For Further Reading: Oepke, Kittel, 5:858 ff; Purkiser,
ed., Exploring the Christian Faith, 538-59; Wiley, CT
3:246-62. C. paul gray
PASCHAL CONTROVERSY. The Paschal Controversy was the disagreement in the Early Church concerning the date for the celebration of Easter. The controversy began in the second century and ended in the eighth century.
The churches in Asia Minor followed the custom of observing Easter on the traditional day of the Jewish Passover, the 14th day of the month of Nisan. This practice meant that Easter might be observed on any day of the week.
The Western churches, led by Rome, developed a tradition of observing Easter on Sunday, the first day of the week. For a period the Western church celebrated Easter on a fixed date in March. In 325 the Council of Nicea attempted to present a uniform date by declaring that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the final full moon after the spring (vernal) equinox. Because various calendars were used in different areas of the church, the date set by the Council of Nicea was not universally accepted.
Even today the time celebration of Easter in the Eastern and Western churches may vary as much as five weeks.
See passover, christian year.
For Further Reading: New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 4:43-47; ODCC 1020 ff.
Donald S. Metz
PASSION OF CHRIST—PASTORAL COUNSELING
385
PASSION OF CHRIST. See death of christ.
PASSOVER. The name "Passover" is taken from Exod. 12:23, which tells how the destroying angel did "pass over" the houses of Israel when the last of the plagues took the lives of the Egyptian firstborn. In the Bible the Passover celebration is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The word "Passover" denotes the paschal lamb, the sacrifice offered on the eve of the celebration. The nature of this ceremony is described in detail in Exodus 12. At the time of the full moon in the first month of spring every Jewish family slaughtered a lamb at twilight (the "lamb" could be a kid, v. 5). Then, in the middle of the night, the family hastily ate the roasted lamb, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. In addition, as soon as the animal was killed, a bunch of hyssop was dipped into the sacrifice's blood, and a few drops sprinkled on the doorposts of each house.
The Passover Festival began on the 15th of Nisan (March-April), the first month of the Jewish religious year. The feast lasted seven days. The Passover was celebrated as an agricultural feast also, a kind of Thanksgiving Day. It marked the beginning of the barley harvest in Palestine. In harmony with Lev. 23:9-12 a sheaf of barley (omer) was presented as a wave offering to the Lord.
The primary meaning of the Passover comes from the special historical event it celebrates— the Exodus from Egypt. The Passover commemorated the great deliverance—the deliverance which transformed a horde of slaves into the people of God. It was Israel's birthday. Passover is the festival of freedom. The freedom of Israel was the freedom to serve God voluntarily. Passover leads to Sinai. Sinai points to Israel's voluntary acceptance of its special distinction and mission.
See blood, lamb (sacrificial), lamb of god, paschal controversy, sacrifice, exodus, atonement.
For Further Reading: Gaster, Festivals of the Jewish Year, 31-58; Segal, The Hebrew Passover, 189-230; Golden, A Treasury of Jewish Holidays, 128-85.
Donald S. Metz
PASTOR. Addressing the elders of the church of Ephesus, Paul speaks of two functions of ministry that belong to the office of elder. He writes: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, te-feed the-<;hmrh oLCod, which he hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). The first function is that of overseer (Latin, "supervisor," sometimes translated "bishop," Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:7; 1 Pet. 2:25). A second function is that of pastor or shepherd. Inasmuch as feeding the flock is of primary concern to the shepherd, the pastoral concept is dominant. Implied also is the expected capacity of the elder to give wise counsel and demonstrate his wisdom, as a man of God.
The pastor is one called of God to minister, especially to the spiritual needs of God's people, with concern to present every man mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). His concern also for all sorts and conditions of men is shown by his interest in those peoples who are without the light of the gospel: "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Rom. 1:14).
In his personal life the pastor seeks to live above reproach and "provide things honest in the sight of all men" (12:17). In our world of competitive values with its emphasis upon "becoming" rather than on "being," the pastor's watch-care over himself is inseparable from his pastoral concern for others. In the pulpit he speaks the things that become sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). In problem confrontation with individuals or groups, he seeks solutions in the light of God's Word. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful (1 Tim. 3:4). In his Epistles Paul, speaking of the spirit of the pastor, cites among others these qualifications: not partial, not violent, not quarrelsome, not arrogant, no lover of money; but upright, dignified, hospitable, gentle, master of himself.
As administrator, the modern pastor is responsible for the total well-being of the church, including such areas as church budget, Christian education, music, church witness, church growth, missions, and recreation. Confronted with involvement in these tasks, the pastor usually requires help from qualified laymen, either by election or by appointment.
