The Spirit and the Lake of Fire

Pneumatology and Judgment

Umstattd

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532615436
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

The Holy Spirit and the Lake of Fire! What does the Spirit have to do with God's final judgment? The Holy Spirit and God's judgment upon sin are not two topics that are often connected, but to understand the full work of the Spirit, they need to be. It is not enough to view judgment as the work of just the Father and the Son, but in full Trinitarian fashion, it must be understood as the work of all three persons of the Trinity.In The Spirit and the Lake of Fire Rustin Umstattd establishes the Spirit's role in judgment by connecting several symbols that are used for both the Spirit and judgment, such as fire, God's breath, and God's arm. Furthermore, by examining Augustine's position that the Spirit is the mutual-love of the Father and the Son, and Luther's position that God's wrath is the underside of his love, Umstattd demonstrates how one comes to the conclusion that the Spirit is operative in God's judgment upon sin.

1

Biblical Judgment

The Dance of Love and Justice

To judge or not to judge, that is the question: whether ’tis nobler for God to enforce his justice or to embrace his love, and in so embracing it to relent from the punishment his justice requires. It would appear that God is trapped in a dilemma between his love and justice, at least according to modern society’s predilection for a nonjudgmental God. If he is just then he must not love people, for how could a loving God punish anyone? However, if he loves people then there is no possible way that he would eternally punish them for their sins. The contradiction established by this description is of course false and needs to be overcome, not by eliminating or compromising either of the poles, but instead by clearly defining what is meant by justice and love, and how the two dance together in God.

In order to define the relationship between God’s judgment and his love, I will seek to accomplish three goals. The first will be to offer five reasons why the topic of judgment has fallen out of favor with Western culture. This is necessary in order to establish the modern predilection for avoiding discussions about God’s judgment and to unmask some false ideas that exist regarding it. Having briefly examined the reasons for the neglect of the doctrine of judgment it will be possible to accomplish the second goal by examining God’s nature in relationship to judgment. God’s role as the judge of the universe will be explicated under the titles of his role as legislator, the creator of law, as executive, the enforcer of law, and finally in his judicial role as he determines the guilt or innocence of individuals as well as the punishment to which they are sentenced if found guilty.

I chose the United States’ governmental system with its separation of powers as the paradigm under which to explicate God’s relationship to judgment, not because the United States’ system finds a biblical mandate, but instead because I am writing this book in the context of those who are familiar with the US arrangement. You should recognize that this is not the only possible scheme with which to explicate God and judgment, but I chose it more for illustrative purposes than for theological ones.1 The final goal will be to present the theological implications of judgment in order to offer a well-grounded definition of what exactly is meant when it is argued that the Spirit actualizes the Father’s judgment given to the Son.

Neglect of the Doctrine of Judgment

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”2 Amos’ words resonate with the deep-seated cry for justice in the world, the cry for the vindication of those who suffer, who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected: for the child forced to labor countless hours in a sweat shop, for the family whose loved one is taken away from them by a murderer, for the heartbroken spouse whose partner has walked away. There is a sense of outrage when the guilty walk free, when the “least of these” have no hope and no help. The soul cries out that the world must be changed in order to eliminate the injustice that pervades humanity, and yet talk of justice is often reduced to exactly that—talk. Behind the cry for justice lies the reality that there are the oppressed and the oppressors, the afflicted and the afflicters, and for justice to roll down like waters the oppressors and afflicters must be brought to judgment.3

Judgment is, unfortunately, a concept seldom discussed in the modern church. While justice rings out as a battle cry, its necessary corollary of judgment is quietly removed from the dialogue. Too often, talk of justice and righteousness becomes merely a word game in which those who participate create for themselves a feeling of striving for justice, but in which they often, either consciously or unconsciously, reject the means whereby God has determined to establish justice and righteousness. All talk of responsibility and justice is merely idle chatter apart from the reality of God’s judgment upon the world.4

Why is there reluctance to discuss a theme that runs throughout the Bible, weaving itself into discourses on God’s love, Israel’s historical narratives, Jesus’ teachings, and Paul’s epistles? Why is judgment taboo in our modern, enlightened society?5 Though not exhaustive, five reasons will be presented for the neglect of the doctrine of judgment in the church: (1) misunderstanding of the nature of judgment; (2) a postmodern mindset that wishes to avoid absolutes; (3) a rejection of the divine; (4) a belief in evolutionary progression in which sin is conceived of as a vestige of man’s earlier existence that will eventually disappear; and finally, (5) a misrepresentation of the outcome of judgment.

A fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of judgment has contributed greatly to its neglect. The image that often rises up is of God poised over the earth eagerly waiting to strike down fiery vengeance upon anyone who dares to challenge his authority. This image owes more to Zeus than to the Bible, yet it remains nevertheless. God is a sadist who takes delight in inflicting suffering on his creation, like a malicious child burning ants with a magnifying glass. If this were indeed a true picture, it would be a good idea not to discuss him. If the Creator delights in inflicting suffering, the best thing to do would be to try to ignore him and hope that he does not turn his glass upon you. This misconstrual of God’s role as judge maintains itself beyond the grave as well, so that discussions of hell revolve around God as the master torturer. The preceding image causes many to remain silent about judgment, and rightly so, because it is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile this image with that of a loving God presented throughout the biblical text.6

The misconstrual of God as a sadist is not the only one restraining people from discussin...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword: Comfort and Discomfort by Malcolm B. Yarnell III
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Biblical Judgment
• Chapter 2: The Spirit and Judgment
• Chapter 3: The Spirit and Divine Fire
• Chapter 4: The Spirit and God’s Breath
• Chapter 5: The Spirit and God’s Hand
• Chapter 6: The Spirit: God’s Wrath and Love
• Chapter 7: The Spirit, the Cross, and the Lake of Fire
• Conclusion
• Bibliography