The main problem with "limited atonement" is the word "atonement"

One of the main reasons why speaking about "limited atonement" often generates confusion rather than clarity is because people fail to realise that "atonement" has two meanings. What most people mean when they use "atonement" today is not what the word originally meant.

"Atonement" originally meat "reconciliation" or as the word itself suggests "at-one-ment" (referred to as "Meaning One" in this post). I believe it was introduced into English Bible translations by William Tyndale, who used it to translate the Greek word, "katallagē" in Romans 5:11.

However, in every day speech today, "atonement" refers to the work that someone does to make up for their wrongdoing (referred to in this post as "Meaning Two"). A husband who has let down his wife may have to atone for what he has done. If he is successful in his work of atonement, reconciliation should follow. 

If the two meanings are applied to Jesus' death on the cross, Meaning Two is all about the work that Jesus did on the cross. Meaning One is all about what was achieved as a result of that work. 

Therefore, whereas "reconciliation" and "atonement" were synonymous when "atonement" was first introduced into English translations of the Bible, today they are not synonymous, but rather reconciliation is the result of atonement. In modern English Meaning One is archaic and Meaning Two is current. 

My observation of listening to people who teach on limited atonement is that they refer to the archaic meaning when they first introduce the atonement, highlighting that the word literally means at-one-ment, but when they use the word  subsequently, they nearly always intend the current meaning, i.e. Meaning Two. 

The different meanings of the word "atonement" have a determining impact on whether the three different views in one of my previous posts can properly be described as "limited atonement." If Meaning One is intended, all three views can rightly be described as limited atonement because all three teach that the number of people who are finally reconciled to God through Jesus death is limited. 

However, if Meaning Two is intended, i.e. the work done by Jesus, the situation is more complex, because one may be referring to the power of this work or the number of people for whom this work is done. In regard to the power of Jesus' work, all three views are unlimited atonement because the work done was powerful enough to save everyone who believes. In regard to the number of people for whom this work is done, only View 3 can rightly be described as limited atonement, because aside from the glory of God, the work is carried out for and motivated by God's love for the elect only, whereas with Views 1 and 2 the work is, in some sense at least, carried out for everyone and motivated by God's love for everyone. With Views 1 and 2, the work is intended for everyone, is powerful enough to save everyone, everyone should be told that it was carried out for them, but it saves only those who believe. With View 3, the work is intended for the elect only, is powerful enough to save everyone, only the elect should be told that it was carried out for them and is saves only the elect. 

Given the confusion surrounding the word "atonement" it may be better if we avoided this word altogether when talking about the cross. Instead of asking whether atonement is limited or unlimited, it may be better to ask questions like:

• Whose sin is taken away by Jesus' death?
• From whom is God's wrath turned aside as a result of Jesus death?
• Were our sins taken away from us in the hour Christ died, or do our sins remain on us until the point when we are united to Christ by faith?
• Do the elect live under both God's love and his wrath until they are born again, at which point all wrath is removed so that only love remains, or do the elect only ever live under his love and never under his wrath?
• Is reference to the belief that God is outside of time the resolution to the third and forth questions above, or is this just a cop-out?
• Do the evangelists in the Bible ever use "Jesus has died for you" to prove to unbelievers that God loves them and that they should come to him, or do the evangelists only ever call people to repentance and and assure them that if they do repent Jesus' death will cover all their sins?
• Is it the case that (a) all the elect were fully reconciled to God in the hour Jesus died and no one else is reconciled to God in any sense; (b) no-one not yet born was in any way reconciled to God in the hour Jesus died as they are only reconciled when they are born again; (c) every single person who has ever lived and will ever lived was partially reconciled to God in the hour Jesus died, but full reconciliation comes only when a person is united to Christ?

Spirit, soul and body

I recently saw a facebook post asking, “So are we body, mind, and soul, or the same 3 plus spirit? Discuss:”

Here are my tentative thoughts.

1. The phrase “body, mind and soul” doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible, but the following phrases do appear:

a. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. - Deuteronomy 6:5

b. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. - Mark 12:30

c. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Thessalonians 5:23

All of the above quotes are from the ESV.

In the Deuteronomy quote, the key Hebrew words are as follows:

English	heart	soul	might
Hebrew	lebab	nephesh	mod
Strong's reference	H3824	H5315	H3966

The reference numbers are from Strong's concordance which gives a number to every Hebrew and Greek word in the Bible so that you can see if two words are the same even if you don't read the original languages. You can get this free with E-sword.

