[with particular reference to God’s restorative plans for creation]
The chapter subheading might be regarded as the Bible’s “dark matter”; yet not in any sinister sense, quite the contrary. In cosmology that term refers to mysterious mass that scientist hypothesize must exist, being inferred by its gravitational effects on visible matter. Yet it cannot be observed through telescope or through radiological measurement even though it is believed to constitute around 85% of the total matter in the universe. Unless and until this phenomenon is understood, then neither will the origins and workings of what is more clearly detectable within the universe be settled. Likewise, with Scripture: the “visible matter” is not the totality of God’s plan for His creation but concerns His stratagem for the reconciliation of the world to Himself and the key structures and players within that plan. The fuller picture is alluded to in Scripture but only matters directly relating to the key human agencies involved within the reconciliation (Israel and the Church) have been illuminated. Yet until quite recently that sub-plot has been mistaken for the whole salvation story. That has distorted an understanding of the whole (divine providence) whilst not preventing the salvific recruitment and enlightenment operation within it proceeding according to plan. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that through Him the world might be healed (cf. Jn3:17). The whole matter has been in accordance with God’s stratagem for the Church and the world, being “progressive revelation”.
Natural law – the dark matter of Scripture
Given the divine intimation that all humanity was ultimately to be restored and come to understand the truth (1Tim2:4), it was necessary, especially following the breakdown in relationship between man and his Maker depicted in the Eden incident that man be given some awareness of the Creator, how he should relate to his fellows and manage the creative order set under him. This was to be by means of natural law, a concept referred to indirectly by St Paul and accepted to a substantial degree by the Catholic Church, particularly through the influence of thirteenth century Thomas Aquinas and his formulations on the primary and secondary precepts of natural law, and nineteenth century John Henry Newman’s reflections on universal revelation and the role of conscience, the latter having a substantial impact on the Second Vatican Council’s articulation of broader benign providence in the 1960s. Many Evangelicals on the other hand will be turned off if not positively repulsed by the concept of “natural law” playing any part in human salvation. Yet the description is something of a misnomer for it pertains to divinely provided precepts within man that enable him, even in his fallen state, to discern good from evil and endeavour to choose the former for his own well-being and everyone else’s. Yet it is more than that for it pertains to what is spiritual, even the essence of Christ Himself, and I have come to understand can be directly associated with His atoning death; since that avails at the forensic level for all who respond positively or “faithfully” to such precepts (for not all do - next chapter). It provides an object of faith, independent of special revelation through a religious creed, for God foreknew that the Christian message would become confused and distorted, indeed entirely obscured for many through historical cultural and religious formation. Natural law is not unconnected to Christ himself, involving as it does an underlying faith in Logos (cf. Jn1:9 King James Version) by which little children can do no other than “believe” in the Saviour (Mt18:6 – note the context in verse 2: it is not referring to His disciples). All this should not be so surprising given that all things, not least the precious human soul, were created by the pre-incarnate Christ as Logos, through Him and for Him (Col 1:16). Amongst the earliest Church Fathers such as Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria, natural law was likewise expressed in terms of the divine Logos (Word) whom they recognized had provided every age, race and each individual with seeds of divine truth – the “Logos spermatikos” so as to lead everyone to some knowledge of God and His law, however fragmentary; indeed Origen also regarded the seed of reason provided to all men equipping them with a degree of wisdom and a sense of justice as the essence of “Christ”, as did Justin Martyr1 , and as we have just indicated did the incarnated Word Himself. Those, Justin believed, who entirely disregard the internal light of Christ and “do not conform to right reason” would be punished in fire at their death2. From such a perspective Christianity does not supersede natural law but rather builds on it. Even pagan literature, philosophy and mythology contain wisdom that could be regarded as a preparation for the gospel, and that is exactly how St Paul utilized it. He drew upon a Greek poet Epimenides and a Greek philosopher Aratus in his sermon in Athens (Acts17:28 below), but firstly in addressing a pagan audience in Lycaonia, the apostle states:
We have come with Good News to make you turn from these empty idols to the living God who made sky and the earth and the sea and all that these hold. In the past He allowed all the nations to go their own way; but even then He did not leave you without evidence of Himself in the good things He does for you: He sends rain from Heaven and seasons of fruitfulness; He fills you with food and your hearts with merriment. (Acts14:15-17 New Jerusalem Bible)
So unlike His chosen people of the Old Testament whose inexcusable idolatry was not tolerated and was punished severely, God permitted primitive people to “go their own way” in terms of their search for God, hoping as Paul said that they would recognize the goodness of His nature through the natural provisions made for them. According to the apostle’s natural theology, God expected primitive man to grope after Him and find Him to an extent:
And He has made from one blood, every nation of men to dwell upon the Earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we move and have our being; as also some of your poets have said, “For we are also His offspring” (Acts17:26-28 New King James Version)
