Thomas McCall’s Forsaken, reviewed by Timothy Lim Teck Ngern
In a nutshell, the classical view holds that the Son was never abandoned on the cross. On the cross, the communion between the Father and the Son was never broken. The language of abandonment expresses Christ’s identification with our actual experience of having been forsaken by God on account of our sins as well as the problem of sinful human nature. The account of divine abandonment means neither that Christ has abandoned humanity nor that Christ had lost his intimacy with the Father. God for us is the impassable simplicity of the trinitarian life; the death of Christ did not make it possible for God to love us, but that through his death, we may truly know God’s love and love God.
Whilst accepting the aforementioned, McCall presents a counter-proposal. He does not fully affirm divine determinism (that Christ’s death was necessary for our salvation), but he wants to keep substitutionary atonement. Thus, McCall explains that God uses his foreknowledge about sinful humanity’s decision (to nail Christ on the cross) to bring about God’s plans for redeeming his people, abolishing sin, annihilating death, restoring righteousness, and reviving life in believers. McCall’s reconstruction implies that while we need to be saved, Christ’s death is incidental to our salvation. But rather, based on God’s foreknowledge, Christ as the way of salvation emerges as God’s plan. In other words, the theologian affirms Christ’s death as substitutionary atonement without interpreting Christ’s offer of salvation as being divine determinism from the start.
McCall’s modification of divine foreknowledge in Christ’s gift of salvation would probably upset some readers. However, the theologian clarifies that the acceptance of Jesus’ death as having occurred in accordance to divine plan and foreknowledge does not imply divine determinism. Having foreknowledge of human free choice does not imply that God determines evil actions; otherwise, it would make God ultimately responsible causally for those actions, much less the consequence of those evil activities (such as conspirators betraying and nailing Jesus to the cross). God did not impose his determined will for the conspirators to hang Jesus. The conspirators’ actions could also not be held responsible for the entire universe. Finally, to hold soteriological determinism would remove moral responsibilities from people, thereby turning God into the ultimate causal agent of killing Jesus but also for the those who live contrary to God’s goodness, justice and holiness. McCall further clarifies that while justification deals with the sinful past of believers, sanctification corrects the sinful nature in us. Christ’s contribution to our justification and sanctification are pneumatologically engaged activities, grounded in and flowing from the intra-trinitarian life of the Father, Son and Spirit operating indivisibly.
Pastors, church leaders, and Christians cannot ignore McCall’s important treatment, especially if they have not considered the nature of Jesus’ cry of abandonment and how it relates to Christ’s relationship with the Trinity. Readers new to the topics of the book will find helpful reviews of what is “to be avoided,” “to be affirmed” and “why it matters” at the end of each chapter. More importantly, because McCall believes that he stands squarely with historic orthodoxy, he urges that we correct some contemporary theology and preaching about Christ. These would include the nature of Christ’s relationship with the Trinity, and what the Trinity means for the Christian doctrines of divine knowledge, forensic justification, and sanctification in the Christian life. Finally, Forsaken serves as an important reminder to proclaim Christ with the historic Christian faith, so that we do not risk embracing a spectrum of heterodox views.
Reviewed by Timothy Lim Teck Ngern
About the Author
Timothy Lim Teck Ngern, M.Div., is an adjunct lecturer and Ph.D. candidate at Regent University School of Divinity (Virginia Beach, Virginia). He is also honorary tutor for King’s Evangelical Divinity School (London), and Book Review Editor for Evangelical Review of Society & Politics. Winner of the 2011 North American Academy of Ecumenists annual student essay contest, he has served as the assistant pastor of a Baptist church in Singapore and projects manager for Transworld Radio International (Northeast Asia Office).
Category: In Depth, Spring 2013
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