Christ

What does it mean to be saved by grace through faith? Does it mean that we are saved by something that we do, a human work of faith? If it is, what happens to us when our faith is weak or fails? The good news is that Jesus has done everything necessary for our salvation from start to finish, including believing for us. David Torrance writes:

We are saved by Christ’s faith and obedience to the Father, not ours. My brother Tom [Torrance] often quoted Gal. 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Such is the wording of the KJV, which I believe is a correct translation of the Greek….

Other translators, like those of the New International Version, apparently because they found it so difficult to believe we can live by Christ’s faith rather than our faith, have altered the text to make it read, “I live by faith in the Son of God”! – something altogether different! That translation takes away from the vicarious nature of Christ’s life of faith. It is by his faith [not ours] that we are saved and live! Our faith is a thankful response to his faith.

When we look back along our lives and ponder how disobedient we at times have been and continue to be, it is marvelously comforting to know that Christ gives us his life of obedience to the Father and that it is Christ’s obedience which counts. We are saved by his obedience, not ours. (An Introduction to Torrance Theology, pp. 7-8)

In our place

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13). That is why we can freely trust him to be our all in all and not even worry about whether our faith itself is good enough or strong enough. Thomas Torrance explains it this way:

Jesus steps into the actual situation where we are summoned to have faith in God, to believe and trust in him, and he acts in our place and in our stead from within the depths of our unfaithfulness and provides us freely with a faithfulness in which we may share…. That is to say, if we think of belief, trust or faith as forms of human activity before God, then we must think of Jesus Christ as believing, trusting, or having faith in God the Father on our behalf and in our place….

Through his incarnational and atoning union with us our faith is implicated in his faith, and through that implication, far from being depersonalised or dehumanised, it is made to issue freely and spontaneously out of our own human life before God. Regarded merely in itself, however, as Calvin used to say, faith is an empty vessel, for in faith it is upon the faithfulness of Christ that we rest and even the way in which we rest on him is sustained and undergirded by his unfailing faithfulness. (The Mediation of Christ, pp. 82-84)

But what about human choice?

If it is the life, faith and obedience of Jesus Christ that saves us and includes us in that salvation, what is our role? Before discussing the role of human response, it will be helpful to review the following scriptural truths: Through union with Jesus, all humanity is…

reconciled to the Father,

liked, loved and wanted by the Father,

accepted “in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6, KJV), and

forgiven (no record of sin and no condemnation).

The gospel declares not the possibility or the potential of these things being true for us, but a reality that we are urged to accept. By the Holy Spirit we may freely welcome the truth and walk in it, but God does not force us to accept the truth. God insists that love must be freely given and freely received; it cannot be coerced, or it is not love.

While the integrity of our God-given human freedom must be maintained, it must also be maintained that human beings do not start from a neutral point where they may equally and freely choose to love or reject God. Since the truth of every human being is already implicated in the truth of Jesus Christ, to reject God would be an anti-truth move and therefore an anti-free one. Truth and freedom always go together, as Karl Barth never hesitates to remind us:

The real freedom of man is decided by the fact that God is his God. In freedom he can only choose to be the man of God, i.e., to be thankful to God. With any other choice he would simply be groping in the void, betraying and destroying his true humanity. Instead of choosing freedom, he would be choosing enslavement. (Church Dogmatics IV.1, p. 43)

So what is our role? We may freely choose to respond to the gospel with thankful and hopeful hearts, encouraging and building one another up in the Body of Christ. As we celebrate the reality of grace together in our communities of worship, our lives are truly transformed.

Personal response

We must take care not to confuse what is true in Jesus for all humanity with each individual’s personal response to that truth.

We do not “decide for Christ” in the sense that our personal decision causes our salvation. Rather, we accept what is ours already in Christ, placing our trust in the one who has already trusted for us in our place.

When we personally believe the gospel, which is to accept what is already ours by grace, we begin to participate in God’s love for us. We begin to live out the new creation that God, prior to our ever believing, made us to be in Christ.

There is the general, or objective, truth about all humanity in Jesus, and also the personal, or subjective, experience of this truth.