If you also add in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the table looks like this:

English	heart	soul	might
Hebrew	lebab	nephesh	mod
Strong's reference	H3824	H5315	H3966
Septuagint	kardia	psyche	dynamis
Strong's reference	G2588	G5590	G1411

2. When Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 in Mark 12:30 in response to the question, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” he adds the word “mind” (dianoia, G1271) to heart, soul and strength (strength translating ischus, G2479). It's worth considering why he does this. We should rule out the explanation that Jesus thought that the command given through the Spirit in Deuteronomy was inadequate and needed to be expanded, because that does not fit with Jesus' high view of Scripture. A better explanation is that the Hebrew word “lebab” could only fully be translated into first-century Greek by using the two Greek words “kardia” (heart) and “dianoia” (mind). I can see that there is an argument for saying that it is “nephesh” rather than “kardia” that can only fully be translated with two Greek words, given that “mind” comes immediately after “soul” rather than “heart,” but for the reasons set out in point 3 below, I tentatively think that mind goes with heart rather than soul.

Adding an extra row for equivalent Greek phrases, the table looks like this.

English	heart	soul	might
Hebrew	lebab	nephesh	mod
Strong's reference	H3824	H5315	H3966
Septuagint	kardia	psyche	dynamis
Strong's reference	G2588	G5590	G1411
Equivalent first-century Greek words	kardia and dianoia (heart and mind)		ischus (strength)

3. I think that (i) heart/mind, (ii) soul and (iii) strength/might in Deuteronomy and Mark correspond with (i) spirit, (ii) soul and (iii) body in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The reason I think this is simply because there is a threefold list describing the whole person that has “psyche” in the middle of it, just as there is in Deuteronomy, and so one would expect that the word preceding “psyche” has something to do with heart/mind and that the word following it has something to do with might/strength, and this is in fact the case.

Spirit corresponding to heart and mind

Putting the soul aside for one moment, I think that Christians have to accept that a human being consists of a spirit and a body. What I mean by spirit and body here are illustrated by what happens to a Christian at death. When a Christian dies, his body rots in the ground, but his spirit goes to be with the Lord. The spirit that goes to be with the Lord is the heart of the man, i.e. the centre of who he really is and the spirit is not mindless, but can communicate with the Lord and worship him.

Body corresponding with strength

I think it is self-evident that the body corresponds with might and strength and that all of these terms are to do with our actions as opposed to our thoughts/attitudes. If Deuteronomy just called on people to love God with their heart and soul, one might come to the conclusion that our actions don't matter very much and so the Lord includes “might” in Deuteronomy which corresponds with “body” in 1 Thessalonians.

The table now starts to look like this.

English	heart	soul	might
Hebrew	lebab	nephesh	mod
Strong's reference	H3824	H5315	H3966
Septuagint	kardia	psyche	dynamis
Strong's reference	G2588	G5590	G1411
Equivalent first-century Greek words	kardia and dianoia (heart and mind)		ischus (strength)
Related words	pneuma (spirit)		soma (body)

4. Having put “soul” aside, we now need to return to it and consider what it means. When I was looking into this, the meaning of “soul” was what surprised me the most. I realised that the words translated “soul” in our English translations (“nephesh” in Hebrew and “psyche” in Greek) do not correspond to what most people mean when they use the word “soul” in everyday conversation.

In relation to human beings, “nephesh” first appears in Genesis 2:7 and is translated as “soul” in the King James Version:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

The phrase “living soul” translates the Hebrew phrase, “chay nephesh”.

However, although this is the first time that “nephesh” is used in relation to human beings, Genesis 2:7 is not its first occurrence; it is used in Genesis 1:20 and 21 to refer to fish and in 1:24 to refer to animals. In other words in Genesis 1 and 2, “soul” |(“nephesh”) simply means a creature and “chay nephesh” means a living creature. Therefore, it is not surprising that the ESV translates Genesis 2:7 as follows:

“then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

It seems clear from this that the way that “soul” is used in the Bible (or at least in the verses considered above) is very different from the way that “soul” is used in everyday current English.

In the Bible, “soul” simply means a creature refers to human and animal life. To lose your soul is simply to die and to save your soul is simply to stay alive. Using the Bible's definition of “soul” (as it appears in English translations) it makes no sense to ask if an animal has a soul, because an animal is a soul.

However, when “soul” is used in everyday current English, I think what is meant is much closer to what the Bible means by “spirit”.

