Theology beacon dictionary of theology
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- Niv).
- CHURCH GOVERNMENT, CLERGY, ELDER. For Further Reading: Lightfoot, The Christian Ministry," Diss. 1, commentary on Philippians; Barrett
- Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- (Critique of Pure Reason
- KNOWLEDGE, RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE, PHILOSOPHY, REALISM, SCOTTISH REALISM, MODERN REALISM. For Further Reading: Barrett, A Christian Perspective of Knowing
- Berkeley, Of the Prin- ciples of Human Knowledge. OSCAR F. REED ERADICATION. Eradication
- CLEANSING, HEART PURITY CARNAL MIND, CARNAL CHRISTIANS. For Further Reading: White, Eradication; Gould, The Whole Counsel of God
- The Call to Christian Perfection, 56-58;
- For Further Reading: Bultmann, Jesus and the Word; Cullmann, Salvation in History
- For Further Reading: Josephus, War 2.
- The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit;
ENVY. According to Theodore M. Bernstein, envy "means discontented longing for someone else's advantages" (The Careful Writer, 167). It leads to resentment and hate, even murder; therefore in the Bible it is always seen as a serious sin. In the OT, envy can be included in the prohibition of covetousness in the tenth command 186 EPISCOPACY—EPISTEMOLOGY ment (Exod. 20:17). Aristotle said envy grows naturally in relationships between equals. It also grows between brothers (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and the prodigal son and the elder brother) over a parental blessing. King Saul "eyed David" (1 Sam. 18:7-9) and envied him. In the NT, those who envy will not "inherit the kingdom of God" because envy is one of the "works of the flesh." These works are opposed to the "fruit of the Spirit" and to living "in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:19-26). Envy marks out those whom God has given up to a "depraved mind" (Rom. 1:28, Niv). It is a feature of life before conversion which is done away through Christ (Titus 3:3). Envy is to be "put away" by those who "grow up in [their] salvation" (1 Pet. 2:1-2, rsv, Niv). There also is a warning against becoming the kind of unsound teacher who "has an unhealthy interest in controversies and arguments that result in envy" (1 Tim. 6:4, Niv). The evil depths to which envy can go is shown in the trial of Jesus, where Pilate knew "it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him" (Matt. 27:18, Niv) to be crucified. One theologian even concludes that envy and jealous strife among Christians helped bring martyrdom to their opponents in the church (Oscar Cullmann, Peter, 104-9). One possible positive example of envy is a verse that is difficult to translate (Jas. 4:5). This verse either means God's Spirit is jealous (i.e., "zealous") for our friendship, or it refers to the human spirit that "turns towards envious desires" (Jas. 4:5, neb). This latter understanding of envy is the usual evil sense. Envy was the motivation for preaching the gospel in Phil. 1:15. The result was good, but the desire to preach Christ came out of "selfish ambition" to "stir up trouble" for Paul (v. 17, Niv). See JEALOUSY, CARNAL MIND, COVETOUSNESS.
OT and NT terminology clearly support the generic use of the term to cover various forms of government or oversight or supervision within Israel and the church. The term can be used in the sense of a particular office and was so used both within Scripture (Num. 4:15; Acts 1:20) and outside Scripture. But this is derivative, and within this usage bishops were for the most part synonymous with presbyters, whose duties are set forth in 1 Timothy and Titus and resemble that of the average parish minister of today. It is anachronistic to see contemporary bishops as even a faint copy of the bishops referred to in the NT. Wesley clearly understood this and relied on it for warrant in his own ordinations for the work in America. It was in postapostolic times that episcopacy was narrowed to mean the particular form of church government presently advocated by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and many Anglicans. This is unfortunate because it hinders the perception that a conference, as much as a bench of bishops, can exercise episcopacy. Worse still, it has made it virtually impossible to have any mutual recognition of ministries within the various segments of the church. See CHURCH GOVERNMENT, CLERGY, ELDER. For Further Reading: Lightfoot, 'The Christian Ministry," Diss. 1, commentary on Philippians; Barrett, Signs of an Apostle; Hanson, Christian Priesthood Examined. William J. Abraham EPISTEMOLOGY. This term is composed of the Greek episteme, "knowledge," and logos, "a study or rationale"; thus, an inquiry about the nature, sources, possibilities, and limitations of knowledge. Loosely, a "theory of knowledge." The pre-Socratic philosophers did not give any fundamental attention to the problem of knowledge. It was only through the Sophists (fifth century b.C.) that doubts began to be raised about the knowledge of reality. As human practice and institutions came under scrutiny, philosophy began to ask if we had any knowledge of nature as it really is. This general skepticism led to the beginning of episte-mology as it is generally known—that is, the attempt to justify the claim that knowledge is possible and to evaluate the parts played by the senses and reason in the acquisition of knowledge. Credit must be given to Plato, however, who began to ask the essential questions about the problem of knowledge: What is knowledge? Where do we find knowledge? How much of what we think we know is really knowledge? Are we to approach knowledge empirically (through the senses)? Can reason be a reliable guide to knowledge? Can belief be cognitive? Et cetera. ERADICATION—ERROR 187
