Possibility and Salvation

God, Evil, and Possibility  |  Lecture 6 of 6

In the final lecture Blocher concludes by accounting for the place of possibility in God’s response to the intrusion of evil, contending that the truth about evil can only be known through God’s response of salvation. Blocher maintains that in the biblical portrait that evil is an intruder, preceding salvation. Salvation is God’s reply and repair to the damage that has been done by evil. Blocher offers three instances of the relation between salvation and possibility. The first is the real possibility of certain occurrence of God’s working out of election in the created order. Second is a treatment of how Christ created the real possibility of certain occurrence of salvation for future believers by dying on the cross. Third is the real possibility of certain non-occurrence regarding salvation for humankind apart from grace and the real possibility with certain occurrence of their salvation by grace. In concluding his Kantzer lectures, Blocher considers the final state in which there is no real possibility for evil, for the alien intruder will no longer have a place. God’s victory over evil shall be total and definitive—if we cannot answer whence and why, we have this sure hope: God will be all in all.

Biography

Henri A. G. Blocher is Professor of Systematic Theology, Faculte Libre de Theologie Evangelique, Vaux-sur-Seine, France. He is also an internationally recognized theologian, author, and teacher; he has taught in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States.