Walter Rauschenbusch, Father of the Social Gospel, casting what he referred to as “old theology” in a bad light stated: “Wherever doctrine becomes rigid and is the pre-eminent thing in religion, ‘faith’ means submission of the mind to the affirmations of dogma and theology, and acceptance of the plan of salvation and trust in the vicarious atonement of Christ.”[1] While Rauschenbusch declared that faith in the atonement was antiquated, Paul affirmed saving faith indispensably necessary for salvation: “Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because, in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation is appropriated by faith in Christ based on Christ’s shed “blood” in 3:25. It is better to connect “blood” with “propitiation” rather than as the object of faith.[2]
Read moreThe Trinity, Part Three
The ontological Trinity focuses on the relationship the Trinity has within the Triune God totally apart from the creation. A. H. Strong calls the ontological Trinity the “Social Trinity.” Ryrie refers to this relationship between the persons of Trinity the opera as intra or the inner works of the Trinity. Does Scripture speak of the relationship within the Trinity? In John 17:24 Jesus prayed to the Father concerning the love that God the Father had for the Son before the foundation of the world. This has to be so because “God is love” (1st John 4:8). There are three practical benefits from the ontological Trinity.
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