Objectively, all people, past, present and future, are justified already; all are sanctified; all are reconciled in Jesus in and through what he has done as their representative and substitute. In Jesus, objectively, the old self has already passed away; in him, objectively, we are already the new humanity, represented as such by him before and with God.

However, although all people are already objectively redeemed by Jesus Christ, not all have yet personally and subjectively awakened to and accepted what God has done for them. They do not yet know who they truly are in union with Jesus.

What is objectively true for everyone must be subjectively and personally received and experienced through repentance and faith. Repentance and faith do not cause a person’s salvation, but salvation cannot be experienced and enjoyed without them. Repentance and faith are themselves gifts of God.

In the Scriptures, we find some verses that speak to the general/objective nature of salvation, while others speak to the personal/subjective nature of salvation. Both are real and true—but the personal is true only because the general is a pre-existing reality.

These two categories are found throughout Scripture—both sometimes occurring in one passage, as happens in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. Paul starts in verses 18-19 with the objective/universal nature of salvation: “All this is from God, who reconciled [past tense] us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

Here is a general truth that applies objectively to all—all are already reconciled to God through what Jesus has done in union with all humanity.

Having established the general truth in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Paul goes on in verses 20-21 to address the subjective/personal: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.”

How can all be “reconciled” already and yet the invitation go out to “be reconciled”—suggesting a reconciliation yet to occur? The answer is that both are true—these are two aspects of one truth. All are already reconciled in Christ—this is the universal and objective truth—but not all yet embrace and therefore experience their reconciliation with God.

To be reconciled and yet not know and experience it is to continue to live as though one is not reconciled. Having one’s eyes opened by the Spirit to this reconciliation, choosing to embrace it, and then experiencing it does not cause the reconciliation to occur, but it does make it personally realized.

Thus, the evangelistic invitation from Christ’s ambassadors (verse 20) is to “be reconciled.” But this appeal is not to do something that would cause God to reconcile us; rather it is an appeal to receive the reconciliation that exists already with God in Christ. As we welcome the truth of the gospel, we can’t help but worship our Lord and Savior!

Part 2: Questions & Answers

Let’s now address several common questions and objections to Trinitarian theology.

Q Are you saying there is no difference between a Christian and a non-Christian?

A No. We are saying that because of who Jesus is and what he has done, all humans—believers and non-believers—are united to God in and through Jesus. As a result, all people are reconciled to God; all have been adopted as his dearly loved children. All, in and through Jesus, are included in the Triune love and life of God: Father, Son and Spirit.

However, not all people know who Christ is and therefore who they are in Christ. They are not believers.

One way to speak of the distinction between believers and non-believers is to say that all people are included in Christ (universally) but only believers actively participate (personally) in that inclusion.

We see these distinctions spoken of throughout the New Testament, and they are important. However, we must not take these distinctions too far and think of non-believers as not accepted by and not loved by God. To see them in this way would be to overlook the great truth of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done already for all humanity. It would be to turn the “good news” into “bad news.”

When we see all humanity in Christ, some of the categories we might have held in our thinking fall away. We no longer see non-believers as “outsiders” but as children of God in need of understanding how much their Father loves them, likes them, and wants them. We approach them as brothers and sisters. Do they know who they are in Christ? No—and it is our privilege to tell them of God’s love for them.

Q If all are reconciled already to God in Christ, why does Scripture say so much about repentance and faith?

A In the New Testament, the Greek word translated “repentance” is metanoia, which means “change of mind.” All humanity is invited and enabled by the Spirit to experience a radical change of mind away from sinful egoistic self-centeredness and toward God and his love experienced in union with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Notice Peter’s invitation to this change of mind in Acts 2:38-39: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

God does not forgive people in exchange for their repentance and belief. As Scripture proclaims, forgiveness is an unconditional free gift that is entirely of grace. It is a reality that exists for us even before we enter into it in our experience.

The gospel truth—the truth about Jesus and about all humanity in union with God in Jesus—is that God has already forgiven all humanity with a forgiveness that is unconditional and therefore truly free: “Therefore,” invites Peter, “repent and believe this truth—and be baptized by the Spirit with the mind of Jesus—which involves supernatural assurance that we truly are the children of God.”

