William Atkinson: The Spiritual Death of Jesus
William P. Atkinson, The ‘Spiritual Death’ of Jesus: A Pentecostal Investigation, Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies series (Brill, 2009), 304 pages, ISBN 9789004171992.
William P. Atkinson tackles the controversial issue of the supposed spiritual death of Jesus from a firm Pentecostal perspective, being an ordained minister in the Elim Pentecostal Church in the UK. He spent seven years as the president in his denomination’s theological college, and is presently associated with the London School of Theology.
This book under review won the annual book award from The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship. When one reads through it, it is easily observed why this distinction was given.
At the very beginning of the book, the author lets you know where he stands, and the conclusions to which he has arrived. Taking the theological appraisal farther than any previous research to date, Atkinson counsels that Pentecostals would experience unnecessary damage by adopting this aberrant theology, and thus be drawn away from the foundations of traditional Christianity. His advice is to reject the bulk of the teaching of JDS (Jesus Died Spiritually).
Because the teaching of JDS is central to the Word of Faith, this book, in a sense, also serves as a critique of that movement. The Word of Faith movement cannot be classified as a single denomination, but nevertheless has greatly influenced Pentecostals throughout the world by means of their mass media techniques (TV, radio, publications, Internet, etc.). Who can calculate the number of independent, Pentecostal or charismatic churches that have embraced these teachings? This spread of inaccurate interpretations is an obvious concern to the author.
In particular, Atkinson focuses on three individuals: E. W. Kenyon, Kenneth E. Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. Kenneth E. Hagin is the main person who initiated the Word of Faith movement, leaning heavily on the writings of E. W. Kenyon. Kenneth Copeland is still alive and continues to advance this teaching. These three men have articulated the JDS doctrine the most comprehensively and to more of an extent than any of their followers.
Indeed, many of their disciples have picked up on this teaching and taught it in different measures, even modifying it. But the basic foundations have been strongly laid by these three men. Many people have unconsciously assumed this teaching, thinking it is orthodox.
Atkinson insists that this whole theological stance only serves to misrepresent the incarnation, the role that Satan played in the crucifixion, and the events that transpired between the cross and the resurrection.
Atkinson is very methodical in his analysis, making his book easy to read and its arguments easy to follow. The work is divided into seven sections, each concluding with a summary, implications and key observations to assist further debate on the topic.
These seven sections are laid out as follows:
- This is a survey of the Word of Faith movement, the key three men whose influence has shaped and propagated the teaching of JDS, and the research and critiques that have been written to date. The author offers a thorough review of the discussions and books written so far on the topic, both for and against JDS and Word of Faith theology.
- The author states his methodology and the scope and purpose of his investigation. This section is very detailed. Specifically, the author, as a Pentecostal himself, wants to know if the teaching of JDS stands up against historic Christianity.
- This is an investigation as to whether Jesus had to die spiritually, and not just physically, to save humanity from sin and sickness.
- In his supposed spiritual death, was Jesus separated from God the Father?
- Did Jesus partake of a satanic nature?
- Did Jesus became Satan’s prey?
- The author concludes with summary statements and implications of the whole system of theology that JDS assumes.
The Word of Faith movement has its roots in Pentecostalism and healing revivals, but goes beyond them with particular emphasis on the need to speak out faith in order to receive the Lord’s blessings, such as healing and wealth. The author ironically observes that while the teaching of JDS downplays the physical death of Jesus and exalts a spiritual death, the blessings of health and wealth are not spiritual but physical.
This teaching has created a distinctive view of salvation history that assumes:
- Man was created spiritual as a god-like being.
- Adam’s sin was high treason which transferred dominion over creation to Satan.
- The redemption of Christ is to win their forgiveness and to claim this authority back for humanity.
- The atonement demanded the spiritual death of Jesus, requiring that he would be spiritually separated from his Father, take on a satanic nature and became Satan’s prey for three days which he spent in hell.
- Redeemed humanity is destined to share God’s nature, a destiny into which it is possible even now, in this life, to enter by faith.
