The Restitution Times
"Whom heaven must receive until the Times
of Restitution of all things" Acts
A series of papers devoted to the restoring of
original truth.
By Arthur & Rosalind Eedle
Oxleigh,
Home page www.oxleigh.freeserve.co.uk
No. 3. Bruised
In this series of papers we shall be investigating all manner of absurdities
that have been accepted by believers who seem more disposed to accept words,
sentences, and traditions, quite apart from using their own critical faculties,
and certainly without due regard to logic. We have found very few writers with
the courage to undermine such absurdities, but would mention with pleasure the
names of C.S.Lewis, George MacDonald, Francis Schaeffer, and Kathryn Lindskoog
in this respect.
Our present
investigation focuses on that well-known verse in Isaiah 53, where the
Suffering Servant of Jehovah is depicted. Because the Authorised Version speaks
about God "having pleasure" in bruising His Son,
this idea has been perpetuated through the centuries. Before making any further
comment, let's have a look at a number of Bible Versions, to see how
translators have handled the Hebrew Text.
10
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to
grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in
his hand. (Authorised Version)
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has
put him to grief; [margin, made him sick] when he makes himself an offering for
sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the
LORD shall prosper in his hand; (Revised Standard Version)
10
And Jehovah hath delighted to bruise him, He hath made him
sick, If his soul doth make an offering for guilt, He seeth seed--he prolongeth
days, And the pleasure of Jehovah in his hand doth prosper. (Young's Literal
Translation)
10
Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected him to
suffering. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see a
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in
his hand. (J.N.Derby)
10 Yet
it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. (New
King James Version)
10 Yet Yahweh
purposed to bruise him; He laid on him sickness; If his soul become an
offering for guilt, He shall see a seed, He shall prolong his days, and the
purpose of Yahweh in his hand shall prosper. (
10 Yet the
Lord took thought for his tortured servant and healed him who had made
himself a sacrifice for sin; so shall he enjoy long life and see his children's
children, and in his hand the Lord's cause shall prosper. (New English Bible)
10 But the
Eternal chose to vindicate his servant, rescuing his servant from
anguish; he let him prosper to the full, in a posterity with life prolonged.
(Moffatt)
10 Yet it
was the Lord's good plan to bruise him and fill him with
grief, but when his soul has been made an offering for sin, then he shall have
a multitude of children, many heirs. He shall live again [margin - he shall
prolong his days] and God's programme shall prosper in his hands. (Living
Bible)
10 But the
Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would
render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong
His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
(New American Standard Bible)
10 The Lord
says, "It was my will that he should suffer, his death
was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness, and so he will see his descendants; he
will live a long life, and through him my purpose shall succeed."
(Good News Bible)
It was not
considered burdensome to quote from so many Bibles, simply because of the huge
variety of expression in translation. It is obvious that some translators have
been troubled by the apparent assertion that God the Father could "take
pleasure" in watching the agony of His beloved Son being crucified. Hence
they have changed the word "pleasure" to "will" or
"purpose".
Were they
justified? What is the Hebrew word? It is CHAPHETZ, and the basic meaning
obtained from the Lexicons is "to bend, to incline, to will, to
desire, to delight in, have pleasure in." My Hebrew
Concordance shows that in a good many places the idea of "delight" or
"have pleasure" is quite correct, but is derived from the basic
meaning of "to bend, to incline." Therefore it is a matter of
exegesis to decide which of these meanings is most appropriate to each context.
To assign
the meaning of "delight" or "pleasure" in this verse in
Isaiah 53 is to our mind grotesque. What earthly father could take pleasure in
watching his only son being tortured to death? Would it not cause him the
utmost grief to stand by, impotent to rescue him from the hands of wicked men?
Only the most perverted of fathers could find pleasure in such an event.
Why therefore did so many translators slavishly use the word "pleasure"
in this verse, when it would have been quite proper to use the word
"will" or "purpose" instead?
The trouble
is that Bible translators have had before them tasks of monumental
proportions, and to ask them to get everything correct is beyond the capability
of committees of human scholars, and therefore we must not rub their noses in
the dust over every mistaken emphasis found in their works. We therefore cast
off any critical spirit, and ask our readers to consider the matter in hand
objectively.