See clergy elder, church government, pastoral counseling.
For Further Reading: Jones, The Pastor: The Man and His Ministry; NBD, 1175-76; Schaller, The Pastor and the
People. James D. Robertson
PASTORAL COUNSELING. Pastoral counseling is the effort of a Christian minister (or a trained lay counselor) to help people through personal mutual discussion of difficult life situations. It combines a knowledge of the Christian religion, a basic understanding of the human psyche, and interviewing skills. Its most immediate purposes
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are (1) to lead troubled people to a better understanding of their problems, and (2) to enable them to make self-chosen decisions that are right from Christian and personal points of view.
Pastoral counseling differs from the broader term pastoral care inasmuch as the latter refers to all of the minister's personal and group efforts to help parishioners grow. Pastoral counseling differs from many of the professional therapies inasmuch as it rarely gives attention to the areas of the unconscious, dreams, and psychotic processes. Pastoral counselors deal primarily with many of the less "psychologically difficult" life problems such as normal grief, marriage, physical illness, guilt over wrongdoing, and matters of religious and theological concern. The pastor normally carries on a shorter series of interviews than many therapists, perhaps not more than 10 or 12 and usually fewer. He has brief series for two reasons: (1) active pastors cannot spend all of their counseling time with only a few persons in their parishes, and (2) they have not been trained to deal with highly complex life problems that often arise in extended counseling.
There are three primary values in pastoral counseling: (1) it provides support to troubled parishioners, (2) it helps them to make wise solutions of problems, and (3) with deeply troubled persons, it leads to the pastor's referral to professional therapies.
Counseling is related to other aspects of an active pastor's work. His sermons on difficult human problems are an indirect invitation for needy people to confer with him. His pastoral calling is a favorable context for people to mention inner needs. His pastoral concern for his parishioners often provides him with an opportunity to take the initiative and, as in pre-counseling, to mention personal needs that are not clearly recognized by anxious and frustrated parishioners.
Pastoral counseling, as a practice based on an organized body of knowledge, developed in the 20th century. In 1925, Anton Boison began clinical training and supervision of pastors' "counseling" in mental hospitals. In 1936 Richard Cabot, a physician in Massachusetts General Hospital, and Russell L. Dicks, a Christian minister, began teaching pastors certain principles of ministering to the sick in hospitals. That practice spread rapidly, and today there are many hospitals, as well as other institutions, where ministers learn pastoral counseling by actual practice along with academic study (commonly called CPE— Clinical Pastoral Education). Many of the Protestant theological seminaries have structured clinical opportunities for many of their students.
The competence of pastoral counselors depends upon a number of basic personal factors: (1) good personal adjustment, (2) a personal sensitivity to and concern about the problems of troubled persons, (3) the ability to empathize with needy persons, (4) an ability to listen to others, and (5) nonjudgmental attitudes.
In addition to local church settings, pastoral counseling is increasingly being carried on by chaplains in hospitals and prisons and by ministers who set up counseling offices that are associated with professional therapists.
See pastor, rogerian counseling, reality therapy.
For Further Reading: Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral
Counseling Adams, 77ie Christian Counselor's Manual;
Howe, The Miracle of Dialogue; Hiltner, Pastoral Coun-
seling, w. Curry Mavis PASTORAL THEOLOGY. See practical
theology. PATRIPASSIANISM. See monarchianism.
PEACE. Peace is a state of tranquility and harmony. In an organism it is produced by homeostasis, a tendency toward balance among the organism's interacting and interdependent systems. Between nations peace is not only the absence of either "hot" or "cold" war but open relations with freedom of movement and exchange. Seldom is such peace absolute, for generally while nations may technically be at peace, they are usually struggling with some tensions and disputes. In interpersonal relationships peace is, minimally, freedom from quarreling and bitterness, and, maximally, a mutual sense of ease and pleasure.
However, the peace most universally coveted and sought is inward—peace of mind or heart. This is freedom from guilt, hostility, and anxiety; positively it is a deep sense of personal well-being. Such peace Jesus promised His followers (John 14:27) and such peace is actually experienced by Spirit-controlled believers (Gal. 5:22).
The peace which is available is spiritual, not necessarily environmental. It is not freedom from tribulation (John 16:33). Its prerequisites are not freedom from economic necessity or physical pain; nor do they include the possession of ideally happy relations with people (Phil. 4:10-13; 2 Cor. 12:7-10; Rom. 12:18; Gal. 2:11). The Christian may possess a profound rest of soul in the
PELAGIANISM
387
midst of outward tumult or even at times his own emotional agitation.
