The Atonement and God's Part in it

There have been some good posts over at Pyromaniacs:

The first was on the topic of: Who Killed Jesus? This is a question to which the answer is often overlooked, avoided or denied. The reason that it needs to be dealt with is that it directly relates to the cross and Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA). In today’s kinder and gentler outlook on things and with the bent of many to shy away from even the topic of sin it is no wonder that PSA is denied.

This was followed by one entitled: Cosmic Child Abuse? I too have heard this term used. It would appear that to follow the reasoning of PSA and God’s sacrificing of His Son is to aggravate the sensibilities of today’s modern man. It was Mr. Spong (I find it hard to use the term Bishop with one who so openly denies scripture) who said that:

The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed. (A Call for a New Reformation)

So the whole concept of Penal Substitution is under attack and often not for exegetical reasons but for some feeling or sensibility that is felt to have been harmed.

The last article was called: God, Evil and the Cross. This article deals with God’s part in the whole process of the cross and evil. With the move of some to either openly accept of at the least not deny Open Theism the “problem of Evil” is dealt with by denying an attribute of God. Now I realize that Open Theists, and those that hold to it in some fashion, would not deny an attribute of God but they instead attempt to redefine His character to fit their theology.

Read and Enjoy.