Proclamation of the Victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over Evil; and, a Word of Warning to the Wicked

Table of contents

1.  Proclamation of the victory of Jesus Christ over evil

2.  A warning to the wicked

3.  Christ shall vindicate and avenge the oppressed

     Addendum

J. D. Gallé | Saturday, 7 October 2023

1.  Proclamation of the victory of Jesus Christ over evil

• The Lord Jesus Christ has defeated the powers of evil and darkness already.
• Evil shall not win.
• The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses from every and all sin, for those believing in him.
• Jesus Christ is King, and has all power and authority in heaven and on earth.
• I rebuke all the powers of darkness, evil humans, and evil spirits who have arrayed themselves against me, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and command you to depart from my presence immediately, and go wheresoever the Lord Jesus Christ sends you.
• No weapon that is formed against me shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against me in judgement, shall be condemned.
• All the emissaries of the Evil One, human and non-human, individually and collectively, from whatsoever agency or society, I command you to depart from my presence now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• All workers of iniquity without exception shall be condemned to the lake of fire.
• All forms of witchcraft and sorcery are an abomination to Yahweh God.
• The Lord Jesus Christ has defeated evil decisively through his death, burial, and resurrection approximately two thousand years ago, and he shall return to fully reclaim the world as his kingdom.
• All evil shall be everlastingly expunged from the new heavens, new earth, and new Jerusalem, the everlasting kingdom of God the Father and his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

2.  A warning to the wicked

        To those human beings for whom it is yet possible to turn away from evil, who have not committed the sin against the Holy Spirit that shall not be forgiven in this age or the age to come, turn immediately from your wickedness; seek and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in order that you may be delivered from the wrath to come.

        If you are set against the people of God, the brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus, you are an enemy of God and shall be judged as his enemy, suffering the retribution of age-lasting destruction.

        The wrath and curse of God remain upon all those who love evil and lawlessness. Those who have despised the Lord Jesus Christ and his ways shall be banished into the age-lasting fire and age-lasting punishment, when the Lord Jesus returns as King with all his holy angels to judge the nations in justice on a day God the Father has designated.

3.  Christ shall vindicate and avenge the oppressed

        The Lord Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is a God of vengeance and wrath, and shall avenge the suffering, oppression, and blood of his holy ones.

        The wicked and lawless, that is, the children of the Devil, the False Accuser, the Slanderous One, are those who have taken pleasure in harming, hindering, raping, abusing, oppressing, trafficking, enslaving, torturing, and murdering the holy, innocent, and vulnerable since the foundation of the world.

        The end of the children of the Slanderer is in the lake of fire, wherein they shall be cast along with their god and father, Satan, the Adversary.

        The Lord Jesus Christ shall avenge and repay all workers of iniquity in full in accordance with their evil, wickedness, and love of unrighteousness.

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2023, 2024. All rights reserved.

Addendum

        The above piece is an expanded version of my original article, ‘The Powers of Darkness Cannot and Will Not Prevail against the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of All’ (21 Jan. 2023).

Latest revision(s): added a paragraph break (7 Jun. 2024); added a comma in one place (16 Oct. 2024).

The Beginning of Revelation: the Demythologisation of Creation, Sin, and Death in Genesis 1–3, and Its Inevitable Christological Trajectory

 J. D. Gallé | Tuesday, 10 September 2019

        The introduction of sin and death into the world as a consequence of the disobedience of the first human beings is recounted in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis. Christian theism has traditionally assumed an actual, literal, historical existence and expulsion of the first human male and female pair, Adam and Eve, from Paradise[1] and access to the Tree of Life as a result of their transgression of God’s edict to abstain from eating of the forbidden tree.[2] The posterity of the first human parents, namely humankind of all ethnicities throughout the millennia to the present day, have inherited an environment of emptiness, suffering, disease, decay, and death. In the present age, all of creation is in a state of groaning (Rom. 8.22).

The interconnectedness of the biblical record

        Apart from the scriptural narrative of the originally good, suffering- and death-free creation of the world in which the first humans were brought into being rightly and harmoniously related to their Creator, to each other, and all animal-, plant-, and non-human life in a flourishing, safe, untainted environment, the concepts of redemption and the final restoration and renewal of creation[3] lose their theological moorings.

        The biblical doctrines of humankind (anthropology); sin (hamartiology); and death (thanatology) are intimately related to the person, attributes, and works of the Last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ (Christology); salvation (soteriology); the future bodily resurrection and immortality to be granted to those who are united to Christ at his second advent; the final judgement, condemnation, and death of the unrighteous; and the establishment of a new creation wherein unbroken communion between God and his redeemed people will carry on everlastingly, for ever free from Satan, the curse, human and non-human adversaries, danger, affliction, and the bondage of sin and death (eschatology).[4]

        In other words, creation, sin, death, Christ, salvation, eternal life, judgement, damnation, and re-creation are not disjointed tenets of the Christian faith; rather, they are interrelated doctrines which stand or fall together.

