The Atonement In Historical Review (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Atonement in Evangelical Thought: Part I
The New-Look in Neo-Evangelicalism Enemies of the Word of God tend to develop their theories along lines of general fashion. One generation chooses to challenge the Sonship of Christ whereas another generation fixes its doubting gaze on the work of the Spirit. In one age it is fashionable to be socialminded, another age chooses to be ascetic and turn its back on the world with all its responsibilities. Modern critics have become more sophisticated and analytical and, professing to be within the church rather than without, they are focusing their gaze on the very centre of our faith and salvation. This is the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, otherwise known as the Atonement. Traditionally it has been different views of church order and the sacraments or ordinances which have separated true evangelicals from one another: a fact that has not prevented them experiencing real fellowship in the Lord. Today rifts between the brethren are growing deeper as modern highly influential Neo-evangelicals maintain that he alone preaches the atoning blood of Christ who teaches it as a mere provision of God which gains its efficacy through reception. In other words, God's provision in the atonement does not secure salvation but the approbation of it by the human agent. Now the tragic situation has arisen where those who were once rightly considered heretics in the churches are usurping the mantel of orthodoxy and proclaiming that holders of traditional views of the Atonement are Hyper-Calvinists and Antinomians and thus criminals in God's eyes and unworthy of being given the right hand of fellowship. It is thus of the utmost importance that we consider this fundamental doctrine of our faith, the Atonement, in order to see if our feet really stand on the Rock of Ages who is faith's only foundation.
The Nature and Scope of the Atonement
The Atonement in Modern Evangelical Thought
The evangelical, Reformed student of church history and church heresy is confronted with many mixed-up views of the Atonement on dealing with the Liberal scene where Arian and Socinian views often dominate their studies. The surprise usually comes when they find that many of the rationalistic views of the Atonement nowadays come from evangelical, Reformed quarters and now are promoted as 'Calvinism'. However, the Calvinist section has always insisted, until the days of Fuller at least, on a particular atonement, on the invincible work of the Spirit in turning man from damnation to salvation and on the fact that Christ's atonement was not in vain and those whom He aimed to save are saved. The faulty theory of the Atonement which underlined the entire reasoning of Wesley, but to a greater extent Fuller, Gay and Murray emerged in the Dark Ages of Rome when Biblical doctrine, in God's Providence, lost control of the churches and Scholastic scepticism and speculation took hold of the imagination of church leaders who were unspiritual men.
The Atonement in Evangelical and Liberal Thought: Part II
In Part I of this series, it was shown how the fundamental act of the Atonement secures for the elect a total blotting out of their sins and a total covering with Christ`s righteousness which is secured for them in Christ who was chosen from eternity to unite them with Himself through His ransoming, vicarious suffering, obedience, death and resurrection. This is the faith once delivered to the saints according to the wisdom of God, which is proclaimed foolishness by the wise in their own esteem. The history of mankind is full of such worldly-wise figures.
The Atonement in Evangelical Thought: Part IV
Fuller's Moral Government theory of the atonement It was left to the Englishman Andrew Fuller, to combine the teaching of Abelard, Chandler and that of the New Divinity School and, in effect, reintroduce pure Grotianism with its affirmation of the moral government theory of the Atonement and its denial of vicarious and penal substitution. This is clearly seen in Fuller's teaching on moral and positive laws, the nature and fitness of things, divine revelation, man's natural abilities as a medium for spiritual truth and experience, and a metaphorical interpretation of Bible doctrine. Fuller outdid Grotius, in redefining the doctrines of the fall, imputation, satisfaction, substitution, ransom, redemption, atonement and Christ's being made sin for our sakes. Indeed, the only possible slogan that fits Fullerism, as his heresy came to be called, when thinking in terms of orthodox Biblical doctrine, is, 'You name it-Fuller changed it!'
The Moral Theory of the Atonement: An Historical and Theological Critique
Scottish Journal of Theology, 1985
In 1892, Hastings Rashdall delivered a University Sermon at Oxford entitled ‘Abelard's Doctrine of the Atonement’. In this sermon, he outlines with increasing enthusiasm what he considered to be ‘as noble and perspicuous a statement as can even yet be found of the faith which is still the life of Christendom’. The central theme of his sermon is that in the twelfth century figure of Peter Abailard can be found a theory of the Atonement which meets the demands of an age shaped in the spirit of Darwinism and historical criticism. What Rashdall understands by the ‘Abelardian doctrine of the Atonement’ is expounded at much greater length in his 1915 Bampton Lectures, The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology.
Religions
In recent decades, there has been a resurgent interest among Protestant theologians in the so-called Christus Victor theory of the atonement. Firmly grounded in patristic thought (esp. Irenaeus of Lyons), this understanding of the work of Christ was first studied and formulated by a Swedish Lutheran, Gustaf Aulén, in 1931. Recent works by Darby Kathleen Ray, J. Denny Weaver, Thomas Finger, Gregory Boyd, and others develop Aulén’s endeavor and present new versions of the Christus Victor model. These scholars directly or indirectly demonstrate that the main framework of the patristic understanding of atonement was more faithful to Scripture and less problematic in terms of dogma and ethics than the traditional Protestant penal substitution theory. A short analysis of contemporary versions of the Christus Victor motif shows that this model of atonement proves to be more relevant in responding to the challenges of today’s world by providing substantial background for Christian spiritual...
Options on atonement in Christian thought
2007
Explores many alternative theories about Christian atonement theology, its origins, its usefulness for today, its biblical antecedents, its problematic developments.