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HARSH JUSTICE: THE GOSPELS, THE MACCABEAN MARTYRS, AND PENAL SUBSTUTIONARY ATONEMENT
The PSA Story At the heart of evangelical Christianity is a story. The story goes like this. Humans collectively (in Adam) and individually (on our own dime) have fallen–sinned. The sins of the human race offend God or, more precisely, offend God’s justice. And if God is to be God, then God must punish these sins. Punishment…
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Harsh Justice, Introduction
BAD THEOLOGY 8: PENAL SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT Moving to a Conclusion Some time ago, I promised as a conclusion to my Bad Theology series to address what is perhaps a core doctrine in the evangelical theology toolkit: penal substitutionary atonement (PSA). PSA is the view that Jesus suffered and died to satisfy the wrath of God…
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READING THE BIBLE . . . WRONG: BAD THEOLOGY 6
The gospel reading this past Sunday was Luke 4:14-21. In the reading, Jesus has returned home. With “the power of the Spirit” resting on him (4:14), he must have seemed different. He has already been preaching in the villages round about Galilee, but now at last he is home in Nazareth. His fame (Greek phēmē)…
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WHEN THE ORGAN GOES SILENT: BAD THEOLOGY 4
WHEN THE ORGAN GOES SILENT I’m not sure when I first noticed that the organ had fallen silent. The synods of the Christian Reformed Church met for many years in the Calvin University Fine Arts Center Auditorium. (Lately, the synod has moved to the Calvin chapel building.) The auditorium features the impressive Zondervan Memorial Organ, built…
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BAD THEOLOGY 3: THE THEOLOGY OF POWER
BAD THEOLOGY, PART THREE I began this series of posts with a question: How has it happened that evangelical Christianity has so enthusiastically embraced Donald Trump. At first glance, this would not seem an alliance made in heaven—or anywhere else. In his book, The Violent Take It by Force (Fortress, 2024, Kindle Edition), a book I’ll come…
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BAD THEOLOGY, PART TWO: AN APOCALYPTIC HABIT OF MIND
In my last post—a short introduction to this series of blogs I’m calling Bad Theology—I asked why evangelical Christians seemed so susceptible to the blandishments of Donald Trump and his allies. Why in the face of his numerous lies, his business and personal failures, his many violations of basic Christian ethics, and his lack of any apparent allegiance…
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BAD THEOLOGY
Tim Alberta opens his bestselling book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (HarperCollins 2023), by recounting a February 2021interview with Chris Winans, the pastor of Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brighton, Michigan. At the time of the interview, it had not been going well for Winans. People were leaving…