The one absolute requisite for peace of mind is Tightness with God (Rom. 5:1). Any so-called peace not thus based is illusory. It is but the inertia and stupefaction of a seared conscience (1 Tim. 4:2). While peace with God becomes possible through faith in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, certain moral concomitants belong to such faith. One is repentance; clinging to sin will make authentic peace impossible. Another is obedience, including adjustment with one's estranged fellows (Matt. 5:23-24; Heb. 12:14). Unchristian disruption with those around one (i.e., disruption not morally required, or demanded by conscience) disrupts peace with God.
Such moral concomitants of peace are reminders that peace with God is much more than a personal feeling, or the absence of a sense of condemnation; it is true Tightness with God, involving the forgiveness of our sins, and an inner knowledge that we are reconciled to God and God is reconciled to us. Peace with God is therefore inseparable from fellowship with God. Many gain relief from guilt feelings through tears, confession, or counsel of men, and mistake this for peace with God, when the ethical dimension has been deficient, or the faith has not rested solely in Christ and His cross as the basis of the reconciliation.
Requirements for the maintenance of peace are faith, obedience, and meekness. It is only through unwavering faith in God that poise and tranquility can endure in the face of puzzling providences and crushing events. It is only through obedience that fellowship can be sustained. But perhaps the most difficult requisite is meekness. Pride, self-willfulness, self-importance, and ego touchiness are all destroyers of peace. For this the word is: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:29).
Yet the meekness which is essential to personal peace must never be interpreted as capitulation to evil. Peace cannot be kept without also keeping a clear conscience; and a good conscience demands the prosecution of the war against sin and evil. In the name of peace Christians must never compromise with the devil or any of his representatives. Whether thinking of the nation, the church, the family, or self, "peace at any cost" is a slogan never on the lips of those sharing the nature of a holy God. Holiness may demand the abandonment of peace on one level in order to preserve it on a deeper level. For peace can be costly, as "the blood of his cross" demonstrates (Col. 1:20).
See RECONCILIATION, REST (REST OF FAITH), FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, PACIFISM,
For Further Reading: Wesley, Works, 5:80, 216, 283; 6:34, 79, 399, 486; 7:433. richard S. taylor
PELAGIANISM. Pelagianism is a system of moral and doctrinal concepts originating with Pelagius, a British monk who visited Rome in the fifth century. Pelagianism expresses the rationalistic tendency in early Christianity (Wiley, CT, 2:415). The doctrines had three great leaders: Pelagius himself; then Julian of Eclanum, who served as the architect of the teaching; and Celestius, who popularized the dogma (Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, 1:373).
Spiritual and ethical neutrality of Adam. Pelagius taught that Adam was born spiritually neutral. Adam was endowed with freedom and placed under the law of righteousness. Adam, and all men, had the capacity of achieving sinless perfection in this life. The presentation of a commandment by God implied the ability of Adam to obey.
Denial of original sin. The denial of primitive holiness in favor of initial spiritual neutrality carried with it a denial of the Adamic fall and the subsequent depravity of the human race. Adam's sin injured only himself, not his descendents. Pelagius placed extreme emphasis on the self-determination of the individual to good or evil. Man is born capable of either good or evil. Each individual enters life without either virtue or vice. There is no inherited depravity. The doctrine of original sin is rejected. Because of the denial of original sin and death as the result of sin, Pelagianism was formally condemned as a heresy by the General Council of Ephesus in a.d. 431.
The innocent state of all newborn infants. Newborn infants are in the same condition as Adam before the Fall. Every descendent of Adam is born morally neutral. Sin is the result of the free choice of every man. Wiley quotes a statement describing the state of each person: "At birth, each man's voluntary faculty, like Adam's, is undetermined either to sin or holiness. Being thus characterless, with a will undecided for either good or evil, and not in the least affected by Adam's apostasy, each individual man, after birth commences his voluntariness, originates his own character, and decides his own destiny by the choice of either right or wrong" (CT, 1:44). Personal sin is entirely a matter of wrong choices.
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PENAL SATISFACTION THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT—PENITENCE
Personal holiness is possible by means of right choices.
A humanistic view of salvation.The change effected in regeneration results from an act of the human will. Regeneration is not a renewal of the personality by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration comes when God's grace illuminates the intellect by the truth. The individual hears of God's grace, learns of God's commandments, accepts the truth, makes a decision to obey, and by self-discipline follows divine commands by his natural power.