Repentance is a change of mind and heart; it involves coming to know who Jesus is for us and who we are in him, apart from anything we have done or will yet do. Through repentance, which is God’s gift to us, our minds are renewed in Jesus through the Spirit and we turn to him and begin to trust him.

The Spirit moves us to repent because our forgiveness has already been accomplished in Christ, not in order to be forgiven. We repent because we know that, in Jesus, our sins have already been forgiven and that, in Jesus, we are already a new creation. In this repentance, we turn from the alienation within us as the Spirit baptizes our minds in Jesus’ acceptance and in the assurance that comes with it.

Q Why does Paul say that if you don’t have the Spirit, you don’t belong to Christ?

A Romans 8:9 says, “You are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”

The sentence “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” is not meant to be lifted out of context and turned into a proof that some people do not belong to God. In the context of this passage, Paul is addressing believers; he is not making a statement here about non-believers. He is warning disobedient believers who are refusing to submit to the Holy Spirit in their lives. In effect, he is saying, “You say that the Spirit of God is in you, and you are right. However, your life should be reflecting the presence of the Spirit of Christ.” As Paul says in verse 12, “We have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature…” (see verses 10-17).

Q If the world is reconciled, why would Jesus say that he doesn’t pray for the world?

A In John 17:9, Jesus says: “I pray for them [his disciples]. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”

Just because Jesus said in one instance that he was not praying for the world, but instead for his disciples, does not imply that he never prayed for the world. It is just that right then, his emphasis was on his disciples.

It is also important to understand how John uses the word “world” (kosmos in Greek) in the flow of his Gospel. At times the word can refer to all people (who are all loved by God; see John 3:16) while at other times it can refer to the worldly “system” that is hostile toward God.

It is apparently this system that Jesus has in mind in John 17. Since this system resists God, Jesus’ prayer does not include it. He is not praying for the world in its current form, rather, he is praying for a group of people whom he can use to declare his love for the world.

Later on in his prayer, Jesus does have the whole world in mind. He prays that all of his followers “may be one, Father…so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Just as John 3:16 said, God loves the whole world and wants to save everyone.

Q If all are reconciled already to God, why does Scripture speak of hell?

A Scripture speaks of hell because it is the natural consequence of rebellion against God. That is why Christ came. God allows us to respond to what he has done for us in Christ. We are included in Christ, but we can refuse that inclusion. We are reconciled to the Father, but we can refuse that reconciliation.

However, such refusal does not negate what God has done for all humanity in Christ.

In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis wrote:

There are only two kinds of people in the end; those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

Q Why does the Bible talk about people whose names are not in the book of life?

A Revelation 13:8 says, “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”

Revelation 17:8 says, “The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast.”

We need to consider the literary context of these statements in Revelation. John writes using a literary genre (style) known as apocalyptic. This genre, which was commonly used by Jewish writers in John’s day, is highly symbolic. There is not a literal “book of life.” The “book of life” is a figure of speech, a symbolic way of referring to those who are in allegiance with the Lamb. These verses in Revelation refer to people who reject the new life that Christ has already secured for them.

Q Why does Peter say it is hard to be saved?

A First Peter 4:17-18 says: “For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, ‘If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’”

The point of verses 17-18 is found in verse 19: “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Peter has been encouraging persecuted believers to live in accord with their identity as children of God and not like those who live in debauchery and idolatry (verses 1-5).

As part of his argument, he points out that persecution is participation in the suffering of Christ, and therefore if believers are to suffer, they should suffer for their faith and godly behavior instead of suffering for sinful and ungodly behavior (verses 12-16). His point is that believers, who know that Jesus, the Savior, is the merciful Judge of all, should not be living in the same base and evil ways as those who oppose Christ.

It is actually impossible for anyone to be saved—were it not for Christ. Christ has done what is impossible for humans to do for themselves, but those who reject Christ are not participating in Christ’s suffering; they participate in their own suffering as they reap what they sow.

Q What is everlasting contempt and destruction?

