0000007203 00000 n And further, if we are freed from evil and sin, why then do we keep sinning? 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. But unbeknownst to the devil, Jesus was also God. in the Methodist Church the truth is that within modern Methodism there is a vast schism between the biblically high view of atonement of the Methodist's founding fathers and unenlightened, ignorant theologians who reduce Christ's atonement to simply an . [15] A few months ago a post circulated Instagram in which Jesus was described as a victim of the cross. 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. In fact, most theologians who vocally support one theory will readily admit the other theories hold some validity. Despite what youve heard, theres actually been a ton of debate. There is biblical basis for seeing the crosses of victory over Satan. The people who established this theory, specifically Ren Girard, a French scholar, were looking for a theory that could explain the love of Christ and His violent death. To me, this is the most important question in Christianity: How did humankind reconcile with God through Christ? Its particularly distasteful to those who hold strictly to the penal substitutionary atonement view, because it skates around an individual atonement, and because PST is very popular right now, government theory is definitely in disfavor. Youre actually going to notice that some of these sound very, very similar, theyre only slightly different, and some of these can be held simultaneously where you hold to one theory primarily, but you also think that another theory is fairly valid, or maybe its another view that can be held in conjunction with the first one, and then, youve got those that really start to push the boundaries of orthodoxy, and start to walk away from whats been historically taught by the church. This one was mostly developed by Calvin and the reformers. It could be a fun new theological game for you. 0000007376 00000 n And just as every theologian has a Bible passage in support of their ideas, so to do the exemplarists (another name for this theory is moral example), notably 1 Peter 2:22, For this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps, as well as various passages in John (see John 13:1316 and John 15:917). Popular theology, in the wake of the two most destructive and deadly conflicts in all of human history, once again began emphasizing a just God over a God of love. And that goes for all of these issues that we see in theology, so many of them like end times theology, if youve listened to that episode. It was necessary, therefore, to have an atonement that would provide grounds for forgiveness, and simultaneously retain the structure of moral government.. It is an attempt to help us understand how we now can be at peace with God despite sin. Its not Gods original intent. Man is totally depraved. Were going to be looking at six. This passage of Scripture proves that physical healing for the believer is a part of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Ultimately the atonement for Horton is a matter for the triune God's purposes to save the elect. Forgiveness of their sins, if too freely given, would have resulted in undermining the laws authority and effectiveness. In a large way, Auln reinterpreted our first theory of atonement, the ransom theory. Why would He be in debt to Satan? We do want to keep in mind that the vicarious atonement theory that Jesus is standing in for us that hes taking a penalty we deserved can possibly be held alongside other theories. But maybe that group actually wasnt wrong in the first place. 0000007030 00000 n Only a being that was both God and man could satisfy Gods honor and give Him the honor that was due, because the satisfaction had to pay for humanity, the person paying that satisfaction had to be human. Go back and listen to the discerning core doctrine episode if you want more on that, but its a question of how does the atonement work, not is the atonement true, which would be a core doctrine. I believe it was around the 1200s, when he started to develop this idea. He wrote extensively about God reclaiming humanity as His taking them from the enemys jurisdiction. The atonement of God in Jesus Christ reveals the relational character of God and the depth of his love for the world. Someone who might even be an innocent bystander. The idea that Jesuss death was a ransom to the devil might seem crazy to us, but its not so crazy if you look at the culture that produced it. That sounds really interesting. This theory is usually not in an orthodox context. 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. Theres a slight difference in the focus, even though the models are actually quite similar. xZKo7ra~ z l$c7[b,h= "Hn6b=]R$K Again, they would not have been using the exact terminology, and the terminology of Jesus paying the penalty for sin is just as prevalent as terminology for ransom and for satisfaction. 