It is customary to date the beginning of modern epistemology through John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding published in 1690. Locke felt that an examination of the limits of knowledge was important to an understanding of reality. Locke's modest inquiry has affected all the subsequent history of philosophy. The great names that have influenced the development of contemporary theory include: the differing forms of realism in Augustine and Aquinas; the conceptualism of Abelard; the nominalism of Ockham; the continental rationalism of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz; the empiricism of Locke, Berkeley and Hume; the superlative thought of Kant (Critique of Pure Reason, etc.); the post-Kantian idealism of Fichte, Hegel, Bradley, and Schopenhauer; the later 19th-century leaders such as Brentano, Meinong, Husseril, and Bergson; the practical philosophy of James, Pierce, and Dewey; and 20th-century realism including Perry, Russell, and the "very different" Whitehead whose thought resulted in process theology. Contemporary movements include the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle which has had so much influence on current epistemological and metaphysical theory; the later "ordinary-language philosophy" of Ludwig Wittgenstein; and the significant implications of phenomenalism for metaphysics and theology. Much time and investigation is currently being given to religious language and the problem of religious knowledge. See KNOWLEDGE, RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE, PHILOSOPHY, REALISM, SCOTTISH REALISM, MODERN REALISM. For Further Reading: Barrett, A Christian Perspective of Knowing Titus, Living Issues in Philosophy, 23-108; Ayer, The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge; Stace, The Theory of Knowledge and Existence; Berkeley, Of the Prin- ciples of Human Knowledge. OSCAR F. REED ERADICATION. Eradication is a term used by certain Wesleyan theologians to describe the radical destruction of inbred sin by divine grace. The term has been employed in opposition to the teaching that sin is suppressed, repressed, or counteracted, but not destroyed. According to suppressionists, sin exists until death but can be effectively rendered inoperative by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Eradicationists insist that Greek verbs and verb forms employed in the NT point to the removal of sin, not to its repression. The issue focuses upon the degree of deliverance from inward sin possible in this life by the redeeming grace of God. Two criticisms have been persistently leveled against the term among Wesleyans: (1) eradication is not a biblical word; (2) it lends itself too easily to the mistaken notion that sin is a substance, some thing that can be removed from the soul as a rotten tooth is extracted from the jaw. Defenders of the term reply that many non-biblical words are regularly employed to express biblical concepts, a chief example being Trinity, and that employment of physical language to express and discuss metaphysical subjects is not only common but inescapable. No one preferred to stick to actual terms employed by Scripture more than Wesley, as the most casual reading of his works makes evident, Nevertheless, he was embroiled in controversy throughout his ministry because he insisted upon a radical deliverance from sin. In his day the issue was extinction vs. suspension, terms only slightly removed from eradication and suppression. Wesley said, "I use the word 'destroyed' because St. Paul does; 'suspended' I cannot find in my Bible." The wisdom of using any particular terminology must be decided by each individual thinker, writer, or preacher. The concept discussed, however, is more than semantic. The destruction of inbred sin, the radical purification of the inner life, remains a distinguishing tenet of the modern holiness movement. See CLEANSING, HEART PURITY CARNAL MIND, CARNAL CHRISTIANS.
W. E. MCCUMBER EROS. See love. ERROR. An error is a mistake or failure due to incomplete information, forgetfulness, or faulty judgment. These errors do not necessarily arise from antagonism of the will toward God. Since man is finite, his knowledge and information are limited. Since he is also living under the curse, which brought mortality and its accompanying physical and mental weaknesses, man's memory and judgment are affected. Thus, errors are due either to man's finite character, or to disabilities arising from consequences of the Fall as they touch man's mind and body. They are not sinful acts since they involve no purpose to rebel against God. Consequently writers of the holiness tradition ever since Wesley have ascribed such errors to infirmities, and usually discuss them under that head, as in the first three readings suggested below. Such errors do not separate the soul from God, although they often 188 ESCHATOLOGY bring disappointment or embarrassment. The child of God will do his best under grace to overcome such disabilities as much as possible. The word error also denotes a wrong and un-scriptural system of doctrine or teaching. This may arise from overemphasis, or from neglect of some phase of truth, or from outright denial of some truth. It always arises whenever men substitute their ideas for the revealed truth of God. Whatever its source, any system of error is dangerous in leading men away from the truth and usually leads men to deviation in practice and finally to outright wickedness. Hence the Bible frequently warns us against deception. See mistake, infirmity, sin (legal), heresy For Further Reading: Chadwick, The Call to Christian Perfection, 56-58; Wesley, Works, 6:2-5, 412-13; Wiley, CT, 2:498; Breese, Know the Marks of the Cults.
