George H. Warnock — Soteriology
b5 — From Tent to Temple
Redemption as Eternal Purpose, Not Afterthought
Warnock argues explicitly that redemption was not a recovery plan made necessary by the Fall, but an integral part of God’s eternal purpose from before creation:
“It is important for us to realize that redemption is a vital part of the ‘eternal purpose,’ and not just a remedy, not just a state of recovery, not just an afterthought in the heart and mind of God.”
(Warnock, From Tent to Temple, tent7.html)
“Christ is portrayed as ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Rev. 13:8), and not merely as a provision of God that came about as a necessary consequence of the Fall.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
Interpretation: Warnock connects Rev. 13:8 directly to the claim that redemption belonged to God’s eternal counsel — the Lamb is not a contingency measure but a revelation of God’s eternal character.
Redemption as the Revelation of God’s Own Nature
Warnock argues that redemption discloses God’s being in a way the original creation could not accomplish:
“In redemption there is the unveiling and the shining forth of the very fullness of God’s nature, the full expression of His Being. This is something God required, by virtue of WHO HE IS. And it is something that was never really accomplished in the original creation of Man.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
“God is Light. How shall Light remain forever secluded in thick darkness? God is Life. How can Life be confined within the boundaries of an old creation? God is Love. How can Love be forever stifled for the lack of objects toward whom He can express the fullness of Love? Therefore it is only in redeemed Man that we find the full unveiling of God’s Glory.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
Interpretation: Warnock grounds the necessity of redemption not primarily in the Fall but in God’s own being: God as Light, Life, and Love requires a people in whom He Himself is fully disclosed.
New Birth: Begotten from God’s Heart and Nature
Warnock describes new birth not as creation but as begetting:
“He begets His sons… they proceed from Himself. They are not created in the same way as other beings, by wisdom and power alone. God must have a people like Himself if He is to find a true resting place, a true place of delight. Therefore His sons are begotten… they proceed from his own heart and nature.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
“And therefore, though He is the sovereign God, He cannot through sovereign omnipotence do anything that would be counter to His own nature of love, patience, humility, and long-suffering.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
Interpretation: The begetting of God’s sons — not creation ex nihilo — is the soteriological foundation for communion: God can only find rest in a people who are intrinsically like Him.
Justification: Judicial and in the Spirit
Warnock treats two dimensions of justification:
Judicial justification (Rom. 3:26):
“God was declared to be ‘just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus’ (Rom. 3:26). The Cross fully justified God as far as His holy and righteous character was concerned: in His dealings with sin, and in His forgiveness and justification for the sinner who believes in Christ.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
Justification in the Spirit (1 Tim. 3:16):
“When Jesus was here on earth He so beautifully manifested the character of God through the ministration of the Spirit in His life, that God was ‘justified in the Spirit.’ […] But has God been as truly ‘Justified in the Spirit’ after the ascension of Christ, as He was when Jesus was here?”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
“Only as God is ‘Justified in the Spirit,’ can that glorious victory of the Cross be revealed and manifested in the earth. For centuries preceding the Cross, God’s great and holy Name had been blasphemed among the Gentiles because of God’s people.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
Interpretation: Warnock distinguishes a completed judicial justification (the Cross) and an ongoing justification in the Spirit (the Church as Temple). Both are necessary for the full disclosure of God’s redemption.
Sanctification: The Holy of Holies as the Realm of Indwelling
Warnock describes sanctification using the temple metaphor of the Holy of Holies:
“We are really talking about the realm of God’s Temple known as the Holy of Holies. God is drawing a people into this realm where they will learn to abide in total union with Christ.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
“It is only by the ministration of the Holy Spirit that the work of the Cross is performed in our hearts and lives. And the Holy Spirit has been given a commission to bring this about in the ‘Church, which is His Body,’ to lead His people into all truth.”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
“We are not automatically in there just because the veil which is His flesh was torn asunder: for Paul exhorts us to ‘enter into the holiest’ and to ‘draw near with a true heart’… because the way has been opened up by the blood of Jesus and the rending of the veil.” (cf. Heb. 10:19-22)
(Warnock, tent7.html)
The Fullness of the Body: Filled with All the Fulness of God
Warnock connects sanctification to the destiny of the Body of Christ as filled with the divine fullness (Eph. 1:23; 3:19):
“We do not have any problem believing that the ‘fullness’ (Gr. Pleroma) of the Godhead dwelt in Christ, fully revealing the character and nature of God. But so many have a problem with the statement that the Church is ‘his body, the fulness [Gr. Pleroma] of him that filleth all in all’ (Eph. 1:23).”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
“Now this is not just a positional sort of arrangement, something beyond our attainment, and reserved for Heaven; for the apostle goes on to pray for the people of God that in union ‘with all saints’ they might come to that glorious realm of immeasurable love, and immeasurable grace, even into that realm where they are ‘FILLED with all the fulness [Gr. Pleroma] of God’ (Eph. 3:19). Is God able to do this? Let us read on. For Paul says He can do ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.‘”
(Warnock, tent7.html)
Restoration of the Imago Dei through Redemption
Warnock describes the restorative work of redemption upon the image of God in humanity:
“Unlike an animal we have a spirit fashioned after God’s image, which is capable of God-consciousness and divine fellowship. And though this image was defaced by the Fall, it has been restored in Redemption; and we may grow into it as we choose the pathway of obedience unto the will of God.”
(Warnock, From Tent to Temple, tent-intro.html)
God’s Rest and the Goal of Redemption
Warnock describes the ultimate goal of redemption as God’s rest in the hearts of His redeemed:
“The only temple God ever desired is now in the making, a holy Temple of the redeemed ones of the earth, a ‘habitation of God in the Spirit.’ And when God finds His home in the hearts of His redeemed, He is totally at rest.”
(Warnock, From Tent to Temple, tent-preface.html)
Interpretation: Redemption’s ultimate goal is not merely forgiveness of sins but the establishment of God’s eternal resting-place in redeemed humanity — a convergence of redemption history and indwelling theology.