I have not looked at every verse in the Bible that mentions “nephesh” and “psyche”. Although “nephesh” refers to “every living creature” (Genesis 2:19), when it comes to people, I have a suspicion that it can also refer to one's mood or emotions (see Psalm 42:5) and that the meaning of the word developed a greater range of meaning over the period during which the Old Testament was written, so that it has a wider range of meaning in the Psalms than it has in Genesis. Likewise, it wouldn't surprise me if the use of the word “psyche” in the New Testament sometimes corresponds more closely to what it meant in the Septuagint and at other times corresponds more closely to the secular Greek conception of the soul. I need to look into this further and my conclusions above may well need to be modified.

5. So to answer the question posed on facebook, my tentative conclusion is that each living human being, together with every other living creature is a soul. Every human soul consists of a body and a spirit. In our spirits, we worship God with our hearts/minds and with our bodies with worship God with our strength/might through our actions.

6. There is at least one verse that doesn't fit very well with my conclusion that the mind is linked to the heart and that both are part of the spirit. In 1 Corinthians 14:14 Paul writes,

“If I pray in a tongue, my spirit (pneuma) prays but my mind (nous) is unfruitful,”

drawing a distinction between the mind and the spirit. Although the word for mind here, “nous” is different from the word for mind in Mark 12:30, “dianoia”, I don't think that this removes the challenge to my conclusion. However, the fact that Paul distinguishes here between mind and spirit does not necessarily mean that the mind is not part of the spirit. I think it means that one can pray with the spirit without praying with the mind, because the mind is not the totality of the spirit, but when one prays with the mind a part of one's spirit is involved, because the mind is located in the spirit.

7. Everything I've said above are just my thoughts based on looking at the Bible and Strong's concordance, which are freely available on E-sword. I should probably go and read some proper articles on this now!

Working really hard to get there

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the city; also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there by anything accursed but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need n light of lamp of sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever." Revelation 22:1 - 5 (ESV)

As I read these words, one of main thoughts that comes into my mind is that I really really want to be there, and the next thought is that I really need to work harder to overcome the besetting sins in my life to be sure that I can get there, but that is a dangerous thought, one which if left unchecked is the main threat to arriving there, for it is the seed of unbelief within me that still does not fully trust that Jesus has done everything to secure my arrival in that place. 

Jesus himself worked really really hard to secure my place there and there is nothing I can do to add to that. 

Yes, I want to overcome sin in my life, but I must never think that my work to overcome sin can in anyway secure my arrival in that place. The only work I need to do is to believe that Jesus has secured my place already, and that work of believing can't properly even be called a work because it is simply looking at the work Jesus did and saying, "Yes, he did that for me."

So when I read these verses and notice how much I want to be there, I remind myself, not that I need to work harder, but that Jesus has already worked hard for me. I thank him in my heart that he has done this for me and I look forward to the day when I will be able to thank him face to face. 

Who did Jesus die for and who can be saved? What do you think the Bible teaches? Part II

Following my first post on this, I thought that it would be helpful to set out in a table more detail on the similarities and differences between the three views. The ticks and crosses indicate whether or not the view taken allows you to affirm the statements in the first column without contradicting what is affirmed in each view.

Feedback I've had since the fist post indicates that there are some views that would sit somewhere in between View 1 and View 2.

A variation on View 1 holds that following Jesus' ascension, the Holy Spirit is working in the heart of every single person in the world to persuade them of the truth of the Gospel, such that everyone who believes believes because of the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, but the Holy Spirit works equally in the heart of every person and it is still possible for everyone to resist the work of the Holy Spirit. Another view is almost identical to this except that the Holy Spirit only does this work in some people. For the purposes of the table I have included these variations with View 1.

	View 1 and the views falling between 1 and 2	View 2	View 3
Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ	✓	✓	✓
What Jesus suffered on the cross is what every sinner deserves to suffer	✓	✓	✓
Everyone who repents and believes will be saved	✓	✓	✓
The call to repent and believe should be preached to all people indiscriminately	✓	✓	✓
No one will be saved unless they repent and believe before death / before Jesus returns (not taking into account debates surrounding the children of believers)	✓	✓	✓
The intensity of what Jesus suffered on the cross does not increase or decrease depending upon the number of people who are saved by his death	✓	✓	✓/X
The cross is proof of the love that God has for every single person and of his desire that every person be saved	✓	✓	X
God loves some people more that others	X	✓	✓
You can truthfully say to everyone you meet, “Jesus died for you.”	✓	✓	X
Once the Gospel has been proclaimed to someone, the only thing preventing that person being saved is their refusal to believe	✓	✓	X
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united in what they want the cross to achieve	✓/X	✓	✓
If you believe the Gospel today, having properly understood it, you can have confidence that you will still believe it tomorrow no matter how much the devil tries to convince you that you no longer believe	X	✓	✓
Your own goodness/wisdom/character makes no contribution at all to your salvation	X	✓	✓

Who did Jesus die for and who can be saved? What do you think the Bible teaches? Part I

To many people the three views described below will look very similar, but they can have quite a significant impact on what people think God is like and on how you share the Gospel with people.

