So, everybody turns on Jesus. From his ideas was developed the Moral Influence theory of the atonement, where Christs life, death, and resurrection shows humans the true nature of love and turns them back towards God. Im finally back with this episode, doing an overview of the major atonement theories, answering the question of how did Jesus accomplish atonement on the cross. How does it work? I wont attempt to change your mind to what I believe, but I hope that as you read, youll thoughtfully and prayerfully reflect on your own answers. The idea of this is that Jesus with His death paid off The Enemy. Very much opposed to the idea of death being a punishment or being a payment for sin. Theres a slight difference in the focus, even though the models are actually quite similar. Further, supporters point to many motifs found in various passages throughout the New Testament, like the power of Satan and his demonic hosts (example: Luke 13:1016) and our slavery to sin (John 8:34). Since this theory is so closely linked and integral to covenant theology, youre going to see the continuity between Old and New Testaments. The Apostle employs two main themes in discussing the significance of the atonement, the 'giving up' of Jesus for human salvation (cf. Those who hold the ransom theory, look at a couple different passages such as Matthew 20:28, which says, Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Galatians 3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Titus 2:5-6, which says, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. We see a little bit in Scripture with this ransom terminology indicating the idea of something someone being paid for. trailer << /Size 280 /Prev 297506 /Root 249 0 R /Info 247 0 R /ID [ ] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 249 0 obj <> endobj 250 0 obj <<>> endobj 251 0 obj <>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF /Text/ImageC]>>/Group<>/Annots[252 0 R 253 0 R 254 0 R 255 0 R 256 0 R 257 0 R 258 0 R 259 0 R 260 0 R]>> endobj 252 0 obj <>>> endobj 253 0 obj <>>> endobj 254 0 obj <>>> endobj 255 0 obj <>>> endobj 256 0 obj <>>> endobj 257 0 obj <>>> endobj 258 0 obj <>>> endobj 259 0 obj <>>> endobj 260 0 obj <>>> endobj 261 0 obj <> endobj 262 0 obj <>/W[1[190 302 405 405 204 204 455 476 476 476 269 840 613 573 673 709 558 532 704 322 550 853 546 612 483 705 876 406 489 405 497 420 262 438 495 238 448 231 753 500 492 490 324 345 294 487 421 639 399 431 387 1015 561]]/FontDescriptor 266 0 R>> endobj 263 0 obj <> endobj 264 0 obj <> endobj 265 0 obj <> endobj 266 0 obj <> endobj 267 0 obj <> endobj 268 0 obj <> endobj 269 0 obj <> endobj 270 0 obj <> stream Thats from one of the articles I gave you in the show notes. The Nature And Extent Of The Atonement A Wesleyan View William S. Sailer, S. T. D. At the Nashville meeting (1965) of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Roger Nicole suggested that the nature and extent of the atonement are among the issues lying on our theological frontier. Our last theory today is scapegoat theory. Were learning what things we should want from the people were around. What is happening in this atonement theory if Jesus is not being specifically punished? Forde, in Death is a punishment for sin, not the payment for salvation. Example Theory: This view sees the atonement of Christ as simply providing an example of faith and obedience to inspire man to be obedient to God. 0000010373 00000 n It was taken in by the enemy. There also tends to be a general agreement that through Christ, humankind is somehow reconciled with God. "Wesleyan View" Fred Sanders The Jewish authorities charged Him with blasphemy, the worst religious crime, and Ill have a source for that. Pelagius and his followers in the 400s CE essentially argued that Christians could be saved by their good works without divine help (his main and most vocal opponent was St. Augustine). Basically, what this one is, its just that the cross changes our ethical behavior, because Christ is an example of love to us. This refers to the teachings of James Arminius and John Wesley. In the end, I just left the first theory were going to talk about as the original one, and that is ransom theory. Like the ransom theory and the idea that Jesus paid God a ransom to free us from bondage, to free us from Satan. I believe this is from a quote from Ligonier Ministries that said, The judgment is averted versus the judgment being absorbed. When Jesus took our penalty, He absorbed all the judgment that we deserved with satisfaction theory, that judgment is redirected or its directed away from us, because Gods wrath is satisfied. He says, The word of God, powerful in all things and not defective with regards to his own justice, did righteously turn against apostasy and redeem from it his own property, not by violent means, as the apostasy had obtained dominion over us at the beginning when its insatiably snatched away what was not its own, but by means of persuasion, as it became a God of counsel, who does not use violent means obtain what he desires, so that neither should justice be infringed upon, or the ancient handiwork of God go to destruction., What hes saying here is that humanity was snatched away from God, and had an evil Dominion placed over us, and it was snatched away by persuasion, by deceit. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, atonement is, "the process by . Conservative theologians say evidence for this theory can be found in both the Old and New Testaments. But unbeknownst to the devil, Jesus was also God. It was founded upon the Scriptures. The work of Christ chiefly consists of demonstrating to the world the amazing depth of Gods love of sinful humanity There is nothing inherent in God that must be appeased before he is willing to forgive humanity. God was making the atonement. Humans should have obeyed but they didnt, and therefore, Christ is the second Adam who is making all things new. What He did could not have been to pay the penalty, since if He paid the penalty, then no one would ever go into eternal perdition. Okay, this is an important point hes making from his theological perspective. Five Views on the Extent of the Atonement. Really, what it does is, it removes the need for themes of atonement in general. Its all intertwined. Im your host, Phylicia Masonheimer, an author, speaker and Bible teacher. The idea was that Jesus never intended to be a sacrifice He was victimized by the violence of society and set an example of love through His death. So many of these theological issues require taking the historical context into consideration as we interpret them, as we read the scholars, as we discern through what they were teaching. 0000057021 00000 n Its not held at the same level as Scripture itself. Im your host, Phylicia Masonheimer, an author, speaker and Bible teacher. The contributors include Andrew Louth (Eastern Orthodox View), Matthew Levering (Roman Catholic View), Michael Horton (Traditional Reformed View), Fred Sanders (Wesleyan View), and Tom Greggs (Christian Universalist View). The scapegoat theory, what its saying is that mans sinful way of solving conflict is to scapegoat. Not necessarily. In spite of the fact that Christian theology has found legitimate expression of the biblical emphasis on the atonement through a variety of theories, the Western Catholic and Protestant churches have tended to favor some form of a forensic penal view of the work of Christ. Stop Calling Me Beautiful is a book about going deeper with God. You see it between the zealots, the Jewish leaders in Rome. Brown Church - Latina/o History and Theology, "Michael,Thanks for this post. The third theory is satisfaction theory. With ransom theory, being the first or earliest view, it doesnt necessarily mean that its the only view to be held or the best view, it just means that this was the understanding very early on. If youre tired of hearing the watered-down Christian teaching and youre hungry for a deeper spiritual life, I have something for you. But God basically tricked him with Christ. Instead, hes saying, Christ suffered for everyone so the father could forgive the ones who repent and believe. That dualism is what concerns most critics of the ransom theory. It is an attempt to help us understand how we now can be at peace with God despite sin. But in the show notes on the blog, you will have access to a series of articles that I have sourced for you on each atonement theory. It could be a fun new theological game for you. This view of atonement lies in sharp contrast to other views by its emphasis on the cosmic significance of Christ over the significance of personal salvation. If that sounds familiar, thats no surprise because that is exactly what most churches teach today. Yes, Christ died. He was very well acquainted with the feudal system, in which you had slaves who worked on an estate for an overlord, and so that overlord usually at night protected the estate, but the knight also had to honor the king. They did not believe God was choosing who would be saved. There are quite a few church fathers who are said to hold to this Clement, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Athanasius, and Ambrose are all said to hold to this theory. Now, before you get wiggly inside, lets follow this out. Although typically an in-house Protestant dispute, the discussion is noticeable enlarged to include wider perspectives and approaches.