This was in response to the Athenian pagans setting up an altar inscribed “To the unknown God”. Paul concluded his message:
Truly these times of this ignorance God overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts17:30 New King James Version)
We see how God had overlooked or given the wink (King James Version) to primitive man’s idolatry. Paul affirms that God had been willing to tolerate past sins; He was not as it were bound to Himself to punish them, and that was in part due to His Son’s atonement for the totality of human sin in the middle of history (Rom3:25,26). Contrast this with how the Lord dealt with His own people Israel:
You alone have I intimately known of the families of the Earth. That is why I shall punish you for all your wrong-doings (Amos3:2 New Jerusalem Bible)
Christians must surely take note: “You are my chosen people: that is why I will punish you for your wrong doing”. For when it comes to judgement, God has no favourites; on the contrary He has always made generous allowance for the unenlightened (Acts17:30) but expects a higher standard from those who have been privileged to be acquainted with His decrees and have a personal knowledge of His Son; for such have been given inestimable privileges, resources and opportunities for a glorious inheritance. How shall we possibly escape if we neglect so great a salvation? (cf. Heb2:3). How much worse a punishment will those deserve who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant by which he is sanctified as a common thing and so outraged the Spirit of grace? (Heb10:29). For the Lord shall judge His people (v30 – not “vindicate” them e.g. Catholic New Jerusalem Bible). As for the rest, He has not left them entirely in the dark; so the irreligious are neither entirely without excuse nor indeed hope. Yet it is not only pagans who sometimes need to be reminded how good and gracious JHWE is to all; His own servant Jonah the prophet longed for wicked Nineveh’s destruction. JHWE rebuked Him:
Why should I (JHWE) not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals (Jon4:11 New Jerusalem Bible)
“I knew this would happen”, complained the prophet after the city had been spared; “I knew you were a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster. I’m so miserable I just want to die” (cf. Jon4:2,3). This man should have been a theologian, but to be fair the latter have an excuse, it is called Holy Scripture. That is especially cryptic concerning God’s wider providence (the dark matter) as a result of which the Catholic Church, having been set back centuries in this regard particularly by the theology of the fearsome Augustine, has only very recently come to apprehend or at least articulate the length, breadth and height of divine magnanimity, whilst many other Bible believing Christians do not perceive the matter at all, still confident and strident in their assertion that those not elected to Christian salvation are to be damned. The really good news (God’s hidden purpose and context of the Church) would appear to have been saved for last. Such is the procession of progressive revelation regarding providence, but it has also applied to an understanding of the nature of the inheritance of the elect which has been obscured and overly spiritualized in part through the influence of Neoplatonism:
(May God) give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Eph1:17,18 King James Version)
The Father of lights
As well as the light of reason and conscience, the loving Creator also works through His Holy Spirit in the gifts and talents He provides to mankind, for “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights (Ja1:17). These gifts are not all religious in nature. The Father of lights can reveal something of Himself and His benign providence in music, art, poetry and many aspects of human endeavour; for our weakened, currently fragmented Church cannot be relied upon to shed light into every community or nation – our Lord utilizes other methods. Any great artistic creation or composition that inspires or elevates the mind is likely to have been the result of its human creator being themselves “inspired”. So anyone who genuinely admires and appreciates such work is honouring and welcoming something of God into his heart; for everything that is truly worthy, every good and perfect gift has derived from Him. In modern society, any play, book or television drama that challenges people’s prejudices and encourages a more considered, open-minded or compassionate way of life is a preparation for the gospel. Even gifted comedians bring sunshine to brighten the tedium and drudgery that can be a substantial part of many people’s lives. And it was God, not the devil who provided wine to gladden the hearts of men (Ps104:15) for as we have just observed St Paul affirm, our loving Creator wishes His human creation to be happy (Acts14:16-17); holy too if possible for only then can we know true happiness. Any artistic outpouring that creates a sense of longing and wonder that people would not otherwise experience helps to create the void which ultimately can only be filled by God Himself. Science and learning are also gifts from the God who would not only have all men to be saved (healed and restored) but come to know the truth (1Tim2:4). The prowess and self-discipline of the top sportsperson as well as being admirable in itself is also analogous to gospel salvation, certainly as St Paul perceived the matter:
I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect be thus minded (Phi3:14:15) And:-
I discipline my body like an athlete, training it do what it should. Otherwise I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified (1Cor9:27)
At the natural level of revelation, something of God’s providence and power are seen in the magnificence of creation and in the more wholesome aspects of human talent and industry described above, to which much could be added. The Christian is assuredly not to “despise everything that is sensible” (i.e. pertaining to the senses) as Augustine had asserted3. These are gifts from the Father of lights to humanity to be appreciated and cultivated; for sure, not to be embraced as if they themselves were the culmination of beauty or joy, for such apotheosis is to be discerned through them not in them.
