A big part of the reason why the atonement is such a big deal today is due to the increasing rift between neo- Calvinists evangelicals (John Piper, Al Mohler et al.) and the progressive evangelicals (N.T. Wright, Roger Olson, et al.). Add to this fire the growth of post-modern and post-post-modern Jesus followers who are looking at Christianity through different glasses/worldviews than their predecessor (Brian McLaren, David Fitch, Scot McKnight, et al.).

Knowing all this, I have every excited when I heard that Tony Jones had published an ebook on the atonement, “A Better Atonement: Beyond the Depraved Doctrine of Original Sin”. Tony, for those who don’t know, was a driving force in the emerging church movement of the past few decades and the author of the book “The New Christians: Dispatches From The Emergent Frontier”, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  He is also an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School – meaning that he is a post-modern theologian scholar who, I was hoping, could bring some fresh air to the conversation.

And, to a certain extent, he does deliver – even though I disagree with his final conclusion, but I’m getting ahead of myself!

The outline of the book is fairly simple with the first part being more biographical in the sense that Tony shares with the reader why he started on the journey of questioning the predominant Protestant view of the atonement (i.e. penal substitutionary atonement or PSA). After the ground work is laid, Tony shifts gears into laying out all the views of the atonement the church has held since the time of Jesus (all quotes are from Tony’s ebook):

• Penal Substitutionary Atonement – First proposed by St. Anselm of Canterbury in 1098 AD and picked up by Martin Luther and John Calvin in the 1500’s AD, this metaphors basically states that Jesus died to appease the wrath of God the Father that was directed towards humanity due to our rebellion against Him.

• Union with God – A metaphor that was developed fairly early on in Christianity history with a strong connection to the Trinity and still held by the Eastern Orthodox Church today. In a nutshell, this metaphor views the atonement as an “invitation into the eternal, loving relationship of the Trinity – ultimately, into union with God.”

“Orthodox incarnational theology, which is at the core of the original Gospel, teaches that God Himself, the second Person of the Trinity, became incarnate, not in order to pay a debt to the devil or to God the Father, nor to be a substitutionary offering to appease a just God, but in order to rescue us from our fallen condition and transform us, enabling us to become godlike.”

• Ransom Captive – This metaphor focuses on actions of Adam and Eve who “bargained away the freedom of the human race to Satan in exchange for the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Jesus, therefore, came as a ransom for the “captive human race” as stated by Jesus himself (Mt 20:28, Mk 10:45). While this metaphor has been around since the time of Jesus, some folks see “holes” in it as it seems to give the evil one too much power – or as Tony puts it in the book,

“It seems that if God is the creator of all that is, then God can act any way that God deems appropriate. And it seems rather unlikely that God would set up the cosmos in such a way that Satan could gain the upper hand and force God to negotiate a deal.” -

One good thing about the Ransom Captive metaphor of the atonement is that it has a strong emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus, which, sadly, is lacking in some of the other metaphors.

• Christus Victor – This was THIS predominant understanding of the atonement for the first thousand years of the church and is still held by billions of believers today. At its heart, this metaphor simply states that Jesus’

“…death is God’s victory over sin and death…the crucifixion is not a necessary transaction to appease a wrathful and justice-demanding deity, but an act of divine love. God entered fully into the bondage of death, turned it inside out by making it a moment of victory, and thereby liberates humanity to live lives of love without the fear of death”

• Moral Exemplar – This is another fairly early metaphor with Jesus being:

“…seen as a moral exemplar, who calls us toward a better life, both individually and corporately…God sent his son, Jesus, as the perfect example of a moral life. Jesus’ teachings and his healing miracles form the core of this message, and his death is as a martyr for this cause: the crucifixion both calls attention to Jesus’ life and message, and it is an act of self-sacrifice, one of the highest virtues of the moral life. We see Jesus’ death, and we are inspired to a better life ourselves.”

