Following up on this post Reformation and Revival Journal is out and contains my brief essay on “Why Not Get Rid of Doctrine?” (You’ll have to read it to find out which way I vote). There is some great stuff in that article, including an heplful piece by PCA pastor Craig Higgins.
Just to clarify, the article now published is not the one mentioned by Jeff Meyers. That article will be pulished in the forthcoming issue of R&R Journal.
(A funny thing happened recently. The editor emailed me and asked why I had used the word “propitiation” in an article pleading that we use normal, everyday words, as much as possible in theological discourse. Every time I explaine the word, “propitiation,” I say that it means to appease or placate God’s wrath. So why not simply say that what Jesus did on the cross appeased or placated God’s wrath? Why insist on an extra step by using a word no one knows that can be rather readily defined by a word that everyone knows?) If J. I. Packer is right, that this term is the heart of the Gospel (and he is), then why not use vernacular speech to explain the Gospel?)
If anyone is not a subscriber to the Reformation & Revival Journal, now is the time to fix that. John Armstrong is selling a year for a mere fourteen dollars! It is a good magazine. Give it a try.
is it because appease and placate have perjoratrive connotations for either the person being placated (the big baby) or the appeaser? (Neville Chamberlain, and Hitler who needed to be appeased?)
Thanks for the reminder Mark. I’ve been meaning to renew my subscription and now sounds like a good time. 😉
of course the word Propitiation should never have come into English in the first place nor thanks to Jerome into Latin. Hilastarion means “Mercy seat”. Yahsuah is not placating a fire breathing wrathful thunder God. He is the seat of mercy where the forgiving God awaits us. To read more go to http://robertroberg.com/writings/mercy.html
Robert, Paul begins in Romans 1.18ff to set out a “fire breathing wrathful thunder God” in rather stark terms. He is the forgiving God precisely in sending Jesus (not waiting for us because he did this while we were yet sinners) to bring liberation in his blood by appeasing and placating God’s wrath.