A Daniel 12:2 reads, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Second Thessalonians 1:6-9 says, “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”

Both of these passages refer to the time of the final judgment when Jesus is “revealed” (sometimes referred to as the Second Coming or Jesus’ “return in glory”). This is the time when all humans will see clearly who Jesus is and thus who they are in union with Jesus. And this “revealing” presents to them a choice—will they say “yes” to their inclusion in Christ, or will they say “no”?

Their decision neither creates nor destroys their inclusion, but it does determine their attitude toward it—whether they will accept God’s love for them and enter the joy of the Lord, or continue in alienation and frustration (and thus in shame and everlasting contempt and destruction). The destruction is a self-destruction as they refuse the purpose for which they have been made, and the redemption that has already been given to them.

In the Judgment, everyone will face Jesus, the Judge who died for all, and they will have to decide whether they will trust him. Those who trust their Savior take part in the joy of the life God has given them in Christ. Those who reject him continue in their hostility and the hell that goes with it.

Q What about the “narrow gate”?

A Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus is speaking of this life now—on this side of the general resurrection. In this day, most are living on the “broad road” of destruction. Though they are included in Christ, they live as if they were not. Only the “few” have in this time embraced the truth that is in Jesus—and it is he who is “the narrow gate.”

Jesus addresses a similar issue in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

These people have done miracles, and in doing so have deceived many. They claim to know Jesus, and though Jesus obviously knows them (he is omniscient), he does not see himself in them with regard to their actual faith or behavior, and so he proclaims, “I never knew you.”

Q But don’t we become God’s children only at the point of belief?

A John 1:12-13 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born neither of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

We have already seen in Scripture that God has included everyone in the vicarious humanity of Jesus. When he died, we all died; when he rose; we all were born again in him. Therefore all humans are, from God’s perspective, already his children. He gives people that “right” long before they accept it.

Those who believe and accept Jesus enter into and begin to experience the new life that has been theirs all along, the new life that has been “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). In other words, what has been objectively true for them all along becomes subjectively and personally experienced when they become believers.

Q Is this universalism?

A Not in the sense that every person will be saved regardless of whether they ever trust in Christ. There is no salvation outside of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). But Jesus’ atonement is universal (Romans 5:18).

Scripture shows that God, in Christ, has reconciled all humans to himself (Colossians 1:20), but he will never force any person to embrace that reconciliation. Love cannot be coerced.

God wants sons and daughters who love him out of a joyful response to his love, not zombies who have no mind or choice of their own. As has been revealed in Jesus Christ, God is love in his innermost being, and in God the Persons of the Trinity relate to one another in the freedom of love.

To hope that all people will finally come to Christ is not universalism—it is simply Christian and reflects the heart of God (1 Timothy 2:3-6; 2 Peter 3:9). However, we cannot profess to know whether every person will finally come to faith.

Q If we are included already, why struggle to live the Christian life?

A Some people do not like the idea that others who do not work as hard as they do will end up with the same reward as they (see parable of the laborers in the vineyard, Matthew 20:12-15). But this concern overlooks the truth that no one, no matter how hard they work, deserves salvation. That is why it is, for everyone, a free gift.

However, in Scripture we learn that our participation now in Jesus’ love and life bears good fruit and personal joy that stretch into eternity. Living in ungodly ways results in pain, anguish and misery for oneself and others. That is why God doesn’t want us to live that way. Consider the following passages:

1 Corinthians 3:11-15: “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

Galatians 6:7-8: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Q What about Christian mission? If all are included already in God’s love and life through Jesus, why do we proclaim the gospel to the world and make disciples for Jesus?

A It is Jesus’ union with each of us that provides the basis and foundation for every aspect of our life, including our participation in mission and ministry with Jesus. The love of Christ compels us to take part in what Jesus is doing in the world through the Spirit. We declare the gospel and invite all people to receive and embrace it. In doing so, we hope what is true of them already (in an objective sense) will be experienced by them personally (in a subjective sense).

Q How do we explain John 6:44?

A John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

The Jewish religious leaders were seeking to deflect Jesus’ seemingly outrageous claim: “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven” (John 6:41). This statement was tantamount to claiming divine status.