Demythologisation and scriptural trustworthiness

       In our (post-)modern context, the temptation for Christians to demythologise Genesis’ creational narrative and its depiction of the original human pair descending into sin and death as an ahistorical, pre- or non-scientific account which cannot be reconciled with actual, historical, cosmological reality is ever present. The rejection of Genesis 1–3 as non-allegorical, non-fictional, historical narrative, and the adoption of some form of theistic evolution (or evolutionary creationism) instead, is an inherently unstable position in the realm of Christian theology. Once accepted, this syncretistic approach raises serious questions regarding the coherence and reliability of the scriptural story of redemption. For, if scripture cannot be trusted concerning the origin and nature of creation, sin, and death, can it be relied upon in its treatment of the divinity, virginal conception, mission, teachings, miraculous healings, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, enthronement, intercession, and second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Christological compromise all but certain

        The logic is not complex: the demythologisation of the first three chapters of Genesis is not likely to end there. The unhappy consequence of attempting to incorporate facets of evolutionary thought into the interpretation of scripture will give way to further doctrinal erosion and compromise over time. Most significantly, the naturalistic drift that is part and parcel of evolutionism will work its way towards rethinking and reworking vital aspects of Christology (i.e. Christ’s identity, characteristics, and deeds).
        Take, for example, the doctrine of Mary’s virginal conception of the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1.18–23; Lk. 1.30– 35). I do not imagine it unlikely that this doctrine will eventually come to be viewed by professing evangelicals as no longer a ‘primary’ or ‘essential’ teaching, but one amongst an ever-expanding repository of ‘secondary’, ‘non-essential’ doctrines which may be accepted or rejected by Christians at will. Aberrant, heterodox views such as the denial of the virginal conception will undoubtedly assist in no small way towards paving the way to apostasy.

Unintended consequences: leaving Christ

        If I may project a probable, sad, but all-too-predictable, course: some, having surrendered to the untenability of integrating evolutionary concepts into the scriptural narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, will defect from a profession of Christianity and go on to deny the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead as unprovable, supernatural superstition; others, having accepted the ‘Jesus mythicist’ position, will go so far as to abandon belief altogether in an authentic, historical Jesus of Nazareth who walked the face of the earth approximately two thousand years ago. If scripture is essentially mythological in respect of its cosmology, it stands to reason that its Christology may be considered fantastical in nature as well.

Conclusion

        Scripture provides an internally logical, harmonious portrayal of the supernatural creation of the world, its original state of goodness, relational wholeness, security, and deathlessness; and the fall of the first human beings from life and fellowship with God in Eden to their breach of the divine command, subsequent condition of shame, loss of intimacy with their Creator, eviction from Paradise and the Tree of Life, and inevitable deaths. The sombre inheritance of the human race is that which our first parents, Adam and Eve, bequeathed to us: sin, death, and a cursed creation.
        It is only in the light of this tragic backdrop that we can begin to appreciate the glory of redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way back to God. Through his obedient death on the cross in submission to the will of his Father, he has undone the death, misery, and sin brought into the world by the one transgression of Adam (Rom. 5.12–21). Deliverance from the wrath of God in the coming judgement, salvation from the power and practice of sin, and everlasting life in the age to come may be freely obtained by all those who come to God through him. Even whilst earnestly awaiting the redemption of their bodies (Rom. 8.23), those who are united to the Lord Jesus are already new creations in him (2 Cor. 5.17). In the new heaven and new earth, pain, death, and the curse will have been brought to a permanent close, and uninterrupted communion between God, his Son, Jesus Christ, and his redeemed people, will carry on without end (Rev. 21.1–5; 22.3, 5).
        When an anti-supernaturalistic world view and a supernaturalistic world view (in this case, evolutionism and Christian theism [respectively]) are effectively commingled, the results yielded will be inconsistent and unstable at best, and disastrous at worst. The question is, ‘Where will evangelicals draw the lines of scriptural demythologisation?’
        This article has sought to demonstrate that the biblical account of redemption cannot be abstracted from its account of creation and the fall of humankind. Scripturally, both Adam and Christ are treated as real, historical figures. Treating the creational narrative of Genesis 1–3 as fundamentally mythological and ahistorical in nature undermines the reality, purpose, and necessity of Christ’s work of redemption in undoing the work of the first man (1 Cor. 15.45, 47), and the future restoration of all that was spoilt and lost in Eden (Rev. 21–22).

