“Theodicy” is a branch of Christian apologetics which is a defense of God’s moral government against the accusations of Divine culpability for the presence of evil in the universe. I am preparing my next Pesher for the season of Pentecost – a time for commemorating the giving of the Mosaic Law on Mt. Sinai – 50 days after Passover. In it I will be addressing some of the issues which have troubled the Deists, Atheists, and even Evangelicals over the centuries.
My accompanying post this weekend “Remains of the Day: Newton on the Apocalypse” lumped the label “Evangelical” in with the other “deviancies” of which Isaac Newton has been “accused.” Readers may wonder if that association with “deism, atheism, mysticism, and occultism” is intended and justified.
While I will save for my Pesher a fuller discourse, it must be remembered what we have said elsewhere: that the “Gospel” – from which the word “Evangelical” is derived – is not found in the teachings of Jesus as a quest for personal salvation. It is the “gospel of the kingdom” which Jesus always references. Personal salvation is possible because Jesus Christ has become the great cosmic monarch and the meaning of that is not understood in this plebian age of lawless levelers.
Isaac Newton was no Evangelical in any antinomian sense of the word. While his portraits might seem to us as images of a “girlish, geeky” type of fellow, he was not shy about law enforcement. As Chancellor of the Royal Mint, he demanded and got the death penalty for counterfeiting – thus setting a precedent which not only was English, but became American, as well, as attested to by the monetary statutes passed by the first Congress of the new united States. One wonders how he would react today to the barons of Wall Street who have gamed the legal tender laws these many decades.
More to come.