Jesus’ reply to the Jewish leaders’ complaint concerning this claim was that they “stop grumbling” (v. 43) and realize that “no one can come to me [the bread of heaven] unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (v. 44). Jesus’ point is that the people would not be responding, except that God was making it possible for them to do so.

In this passage, Jesus is not limiting the number of people who are drawn to him; he is showing that he is doing the Father’s work. Elsewhere he says: “When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). And since Jesus does only what his Father wants, John 12:32 shows that the Father indeed draws all people to Jesus.

Q If the entire cosmos is included in Christ, why is there still evil in the world?

A The fullness of the kingdom of God will not arrive until Jesus’ Second Coming. As Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:19-20).

In the meantime, we find assurance in Jesus’ words: In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

Q How does this theology compare to Calvinism and Arminianism?

A In comparing and contrasting Christian theologies, we are talking about different approaches among Christian brothers and sisters who seek to serve the same Lord. Thus, our discussion should reflect respect and gentleness, not arrogance or hostility.

Calvinism is a theology that developed from the teachings of the Protestant reformer John Calvin (1509-1564). Calvinism emphasizes God’s sovereignty in election and salvation. Most Calvinists define God’s “elect” as a subset of the human race; Christ died for only some people (“limited atonement”). Those he did die for, however, were truly and effectively saved in the finished work of Christ, long before they became aware of it and accepted it. According to Calvinist doctrine, it is inevitable that those Christ died for will come to faith in him at some point. This is called “irresistible grace.”

Trinitarian theology’s main disagreement with Calvinism is over the scope of reconciliation. The Bible asserts that Christ made atonement “not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). And while Trinitarian theology rejects the restrictive extent of “limited atonement” and the determinism of “irresistible grace,” it agrees with Calvinism that forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, justification, etc. were all accomplished effectively by what Christ did. These gospel truths have nothing to do with what we do or don’t do.

Arminianism derives from the teachings of another Protestant reformer, Jacob Arminius (1560-1609). Arminius insisted that Jesus died for all humanity, and that all people can be saved if they take necessary, personal action, which is enabled by the Spirit. This theology, while not ignoring God’s sovereignty, tends to rely on a person’s human decision and free will. Its premise is that salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, justification, etc. are not actually effective until a person has faith.

Trinitarian theology differs from Arminianism over the effectiveness of the reconciliation. Atonement, or at-one-ment between God and humanity, is only a hypothetical possibility for Arminians; it does not become an accomplished actuality until one’s decision of faith. Trinitarian theology, however, teaches that the atonement and reconciliation is objectively true even before it has been subjectively accepted and experienced.

While Calvinism and Arminianism emphasize different aspects of salvation theology, Trinitarian theology has attempted, as did Church Fathers Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Gregory, to maintain in harmony the wideness emphasized by Arminians with the effectiveness emphasized by Calvinists.

Q What is perichoresis?

A The eternal communion of love that Father, Son and Spirit share as the Trinity involves a mystery of inter-relationship and interpenetration of the divine Persons, a mutual indwelling without loss of personal identity. As Jesus said, “the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38). Early Greek-speaking Christian theologians described this relationship with the word perichoresis, which is derived from root words meaning around and contain. Each person of the Trinity is contained within the others; they dwell in one another.

Tips on Biblical Exegesis

In this booklet, we have sought to address typical questions and objections that arise as people consider Trinitarian theology. No doubt, there are other verses that bring similar questions or objections. What we have sought to do in this booklet is to demonstrate a Trinitarian, Christ-centered approach to reading and interpreting all passages of Holy Scripture.

Some object to the idea of interpreting Scripture. They say, “I just let the Bible say what it means.” This idea, though admirable, is not accurate. The act of reading is, necessarily, an act of interpretation. So the issue is not whether to interpret; it is this: What criteria do we use in interpreting as we read?

We always bring to Scripture certain ideas and advance assumptions. What we are urging here is that we come to Scripture with the truth of who Jesus Christ is as the beginning point and the ongoing criterion by which we read and interpret the Holy Scriptures. Jesus must be the “lens” through which all Scripture is read.

