Jimmy Akin - The Drama of Salvation: How God Rescues You from Your Sins and Brings You to Eternal Life

The Drama of Salvation

How God Rescues Us from Our Sins and Brings Us to Eternal Life

J IMMY A KIN

The Drama of Salvation

How God Rescues Us from Our Sins and Brings Us to Eternal Life

2015 Jimmy Akin

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Preface

Good crystal gives off an unmistakable sound. If you strike it lightly with your forefinger, youll hear the delicate ping that indicates: This is genuine; this is the real thing. But if the glass in your hand fails to make the telltale sound, you know that youre holding, at best, a glittering fake.

Something analogous happens in the world of the intellect. There are times when you just know , as if by instinct, and often before youre able to say exactly why, that an argument youre hearing is fatally flawed; it gives off something like the hollow thunk of cheap glass. But then there are those rare and precious times when you read a book or an article and ping! theres no mistaking: This is the real thing. At the banquet table of apologetics, Jimmy Akins The Drama of Salvation is the finest of fine crystal.

Questions relating to salvationespecially faith versus works, but also penance, purgatory, and indulgenceshave been neuralgic points in the dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. Serious people on every side have reasonably wondered whether dialogue can accomplish very much if anything, for what they have seen trumpeted as the fruit of ecumenical dialogue too often has involved falsification and betrayal of their respective traditions. This book should lay all such doubts to rest.

Mr. Akin knows and respects the Protestant tradition in which he was raised and the Catholicism he has come to embrace. He is not about to falsify either or to pretend that crucial differences do not exist. But he is also unwilling to allow theological slogans (like faith alone) to distract us from significant points of agreement or to allow verbal formulae to ease away the tense paradoxes of faith and freedom. His method is to follow Scripture and Tradition wherever they lead, and he is formidably equipped for the task with honesty, clarity of mind, and a superabundance of logical rigor.

In apologetical circles, Mr. Akin was long ago nicknamed The Terminator precisely because of his logical skills and the remorseless way he can wield them. Those skills are on frequent display in The Drama of Salvation. Though the sharp blade of dialectic is always tempered with charity, it still cuts straight and deep. So, readers, be warned: Some cherished theological nostrums may be reduced to a mass of tatters by the time Mr. Akin is finished with them.

Here I include myself among the bereaved. For many years I toyed with a certain interpretation of the meaning in Romans of works. Then I read Mr. Akins chapter on Faith, Works, and Boasting. Few things in philosophy or theology deserve to be called definitive, but the argument of that chapter is surely a plausible candidate. At the very least it is a powerfully compelling case for one view of Pauline soteriology, and it demands a serious response from anyone who might hope to hold a different view.

That, in fact, could be said of this book as a whole. It is a serious work by a serious and supremely gifted apologist on a topic of central concern for everyone. If it elicits the response it deserves, then all of us, whatever our confessional commitments, will at least be clearer about what really does divide us. And what does not. Some notions, after all, deserve to be terminated.

Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J.

Boston College

Introduction

There are many books on the subject of salvation, and many of them share certain characteristics:

1. They focus exclusively on the subject of eternal salvation.

2. They focus in particular on the doctrine of justification.

3. They often ignore, in the interests of systematic theology, the way in which the Bible uses language.

4. They are often written in a polemical, hostile style.

5. Due to the authors unfamiliarity with the way other groups of Christians express themselves, they mistakenly criticize views on which there is no disagreement in substance.

It is my hope that this book will be different. While it does discuss the subject of eternal salvation, it also seeks to show that the concept of salvation in the Bible is much broader than that. While it discusses the doctrine of justification, it also gives attention to other biblical themes relating to salvation. While it addresses concerns of systematic theology, it focuses significantly on the way the Bible talks about salvationthe kind of language Scripture uses when addressing it. While it takes a very definite position on many matters, it is not meant to be polemical or hostile toward those with other beliefs. Finally, while this book is critical of positions I believe to be in error, it takes great care to understand the ways in which different groups of Christians express themselves.

Tragically, Protestants and Catholics often talk past each other, failing to perceive the ways that the other uses words and phrases. I hope that this book will help both Catholics and Protestants translate the theological language of one group into the language of the other so that individuals on both sides can better understand what their partners in dialogue or controversy actually mean , not just what they say .

Often the two groups are led astray by terminology. They often perceive themselves to be in disagreement when actually they are notor, at least, when the disagreement is not as sharp as they think.

This is precisely the kind of situation that St. Paul was addressing when he warned about quarreling over words. He instructed St. Timothy to charge his flock before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers (2 Tim. 2:14).

Similarly, Paul said that a person who is quarrelsome about words is puffed up with conceit, he knows nothing; he has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions, and wrangling among men who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain (1 Tim. 6:45).

Contemporary Christians of all persuasions need to take Pauls words to heart. My hope is that this book will help bring about a greater understanding of how Scripture treats the subject of salvation and how different groups of Christians understand it.

The Drama of Salvation

Something is desperately wrong with the world. We all sense it. With all of the wars, crimes, hatreds, and cruelties the world contains, something is definitely wrong. Mankinds catalogue of sin and vice is endless, and there seem to be new moral challenges every day.

Whats worse, the problem is not just in the world. It is within us. Each of us has done wrong in our lives. Sometimes we have done things that are very wrong. If we are lucky, we have enough conscience and courage to face our own misdeeds. But too often, we rationalize them away or we ignore them and pretend that they dont exist.