What Does It Mean That Christ Ransomed Us?
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“In most people’s understanding, ransoms are paid by good people, but demanded by horrible people…. ‘the kidnappers demanded a ransom.’” - Randy Alcorn
Can I Tell an Unbeliever ‘Jesus Died for You’?
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“there are no evangelistic sermons in Acts where this precise language is used. If Peter and Paul could evangelize without saying ‘Jesus died for you,’ then you shouldn’t make it a litmus test for gospel orthodoxy.” - TGC
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Does the Doctrine of Limited Atonement Undermine Evangelism?
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“The doctrine of limited atonement, in reality, is helpful in evangelism. The Calvinist knows that not everyone will respond to the gospel message, but he also knows with certainty that some will respond to it.” - R.C. Sproul
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Can We Integrate 8 Views of the Atonement? A Review of ‘Mapping Atonement’ by William G. Witt and Joel Scandrett
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“Overall, Mapping Atonement accomplishes its goals of providing a historical and theological survey and a critique…. many of us will wish the authors were less reticent to embrace penal substitution as the central motif of an integrated atonement theology.” - TGC
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Best Newish Book about the Atonement: William Lane Craig's Atonement and the Death of Christ: An Exegetical, Historical, and Philosophical Exploration
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“he demonstrates conclusively that the ancient church fathers—from Irenaeus to Augustine (and he could have gone further) believed in and taught substitutionary atonement. It is simply a myth that they taught the Christus Victor or ransom theories instead.” - Roger Olson
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Jesus Didn’t Die on the Cross for Our Sins?
According to one writer at Beliefnet, Jesus didn’t die on the Cross for our Sins. She further added under the title of her articles that, “The idea Jesus ‘paid the price’ isn’t found in the Bible.”
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“the categories that form the basis for penal substitutionary atonement do not arise from an ‘Enlightenment worldview’ or from the interpretive biases of a Western judicial framework”
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“It seems that Wu misunderstands what we mean, however, when we say that biblical categories must take precedence over cultural ones (and when we imply that honor / shame proponents elevate cultural categories over biblical ones).” - 9 Marks
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3 Reasons I Changed My Mind About Penal Substitution
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“Three significant things have shaped my thinking about the death of Christ, and I’m now much closer to where I started than I imagined I might be.” - TGC
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Theology Thursday – Anselm on the Atonement
Anselm was a brilliant guy. A genius. He published his book Why God Became Man in 1097, so you could say it’s a bit of an antique. Anselm’s book is really about why Christ had to take on a human nature and be conceived of and born to a virgin. But, along the way, he tackled the reason for Christ’s death and thus popularized the “satisfaction theory” of atonement, which envisioned God as an overlord of sorts who was owed “satisfaction” or payment by his subjects for crimes committed, in order to set things right.
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