Therefore, in reading Scripture, we recommend thinking about the following questions:

How does this passage line up with the gospel, which answers the question, “Who is Jesus?”

Is this passage referring to the universal, objective salvation of all humanity in Jesus, or is it referring to the personal, subjective experience of accepting or rejecting that salvation?

What is the historical, cultural, and literary context?

How is this passage worded in other translations? Other translations can sometimes help us see passages from different perspectives. It’s also helpful to check Greek lexicons and other translation helps, because some of the richness and subtleties of the Greek New Testament are lost in translations into other languages.

For a guide to biblical exegesis, you may find it helpful to consult How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart (Zondervan, 1981, 1993) or Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers, by Michael J. Gorman (Hendrickson, 2009).

Key points of Trinitarian, Christ-Centered Theology

Following are some basic precepts of the theology presented in this booklet.

The Triune God created all people to participate through the vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ in the love relationship enjoyed by the Father, Son and Spirit.

The Son became human, the man Jesus Christ, to reconcile all humanity to God through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension.

The crucified, resurrected and glorified Jesus is the representative and the substitute for humanity at the right hand of the Father, and he draws all people to himself by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Christ, humanity is loved and accepted by the Father.

Jesus Christ paid for all our sins—past, present and future—and there is no longer any debt to pay.

The Father has in Christ forgiven all our sins, and he eagerly desires that we turn to him.

We can enjoy his love only when we believe that he loves us. We can enjoy his forgiveness only when we believe he has forgiven us.

When we respond to the Spirit by turning to God, believing the good news and picking up our cross and following Jesus, the Spirit leads us into the transformed life of the kingdom of God.

Recommended Resources for Further Study

To study Trinitarian, Christ-centered theology in greater depth, we recommend the following resources, listed alphatbetically:

Books

Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (Harper & Row, 1959; 130 pages)

Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction (Eerdmans, 2000; 210 pages)

Graham Buxton, Dancing in the Dark (Paternoster, 2001; 310 pages)

Robert F. Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment (Eerdmans, 2002; 522 pages)

Elmer Colyer, How to Read T.F. Torrance (InterVarsity, 2001; 393 pages)

Gerrit Scott Dawson, editor, An Introduction to Torrance Theology, (T&T Clark, 2007, 179 pages)

Trevor Hart, Faith Thinking: The Dynamics of Christian Theology (Wipf & Stock, 2005; 248 pages)

George Hunsinger, How to Read Karl Barth: The Shape of His Theology (Oxford University Press, 1993; 320 pages)

Michael Jinkins, Invitation to Theology (InterVarsity, 2001; 278 pages)

C. Baxter Kruger, The Great Dance (Regent, 2000; 121 pp.)

Paul Louis Metzger, The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: Sacred and Secular Through the Theology of Karl Barth (Wipf & Stock, 2005; 252 pages)

Paul D. Molnar, Thomas F. Torrance (Ashgate, 2009; 382 pages)

James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (InterVarsity, 1996; 130 pages)

Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ (Helmers & Howard, 1992; 126 pages)

GCI articles

Grace Communion International has hundreds of helpful articles that address Christian belief and practice. Following is a list of articles (with web addresses noted) that unpack key aspects of GCI’s Trinitarian, Christ-centered theology.

Good News for Bad People www.gci.org/gospel/badpeople

The Gospel Really Is Good News www.gci.org/gospel/reallyis

Getting a Grip on Repentance www.gci.org/gospel/repentance

Predestination—Does God Really Let You Choose Your Own Fate? www.gci.org/god/predestination

“Theology: What Difference Does It Make?” www.gci.org/god/theology

“The Trinity: Just a Doctrine?” www.gci.org/god/trinity

“Foundations of Theology for Grace Communion International” www.gci.org/av/theology

GCI video programs

You’re Included. This online program presents interviews hosted by Dr. J. Michael Feazell, GCI vice president, with Trinitarian theologians and authors. View or download these interviews at www.youreincluded.org.

Speaking of Life. This online program presents short discussions by Dr. Joseph Tkach, GCI president, on biblical topics from a Trinitarian perspective. View or download these programs at www.speakingoflife.org