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. In this theory, it is Gods honor that is offended by our sin. You can grab your copy on Amazon, or for more information, head to my website. But he also became human, lived, healed, taught, modeled, and was raised from the dead. 0000006246 00000 n One modern theologian describes Anselms God as a status-paranoid power-monger who deliberately humiliates and infantilizes human beings under the guise of justice. Further, a thinker and theologian who lived around the time of Anselm, the French philosopher and ethicist Peter Abelard, wrote this: Indeed how cruel and wicked it seems that anyone should demand the blood of an innocent person as the price for anything, or that it should in any way please him that an innocent man should be slain still less that God should consider the death of his Son so agreeable that by it he should be reconciled to the whole world? Atonement is what God is doing through Christ, in which, this is according to him, the powers of sin, death, and the devil are overcome, and the world is reconciled to God. The system of order was based on personal (or at least semi-personal) relationships, rather than a strict code of laws. Also, all translations are from the New Revised Standard version of the Bible. Theyre theories about the atonement. In his Galatians commentary of 1535, he evidences his departure Anselms satisfaction theory. 0000011872 00000 n Anselm, when he was creating this theory that the crux of it is that Christ obeyed where humans should have obeyed. Its my brand-new book, Stop Calling Me Beautiful: Finding Soul-Deep Strength in a Skin-Deep World. If penal substitution were the only answer to our question, I probably would have abandoned Christ a long time ago, as I assume many have. McGONIGLE: Arminius and Wesley 97 way-house between the two systems, but on questions of free will and human sinfulness, leaning much more to Calvin than to Pelagius. 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 Governmental Theory of the Atonement cannot be called the "Arminian" view if Arminius himself did not hold to it. Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss, . Ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. He had this God man, Jesus, and the humanity of Christ was the bait that tricked Satan into accepting Christ as a ransom. As I reflect on all the possible theories of atonement (and I again admit there are more not covered here), I am in awe of the power of the cross and the atoning work of Christ. To avoid that, well, also honoring the atonement, you have government theory. You later learn he did this because he loved you. Ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. 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. He developed this view of the atonement that kept this big picture, Christs victory over evil as the central motif. Thus, the cross speaks to us, but its power is enough to pull us in and atonethere is no transaction required of by God. Satan didnt want to give up the children of God. 0000057539 00000 n Every woman should be a student of the heart of God. 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). This refers to the teachings of James Arminius and John Wesley. Many of our newest Wesleyans are recent immigrants. This analogy is still perpetuated to today, where God is basically saying to Satan, Oh, look, you can kill Jesus, you can actually get rid of Him by crucifying Him. If this idea of Christ being a substitute sounds somewhat familiar to you, thats because youre about to see how it evolves. 0000002735 00000 n From my notes and my research, what some of the scholars I was reading said is that Anselm believed that humans could not render God more than what was due Him. Satan had control over humanity since the fall of man, and only the soul of perfectly innocent Jesus would be an acceptable payment for the return of humanity to the Father. Because ransom theory does operate a lot within this legal framework, it could be that the idea is that God has set up a rule of law essentially, just order, where because of what Satan did, He is bound to abide by that law, and therefore, He uses a ransom to buyback humanity, and He tricks Satan into doing it. Its demonstrating Gods justice, its communicating Gods hatred for sin, its motivating holiness and it satisfies the demands of justice. The history of the various theories of the atonement is made up of differing views on the biblical themes of ransom, redemption, propitiation, substitution, and Christ as moral example. As a general rule, scapegoat theory does not fall within orthodoxy. There are six or seven atonement theories. We see Colossians 2, Hebrews 2. and Revelations 12, but do you have to hold to ransom theory? Progressive Christian, journalist and entrepreneur , the name for Bozo the Clown has originated. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. The next theory is government theory. If in feudal society, someone offended another person, they were required to make satisfaction to the one they offended. Here are mentioned some positions on specific issues within Wesleyan Arminianism: Nature of the atonement. "The Scope of the Atonement in the Early Church," Wesleyan Theological Journal 47.2 (2012), 26. Atonement is what God is doing through Christ, in which, this is according to him, the powers of sin, death, and the devil are overcome, and the world is reconciled to God. The scapegoat whos found, in the case of the gospels, is someone whos hated equally by the Roman authorities and by the Jewish leaders. Five Views on the Extent of the Atonement. They could never pay back the king. The debt is total, the obligation to pay it, total, the power to pay it, zero. The answer then is found in the sacrifice of Christ: fully human, he can atone for man, fully God, he can restore Gods honor. The last theory is moral influence theory. Not necessarily. Christus Victor really takes this big picture view of what the atonement was to accomplish. What is it? The king had to send someone in the form of a slave to pay back himself, the king. Im so excited to put this book in your hands. This idea of Christ as a conqueror, as the overcoming King would connect well to the imagery that we see, such as in 2 Corinthians 2, where the apostles writing about the victory that we experience in daily life in the Lord using the imagery of a Roman emperor leading conquered leaders of hostile forces. Even though Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the only one of the five organizers to live in Seneca Falls, the Wesleyan Chapel was well known to them all.The church was a local haven for antislavery activity, political . This is different from pluralistic salvation where the cross is not needed since the particular Christian universalist sees in the cross the universal reconciliation of everything and everyone in creation. In the end, I just left the first theory were going to talk about as the original one, and that is ransom theory. Each contributor proffers their view at length which is then critiqued by the other respective contributors. Theres also this idea that the devil has this right or authority that God could not transcend, that God almost didnt have power over Satan. It almost cant even be called an atonement theory, because it actually doesnt really like the idea of atonement at all. This whole theory revolves around the idea that sacrifice is a negative thing. Most of the people who hold to scapegoat theory are theologically progressive to the point that what theyre teaching does not align with church history or with Scripture. ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange | Asbury . But in John 15, He does say this is an illustration of love. The scapegoat theory, what its saying is that mans sinful way of solving conflict is to scapegoat. The earth and heaven are locked in a cosmic struggle between good (God) and evil (Satan). Were learning what things we should want from the people were around. It was combating a view of the atonement that arose in the 1500s. So, the focus of penal substitution really is on that punishment. For the Wesleyan view, Fred Sanders majors on atonement accomplished universally and objectively by the Son, but applied particularly and subjectively by the Spirit to those who respond to the gospel. Arminius' position as revisionist Calvinism could hardly be more clearly seen than in his understanding of original sin and human sinfulness. Mark Heim says, The cross decisively demonstrates Gods opposition to this way of solving human division. In the New, like much of the foundational Lutheran ideas of the Reformation, support for penal substitution can be found in Pauls words in Romans. 0000002987 00000 n It was founded upon the Scriptures. It seems like Gregory of Nyssa was holding to this idea of a ransom theory. I wanted to read a couple quotes. 0000004552 00000 n How do we understand the love of God when we look at the Old Testament, when we look at the cross and how bloody and violent it was? Ask all of the worlds two billion or so professing Christians and theyll most likely agree with that. Theres a dominion or capturing, and then theres a buying back imagery used in the Bible. Then, God could forgive men on other grounds. 0000005206 00000 n I think all of us have been at a womens conference where we were told you are a beautiful daughter of the Most High King, and its true, but its not the whole truth. Abelard developed quite a different view of the atonement, and its to his own theory we now turn. So, lets start with looking at atonement theories as a whole. 