Thursday 29 April 2010

Dallas Willard denies that Jesus Christ finished His work of salvation on the cross

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6 (NIV)

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. I Peter 2:24 (NIV)

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit... I Peter 3:18 (NIV)

The fact that an essential Christian doctrine such as penal substitution is even a matter of controversy shows how far down the road of apostasy the professing Christian church has gone. I’ve noticed two related characteristics of those who object to the doctrine: 1) They argue against the teaching on the basis of an emotional reaction rather than on the basis of what scripture actually teaches; 2) They have trouble accepting that human nature is as sinful as the Bible says it is.

Christian Research Network has posted a link to an interview between Gary Moon and Dallas Willard. More Books and Things has a post here on Mr. Willard's view of penal substitution.

I noticed a few other things in that interview:

You’ll find Leslie Weatherhead quoted approvingly by both men. Dr. Weatherhead was a mid-20th Century apostate who said in his book The Christian Agnostic, "No one, short of information not available, can say that Christ is ‘the only begotten son of God.’ There may be a son of God on Mars." (Associated Press dispatch from London, August 30, 1965, cited by Carl McIntire in Outside the Gate (1967), p. 24).

Throughout the interview, Mr. Willard uses philosophical rather than biblical reasoning, and straw man arguments to characterize views he doesn’t like. Nowhere does he address important biblical passages that teach penal substitution such as those at the top of this post. This is the same complaint that Bob DeWaay has about Mr. Willard's book The Spirit of the Disciplines (1988): Dallas Willard doesn’t even address the passage in Colossians 2 that refutes his argument. To hear Pastor DeWaay’s broadcasts on this, go here and here.

Go further down in the Moon-Willard interview and you’ll find this:

GWM: Christ’s work on the cross was not the end?

DW: No.

GWM: I knew that, but I’m trying to help you out.

DW: Christ’s work on the cross was not the end. Now, there was something finished. Primarily, it was, in the biblical sense, the days of His flesh were finished. But to think that redemption was finished or that everything needed for salvation was finished is simply a brutal misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching about the life of Christ.

If anyone is guilty of a "brutal misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching," it's Dallas Willard. In John 19:28 we read, "...Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled..." In verse 30, Jesus Christ, while on the cross, said, "It is finished." His statement in verse 30 results from His knowledge in verse 28. I've always heard that the phrase used in John 19:30 was an accounting term meaning "paid in full." The word "finished" in verse 30 and "accomplished" in verse 28 come from the same Greek word, teleo. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, this word "frequently signifies, not merely to terminate a thing, but to carry out a thing to the full." (W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (1940).

When it comes to redemption, the scripture says:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Ephesians 1:7

The Greek word for redemption in the passage above is apolutrosis, which according to Vine, means "a releasing, for (i.e. on payment of) a ransom. This verse, which says that we have redemption through his blood, i.e., his blood shed on the cross--not through his blood plus something else, bolsters the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in the passage from John 19 cited above. By the way, the ransom was paid to God the Father to satisfy His conditions--not to Satan, as some erroneously believe.

Mr. Willard, to put it mildly, really doesn't handle the word of God very well. The perceptive reader will notice that this is yet another example of denial of essential Christian truth that isn't coming from outside the professing evangelical church, but from within.

HT: More Books and Things

2 comments:

  1. people who say such things display zero spiritual wisdom.

    They think with the flesh! Now even Science confirms that the flesh, or physical world is but a subset of a non-physical eternity that is not bound by space or time!

    Unfortunately Mr. Willard is a product of the dumbed down education mechanisms within secular & religious education in this country!

    Of course Jesus finished his salvation work on the Cross! When you read in the Bible who Jesus is, what he did on the cross and then compare that to what physics tells us about the non-physical eternity that encompasses all that is physical, where space / time does not exist then you know that Jesus did indeed finish the work of salvation on the cross!

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  2. DW leans a bit toward progressive salvation, but he is on to something that the church has missed: The working out of our salvation as a necessity:

    1 Peter 1:8-21 (English Standard Version)

    "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

    Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

    Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

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