Yes, it was
the will and purpose of God to allow His Son to be afflicted unto death, and
the Lord's prayer in
Some
scholars have been so offended by the idea of God's "pleasure" at the
death of His Son, that they have rejected the so-called "Doctrine of the
Atonement" altogether. Hosea Ballou, the "father of American
Universalism" was one such, and there have been others. What a shame that
the translations available to such men should have caused them such offence,
when the original contained no such sentiment. George MacDonald was one to be
deeply aggrieved by the hardness of Scottish Calvinism in 19th century
[Please
note that MacDonald continued to use the word Atonement, even though he
understood the essential difference between the O.T. sacrifices and the death
of Christ, as explained in the previous article.]
" We are saved
by faith."
" I do not doubt
it," answered Ian
" You rejoice my
heart. But faith in what? "
" Faith in God,
mother."
" That will not
save you."
" N0, but God
will."
" The devils
believe in God, and tremble."
" I believe in
the father of Jesus Christ, and do not tremble."
" You ought to
tremble before an unreconciled God."
" Like the
devils, mother? "
" Like a sinful
child of Adam. Whatever your fancies, Ian, God will not hear you, except you
pray to him in the name of his Son."
" Mother, would
you take my God from me? Would you blot him out of the deeps of the universe?
"
" Ian! are you
mad ? What frightful things you would lay to my charge! "
" Mother, I
would gladly- oh how gladly! perish for ever, to save God from being the kind
of God you would have me believe him. I love God, and will not think him other
than good. Rather than believe he does not hear every creature that cries to
him, whether he knows Jesus Christ or not, I would believe there was no God,
and go mourning to my grave."
" That is not
the doctrine of the gospel."
" It is, mother.
Jesus himself says, Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh
unto me,"
" Why then do
you not come to him, Ian? "
" I do come to
him; I come to him every day. I believe in nobody but him. He only makes the
universe worth being, or any life worth living "
" Ian, I can not
understand you I If you believe like that about him, "
" I don't
believe about him, mother! I believe in him. He is my life."
" We will not
dispute about words! The question is, do you place your faith for salvation in
the sufferings of Christ for you? "
" I do not,
mother. My faith is in Jesus himself, not in his sufferings."
" Then the anger
of God is not turned away from you."
" Mother, I say
again -I love God, and will not believe such things of him as you say. I love
him so that I would rather lose him than believe so of him."
" Then you do
not accept the Bible as your guide? "
" I do, mother,
for it tells me of Jesus Christ. There is no such teaching as you say in the
Bible."
" How little you
know your New Testament."
" I don't know
my New Testament! It is the only book I do know. I read it constantly. It is
the only thing I could not live without. N0, I do not mean that. I could do
without my Testament. Christ would be
all the same."
"O Ian! Ian! and
yet you will not give Christ the glory of satisfying divine justice by his
suffering for your sins! "
" Mother, to say
that the justice of God is satisfied with suffering, is a piece of the darkness
of hell; God is willing to suffer, ready to inflict suffering to save from sin,
but suffering is no satisfaction to him or his justice."
" What do you
mean by his justice then? "
" That he gives
you and me and everybody fair play."
The homeliness of the
phrase offended the moral ear of the mother.
" How dare you
speak lightly of him in my hearing! " she cried.
" Because I will
speak for God even to the face of my mother! " answered Ian. " He is
more to me than you, mother -ten times more."
" You speak
against God, Ian," she rejoined, calmed by the feeling she had roused,
" No, mother. He
speaks against God who says he does things that are not good. It does not make
a thing good to call it good. I speak for him when I say he cannot but
give fair play. He knows he put me where I was sure to sin; he will not condemn
me because I have sinned; he leaves me to do that myself. He will condemn me
only if I do not turn away from sin, for he has made me able to turn from it,
and I do."
" He will
forgive sin only for Christ's sake."
" He forgives it
for his own name's sake, his own love's sake. There is no such word as for
Christ's sake in the New Testament -except where Paul prays us for Christ's
sake to be reconciled to God. It is in the English New Testament, but not in
the Greek."