The author will go on to prove that JDS teaching emphasizes that God is more concerned about justice than the truth that God is love. There is an assumed God-Satan dualism in the teaching. It is taught that humanity was created for the lonely heart of God, and man was to be the ‘god of this world’. In JDS teaching, man is rigidly ‘pneumocentric’ and is a trichotomy of spirit, soul and body. Without this assumption, JDS teaching would fall apart. The position of JDS proponents is that, ‘I am a spirit, I have soul and I live in a body’. This is a pneumocentric trichotomy that interacts with JDS in that its promotion of the spiritual over the physical and soul leads to the contention that atonement could not have been achieved unless Jesus died spiritually.
In short, if the rigid trichotomy of the JDS teachers is not correct, then its application to Jesus needing to die spiritually is also incorrect.
These kinds of assumptions create the foundation upon which many other ideas of the Word of Faith are formulated. Are these assumptions firmly rooted in biblical revelation?
Atkinson boldly spells out how the JDS teachers insist on downplaying the physical death of Jesus, who claim that this doesn’t touch the sin problem at all. The author clearly shows evidence that the JDS teachers teach that the physical death of Jesus was insufficient for salvation and a spiritual death is pivotal.
When Jesus hung on the cross, did God break fellowship with him? Did intimacy between Father and Son stop? Did God become hostile and distance himself from his Son?
JDS teaching assumes the answer is yes to these questions, and then will go on to offer theories as to the timing of this separation (while Jesus was on the cross or after he died), and its nature (relationally or spatially in hell). Atkinson will show that the confused propagators of JDS haven’t thought through their positions nor the implications of their statements.
The particular scriptures under review for this question are Matt. 27:46 with Mk. 15:34 (Ps. 22:1), as well as 2 Cor. 5:21.
Does the cry of dereliction from the cross mean that the Father separated himself relationally from Jesus, or an indication that Jesus would not be exempt from the horrors of the crucifixion? Did Jesus assume a satanic nature?
The problem in answering this question is that nowhere do the JDS teachers explain what they mean by ‘nature’. There is a tendency to be ambiguous with no clear definitions. The scriptures under review in this section are 2 Cor. 5:21 and Jn. 3:14. Again the author skillfully reveals the history of interpretation on both sides of the issue, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of both sides.
Another aspect of the JDS teaching is what happened to Jesus between his death and resurrection. Did Satan take Jesus to hell where he inflicted upon him unimaginable torments? Was Jesus made Satan’s prey? Did Jesus need to suffer these torments after his physical death to satisfy the demands of justice?
Again, with his usual precision, the author takes the reader through a full discussion of the interpretation of key texts, such as Matt. 12:40; Acts 2:24-31; Rom. 10:7 and Eph. 4:9.
The book is intended to be read by those concerned with exegesis. It is not inspirational reading, but takes concentrated thought. It intends to give the reader a wider view of the discussions concerning spiritual death, the strengths and weaknesses of those discussions, and then moves that discussion along to where the church is today.
The author’s discussions are full, well researched and documented. This is well worth the time to absorb, especially if the reader is concerned about how to interpret certain texts of scripture. The reader, however, will find little practical help, as the book is written with theology in view. It will be to others to provide help for those who may have been shipwrecked by the erroneous assumptions pointed out in this book.
Having been involved with this discussion several decades ago myself, I fully appreciate the author’s current assessment, research, and concur with his conclusions. To this date, the teaching still is controversial, espoused by many who do not understand the implications of what they teach.
The author asks if this teaching can be labeled as heresy. Not quite going that far, he does conclude it is sub-orthodox and aberrant. While he has drawn together and interacted with the thoughts of many other authors in his research, he stays true to the text as it stands, not as he wants the texts to say. With professionalism and precision, he weighs the texts and various interpretations for what they are.
It is the author’s conclusion that the teaching of JDS is to be avoided, as it raises far more questions than it seeks to answer.
Reviewed by Eugene Smith
Publisher’s page: http://www.brill.com/spiritual-death-jesus