Notes

        1. That is, the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2.8; Rev. 2.7).
        2. That is, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2.9, 17).
        3. That is, the new heaven(s) and new earth (Isa. 65.17; 2 Pet. 3.13; Rev. 21.1).
        4. That is, pivotal aspects relating to ‘the last things’. (In Christian theology, thanatology is typically subsumed under the category of eschatology.)

Copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2019, 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.

Addendum (3, 14, 20 Aug. 2023).  I hardly make any claim that the insights elucidated in this article are particularly novel. That said, the truths propounded herein are ever relevant and especially in need of being taught to the youngest generation in this present, evil, deceitful, godless age.


Latest revisions: assorted emendations made (10 Sept. 2019); changed ‘that is’ to ‘namely’ in par. 1 (11 Sept. 2019); added scriptural references in square brackets in par. 5; added a term in par. 4; modified ‘person and work of’ to ‘person, attributes, and work of’ in par. 2; modified third sentence in par. 4 (12 Sept. 2019); added a comma and the term ‘reality’ in par. 9 [par. 10 as from 22 Sept. 2019] (13 Sept. 2019); added a paragraph break (22 Sept. 2019); added two commas in par. 6 (24 Sept. 2019); altered one term in n. 4 (19 Oct. 2021); emended a conjunction in par. 2 (21 Oct. 2021); emended two scriptural abbreviations (6 Nov. 2021); added two hyphens in par. 2; added two paragraph breaks; added one preposition to what is now par. 5 (15 Oct. 2022).

Adam Clarke on the Universality of the Atonement

        He died for every human soul, for all who are partakers of the same nature which he has assumed; the merit and benefits of his death must necessarily extend to all mankind, because he has assumed that nature which is common to all. Nor could the merit of his death be limited to any particular part, nation, tribe, or individuals of the vast human family. It is not the nature of a particular nation, tribe, family, or individual, which he has assumed, but the nature of the whole human race; and “God has made of one blood all the nations, for to dwell on all the face of the earth,”[1] that all those might be redeemed with “one blood;” for he is the kinsman of the whole. The merit of his death must, therefore, extend to every man, unless we can find individuals or families that have not sprung from that stock of which he became incarnated. His death must be infinitely meritorious, and extend in its benefits to all who are partakers of the same nature, because he was God manifested in the flesh; and to contract or limit that merit, that it should apply only to a few, or even to any multitudes short of the whole human race, is one of those things which is impossible to God himself, because it involves a moral contradiction. He could no more limit the merit of that death, than he could limit his own eternity, or contract that love which induced him to undertake the redemption of a lost world.
        If the many, that is, all mankind, have died through the offence of one; certainly, the gift by grace, which abounds unto the many, by Christ Jesus, must have reference to every human being.[2] If the consequences of Christ’s incarnation and death extend only to a few, or a select number of mankind, which, though they may be considered many in themselves, are few in comparison of the whole human race, then the consequences of Adam’s sin have extended only to a few, or to the same select number: and if only many and not all have fallen, only that many had need of a Redeemer. For it is most evident that the same persons are referred to in both clauses of the verse. If the apostle had believed that the benefits of the death of Christ had extended only to a select number of mankind, he never could have used the language he has done here; though, in the first clause, he might have said, without any qualification of the term, “Through the offence of one, many are dead;” in the second clause, to be consistent with the doctrine of particular redemption,[3] he must have said, “The grace of God, and the gift by grace, hath abounded unto some. As, by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon some to justification. As, by one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners; so, by the obedience of one, shall some be made righteous.[4] As in Adam all die; so in Christ shall some be made alive.”[5] But neither the doctrine nor the thing ever entered the soul of this divinely inspired man.[6]

Adam Clarke, Christian Theology (repr., Salem, OH: Convention Book Store, 1967), pp. 117–8, emphases in original

Notes

        1. Acts 17.26.
        2. See Romans 5.17–19.
        3. The doctrine of particular redemption is sometimes referred to as limited atonement, particular atonement, or definite atonement. The essence of the teaching is that Christ died with the intention of securing spiritual and eschatological salvation for a portion of humankind, not the whole. According to this view, those for whom Christ died salvationally will inevitably become partakers of salvation; those for whom he did not, will not.
        4. Contra Romans 5.17–19, Berean Literal Bible (BLB): ‘For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one, how much more will those receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ! So then, just as through one trespass, it is unto condemnation to all men, so also through one act of righteousness it is unto justification of life to all men. For as indeed through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One, the many will be made righteous.’
        5. Contra 1 Corinthians 15.22 (BLB): ‘For as indeed in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.’
        6. Namely Paul the apostle.  —J. D. Gallé

Notes copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2019. All rights reserved.