Category Archives: Macleod, Donald

The Crucified God

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[Based on an article by Donald MacLeod in The Monthly Record, March, 1982]

This title, and the contents, of a book by Jurgen Moltmann are worth pondering, even though ‘Moltmann could not satisfy Karl Barth as to his orthodoxy and can hardly expect, in the circumstances, to be endorsed by The Monthly Record (assuming he reads it).’

The sufferings the crucified God experienced were:

1. Physical

His body, like ours, was limited in its powers of endurance and highly sensitive to pain.…

Abortion: a quest for principles

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Summarising an article by Donald MacLeod in The Monthly Record; March, 1979

11,000 terminations in Britain per month.  [N.B. this figure has increased, as of 2024, to around 16,500]

‘Many Christians have never looked at the problem in the light of moral and theo­logical considerations and provably accept prevailing attitudes without thinking.’

A woman’s right to control her fertility

‘The slogan of those who advocate a liberal attitude to abortion is that women have the right to control their own fertility.…

1 Corinthians 15:28 – ‘The Son himself will be subjected to [God]’

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1 Corinthians 15:28 ‘When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.’

Donald MacLeod refers to the ‘formidable difficulty’ contained in these words.

‘They seem,’ he writes, ‘to teach blatant subordinationism: the Son himself will be subject to the Father.  Does this not place him very clearly on the side of creation rather than on the side of the Creator?’…

The case against euthanasia

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A summary of The Case Against Euthanasia, by Donald Mcleod (From The Monthly Record, Feb, 1981)

Current publicity probably gives an exaggerated impression of the pro-euthanasia lobby. But the subject cannot be dismissed ‘lightly: ‘respect for human life derives ultimately from the fear of God and that is becoming an increasingly rare commodity.’

Danger highlighted in the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill of Lord Raglan in 1969. The provisions of this were,

  • The patient signed in advance a form requesting “the painless inducement of death” in the event of him contracting an incurable illness.
…

I can – in Christ

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We hear much these days about self-image, self-esteem and self-confidence.  Much of this talk promotes idolatry of the self: ‘believe in yourself’, proclaim the self-help gurus.

As Christians, we have a vastly richer, stronger, and enduring basis for our confidence, although it is one that goes largely unnoticed and untapped.

Our confidence is in Christ, and it is based on our union with him.

Gospel proclamation itself requires confidence: confidence that we have something to say and confidence to say it. …

Christ had a human mind

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Apollinarianism

Whereas the Christian doctrine of the incarnation first came under threat from docetism, which denied that Christ had a real human body, Apollinarianism soon followed, with its denial that that he had a real human psychology.

Apollinaris was, by all accounts, a deeply spiritual man whose theology was in many respects perfectly orthodox.  But he was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constantinople in 381.  He taught that although Christ took on a human body, he did not take on a human mind.  …

Christ had a human body

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The term ‘docetism’ (from the Greek dokeo, meaning ‘to seem’) covers a range of speculations concerning the person of Christ.  The common feature of the Docetists was an insistence that God could not become man.

At the time of the early church, its main representatives were Cerinthus, Ebion, Marcion and Valentinus.  Their teachings were examined and rebutted by men such as Irenaeus (Against Heresies) and Tertullian (On the Flesh of Christ; Against Marcion).…

Matthew 27:46/Mark 15:34 – ‘Why have you forsaken me?’

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Mark 15:34 ‘At the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” – which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”‘

Six hours after he was nailed to his cross, the dying Jesus shouted out these awesome words.

The cry is also recorded in Matthew 27:46.  Mark’s quotation from Psa 22:1 is in Aramaic; Matthew’s mainly in Hebrew.

The difficulty of this saying

According to Hard Sayings of the Bible,

‘this is the hardest of all the hard sayings.

…

Adam and the Fall

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Donald MacLeod writes:-

Do not forget that God pronounced man, the apex of his creation ‘very good’ too. Modern theories of sin, in so far as they deal with the origin of sin at all, assume that man must have been sinful from the very beginning. It is, according to such theories, ‘only natural’ to sin. Sin is inevitable; a central and unavoidable part of our nature. But Scripture does not teach this at all.

The Bible’s story of the Fall is, apart from all else, a relief from the problems inherent in such a doctrine.…

Sacrament and mystery

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The word ‘sacrament’, explains Donald Macleod,  comes from the Latin sacramentum, which referred to the oath taken by a Roman Soldier.  It has therefore been suggested that the Lord’s Supper is the taking of an oath to Christ and an entering into an obligation of loyalty to him.  There is, no doubt, truth in this.  But the word sacramentum is not a biblical word, and cannot therefore the recruited for theological purposes for a meaning that is not sanctioned by Scripture itself.…