Many of my respected friends and colleagues in the kingdom have been posting this meme quoting George MacDonald as if he was some giant of theological accuracy. While I appreciate some of his writings and the role he had in the spiritual development of C.S. Lewis, MacDonald was a functional universalist. My limited understanding of his perspective is that the love of God was so compelling and irresistible, that ultimately all humanity would be saved.
Sadly, This statement is a complete distortion of substitutionary atonement and reveals a serious misunderstanding of several important doctrines that leads to a GMO (genetically modified opinion) Theology and eventually heresy.
This meme creates a “straw man” distortion of the blessed Trinity, by “tri-chotomizing” God in a distorted way. It epitomizes “substitutionists” as presenting a bloodthirsty Father who gleefully tortures His Son in order to forgive sinful humanity. This is a ridiculous characterization. I’ve never met a single person who teaches this. But the emotion behind this meme leads to the rejection of the God of the Bible and substitutes instead some kind of heavenly Santa Claus. (Ironically, even Santa knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.)
MY RESPONSE: The Triune God is not divided! Actually, God (the Father) was IN CHRIST, reconciling the world to Himself. One God in three persons, united in Christ, substituting himself as a “propitiation” for sin. There’s more to say, so stay tuned for the next four parts of this message…