• The Last Scapegoat – A recent player on the atonement scene developed by Rene Girard, a French anthropologist/literary critic who is still alive. While this metaphor is fairly complex, the root of it is this:

“In Christ, God becomes the one who is rejected and expelled. That is, the scapegoat is not one us who is sacrificed to appease an angry deity. Instead, the deity himself enters our society, becomes the scapegoat, and thereby eliminates the need for any future scapegoats or sacrifices.”

• Substitution, Without the Penal – To be true to fair to St. Anselm of Canterbury, we must mention that his original theory of the atonement is different than the PSA it eventually developed into. For St. Anselm, humanity

“…owe God a debt, and that debt is obedience. But because of our sin, we are incapable of paying that debt, we are incapable of obedience to God. Jesus Christ, being perfectly obedient to God, is able to pay that debt, and he did so on the cross. We are not thereby freed of our obligation to obey, but we are freed of the arrears that we owe.”

• God’s Solidarity With Us – Jurgen Moltmann, a German Reformed theologian, once proposed that common to every human being is the “experience of godforsakenness.” As such, in “act of ultimate solidarity with every human being who has ever existed, God voluntarily relinquished his godship, in part, in order to truly experience the human condition.” Because of this solidarity that was made available to humanity through the cross, we are “welcomed into the relation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

[Note that it seems to me the primary difference between this theory and  the “Union with God” theory is that the Union metaphor includes an element of humanity being rescued from our “fallen condition” and being transformed while the Solidarity theory is primarily about God experiencing godforsakenness with us.]

As you can see there are many, many view on how the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus effected humanity and the world at large. None of these, as Tony mentions, are “superior to the rest.” Each one developed out of the context of a particular time and place and each have a biblical foundation. Sadly though, some Protestant leaders (mostly neo-Calvinists evangelicals) are beginning to use the atonement as a measure of orthodoxy (i.e. if you don’t hold to the PSA view, you are not a Christian)…hence the rift mentioned earlier….

At the end of the ebook, Tony Jones does mention which view of the atonement he holds too as well as why he holds to it. I found this very re-refreshing as a lot of authors try to hide their personal presuppositions behind a mirage of Bible passages and philosophical arguments.

For Tony there are four main presuppositions that affect his view of the atonement:

• He does not believe in demons nor Satan as a being.
• He hold a high view of God’s freedom – meaning that God can do whatever He wishes.
• He is a strong Trinitarian which maintains that both Jesus and the Holy Spirit has to have “full volition and participation in what the crucifixion achieves.”
• Finally, Tony is interested in understanding sin as it relates to humanity both individually and socially.

The only two views of the atonement that withstand these presuppositions is the “Last Scapegoat” and the “God’s Solidarity With Us” theories. And of these two, the Solidarity one reflects his view the best.

As any long time reader would know, I happen to disagree with Tony’s first presupposition, which means that several additional atonement theories become ‘available.’ However, I do have to say that I do agree with his other three presuppositions which does knock a few of the views out to the side lines. I won’t say that any of them are ‘removed’ completely as they each bring something to the table that the others do not have. To that end, I prefer to hold all these views with open hands while recognizing the tensions caused by this mosaic view of the atonement.

Sometimes in life it is good to have blinders on – for example, it is good to keep ourselves focused on Jesus rather than getting distracted by things of this world (i.e. wealth, fame, pride, food, etc.). However – and this is a HUGE “however” – most of the time blinders are bad.

They are bad because they are basically blind spots in our lives – places or areas that we a) either don’t know about or b) are unwilling to address.

The solution to these blinders is to have someone call out the blind spots and make them known. The “someone” could be the Holy Spirit, a friend, pastor, mentor, parent, spouse, child, family member or a stranger. In my experience it is usually a combination of all of the above…

The main question, though, is not who calls out the blind spots – the question is what we are going to do with the information. Are we going put the blinders back on and pretend that we didn’t ‘see’ anything? Ignorance, they say, is bliss.

Yet, to do this is to essentially ignore our King. We are to live in the light of Jesus and not walk around in the darkness of our own blinders and ignorance.

And yes, in case you are wondering, I do have a point in mind and it is this: if we claim to be people of the Book than we should follow the Book and stop adding/subtracting things from it.

