Copyright by Jonathan Menn and Equipping Pastors International 2007. All Rights Reserved

DOCTINAL HISTORY:

SOTERIOLOGY

Jonathan M. Menn

B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1974

J.D., CornellLawSchool, 1977

M.Div., TrinityEvangelicalDivinitySchool, 2007

Equipping Pastors International

714 S. Summit St., Appleton, WI 54914

(920) 734-0709

July 2007;

revised, July 2010.

DOCTRINAL HISTORY: SOTERIOLOGY

Early Church

Apostolic Fathers [Barnabas, Hermas, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Papias, Ignatius] (1st Cent.)

Writings fragmentary—lack originality, depth, clearness and definiteness. (37-39)[1]

All early Fathers indicated that to appropriate salvation there is a co-working of freedom and grace, involving faith and repentance, but what “faith” consisted of was not made altogether clear. (203-04)
Christ’s passion and death as freeing mankind from sin and death or as procuring for mankind the grace of repentance and as opening the way for a new obedience (rather than as the ground of man’s justification). (40)
Christ also seen as revealing the Father, and teaching a new moral law.Here, faith is simply the first step in the way of life, on which one’s moral development depends--forgiveness of sins is granted in baptism and apprehended by faith, but man also merits this blessing by good works (i.e., a second and independent principle along with faith). (40-41)

Development of heretical movements. (1st-3d Cents.)

Gnosticism (1st-3d Cents.)
Matter was inherently evil and had been created by a lesser God (Demiurge, the God of the OT);
Christ was a special spirit emissary from the kingdom of light to the kingdom of darkness who provided secret knowledge through which certain persons could be saved. The path of redemption was through secret knowledge via initiation into the mysteries of marriage to Christ, peculiar baptism, magic names and special anointings. (48)
Men divided into three classes: pneumatic (the elite of the Church); psychic (ordinary Church members); and hylic (lowest, Gentiles). Only the pneumatic are capable of higher knowledge and highest blessedness. Psychic may be saved through faith and works, but can only attain inferior blessedness. Hylic are hopelessly lost. (48)

Marcion (excommunicated AD 144)
The NT God was the greater God of love and mercy; the OT God (Demiurge) was a lesser God of law and wrath.
Christ only had an apparent body and proclaimed the Gospel of love and freedom from the OT law, thus opening the way of salvation for all who believe (even thewicked in the nether world). (53)

Apologetes [Justin Martyr (d.165), Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch] (2d Cent.)

Referred to Christ as the Logos in a philosophical way: Christ as the divine reason, immanent in God, to which God gave a separate existence, had an independent personality, and through which God revealed himself.

Christ had a real body and soul, and was the very Son of God who hung on the cross. His sufferings obtained for men forgiveness of sins and deliverance from sin and the devil.

Sometimes they indicate that new life is wholly dependent on the free choice of men, but sometimes that it is entirely contingent on the free grace of God. (58-59)

Anti-Gnostic Fathers [Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian] (late 2d-early 3d Cents.)

Irenaeus
Emphasized Christ’s recapitulating the entire race in himself, thus establishing a new relation between God and man.
Discussed Christ’s obedience, his suffering in our stead, paying our debt and propitiating the Father, and his having redeemed us from the power of Satan.
Stressed the necessity of faith, but indicated that by baptism is a man regenerated and his sins washed away.
He appeared to distinguish faith and justification, indicating that faith necessarily leads to observance of the commandments of Christ, and therefore is sufficient to make a man righteous before God. (66-67)

Tertullian
Viewed God as a lawgiver who demands satisfaction for transgression, for which Christ died.
For sins committed after baptism, he indicated that satisfaction required penance (repentance, confession, fasting and other forms of mortification). This laid the groundwork for the Roman Catholic sacrament of penance. (66-68)

Alexandrian Fathers [Clement of Alexandria, Origen] (2d-3d Cents.)

Stressed free will; God offers salvation in Christ and man has the power to accept it. However, Origen also speaks of faith as an effect of divine grace as well as an act of man. Faith is only a preliminary (albeit necessary) step to salvation—it must be elevated to knowledge and understanding, and lead to the performance of good works (faith saves because it always has works in view). Faith is not the only condition of salvation; per Origen, repentance is even more necessary. (74-75)

They sometimes contrasted faith and knowledge: faith was the initial stage of the acceptance of truth in a general way; knowledge was the later, more perfect stage. (204)

Early Fathers viewed repentance,alongside faith, as a necessary condition of salvation, and appear to have attached great importance to its external manifestation of penitential deeds, which may even have had value in atoning for sins committed after baptism. (204)

Early Fathers also began drifting toward ceremonialism–i.e., the idea that baptism carries with it forgiveness of previous sins and that sins committed after baptism can be pardoned by penance. Good works of some, especially of martyrs, and the intercession of confessors and martyrs, were thought by some to have had value. (205)

4th Cent.-Middle Ages

Pelagius and Augustine

Pelagius(c.354-c.420/440)
Man could obtain salvation by keeping the law.
God’s grace is of two kinds: 1) grace of nature (man’s free will), and 2) the Gospel and example of Christ (which are neither universal nor necessary, but render it easier for men to obtain salvation). God’s grace does not operate directly and immediately on man’s will, but only on his understanding. Man can resist God’s grace.
The real Christian is one who knows God, believes that he is accepted by God, obeys the precepts of the Gospel and imitates Christ. (205-06)

Augustine(354-430)

Man is totally depraved. Man needs an internal, spiritual grace to enlighten the mind and incline the will to holiness. This renewal is monergistic and irresistible (i.e., not that it constrains man against his will, but renews his heart so that he voluntarily chooses right). God’s persevering grace ensures that man’s initial regeneration and forgiveness are not lost.