0000003769 00000 n He paid off The Enemy. We need to do something about this, and so he developed this atonement theory, this government theory saying, No, God is just, Hes Trinity, Hes whole, He is righteous, and you cant have a just God in a world where sin is not judged. So, while Jesus was not dying specifically for individuals, He was dying corporately to represent Gods just government of the world in His judgment on sin as a whole. At its core, atonement is an attempt to help us understand how Jesus' execution relates to our salvation. He didnt want to give up humanity. His death is such that all will see forgiveness is costly and will strive to cease from anarchy in a world God governs. What His death was doing is showing that sin deserves to be punished by the just governor of the universe, the King of the universe. Why were we separated from God in the first place? This theory, I would say, is one that often gets picked apart, today. Imagine siting safely on a pier, in a deck chair, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a man flings himself into the ocean and drowns. I also believe that Amy Gannett has a video on atonement theories saved on her IGTV if youre interested in following her. 0000004295 00000 n This idea has a lot to do with Gods honor and giving Him the honor that is due Him. And that offense cannot go unanswered, Gods honor must be restored. With a question like this, there are multiple answers that can be held within orthodoxy. This one should come first, because when we discussed that one, then well be able to talk about all of the other ones because they all connect to each other. Its not held at the same level as Scripture itself. Christ was sent to battle with and triumph over the elements of darkness in his kingdom. How did Christ defeat Satan through the Cross? Wesleyan: Fred Sanders Barthian Universalism: Tom Greggs This book serves not only as a single-volume resource for engaging the views on the extent of the atonement but also as a catalyst for understanding and advancing a balanced approach to this core Christian doctrine. On July 19 and 20, 1848, the First Women's Rights Convention was held here. The word penal means penalty, and so thats the focus of this theory. ~z-$7y+t~y?vdVn.ZzZr4*\!tiN It is a genuinely illuminating book. Some people have attributed ransom theory to Irenaeus, but they also attribute Christus Victor to him. 0000003504 00000 n Although this theory was firmly codified in all Protestant confessions of faith by the end of the Reformation, its further development was in large part a reaction to the Enlightenment. This is Verity, where every woman is a theologian. God is both the subject, the reconciler, and also the object, the reconciled. The satisfaction that was due to God for their sin was greater than anything created beings could give back to him. When you hear the words, sin, death, and the devil together, that's usually an indicator of the Christus Victor theory. Its demonstrating Gods justice, its communicating Gods hatred for sin, its motivating holiness and it satisfies the demands of justice. Anybody can be saved regardless of what they do. A scapegoat is only necessary if the community is struggling intention, having conflict. 0000001931 00000 n 0000003243 00000 n Michael Horton provides an exemplary layout of a classical Dortian position on deliberate redemption noting that it is really a recovery of divine grace against any account of a synergistic scheme of salvation. Its one of the few distinctly English words in theology that doesnt derive from Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. Also, I think there are elements of the theory that are absolutely true. The beauty of being Gods daughter has some backstory, and its left out in a lot of messages preached to women. And then, Jesus conquers Satan through the resurrection and ransoms humanity back to the Lord.. The strongest biblical support for this theory, known as the Ransom Theory of atonement, comes from the words of Jesus himself: Just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many Matthew 20:28 (see also Mark 10:45 and 1 Timothy 2:56). should be a theologian. The resurrection proved that Jesus was Gods way, that God would not allow violence to be what won the day. Like most of the theological topics we discuss here at Every Woman a Theologian, we have to stop and critically think about the views weve always held! This podcast will help you embrace the history and depth of the Christian faith. 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. Ive realized thats a high-level view, speeding through these atonement theories. This one was founded by Peter Abelard in reaction to Anselm. Furthermore, the Wesleyan views of atonement have sought to maintain a view of Christ's righteousness as imparted in some way to the believer, in contrast to the imputational and substitutionary Anselmian, Reformed, and Lutheran "alien righteousness" nuances.15 These imputational interpretations have been useful in a The idea that Jesus took our transgression, He endured our penalty, so that we could be free, that we no longer owe a debt to the Lord. There are aspects of the Wesleyan view that he clarifies so common misunderstandings no longer remain misunderstanding. The Romans charge Him with sedition. One thing again to notice is the cultural context of Anselm. You see this tension in the gospels between the Jews and Rome, between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. How do we understand it? One of the people who really pushed this theory to the forefront was the Swedish theologian, Auln. Why would God have to pay Satan anything? 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.