ASBO Jesus by Jon Birch

Case in point are activities that the Bible says lead to death and pain.  Instead of staying true to what the Bible, we tend to pick and choose which activities that lead to death (i.e. sin) we like and will accept to happen in our presence. Anything that falls outside of our comfort zone is instantly dismissed as ‘evil’  – and those people who happen to be trapped in the grip of such an activity are thrown away like the garage.

Bull S*%#!!!! [insert other choice words]

It is not given to us nor anyone on the planet save Jesus the King to decided what is right or wrong. That is the responsibly of God Almighty – period. NO exception. (Remember Adam and Eve’s mistake?)

Jesus told his follows to do seven things – none of which have to do with judging others, creating a ‘sin hierarchy’, or ‘fixing’ people.

Here’s a novel thought: How about we focus on doing the things Jesus told us to do and let him deal with the rest?

“As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give…. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” –Jesus, Mt 10:7-8, 22:37-39

Today’s devotional really hit me and, as such, I wanted to share it with you all as well as give you all a chance to sign up.

Holy One, sometimes we are sinners because it is simply the easiest way
to live, doing what those around us do. Empower us to see and to live
another way, the way we see in Jesus. Amen.

FYI – the below is a screen shot of the email sent out each day to give you an idea of what in included in the Daily Text.

To help break this complacency, I decided was told by Jesus to start going down to God’s Community Pantry and praying for folks at least once a month if not more. Not wanting to wait too long (i.e. the Holy Spirit was on my case), I showed up at the pantry this past Saturday and volunteered to pray with folks, carry boxes or whatever else they needed to have done.

At first I was a tad nervous and a little bit out of my comfort zone (which was all the more reason why I needed to go down there!)…but as the day went on, I warmed up and had a great time hanging out with some awesome people and was totally blessed! In fact, I can’t wait to get back down there and say ‘hi’ to some of my new friends.

One cool experience I had that day involved a gentlemen whose had very little movement in his shoulder and was in constant pain. I prayed a real simple prayer over him, asking the Lord to embarrass him with His love while commanding the pain to be gone. Afterward I asked him how the pain was – as in, if the pain was at a 10 before we started praying, where was it after we prayed. He said it was at a 8 – which is great! The pain is going away…

Seeing that God was working, I asked if I could pray for him again and did so after he affirmed that I could. However after this prayer instead of giving me a number he looked at me and asked, “What are you doing to me?!! I feel like my shoulder is getting hot and it’s going down my arm!!”

For those who haven’t experienced this before, have heat starts in one place and move down a limp or throughout one’s body is one of the signs that God has showed up. Note that I’m not talking about getting hot because you are exercising or jumping up and down – I’m talking about an unexplained heat that shows up even when it is freezing cold.

After I explained this to the gentlemen, I asked him if we could prayer for this shoulder again as he was getting some movement back in it… understandably however he got nervous and walked off while rubbing his shoulder. This experience served as a good reminder that if you are not used to the presence of God, it can be quite scary as God is pretty big and works outside the way we usually see the world.

Pretty powerful stuff… and this is just the beginning as Jesus is kicking us out of the nest and encouraging us as a church fellowship to go out into the street and start praying and loving people. I don’t really know what this looks like…but I know that we need to do it… Come Lord Jesus, come.

I was also surprised at first to see North and South Dakotas lumped into the Big Sky region..but when I looked closer I realized that there is only one church in the Dakotas (Custer, SD) – and it’s fairly close to two other Vineyard churches in Wyoming (Gillete and Pine Haven, WY) so that makes sense. (hmm..we need to find some church planters to send out into the Dakotas…)

For those interested, a list of the new Regional Overseas can be found here.

As I watched this video I was struck close but far away all three of these men were in their views on the interactions of Christians with politics. All three were/are passionate about Jesus and living one’s faith in a way that tackled social injustices head on. However, each one of them at a slightly different take on HOW Jesus followers were to interact with the geopolitical structures and political parties.

