Rethinking Hell contributor Chris Date responds to comments recently made by James White on the Dividing Line, in which White rightly explains that biblical language of Christ shedding his precious blood means he died as a substitute in place of those for whom his sacrifice was made. Chris asks, if the blood of Christ points metonymically to his substitutionary death, doesn’t that mean the punishment awaiting the unsaved is likewise death?
Links
- Chris’s journal article, “The Righteous for the Unrighteous: Conditional Immortality and the Substitutionary Death of Jesus”
- https://www.mcmaster.ca/mjtm/documents/Volume18/18.MJTM.69-92-Date.pdf
- The episode of James White’s Dividing Line discussed in this episode
- https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/2018/12/11/radio-free-geneva-the-calvinism-doctrine-of-demons-trailer-greg-laurie-and-more-steven-anderson/
- Video in which John MacArthur is asked about Jesus’ blood
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=612ZJnf5Bz4
- Video in which R. C. Sproul explains Jesus’ blood as shorthand for his death
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_10Mh6eHXg
- The Bible Project video in which Tim Mackie explains the significance of Jesus’ blood
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OlRWGLdnw
One thought on “Episode 115: “The Precious Blood of Christ”: A Response to James White”
I enjoyed your podcast and article very much. Thanks for all your good work! You (admirably) go out of your way to soothe the accusations of heresy from those who insist that the hypostatic union must be disrupted if annihilationism is true. I understand your reasons for positing an explanation that is consistent with a type of dualism, but to discuss the psychosomatic nature of existence from a biblical standpoint should require mentioning that human and animal LIFE (not intellect, destiny, etc.) are defined identically in scripture. Ignoring this elephant (sorry, pun!) in the room is part of what, I think, muddies this whole discussion. But, even more simply, dualists should consider that, if lack of Jesus’ consciousness is their fear for the trinity during the time in the tomb, what happened during the previous 33 years when Jesus slept? Or for that matter, how do we understand the trinity when Jesus was an embryo and fetus? (I also have my doubts about the skin clothing for Adam and Eve referring directly to atonement, although I admit that is partially in reaction against the rhetorical weight placed on the concept by those who insist that there was no death of any kind in all creation before the fall. At the very least, this begs the question of how Adam and Eve even know what the threat of death meant).