Special revelation
The Catholic Church affirms that natural law and human reason play a positive and preparatory role in man’s search for God; human reason is not antithetical to divine revelation, indeed is a part of it; yet these faculties are insufficient of themselves to bring individuals to the kind of intimate relationship God ultimately wishes to have with the creatures made in His own image:
By natural reason man can know God with certainty on the basis of His works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation. Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed Himself and given Himself to man. This He does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men (Catechism of the Catholic Church – chap. 2)
And God having chosen to work from within, used a people (Israel succeeded by the Church) to enlighten and reconcile the people (the world) to Himself. That process was initiated when God revealed Himself to Abram and made him Abraham – the father of many nations, by whom all peoples of the Earth should ultimately be blessed. From his seed would spring the nation of Israel, intended to become the priestly people of God. For them, divine revelation would no longer be restricted to what could be determined innately or by observing creation. God would reveal Himself and His requirements more precisely by means of the Law and Prophets. He would even reveal His name: JHWE – “I AM who I am”, and something of His awesome power and purity through His presence in the Holy of Holies. Later and more openly, God’s personality and loving purposes for humanity were witnessed, albeit briefly and to a privileged few, through the incarnate Word Himself:
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth…And of His fullness we have all received and grace for grace (Jn1:14,16 King James Version).
Now, through the New Covenant initiated by Christ’s blood, God’s saving truth is known more fully through the Church and her Scriptures. For this holy, universal and apostolic Church is the mystical Body of Christ on Earth; His flesh and bones (Eph5:30) being Christ the first-fruits (1Cor15:23), the instrument of His saving and redemptive mission. The Spirit guides her and progressively leads her into all truth (John16:13). A further progression of understanding continues in the Church through the centuries, but there can be no entirely new revelation which surpasses or in any way seeks to correct the initial revelation itself, but only its interpretation. For the foundation has once and for all been laid by Christ and His apostles and forms the scriptural and oral deposit of faith which the Church must guard and teach; the faith having once-for-all been entrusted to God’s holy people (Jude3):
Yet even if revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for the Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries [Catechism of the Catholic Church #66].
For that “completed revelation” incorporated some clear instruction essential for the functioning and mission of the Church, much of it provided in verbal form, but also a less vital package of mysteries for the Church to unpack during the course of its long journey of discovery. No contributor to the canon of Scripture utilizes the word “musterion” more than the apostle Paul. A mystery from the human perspective is necessarily a secret or partial veiling from God’s perspective, the Greek word encompassing both aspects. There is the mystery of godliness (1Tim3:16), the mystery of the Kingdom (Mk4:11), the mystery of the Church (Eph5:32), the mystery of the gospel (Eph6:19), the mystery of the faith (1Tim3:9) together with the four particularly relevant to this exercise: the mystery of lawlessness (anomias - 2Thes2:7), the fellowship (or dispensation) of the mystery, being the unforetold nature of Gentile inheritance and its implications to wider providence (Rom11:25, Eph3:9; Col1:27), the mystery of Babylon (Rev17:5) and the final mystery of God, which I believe pertains to His hidden providential intentions towards His earthly creation, the disclosure of which brings sweetness to the mouth but bitterness in the gut. (Rev10:1-10).
The unavoidable need to deconstruct
In terms of new revelation, the most that can now happen is that what has already been revealed in Scripture may become better understood, but something being “better understood” is indicative of a deficiency or misunderstanding in the past, and that is certainly the case regarding divine providence. The Spirit’s progressive enlightenment both within the Catholic and Protestant churches has invariably resulted in a keener awareness of God’s gracious magnanimity towards humanity, challenging the harsh and narrow perspectives of the mighty Augustine as well as that of the Reformers. In the context of ecclesiological re-integration if that is to occur, these Spirit-derived new perspectives must be underpinned from Scripture. Inconveniently that involves deconstructing the biblical theology that was foundational to the original doctrinal understanding. In terms of the Catholic Church, either the Holy Spirit has been misinterpreted at Council fifty years ago or Augustine (in particular) had substantially misread Scripture; thankfully it is the latter. A major part of the current process is to demonstrate that the broader scope of God’s salvific plans that has been revealed through the Spirit’s working on the mind of the churches was there in Scripture all along; it is just that it was not perceived. This is not a problem; this is progressive revelation; this is God’s timing. This I understand to be a disclosure concerning God’s munificent intentions towards His earthly creation, which together with a unified understanding of the gospel is required to enable “those who will be living in the day of tribulation when all the wicked and godless are to be removed”4 to have suitable opportunity to prepare.
