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| Staufenim Breisgau, Germany (Not my photo) |
March 13, 2018
I revised this section of my MPhil today, by adding some comments for explanation.
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Human choice is an element in embracing the atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ, applied for salvation, including justification and the righteousness of Christ, imputed to believers; but no fallen human beings can autonomously choose to be saved, a human being must first be moved by the Holy Spirit to choose God.
Why God saves some sinners and not others is not totally understood. It is not by human good works, it is not by unaided human will, but by God’s grace alone, through faith, for good works and not by good works (Ephesians 1-2). It can, however, be deduced that unlike fallen angels, humanity, at least some humanity, is restorable.
I conclude from the Gospel, at least something is present outside of good works in saved humanity, that allows God to restore them, and it appears that since the Gospel was for humankind alone, fallen angels are not restorable. What is the difference between fallen human beings and fallen angels? This is of course unknown, but Thiessen suggests that angels were never a race, since they were and are asexual. They were, instead, a company. He stated: “Because they are a company and not a race, they sinned individually, and in not in some head of the race”. Thiessen (1956:192).
With this idea, Thiessen is noting that with humanity when Adam and Eve sinned, all their human offspring became sinful by nature. With angels, there was no offspring, so each angel had sinned individually making a corporate restoration work by Christ for fallen angels impossible. Under the Thiessen corporate model, Jesus could not die for fallen angels like he did for humanity, because fallen angels were not interconnected in nature as were humans. They could not be changed in nature as a group as restored human beings could be. So, Christ would have to restore each individual fallen angel by changing every angel’s individual corrupted nature.
There is the question why God could not save angels as individuals. Even though each human being was a descendant of Adam and Eve, he/she still had an individual spirit that needed a change in nature, so why could God not do this with fallen angels individually? I would rather conclude that fallen angels have existed in the supernatural realm in great measure and have experienced God in that realm. To reject God after that knowledge and experience is to put oneself beyond the possibility of restoration. Possible as in beyond what God would deem restorable for his Kingdom.
Human beings on the other hand live primarily in the natural physical realm and remain somewhat unaware of the supernatural realm, although guilty of sin. A fallen human being may have, at best, little supernatural experience with God, and certainly not have the heavenly experience of angels. Therefore, in ignorance, at least some human beings are restorable.
PhD, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, 2010: Theodicy and Practical Theology
MPhil, Bangor University, 2003: The Problem of Evil: Anglican and Baptist Perspectives
THIESSEN, HENRY C. (1956) Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
