March 23
Penal substitutionary atonement
By Brian McLarenSomeone recently wrote to Brian McLaren: “I am intrigued by the growing debate on penal substitution. My history of over 35 years is — started Baptist, migrated to neo-Pentecostal community church, then Vineyard, and now ‘outside the institutional church.’ Where does the problem lie with this theory? Does it matter?”
First, I should note how many people I meet and hear from in your situation — former church members and even leaders/pastors who have made a few lateral moves in church affiliation but are now “alumni.” My suspicion is that there is a relationship between church dropouts and atonement theory (among other things).
One major problem with the theory as popularly propounded is this: It posits that God is planning eternal conscious torment for all human beings, except those who gain an exemption through some facet of the Christian religion (including, for some, believing in this theory). In at least some versions the theory posits that God cannot forgive without inflicting pain on someone. When you believe that the greatest existential threat to a human being is God venting God’s wrath on that human being — whether that wrath is deemed just or not — you put human beings in two categories: the saved and the damned, the beloved and the hated. (You’d be surprised how many people quote Psalm 5:5 and Lev. 20:23 to me … which too easily leads to Psalm 139:22, and even Psalm 137:9.)
How different if we believe that the greatest existential threat to human beings is human evil … violence, greed, lust, fear, pride, anger, superiority, hate, malice, apathy, haste, rage, etc. If that’s the case, then God enters the picture as the one trying to save us from the destructive effects of our own evil. God is not our greatest threat, but rather our greatest hope. God is not violent in nature and does not inflict harm … but rather is the model of nonviolence, forgiveness, reconciliation, pardon, grace and kindness, inviting our imitation.
True, most proponents of the theory quickly turn from emphasizing God’s need/requirement/desire/necessity to eternally and consciously torment human beings to God’s willingness to substitute God’s Son for sinners. But the theory’s assumptions about God’s character can’t be hidden, and even the escape clause has problems: How can justice and mercy be achieved through an act of injustice? If God is just, how can an innocent person be punished?
My special concern with the theory comes up in relation to our attitude toward “the other” — people of other faiths. If God’s default mode is “against” all in hostility, then those who identify with this vision of God will find it too easy to justify a similar attitude toward “the other.” This will be a major theme in my upcoming book, *<a href=”
http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Moses-Buddha-Mohammed-Cross/dp/1455513962/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330483196&sr=1-1”>Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World.* I’ll explore it especially in relation to our practice of the Eucharist.
Many people will not see any problem with the theory, or even if they do, they will not be able to bring themselves to question it. I hope that folks in that category will at least decide to guard themselves from the potentially hostile consequences of holding the theory … which is why I think they’ll find the upcoming book helpful, even though they will in the end disagree with some of it.
Brian McLaren is an author, speaker and activist who writes at brianmclaren.net, where this blog post originally appeared.
Comments
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These are certainly questions I have struggled with. I lot depends on what you think of the nature God. Is God just only because he says he is. This is often expressed as 'word' referred to in the eternal word, with the important thing concluded the perception that God is not us.
I have come to understand that God is of us in important ways. He like us, is not bound by his own nature. True his transcendence allows him to escape the material, but only when he chooses to do so. More important, it allows God to share the material realm with his creation. This is the source of his justice, in that he knows us better than we know ourselves because he is one of us.
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McLaren does a good job pointing out the problems with the doctrine of the atonement. Yet he declines to offer solutions or alternative views. I suppose it's because he wants us to buy his upcoming book (which I probably will). From my perspective, the logical conclusion of his remarks is that the God that Jesus believed in (as described in the Sermon on the Mount) has no intentions of condemning anybody, here or in the hereafter. And that the atonement doctrine is a man-made creation of the church. That's the position of the Marginal Mennonite Society (it's a Facebook page), which asserts in its manifesto that every person who has ever lived gets a seat at the celestial banquet table (Isaiah 25:6). We think that a universalist world-view (respecting the integrity of all world cultures and religions) is the next step in the evolution of christianity, taking it out of its judgmental and exclusivist head-space and into the bright, harmonious and inclusive Reality envisioned by Jesus in his parables and Kingdom sayings.
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‘How can justice and mercy be achieved through an act of injustice?’ Whose definition of justice, is this? Man's or God's?
Fascinating discussion point Brian raises on Penal substitutionary atonement (PSA). The atonement doctrine for me is multi-faceted. Jesus reconciled us to God through his sacrifice and breaking his body- giving of his life... The upside-down-ness of God’s work, that through persecution by the Pharisees and Romans- that their sin act could contribute to our redemption. God doesn’t operate under OUR logic or OUR assessment of earthly justice for his son (I tend to think justice was served when Jesus rose again and was witnessed by many). To refer to the work on the cross as injustice is looking at the Calvery experience without considering that the spilling of blood saves- as per the lamb’s blood on the first Passover in Egypt. God knew how the path to the cross and resurrection was going to go (if not we’re doubting he is all powerful) as did Jesus, for he did not flee (Mat 26.45-46). God knew what Jesus was to going experience just as Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him. If Jesus was not blind to plan his Father had for him, how could the Father be blind to an act of 'injustice’? Rather it was the ultimate contribution to the fallen world, to serve the Kingdom of God.
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