I have held all three views, initially the first, then the second, followed by the third and then back to the second on which I'm now fairly settled, but I recognise that I could have got this wrong. 

I'd love to know what view other people hold on this. My hunch is that most pastors among my friends will hold the third view, but that most church members will hold the first or second view. 

First view

Through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, God has made salvation available to every single person in the world. Everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. Those who do not believe will not be saved . Every single person who hears the gospel is capable of believing in Jesus. God gives people a new heart as a result of their faith in Christ. The new heart is not the cause of the person first putting their faith in Christ, but the result of the person's faith in Christ.

Second view

Through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, God has made salvation available to every single person in the world. Everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. Those who do not believe will not be saved. Because of original sin, no one has the capacity to put their faith in Jesus, unless God first works in them to give them a new heart. Everyone, in whom God puts a new heart, will put their faith in Jesus and be saved. The refusal of others to accept the salvation that is freely made available to them through Jesus' death shows the depths of the effects of original sin.

Third view

Through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, God has made salvation available only to the people he has chosen. All those he has chosen will believe the gospel and be saved when God gives them a new heart. There are many people for whom Christ has not died, and so, although all people should be called to repentance and faith and all people should be assured that if they believe in Jesus they will be saved, the evangelist should not tell non-Christians that Jesus has died for them because this may not be true in the case of the particular person to whom the evangelist is speaking.

The mind, the body and mental illness

Rene Descartes is famous for his argument that the mind and the body are distinct and that each can exist without the other. Philosophers continue to debate whether this is correct, but it seems to me that all Christians must accept this distinction. The Bible clearly teaches that our spirits and our bodies were made for each other and yet they are still distinct. The Apostle Paul knew that when he died, his spirit would go be with the Lord, whilst his body would rot in the ground, but that his spirit and body would be reunited at Christ’s second coming. (2 Cor 5:1-6; 1 Cor 15:50-53).

For Paul to be able to use the language of being “at home” with the Lord and “away” from the body (2 Cor 5:1-6) and for John to be able to refer to the souls in heaven crying out (Rev 6:9-10), it must be the case that a person’s mind is part of his spirit rather than his body. When a person’s spirit and body are separated at death, the spirit is not mindless, but is able to think and communicate and enjoy being at home in the presence of Christ.

To affirm that the mind and body are distinct is not to say that the mind and the body have no effect on each other. We all know from experience that our minds affect our bodies and vice versa: we can decide in our minds to move our bodies, and tiredness in our bodies affects the thinking of our minds.

These distinctions are important when considering the causes and treatments for mental illness. Mental illness is illness of the mind, and as the mind is part of the spirit rather than than the body, mental illness is spiritual illness.

To some the phrase “spiritual illness” gives the impression of moral shortcoming and that we are in some way to blame for the illness, but that is a misconception. Saying that “mental illness” is spiritual illness is simply observing that our minds belong to our spirits rather than our bodies.

To others, saying that mental illness is spiritual illness sounds like mental illness is being made out to be less serious than physical illness, but that is also a misconception. The person who survives a heart attack may well be plunged into suicidal depression from a broken heart.

Given that our minds and our bodies affect each other whilst they are connected to each other, affirming that mental illness is spiritual illness rather than bodily illness is not to say that all the causes of all mental illnesses arise in the spirit/mind rather than the body. A problem in our bodies may well be the cause of a mental/spiritual problem. However, the affirmation of the distinction between the spirit and the body, does help us to remember that the cause of a particular mental illness may well be in the mind rather than in the body, or that there may be both bodily and metal/spiritual causes.