In classical systematic theology the discussion of echatology has commonly been carried out under two subheadings: Individual Eschatology and General Eschatology. Individual eschatology treats the scriptural teachings regarding the character of life after death, considering the nature and place of the existence of the soul between death and the final resurrection, and such matters. General eschatology discusses the final events which are to transpire at the end of human history. Themes commonly treated under this heading include the great apostasy and the Antichrist, the second coming of Christ, the resurrection, the millennial Kingdom, the final Judgment, and the age to come. The modern discussion of biblical eschatology no longer limits the term exclusively to future events at the end of world history. Scholars note that the OT prophets sometimes spoke of the Day of the Lord—an eschatological terminus technicus—as drawing near or impinging upon events in their own times. The NT writers speak even more clearly of the eschaton—the last times—and specific eschatological events as already inaugurated in the first century, in connection with the Christ event. The boundaries within which biblical eschatology has been interpreted in this century were established by Albert Schweitzer and C. H. Dodd. The older liberal interpretation had dismissed the eschatological content of the Bible as an expression of the mythological outlook of the ancient world. Adolf von Harnack referred to it as the disposable "husk" which surrounded the "kernel" of universal ethical truth in the Scriptures. Albert Schweitzer is widely credited with reestablishing the determinative eschatological basis of NT theology, even though it is generally agreed that he overstated the issue. According to Schweitzer, Jesus was an apocalyptic figure who anticipated the end of the present world and the arrival of the eschatological kingdom of God in the near future. This expectation conditioned all His preaching and the understanding of His mission. Following Jesus' death, this same hope continued in the earliest Church. In fact, however, both Jesus and the Early Church were mistaken, as subsequent history made clear, declared Schweitzer. C. H. Dodd agreed with Schweitzer that the message of Jesus centered in eschatology, but he insisted that the portrait of Jesus sketched by Schweitzer precluded any basis for Christian faith in such a deluded apocalyptist. Dodd's own study of the NT evidence led him to conclusions quite different from those of Schweitzer. Dodd contended that for Jesus the eschatological Kingdom was not a future entity but rather had its absolute arrival in His own person and mission. All that the prophets had hoped for in the eschatological age was realized in the Christ event and is experienced by Christians as they are related to Christ by the Spirit. This was the essence of the teaching of Jesus and was at the heart of early Christian proclamation. Dodd recognized that there were passages in the NT which spoke of eschatological events in the future, but he neutralized these by designating them as poetic expressions or by rejecting them as corruptions of the primitive kerygma by a later generation which had lost touch with the message of Jesus. The work of Schweitzer and Dodd made clear that the NT contains two kinds of statements about the eschaton. One collection of sayings speaks of the inauguration of eschatological events in connection with the mission of Jesus. The coming of the Messiah, the operation of the Kingdom in power, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the gift of salvation—these are all eschatological events in the estimate of OT and Jewish eschatology. That claim is made for them by the writers of the NT also. But the NT likewise speaks of eschatological
ESSENES—ESSENTIAL TRINITY 189
events which were not yet realized and which await a future fulfillment. The old age and the fallen sinful order have not been terminated, death has not been destroyed, the Messiah is to appear again, the resurrection and the final Judgment are yet to occur, the new heavens and the new earth are matters of hope. Schweitzer and Dodd treated these sayings in an antithetical manner, gravitating to one group and minimizing or rejecting the validity of the second group. More recently NT scholars—most notably Oscar Cullmann and Werner Kummel— have attempted to interpret the two sets of sayings in a dialectical way, speaking of the tension which exists between the "already" and the "not yet" in NT theology. According to this view, the Christ event signified the inauguration of eschatological events and realities, but the full realization of the eschaton lies in the future. However, the future will only bring to completion that which was begun in the mission of Jesus. This latter interpretation seems to reflect the NT teachings most accurately. All of the interpretations above assume that NT eschatology is a statement of beliefs about events which will occur—or which have occurred—in history. For Rudolf Bultmann, however, this represents a mythological world view which is meaningless to modern man. Such statements have to be demythologized and reinterpreted with the aid of existentialist philosophy in order to have contemporary significance. From this perspective Bultmann concluded that the eschatological content of the NT describes human existence before God, encountered by God in judgment and with the offer of salvation. In this manner biblical eschatology is removed from the objective sphere of world history and is made to apply to the subjective history of the individual. See realized eschatology, last days, apocalyptic, tribulation. millennium, premillennialism, amillennialism, second coming of christ.
