10/06/26 ONE ATONEMENT, MANY THEORIES

10/06/26 ONE ATONEMENT, MANY THEORIES

There is one ATONEMENT.
There are several THEORIES of the one Atonement.

The Atonement is what God did to provide salvation for sinful people, and it is revealed in God's word.

Theories of the Atonement are human explanations, which are based upon specific systems of theology. The Theories are reminiscent of the Six Blind Indians who gave their individual descriptions of an elephant. (I am not saying that the elephant is the model of the Atonement, I am saying that the human attempt to explain the something is the same.

Some of the Theories of the Atonement are:

Recapitulation (Irenaeus)

Ransom (Origen) [to Satan or to God]
Satisfaction (Anslem) [Propitiation]
Moral Influence (Abelard)
Penal Substitution (Reformers)
Example (Socinus)
Governmental (Grotius)
Mystical (Schleiermacher)
Vicarious Repentance (John M. Campbell)
Elect and Effective (Barth)
Christus Victor (Aulen)

The Atonement is Sacrificial, (Divinely provided by God's love and mercy, satisfying God's Justice), it is Sufficient for all sinners, and it is Efficient for all who believe), it is Substitutionary (Jesus did for us that which we cannot do for ourselves).

Remember, the devil will use right words to lead us astray. Just because the word, "Atonement" is used by a "Christian" speaker, it does not mean that they are using the word correctly. They may be adding to the actual meaning, or they may be subtracting from the actual meaning, or they could be twisting the actual meaning.

While most of these Theories include elements of truth, they also have elements of error, and none of these Theories includes all of the truth. This is not a simple subject to address, but it is a worthy subject. In this post I am not explaining these Theories. I am simply saying that the Atonement is more than any one Theory presents and the Atonement does not include many of the things presented by the various Theories.

There are some truths we can know about the Atonement, because the Bible says them clearly.

There are some misrepresentations of the Atonement in these Theories because they hold to a Systematic Theology, which disagrees with certain Biblical truths.

Therefore, I encourage folks to be careful when hearing a doctrine presented. It may be faithfully Biblical, or it could be a partial truth that fits an errant narrative.