Faith is primarily an intellectual assent to truth, but he distinguishes believing Christ and believing in Christ (i.e., loving him and fixing one’s hope on him).

Augustine did not distinguish justification and sanctification, holding that in justification, God did not merely declare the sinner righteous, but made him righteous by transforming his inner nature. (206-07)

Semi-Pelagianism
Denied the total inability of man to do spiritual good, but admitted the inability of man to perform saving works without the assistance of divine grace, which illuminated the mind but did not affect man’s free will.
God’s grace is universal and intended for all, but is effective only in those who make proper use of their free will. Grace is resistible. (207-08)

Semi-Augusitnianism

Grace makes it possible for man to merit salvation by doing good works. Faith was seen, not as the appropriation of Christ’s righteousness, but as woks of and by love. Participation in the grace of God was sometimes made dependent on the Church and the sacraments. Regeneration could be lost. The irresistible grace of predestination was abandoned for the sacramental grace of baptism. (208-09)

The Church began stressing: 1) Faith was simply to hold an orthodox creed; 2) Works of mercy and self-discipline were proper ways to satisfy the sins of believers; 3) Divine commands were binding on all, evangelical counsels were voluntary (but brought greater reward); 4) Veneration of saints and Mary was based on the idea that they had a superabundance of good works and could transfer some of them to others; 5) Salvation was dependent on baptism which marked the entrance into the Church, outside of which there was no salvation. (209-10)

Scholasticism–Generally held to mild Augustinianism, with a drift to Semi-Pelagianism.

Man could not originate and increase faith without sufficient grace (Augustine had held that man could not do this without the necessity of efficient grace). Peter Lombard (sing terms originated by Augustine) distinguished between gratia operans (grace that enables man to turn to God in faith) and gratia co-operans (grace that depends on man’s active consent and co-operation of the will in bringing about the desired effect). (211-12)

Faith as a form of knowledge (to “believe God”) was distinguished from faith as a spiritual affection (to “believe in God”–to love him and be joined to the body of Christ). Justifying faith was seen to include a right inward disposition and works of love. Some held that submission to the Church was a characteristic of saving faith. (212-13)

Justification was not seen as the mere imputation of Christ’s righteousness, but of hte infusion of sanctifying grace. Absolute assurance of justification was given only to those who had done or suffered much for the sake of religion, and then only by special revelation. (213-14)

The idea of merit became prominent. Aquinas distinguished between: the “merit of condignity” which strict justice required to be rewarded, belonged to Christ alone, but later Thomists held that, after justification, men could acquire such merit by the aid of divine grace; and the “merit of congruity” which is fit to be rewarded and can be acquired by men. (214)

Roman Catholicism ended up holding that one must prepare himself for receipt of God’s infusing grace of justification by a sevenfold process of preparing for baptism. After this, the measure of forgiveness is the degree to which sin is actually overcome; forgiveness is preserved by obeying the commandments and doing good works. Justification may be lost, but restored through penance. (215-16)

The Reformation and Post-Reformation

Lutheranism

Luther conceived of the way of salvation as consisting of three elements: 1) contrition for sin; 2) faith; and 3) a life consecrated to God.

Later Lutherans established a more elaborate system, involving calling, illumination, conversion, regeneration, justification, renovation and glorification. Faith is the centerpiece, and God’s grace can be resisted and lost at any point.
Children are deemed to be regenerated at baptism and receive the gift of faith. (217-19)

Reformed Theology

The starting point is God’s eternal election and the legal/mystical union of hte believer with Christ: all blessings of salvation are ideally the portion of those who are of Christ, are ready for distribution and are appropriated by faith.

Repentance and faith go together. Justification is by faith which is an act of free grace and is a forensic act whereby man’s judicial standing with God is changed through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness (not a change in man’s inherent righteousness).

Justification is instantaneous and complete, and the believer can be absolutely assured of his translation from condemnation to acceptance. (219-20)

Arminianism

God bestows universal grace on man, sufficient to enable the sinner to believe and obey the gospel.
The call to believe through preaching exerts only a moral influence on the understanding and will; God does not act directly on the will.
If someone believes, he is justified on account of his faith; if he perseveres, he will receive eternal life. (221)

Antinomianism

Christ took our guilt and pollution on himself. We are perfect in him and only have to believe that (i.e., become conscious of that fact).
Our sins are simply works of the old man which are not reckoned to the believer, since he is perfect in Christ. (222-23)

Mysticism

True faith is experience. One must be brought under the terror of the law and pass through agonizing struggles. By special warrant of the Holy Spirit the person must hunger and thirst for righteousness; only after many struggles will the believer pass into a state of assurance of salvation, which is granted to some by special revelation. (223)

[1]Unless otherwise indicated, page references are to Louis Berkhof, The History of Christian Doctrines (Carlisle, Penn., Banner of Truth, 1937 [reprinted 2002]).