The application of this in treating a particular mental illness is that a person suffering from mental illness may need medical help only, spiritual help only or a combination of medical help and spiritual help, depending on whether the cause(s) of the illness lies in the mind, the body or both. When it comes to treating Christians with mental illnesses, in some cases the treatment may best be delivered by a secular counsellor whom God has gifted in particular ways to understand how the mind works and to help people better understand their own minds, in other cases the treatment may best be delivered by a pastor to whom God has given a particular gift of being able to show people how the message of the Gospel applies to the particular issue that the Christian is facing, and in many cases, the Christian will be helped through a combination of advice from the pastor and the secular counsellor.

Some Christians may object to saying that spiritual and mental illness are synonymous. They argue that non-Christians can be in good mental health, but they cannot be in good spiritual health because the Bible is clear that everyone who is outside of Christ is spiritually dead, and so mental and spiritual health must be different. However, this is to misunderstand what the Bible means by spiritual death. Death in the Bible has to do with separation. Physical death occurs when a person's spirit is separated from their body. Spiritual death occurs when the a person's spirit is separated from God. If we are spiritually dead (as all people are before being born again – Eph 2:1), this means that our spirit is separated from and hostile to God, but it does not mean that our spirit is inactive. The fact that a person who is spiritually dead still has an active spirit is clear from 1 Cor 2:11:

“For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”

Paul does not limit what he says here to be true only for Christians. The spirit of every person, Christian or non-Christian, knows that person's thoughts. Therefore, it must be the case that spiritual death does not mean spiritual inactivity, but rather spiritual hostility to God. 

I expect that many people may find it hard to grasp that spiritual death means spiritual hostility to God rather than spiritual inactivity due to the way that some people seek to prove that God has to work specifically in a person's heart before they can become a Christian. They present their argument as follows: Ephesians 2:1 says that non-Christians are spiritually dead; dead people don't do anything; therefore the spirits of non-Christians can't do anything and so God must make our spirits alive and then we will choose Christ. This argument is incorrect because it assumes that if physical death means the inactivity of the body, then spiritual death must mean inactivity of the spirit, whereas the Bible teaches that physical death is about the separation of the body from the spirit and spiritual death is about the separation of the spirit from God. The argument is also unnecessary because it is clear from 2 Cor 4:3-6 that God has to work in a person's heart before a person will accept the Gospel.

Some Christians may also deny that Christians can receive any spiritual help from non-Christians. However, this also follows from the failure to understand that spiritual death does not mean spiritual inactivity. The spirits/minds of non-Christians are active, and in God's common grace, some people understand the human spirit/mind very well and they are able to help both Christians and non-Christians with many mental/spiritual issues. A clear example of this is the development of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT, which is all about helping people to identify how undesirable behaviour arises from false beliefs and helping them to replace the false beliefs with true beliefs. However, from the observation that mental illness and spiritual illness are synonymous, it does follow that, although it may often be appropriate for churches to refer Christians to secular counsellors and to take seriously the gifts God has given to secular counsellors, it is never appropriate for churches to defer totally to the advice of secular counsellors because many of the issues that are covered by secular counsellors are issues that are addressed directly by the Gospel and the advice that is given by secular counsellors may well be in direct opposition to the Gospel. 

New Blog

I'm thankful that there are many things in life that I'm certain about. 

By faith I am certain that:

• Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who reveals to us God the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts.
• Jesus Christ died for me to take the punishment that we all deserve for turning away from God, and that all of my sins, past present and future are forgiven on the basis of what Jesus did on the cross. 
• Jesus was raised from the dead, seen by many people and then went up into heaven where he now sits at God's right hand ruling over all things. 
• He will return to judge the world with complete justice and fairness and we will only be safe on that day if we have come to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour now before we meet him as our judge then. 
• Jesus has commanded his followers to tell all people that he is the judge of everyone and that everyone who turns to Jesus in repentance and trust will be forgiven their sin and will be adopted as a son by God the Father. 
• God the Holy Spirit lives in everyone who has come to Jesus in repentance and trust and he enables us to know God's love for us. 
• God works all things together for the good of those who love him, and this good involves being made more and more like Jesus Christ. 

So I am thankful for the things over which God has given me certainty. However, there are still many things in the Bible that I am not certain about and anyone who knows anything about Christianity will know that there are many "secondary issues" in the Bible that Christians who genuinely love God and who genuinely believe that the Bible is the word of God disagree over. 

This blog is to designed to help me and others think out loud about these secondary issues in the hope that by prayerfully considering these things together we can get greater certainty concerning what the God has said to us through the Bible. A lot of what I write will seem like I'm certain of what I'm saying, but nearly all of it is work in progress rather than my settled position. So please feel free to offer alternative points of view.