The mortality of the human race.Man was destined to die even if Adam had not sinned. The human race neither dies on account of Adam's sin nor rises on account of Christ's resurrection.
The central principle of Pelagianism is a belief in man's ability to do by his own power all that God's righteousness demands.
See AUGUSTINIANISM. ORIGINAL SIN, FREEDOM, PREVENIENT GRACE, ABILITY.
For Further Reading: Wiley, CT, 2:102-3, 348, 415; Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, 1:313-31; Warfield, Studies in Tertullian and Augustine, 291-92.
Donald S. Metz
PENAL SATISFACTION THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT.Among the Christian interpretations of Christ's atoning work, the penal satisfaction theory has been dominant, especially among orthodox voices of the church. Based on the language of Isa. 53:4-5, 10 (see 1 Pet. 2:24), and on the legal interpretation of Christ's death which was congenial to Roman Christianity, the theory stressed the requirements of divine justice. Sin is a violation of the divine will, which declares that the sinner must pay the penalty of death (Gen. 2.T7 and Ezek. 33:14-16). Nevertheless, the principle of substitution permitted the penalty to be borne by another. Thus the penalty, while not removed, could be diverted. The substitute's acceptance of the penalty satisfied the justice of the divine demand and freed the sinner.
This theory is found in Origen of Alexandria (a.d. 185-254) and is developed by Anselm of Canterbury (a.d. 1033-1109).
Anselm's thought lacks the "penal" aspect. His concept is sometimes denoted a "commercial" theory because of its emphasis on debt and payment. Anselm does not develop the substitution motif in his doctrine of the Atonement. In his famous work Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man), he stresses the necessity of the Incarnation. If Christ is to pay mankind's debt, He must become one with us. His life and death is a full compensation for the dishonor man has done toward God.
Penal satisfaction receives its full explication in Reformed theology. Sin must be fully punished or God's justice is abrogated. As the Reformed position matured, it incorporated the concept of substitution, including substituted punishment and substituted obedience. Sin requires punishment. This is satisfied by the substitutionary death of Christ. In Reformed thought substituted obedience must be added. Since human obedience can never satisfy, Christ's obedience is necessary. Jesus bears both penalty and the demand of obedience for those who are among the elect.
See ATONEMENT, MYSTICAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, GOVERNMENTAL THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, MORAL INFLUENCE THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT, SACRIFICE, PROPITIATION, SATISFACTION.
For Further Reading: Miley, The Atonement in Christ, 135-43; Wiley, CT, 2:241-51. leon O. hynson
PENANCE. This is one of the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic church. It originated, in part, because Jerome's Vulgate version of the Bible translated the various NT imperatives "Repent ye" (metanoeite) as "Do penance." Thus Roman Catholics, instead of understanding that we are to change our minds about sin and become obedient to God, have supposed that we are to do this or that good work.
The sacrament arose also through incorrect interpretations of Heb. 6:4-6 and 10:26. Those passages were interpreted as suggesting that a person who has known Christ, and falls away, cannot be forgiven. So they worked out a system of good works for reinstatement. These good works were made into a sacrament in medieval times—the sacrament of penance. It is such doctrines as those on which penance is based that Luther and Protestants in general were reacting to when they began to teach that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone.
See REPENTANCE, PENITENCE.
J. Kenneth Grider
PENITENCE. This describes the penitent's disposition or state of being. It is associated with an experience of remorse or a feeling of sorrow. In NT times a clear distinction was made between penitence and repentance. The latter described a change of heart which led to changes in attitude and actions. Even though the former word was used less frequently, it referred to a change in the emotions so as to express feelings of regret or contrition. This result comes not so much be
c
PENTATEUCH—PENTECOST
ause of a fear of punishment but because a just and holy God is offended.
There seems to be in the NT a stress on keeping the rational acts of the will independent of passing moods and feelings. In actual life, however, the distinctions are less obvious. One complements the other. A good example is Paul's statement: "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death" (2 Cor. 7:10).
Judaism's appreciation for penitence is evident in its liturgical forms. The following psalms were labeled Penitential Psalms: 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; and 143. And in the writings of Isaiah there is an interesting emphasis upon the "contrite heart" (57:15; 66:2).
In Roman Catholic theology the fourth of the seven sacraments is called the sacrament of penance. In order to stress the element of godly sorrow, this sacrament has at times been referred to as a second baptism in terms of a "baptism of tears."
See repentance,penance.
For Further Reading: Kittel, 4:626-29; IDB, 4:33-34.