The Crossroads of Christianity and Culture

For substitutionary atonement theory. Actually, let's get rid of the word  theory  first. Because the use of the term atonement theory by theologians is extraordinarily misleading. A theory is a description of the rules governing interactions in nature. One result of a theory, if it is a theory at all, is that it makes predictions about how objects and people will behave in certain circumstances.  So, for example, Isaac Newton's theory of gravity specified the way that objects having the property of mass would interact with each other (they would each exert an attractive force proportional to their mass.) It was readily testable by observing objects from apples to planets and seeing how they were attracted to one another. And it was thus enormously successful. Theories of the atonement appear like theories in that they describe the rules governing God's relationship with humans. They glean these rules from interpretations of scripture related to both the character of God th

We must find a way to manage our disagreements about the Bible. And that can happen only when we begin listening to each other instead of accusing each other. Although its been over 40 years, it seems like yesterday that i was sitting in Dr. Bulhof's honors seminar in historical method at the University of Texas. We were learning the difference between  chronologie, geschichte, and historie.  Thorough Kantians, we learned to distinguish that which could be empirically verified as true events ( historie)  from the interpretation of the meaning of reported event, whether morally, politically, economically, socially, and so on.  Of course we distinguished between mere  chronologie  or an ordered listing of events and  geschichte;  the exploration of their meaning.  And of course we studied in some depth what constituted empirical verification of descriptions of past events. Which takes us immediately to the problem of the Bible and whether it is  chronologie,   historie, and/ or  gesc

We often sing these old hymns without asking what in the world they mean. But if our music is going to be a witness to Christ, then we can't repeat words without meaning. We need to know what they mean and show they mean it in our lives.  The New Testament makes only one specific reference to Christ as a rock, and that is I Corinthians 10:4. That takes us back to the rock from which Israel received water in the wilderness. (Exodus 17:6) Paul's point is not that Christ is rock to stand on, but that Christ was the rock that provided water in the dessert to Israel, and so Christians draw from that same spring of living water.  Matthew offers us two references to a rock. Matthew 7:24-25 identifies Jesus' words as the rock on which to build a life that endures. Matthew 16:18 identifies Peter as the rock on which the church will be built. Luke reiterates the words of Jesus found in Matthew 7.  So properly speaking Christ isn't the rock on which we stand. The teaching of Jes