Tuesday, August 28, 2007

One-trick pony?

“What I hear in those who think penal substitution is the “center” of the atonement is this: I have a bag of [golf] clubs but I like to play my 5-iron as often as possible.

“That is, if this is how they talk about their theory, soon their theory will dominate which themes in the Bible they find pertinent to atonement. In particular, they will focus on wrath, on God as holy, on the cross alone (omitting life, resurrection, and the Holy Spirit), and on the resolution of sins being little more than propitiation of wrath and declaration of justice—none of which I’d want to omit in a theory of atonement. A charitable reading of penal substitution theorists knows that most penal substitutionists do not reduce their theory to this, but I contend that there is a tendency to do so. And the way out is a more comprehensive expression for describing their 'theory.'”—A Community Called Atonement, p. 42-43 (italics his)

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