The Barthian Doctrine of Salvation Part 2 -- By: James F. Rand

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 110:439 (Jul 1953)
Article: The Barthian Doctrine of Salvation Part 2
Author: James F. Rand


The Barthian Doctrine of Salvation
Part 2

James F. Rand

(Concluded from the April-June Number, 1953)

{Editor’s note: Footnotes in the original printed edition were numbered 27–44, but in this electronic edition are numbered 1–18 respectively.}

Karl Barth’s insistence on man’s total inability to save himself gives his doctrine of salvation, as far as it has been investigated in this study, a distinctly Calvinistic emphasis. It is refreshing to find him setting forth that man can be saved only by faith, by believing the revelation which God has given of His saving work on the behalf of man. Were our investigation to stop here, a stamp of approval could be placed on the soteriology of Barth. But the Calvinistic emphasis which is found in his presentation of man the sinner and God the savior is missing when one analyzes what he teaches on the faith that saves. This will now be investigated.

The Faith That Saves

Two questions will be answered in this section concerning Barth’s conception of faith. The first is a basic problem, how does he define faith. The second deals with the permanence of that faith, and more especially with the problem of eternal security.

Barths definition of faith. It is important to see exactly what the Swiss theologian means by faith because, as will be seen in the latter portion of this section, what Barth means by faith is the crucial factor in determining the validity of his doctrine of salvation.

In an earlier work, one time, Barth defined faith in these words: “Faith means seeking not noise but quiet, and letting God speak within—the righteous God, for there is no other. And then God works in us.”1 It is obvious that this definition is not quite adequate. In one of his later works he describes Christian faith as “the gift of the meeting” between God and man.2 Berkhof emphasizes that, to the Theology of

Crisis, saving faith is “strictly speaking an act of God rather than of man.”3 It is obvious that fragments of truth are to be found in all of these definitions, but yet none of them completely approximates the Scriptural definition. Perhaps the most successful attempt of Barth to define faith is found in his Dogmatics in Outline where he defines faith as trust. “…Faith is concerned with our holding to God exclusively, because God is the One Who is faithful.”4 He further states that faith consists in holding “entirely

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