The boundaries of new revelation
Biblical scholarship has come a long way since the time of the early Fathers and indeed since the middle-ages; nor is Holy Spirit’s enlightenment restricted to Catholic scholars as the latter readily acknowledge. The exegetical skills of earlier theologians cannot invariably be considered superior to that of later scholarship for that is a contradiction of the progressive revelation principle, evinced by an indisputable and entirely authentic development of doctrinal understanding and devotional practices through the centuries. The Holy Scriptures like the Kingdom can be likened to a storehouse of treasure from which may be brought out new things as well as old (cf. Mt13:52). But Augustinian monk Brother Martin Luther went quite beyond authentic development and further still beyond the bounds of reason when he made the following remarks about the Church Fathers in one of his “table talks”. If he were right it would mean that nobody in the Church or any breakaway Christian movement for the previous thousand or more years had understood or could sensibly articulate the means by which one could be delivered from perdition:
“OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH”
Behold what great darkness is in the books of the Fathers concerning faith; yet if the article of justification be darkened it is impossible to smother the grossest error of mankind… Augustine wrote nothing to the purpose concerning faith for he was first roused up and made a man by the Pelagians, in striving against them. I can find no exposition upon the Epistles to the Romans or Galatians where anything is taught pure and aright. Oh what a happy time have we now in regard to the purity of the doctrine, but alas we little esteem it. [Martin Luther Table Talk # DXXX Marshall Montgomery Collection – translated William Hazlitt]
I trust I have already demonstrated why such a proposal is farcical. Why, does one think God would be so perverse as to deny the world, the Church or any known assembly separated from her any instruction on the means of salvation for over a millennium? For none of the known Christian sects that had separated from the Catholic Church understood “saving faith” in anything like the thoroughly counter-intuitive way Luther conceived it, yet if he were right they could not have escaped perdition unless they had. For, said he: “It is certain that a man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ”. When I was directed to this and the other 27 paradoxical theses articulated at the Heidelberg Disputation and the attempt to justify them from Scripture5, my heart, mind and conscience affirmed them to be the doctrines of devils, demonstrably contrary to the teaching of Christ in the Gospels. Yet such theological paradoxes are effectively the foundations upon which Protestant Evangelicalism has been built, so we need to examine them in a little more detail. I have reproduced the list below:
28 THEOLOGICAL THESES - presented by Martin Luther and Leonhard Beyer to a meeting of the Augustinian order at Heidelberg on 26th April 1518: [my highlighting]
Introductory Statement: “Distrusting completely our own wisdom, according to that counsel of the Holy Spirit, “Do not rely on your own insight” (Prov. 3:5), we humbly present to the judgment of all those who wish to be here these theological paradoxes, so that it may become clear whether they have been deduced well or poorly from St. Paul, the especially chosen vessel and instrument of Christ, and also from St. Augustine, his most trustworthy interpreter”.
1 The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance man on his way to righteousness, but rather hinders him.
2 Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.
3 Although the works of man always seem attractive and good, they are nevertheless likely to be mortal sins.
4 Although the works of God are always unattractive and appear evil, they are nevertheless really eternal merits.
5 The works of men are thus not mortal sins (we speak of works which are apparently good), as though they were crimes.
6 The works of God (we speak of those which he does through man) are thus not merits, as though they were sinless.
7 The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.
8 By so much more are the works of man mortal sins when they are done without fear and in unadulterated, evil self-security.
9 To say that works without Christ are dead, but not mortal, appears to constitute a perilous surrender of the fear of God.
10 Indeed, it is very difficult to see how a work can be dead and at the same time not a harmful and mortal sin.
11 Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work.
12 In the sight of God sins are then truly venial when they are feared by men to be mortal.
13 Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do, it commits a mortal sin.
14 Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can always do evil in an active capacity.
15 Nor could free will remain in a state of innocence, much less do good, in an active capacity, but only in its passive capacity.
16 The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.
17 Nor does speaking in this manner give cause for despair, but for arousing the desire to humble oneself and seek the grace of Christ.
18 It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.
19 That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened (Rom. 1:20; cf. 1 Cor 1:21-25),
20 he deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21 A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.
22 That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.
23 The law brings the wrath of God (Rom. 4:15), kills, reviles, accuses, judges, and condemns everything that is not in Christ.
24 Yet that wisdom is not of itself evil, nor is the law to be evaded; but without the theology of the cross man misuses the best in the worst manner.
25 He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ.
26 The law says, do this, and it is never done. Grace says, believe in this, and everything is already done.
27 Actually one should call the work of Christ an acting work (operans) and our work an accomplished work (operatum), and thus an accomplished work pleasing to God by the grace of the acting work.
28 The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.
As our limited patristic analysis has shown, the above would have been anathema to those who received the Good News from the apostles or their immediate appointees. Such cannot possibly have been “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (cf. Jude1:3) or indeed anything like it, or someone whose writing has survived from the 2nd/3