" Then you do
not believe that the justice of God demands the satisfaction of the sinner's
endless punishment? "
" I do not.
Nothing can satisfy the justice of God but justice in his creature. The justice
of God is the love of what is right, and the doing of what is right. Eternal
misery in the name of justice could satisfy none but a demon whose bad laws had
been broken."
"I grant you
that no amount of suffering on the part of the wicked could satisfy justice;
but it is the Holy One who suffers for our sins! "
"O, mother! Justice
do wrong for its own satisfaction! Did Jesus deserve punishment? If
not, then to punish him was to wrong him! "
" But he was
willing; he consented."
" He yielded to
injustice -but the injustice was man's not God's. If Justice insisted on
punishment, it would at least insist on the guilty, not the innocent, being
punished! It would revolt from the idea of the innocent being punished for the
guilty! Mind, I say being punished, not suffering: that is
another thing altogether. It is an eternal satisfaction to love to suffer for
the guilty, but not to justice that innocence should be punished for the
guilty. The whole idea of such atonement is the merest subterfuge, a figment of
the paltry human intellect to reconcile difficulties of its own invention. Once
my father said when Alister had done something wrong, ‘He must be
punished, except some one will be punished for him!’ I offered to take
his place partly that it seemed expected of me, partly that I was moved by
vanity, and partly that I foresaw what would follow."
" And what did
follow? " asked the mother, to whom the least word out of the past
concerning her husband, was like news from the world beyond. At the same time
it seemed almost an offence that one of his sons should know anything about him
she did not know.
" He scarcely
touched me, mother," answered Ian. " The thing taught me something
very different from what he had meant to teach by it. That he failed to carry
out his idea of justice helped me afterwards to see that God could not have
done it either for that it was not justice. Some perception of this must have
lain at the root of the heresy that Jesus did not suffer, but a cloud phantom
took his place on the cross. Wherever people speculate instead of obeying, they
fall into endless error."
" You graceless
boy! Do you dare to say your father speculated instead of obeying? " the mother
cried, hot with indignation.
" No, mother. It
was not my father who invented that way of accounting for the death of our
Lord."
" He believed
it! "
" He accepted
it, saturated with the tradition of the elders before he could think for
himself. He does not believe it now."
" But why then
should Christ have suffered?"
" It is the one
fact that explains to me everything," said Ian. " But I am not going
to talk about it. So long as your theory satisfies you, mother, why should I
show you mine? When it no longer satisfies you, when it troubles you as it has
troubled me, and as I pray God it may trouble you, when you feel it stand
between you and the best love you could give God, then I will share my very
soul with you -tell you thoughts which seem to sublimate my very being in
adoration."
" I do not see
what other meaning you can put upon the statement that he was a sacrifice for
our sins! "
" There is no
question about that, mother! Had we not sinned he would never have died; and he
died to deliver us from our sins. He against whom was the sin, became the
sacrifice for it; the Father suffered in the Son, for they are one. But if I
could see no other explanation than yours, I would not, could not accept it-for
God's sake I would not."
" How you can
say you believe in Christ, when you do not believe in the atonement! "
" It is not so,
mother. I do not believe what you mean by the atonement; what God means by it,
I desire to accept. But we are never told to believe in the atonement; we are
told to believe in Christ- and, mother, in the name of the great Father who
hears me speak, I do believe in him."
" How can you,
when you do not believe what God says about him? "
" I do. God does
not say those things about him you think he says. They are mere traditions, not
the teaching of those who understood him. But I might believe all about him
quite correctly, yet not believe in him."
" What do you
call believing in him then? "
" Obeying him,
mother -to say it as shortly as I can. I try to obey him in the smallest things
he says-only there are no small things he says-and so does Alister. I strive to
be what he would have me, nor do I hold anything else worth my care. Let a man
trust in his atonement to absolute assurance for a man to trust in it, if he
does not do the things he tells him -the very things he said -he does not
believe in him. He may be a good man, but he has not yet heard enough and
learned enough of the Father to be sent to Jesus to learn more."