The Essenes had no dealings with the Temple priesthood, whom they considered to be corrupt. They observed strictly the law of the Sabbath, and took no oath except that of loyalty to the sect. Rules were many. Infractions of rules were punished severely. Though female skeletons have been found in their cemeteries, most Essene groups were male and celibate. Membership was retained through the adoption of children and by making adult proselytes. The people of the Dead Sea Scrolls (at Qumran) are believed to have been Essenes. The Essenes expected a teacher of righteousness to appear who would lead the righteous ("the Sons of Light") in overthrowing their enemies ("the Sons of Darkness") and establishing the Messianic Kingdom. See dead sea scrolls. For Further Reading: Josephus, War 2. 8. 2 ff; Antiquities, 18.1-5; Gaster, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English Translation; Harrison, "Essenes," ZPEB, vol. 2; LaSor, Amazing Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Faith. W. Ralph Thompson ESSENTIAL TRINITY. This term is the counterpart of the term economic Trinity. Whereas this latter term refers to the respective roles or offices of the Persons in the Godhead in effecting man's redemption, the term essential Trinity is a reminder that the threeness of God is not a temporary accommodation to the requirements of redemption, but is eternal, because such threeness belongs to the very nature of God. God would be Three-in-One even if there had been no creation and no redemption. To affirm the economic Trinity without also affirming the essential Trinity is to open the door to some form of modalism. There is only one God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10-11; 1 Tim. 2:5; Gal. 3:20). Yet three Persons are mentioned in the NT who are each called God. In 2 Pet. 1:17 there is a person called the "Father," who is identified as God. Another person is also mentioned, distinct from the Father, who is called the "Son," and in verse 16 is identified as Jesus Christ. Now according to Exod. 34:14 and Matt. 4:10, one is absolutely forbidden to worship anyone besides God; yet in Heb. 1:2-6 God commands the angels to worship Jesus Christ, and we know that Jesus Christ accepted worship from Thomas (John 20:28). Furthermore, the 190 ESTATES OF CHRIST—ETERNAL GENERATION Jewish leaders clearly understood Jesus to teach that He was just as much God as was God the Father (John 5:18; 8:51-59). In addition to this, Acts 5:3 teaches that there is a person called the Holy Spirit. That He is a person is established by the fact that Ananias lied to Him. The succeeding verse reveals that the Holy Spirit is God. This scriptural data forces one to conclude that there is only one God, but there are three distinct Persons who are called God. Therefore it would be wrong to say that the names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are simply three ways in which the one God-Person manifests himself (Sabellianism). It would also be wrong to say that the three Persons of the one God are three parts of the whole, sharing divine perfections among themselves. Each is equally possessed of all. These three Persons are the one God. Thus all three Persons of the Godhead are eternal because the one God is eternal (Ps. 90:2; 102:24-27). And since the one God is unchangeable (Mai. 3:6), He has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this sense the threeness is an eternal and essential aspect of the Godhead. See trinity (the holy), economic trinity sabellianism. For Further Reading: Carter, The Person and Ministry
The state of humiliation includes several specific stages or steps, most clearly described in the famous kenosis passage (Phil. 2:5-8). Christ's humiliation includes self-renunciation and relinquishing His full divine prerogatives. Was the kenosis a separation by the Son from the divine attributes or simply from the use of these attributes? Were the attributes concealed in the kenosis? The incarnate Logos did not cease to be God; hence, it must be argued that He was not severed from the attributes of Deity. The kryp-tists (a word meaning "to conceal") believed the attributes were not displayed until Christ's glorification. That the kenosis meant renouncing the use of these attributes appears to be a contradiction of the miracles and power of Jesus on earth, a point against the kryptists, too. Another suggestion is offered. The kenosis was the Son's yielding of His autonomy as God (albeit an autonomy within the perichoresis) and taking on the state of subjection and dependence. In any event His self-renunciation of equality with God and assumption of the form of man was followed by His glorification. The estate of exaltation begins with the descent into hell. Based upon Ps. 16:10, quoted by Peter in Acts 2:27, 31, and 1 Pet. 3:19-20, the descent seems to describe Jesus' proclamation of His Lordship over both life and death. Some construe the descent as describing the terrible intensity of Jesus' suffering on the Cross, but this makes "preaching unto the spirits" meaningless. The Resurrection followed the entombment. It was Christ's victory over the power of death to which He had become obedient (Phil. 2:8). The Resurrection confirmed the validity of His atoning death. The Ascension marks a new stage in Christ's resumption of His place with God and His mediation for us. Having become man, the Son bears that humanity to glory where He intercedes for us. Further, the Ascension establishes the divine condition for the coming of the Spirit (John 16:7). Finally, the Session describes the Son at the Father's right hand. Mark connects Ascension and Session (16:19), thus linking Christ's priestly and royal offices. See christ, kenosis. For Further Reading: Wiley, CT, 2:187-210.
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