Introduction by Kirk R. MacGregor - James Clarke and Co Ltd

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Introduction to the Genevan populace, Calvin made little (if any) effort to defend the disputed particulars of how he believed predestination operated; this he reserved for his systematic works and theological treatises. Rather, Calvin focused on the biblical purpose of election and its corollaries for daily life, which exhibit logical independence from his late-Augustinian doctrine of human freedom and therefore may be embraced by subscribers to other predestinary models. In other words, even if one does not agree with Calvin as to the how of predestination, one should agree with Calvin as to the why. This why included showing people that they could never save themselves or act in such a way as to compel God to save them, relieving believers of the anxiety to be good enough to retain the salvation they currently hold, guaranteeing the presence of God’s cooperating grace throughout life, and enabling the panoramic perception of God’s providence spanning one’s past, present, and future. Readily understood and appropriated on a lay level, Calvin’s doctrine of predestination fostered a veritable revolution in the morality of the citizens of Geneva, which was then safeguarded through the institution of the Consistory and its antithetical relationship between church discipline and sacramental reception. I further amplify the ethical value of predestination through a case study of the sixteenth-century Huguenot community, which discloses how the implications of this doctrine supplied the Huguenot spiritual life-blood and sustained their existence during the persecutory Wars of Religion. Giving the lie to the thesis that the unconditional nature of Calvinist predestination inevitably spawns worry as to whether believers find themselves among the elect, Huguenot spirituality considered predestination as an exhibition of the love God showers upon believers and his care for their salvation. In chapter ten, turning to anthropological concerns, I appraise the evidential value for eternal security of the necessary changes in human nature accomplished by the Holy Spirit at the moment of regeneration. Since the Holy Spirit promises to eternally indwell each regenerated believer and seal the believer for the day of redemption by making certain internal changes, I contend that believers can be sure of their salvation by apprehending the Spirit within via the sensus divinitatis and by perceiving the reality of those changes in their souls. The tenor of the chapter builds philosophically upon the anthropological categories expounded in the Pauline corpus, where each individual alienated from God is a yucikov~ a[nqrwpo~ (“soul-ish human,” or a human dominated by the selfish desires SAMPLE xxviii © 2011 James Clarke and Co Ltd
Introduction of one’s own soul) and where each individual in good standing with God is a pneumatikov~ a[nqrwpo~ (“spiritual human,” or a human dominated by the Christlike desires of the Holy Spirit). The transformation from a yucikov~ to a pneumatikov~ a[nqrwpo~ cannot be accomplished by human effort, such as religious affiliation or acts of social justice, since no one can alter the fundamental inclination of one’s soul. Exclusively the work of the Spirit, I explain the precise nature of the associated changes to the believer’s soul and why they effect a habitual harvest of good spiritual fruit, as opposed to the occasional good fruit which the unregenerate may yield. Moreover, these changes infuse the believer with a spectrum of theological virtues, classically summarized in Galatians 5:22–24, sufficient for acting righteously in all circumstances. All in all, the believer is marked as such by citizenship in the Kingdom of God, or adherence to the philosophy of life where God is the ruler over all earthly affairs but, when God rules, he does so as a servant leader who comes up alongside others with unconditional love and expects his followers to do the same. In chapter eleven, Georg Plasger examines the “negative side” of eternal security or the danger from which believers are secure, namely, God’s coming wrath, from the perspectives of Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889), Martin Luther, and Karl Barth (1886–1968) and then considers each of these perspectives in light of the Pauline doctrine of redemption. Aiming to correct the past clerical abuses of placing inordinate guilt upon perceived transgressors, Ritschl severely de-emphasized God’s wrath to the point of objective nonexistence, such that God never exhibits anger and expresses only love toward humanity. Thus, the wrath of God is reduced to a psychological construct whereby individuals who have not yet embraced Christ fail to feel God’s ubiquitous love. By contrast, Luther regards God’s wrath as real and accounts for it by finding within the divine constitution a behavioral dualism, in which God displays his alien nature of judgment against sinful people but exhibits his true nature of love and mercy toward believers. Luther also felt that believers experience the underbelly of wrath when God progressively destroys the old person of sin or “flesh” still resident within. Synthesizing Ritschl’s exclusivity of love with Luther’s veridicality of wrath, Barth understands God’s wrath as an expression of his love, since God does not direct his wrath toward creatures but toward the demonic forces of futility which threaten to destroy them. The exemplification of God’s wrath as a necessary component of his love occurs at the cross, thereby concurring with Luther that wrath SAMPLE xxix © 2011 James Clarke and Co Ltd
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Introduction by Kirk R. MacGregor - James Clarke and Co Ltd

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