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33) That Calvary achieved the resurrection

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A Classic Orthodox answer :

Question : "In Protestant / Evangelical / Baptist theology, when Jesus died and rose again he achieved the complete salvation of all those who repent and believe in him. In Orthodoxy what did Jesus achieve?"

Typical Answer : "He liberated those in Hades and trampled death."

The word Hades used in Greek before the Christian Faith meant to quote the Oxford English dictionary

Hades |ˈheɪdiːz| Greek Mythology

the underworld; the land of the spirits of the dead.

• the god of the underworld, one of the sons of Cronus. Also called Pluto.

• informal hell.

 

indeed the OED to this day recognizes only the very ancient definition of Hades as "the Underworld" not any Christianized use of the word. Thus there may perhaps be a division among the Orthodox as to whether "Abraham's Bosom" is an entirely separate place from Hades, or whether Hades is "the land of the spirits of the dead" split into two places:

1) Abraham's Bosom (where Lazarus lay)

2) The Nether Region of Hades, a pit of flame and torment (where the rich man was)

Laying aside the issue of the "tortured by God's love" issue as the Orthodox see it, it seems their theology then is that mankind would have spent eternity in one of these iwo places, but, by dying and rising again Jesus achieved the resurrection, so that:

1) Those in Abraham's Bosom might be saved by works and priestcraft, and spend eternity in New Jerusalem.

2) Those in the Pit of Hades might be resurrected and go to then Hell.

This theology has Jesus dying to allow people to burn in Hell. That is about as opposite from Protestant / Evangelical / Anabaptist theology as you can get. 

Half baked theology :

In my opinion a lot of Orthodox theology is half baked, or underdeveloped, and probing them therefore for a precise answer is often kind of fruitless, and would just go around in a never ending circles. They have made statements but did not think them through to the end, when they would see there are inbuilt refutations in their theology. If you pursue this with them and try to get them to specify their meanings they will keep returning to glib ambiguous phrases like "he achieved life" etc.

The good news :

If Jesus on Calvary did not earn for us salvation, but rather "overcame death" leading to a resurrection, it is the opposite if the true gospel message, as then Jesus died to achieve the resurrection for billions of souls who would now be damned in Hell forever, as well as the resurrection of the just. The fact is we all were to be resurrected in the process of the "natural justice of God" it did not need to be earned, and the latter part of 1 Cor 15 (after the Gospel that saves in 1 Cor 15:1-4) is explained by the fact that Jesus earned the positivity of the resurrection for the just, that is a "salvation resurrection". Jesus did not die to burn people in Hell by resurrecting myriads of souls that otherwise would have eternally "slept".

old version

33) That Jesus achieved the resurrection of souls in his death and resurrection, not washing away our sins and total justification.

That is.... Forgiveness of sin through Calvary denied - absurdly Orthodoxy argues that as Jesus forgave individual sin before the cross and resurrection. the gospel does not bring forgiveness to mankind (as if it did their junk priestcraft/works gospel falls apart). The fact that the gospel is not necessarily the only way God can forgive sin does not stop the fact that sin was and is washed away by his blood. One must remember the resurrection adds justification (to be made just in God's sight) as well as his crucifixion dealing with sin.  ( salvation ) ( gospel) 

 

That Jesus earned the resurrection of the just and the unjust (not simply the salvation component of  resurrection). In other words Orthodoxy believes Jesus died to resurrect the damned (and thus to burn billions of people in Hell).  ( salvation )

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