I have often annoyed people by saying both that I believe in substitutionary atonement, though I prefer not to use “penal substitutionary atonement,” and also do not believe it is the sole reason for, view of, or metaphor to describe what God did in the atonement. So it’s nice to link to Roger Olson, who…
My company, Energion Publications, recently released a book What’s God Really Like?. It’s endorsed by Brian Zahnd; In What’s God Really Like?, S. J. Hill invites us to become fascinated by God and, in that fascination, to move beyond the fear-based themes that have so often distorted our image of God. With a focus on Jesus and Scripture,…
One of the problems with understanding biblical talk about salvation is that we do not live with a sacrificial system. For many Christians, the whole idea of sacrifices is that someone sinned and a bloody sacrifice was required for atonement. Christians believe that because of one bloody sacrifice, that of Jesus on the cross, no…
I’m preparing to teach tomorrow, and the main text is Hebrews 4:14-5:10. The quarterly is kind enough to stop just before the author tells his readers/hearers that the topic is difficult and they’re not very bright! Nonetheless, the idea of priesthood brings up the idea of “sacrifice” and “sacrifices,” and these are two concepts that…
I think The Truth Is … Out There on the Wesley Bros. Blog did a good job of expressing this. To my liberal brothers and sisters: Yes, I do believe in penal substitution. To my conservative brothers and sisters: No, I don’t believe in it as the one and only way to believe in or…
Adrian says it wouldn’t be Easter “without a row about the atonement” and he has promptly located one in a Guardian article by Giles Fraser, in which Fraser says: Thinking about the celebration of Holy Week in my new adopted cathedral brings home to me quite how important it is for Christians to insist upon…
So far as I know, no, they’re not related. Adrian is concerned with the suggestion that anything in the Bible might be culturally conditioned. Wake up and smell the coffee, Adrian! Practically all of Hebrew scriptures is about leading people from here to there. The narrative is built around the exodus, about physically moving from…
In a recent comment on my video Why I Hate the KJV, I received a comment that began thus: “You were saved by the KJV. . . .” A young man visited my home and discussed with me for more than an hour. At the end, he said he was concerned for my salvation because…
OK, I’m going to try for three short notes at a time. In this case I’m helped by Dave Warnock, who already wrote on the topic. It seems that Adrian Warnock doesn’t like people to be “cool-headed” about the atonement. He says: To be honest, when I heard this book was going to be cool-headed…
Thom Rainer posted an article on Lifeway’s Web Site claiming that pastors who did not preach penal substitutionary atonement (he didn’t use the term, he described the doctrine in very strong terms) are guilty of pastoral malpractice. He used the word “treasonous.” Will, a United Methodist pastor and blogger pleads guilty in that case. I…
