Just faith

 A few years ago I was searching on line for Charles Hodge’s comments on penal substitution from his Systematic Theology and came across a blog by a Dr. Ken Pulliam who was commenting on Hodge’s views on penal substitution. Pulliam was a graduate of Bob Jones University and once a Bible teacher but departed from the faith and became an agnostic-atheist, because he could no long accept penal substitution.

 (Dr. Hodge was a Presbyterian theologian in the area of reformed theology. He was also principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. Penal Substitution is the view that one can bear the penalty for someone else--the innocent in the place of the guilty.)

In Pullium’s blog, he said he could no longer accept the view that Jesus bore the penalty for our sins, so that God could release the sinner from that penalty and justify them (declare righteous). This led him to denouncing his faith and becoming either an agnostic or atheist.

There were people who responded to his blog with concern, especially those who he had an impact on in his ministry.

What's interesting is that I read one comment informing Pulliam that there are other theories about the meaning and value of Christ’s death: he didn’t need to cast off his faith because of penal substitution, because there are other views he could have considered.

But Pulliam responded that he was fully aware of those other views. And here is what is very interesting: He said that the Scriptures clearly teach penal substitution--not those other views—and he could no longer accept it. Since he concluded that penal substitution is unjust, and the Scriptures clearly taught it, then the Scriptures can’t be true.

This can explain why Christians can disagree so much over what Scripture teaches.

One has 3 choices in handling what they don't like or find difficult in the Scriptures. They can accept and believe what it says or they can formulate an alternate explanation somehow, or they can just cast away their faith altogether and end up like Dr. Pulliam.

I’ve seen this before with other Bible scholars, especially when it comes to the issue of suffering: the degree of suffering must mean the Bible isn’t true, because God is not a just and loving God, because life would be much different if he were.

If one reads the book of Habakkuk, you find the prophet questioning God as to why a more evil nation, Babylon, was permitted to punish a less evil nation, namely the southern kingdom of Judah. God’s answer was that “the just shall live by his faith.” The just, or righteous one, needs to trust God, that he knows what he is doing; his wisdom and ways can be trusted. Though a lot of things can be explained by what God has revealed in his word, we have to be willing to accept what he has revealed and what he has not revealed, we need to trust that God has our best interests in mind, and he will provide what we truly need, according to his wisdom and will. But “the just shall live by his faith” Habakkuk 2:4.