Disclaimer: Of the three panelist, Chuck is the only one that I know the most about as I have read multiple of his books and found them full of Jesus. Shane I have heard of there and there…and Greg…well, to be honest, I don’t know much about him except that he is a huge Christus Victor atonement guy, which I like…  I mention this because I’m sure there are other things at play behind the scenes of this video… I just don’t know them.

Chuck Colson was by-far the oldest of the three panelists (who were chosen BTW to represented three different generations of Christians in politics) and had a more favorable view on political parties and how Believers could work with them. Most likely part of this worldview I think came from Chuck’s time as a politician but more likely I think it came about because of his experience running a parachurch organization.

Greg Boyd, on the other hand, was and is a pastor and, as such, approached the issue differently than Chuck or Shane. In fact, I think this difference was one of the reason why everything Greg said seemed to slide right past Chuck without him ‘getting’ the heart or the message behind the words. For example, Greg mentioned several times that he has problems with church leaders who promote USA nationalism side-by-side with the Bible and the message of Jesus. For him, as a pastor, this is a BIG deal as he primary heart is for people to learn to walk with Jesus and become citizens of heaven and not any one geopolitical nation (a view that I applause wholeheartedly, BTW). Unfortunately Chuck never seemed to get this as he kept talking about how a Believer was to be involved politically and how it is good to support one’s military troops – views, that while good on a personal level, can have devastating results if coupled a belief that the USA is a THE God ordinated nation in the world (a belief that has sadly taken over much of Evangelical Christianity in the USA). In other words, being a parachurch leader, Chuck can get away with some things that Greg as a pastor cannot, creating a disconnect that was oblivious in the video (granted, there are most likely other factors behind this disconnect…but this is just the big one that jumped out at me).

The third voice in the conversation was Shane who was also the youngest member of the group. To me he sounded a lot more moderate and practical then either Chuck or Greg. I don’t know if this was a generational thing between the speakers (i.e. Greg’s Baby Boomer generation is known for reacting to those before them, which in this case is Chuck’s Silent Generation; whereas Shane’s Gen X group had the ability to learn from both of the previous generations) or if it just because Shane is closer in age to me (he is five years older). Either way, I do have to say that I really enjoyed the comments made by Shane as I think they cut to the root of things while maintaining the tension that all Believers have in living between the Ages (i.e. being a citizen of both Heaven and the geopolitical nation one lives in).

All things aside though, this video is well worth the time invested as it does bring out the need for Christians to think through their political dealings whether that be voting, running for office or promoting social reform. As I’ve mentioned before, to be Biblical consistent we have to be political inconsistent.

Sadly enough this ministry has flourished and grown over those years…I say “sadly” because in all honestly I wish the folks in our area had jobs to support their families… unfortunately though, 51% of our county is food insecure (meaning that they do not have enough money to buy the food they need) and 20% are under the poverty line. A few miles to east in another county with the same, if not greater, problem…

And so we love people with free food, free clothes, free prayer and free hugs as “who knows but that we were placed here for such a time as this?” (to paraphrase the words of Mordecai to Queen Esther centuries ago).

Practically  though, there is a problem with the growth of need in the community. Namely we need a bigger location to better serve and love the people who visit us each week. To that end, we have been faithful praying and asking the Lord to provide as it is His ministry and ultimately His problem…

Well, today I am pleased to be able to tell you all that Jesus has open door and that He has granted us some property.

And, mind you, this isn’t just any piece of property – it is five acres of bare ground close to the main highway in our local community that matches a hand full of prayers and words from God given to us through multiple people over two states. Yeah, it’s that good! =D

Oh, and it gets better!

At least one of our fellowship, if not more, had been praying for a piece of property that was off the market and that would either be given to us or discounted fairly heavily. True to this prayer, the property in question is currently off the market and has been offered to us at 2/3ths the price that it was listed at last year. Lowing the price firmly into a price range were we can buy outright. God is so good!!! =D

Now it is just a matter of walking through all the legal hoops and wrapping everything up nice and neat. Hopefully this will happen fairly quickly and we can close within 60-days so that we can move on towards designing and building a compassion and mercy center.

Hang on folks, God’s on the move and we have been invite to join Him! =P