God's love is personal and focused. Jennings' theory of God's love as a "natural law" would seem to make it an impersonal force, like gravity to which he compared it. God's love is not an impersonal force. His 10 Commandment law is an expression of His Character and His love and it is the covenant between God and every individual who is willing to enter into the covenant with Him. The covenant was guaranteed by God's gift of His son to die in place of each of us, for our sins.
Apparantly, it is a common complaint about Maxwell's teachings that people don't really understand what he is saying. To me, that is a red flag. They seem to be saying that Jesus didn't really have to die and that God does not destroy sinners. Out the window goes over 2000 years of Christian theology. Am I exaggerating? I probably don't understand their teaching. It is sometimes said that the gospel can be understood by an 8 year old. If that is true, it certainly rules out Maxwell and Jennings' teachings.
Spectrum Magazine published an excellent article by Desmond Ford on the problems of the Maxwellian teaching. He wrote a commentary on the Sabbath School lesson for November -December 2008, and he praised the SS lesson quarterly for taking a strong stand on the atonement:http://www.spectrummagazine.org/node/1251I know the author is controversial but his commentary is not controversial on this topic.Stan
Even apostates are right occasionally. Even Satan can quote Scripture. We know Ford's theology, so I don't feel the need to wade through his material to search for an occasional gem of truth when there are so many other good sources of truth, sources which are not suspect from the outset.Anything from Spectrum is suspect. They claim to be SDA, but they are not friendly to manly of our core doctrines. In some ways they are more dangerous than Proclamation. At least we know what to expect from Ratzlaff, et. al.; they exist for the sole purpose of attacking us.We really have wandered off topic, haven't we?
Raven,My intent was not to wander off topic. If you read the article in question, it is right on topic. When time is spent attacking messengers, then we go off topic. L I found the article while doing a google search for the Ministry magazine article above and thought it contained important points to understanding the atonement. Sorry for any offense.Stan