Subject: Re: Why do you believe the bible?
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 15:01:38 +0800
From: Nigel Mitchell < 
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian
On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 14:26:58 +0800, Graeme Hunt wrote (in message < >):

> a) What do you believe the Bible teaches about the doctrine of
> redemption?

The secular concept of paying a price (eg a ransom, or to a 
pawnbroker) to regain control of a person or thing has been 
used in both testaments of the Bible as a metaphor for the Divine 
action in calling people back to a loving and righteous 
relationship with God, and taking deliberate steps to make 
that possible. It is an useful metaphor, but one which does 
not bear pressing too far, as it begs the question ‘to 
whom is the price of redemption paid?’ The biblical 
emphasis is on the fact of redemption, not the details of 
legal process.

> b) What do you believe the Bible teaches about reconciliation?

The whole purpose of God’s work in Christ was to reconcile 
human beings with God and with each other. The driving force 
between this is described in some passages as divine Wrath, but 
in many more as divine Love. 

Some people believe that God is angry towards human beings, and 
needs to be changed through the propitiating sacrifice of Jesus. 
I do not believe that the Bible supports this view at all. 
Rather, God is loving towards humanity, and that cannot and will 
not change. The Cross of Christ is the ultimate expression of 
that love. It has achieved our reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11), 
and it challenges us to change our lives, so that we may Love as 
God has first loved us.

> c) What do you believe the Bible teaches about propitiation?

Propitiation is a term which describes the means by which one 
person placates or makes restitution towards another who is 
displeased or aggrieved towards them.In the ancient world many 
religions, including Israel to some extent, had systems of 
sacrifice in which they sought propitiation towards God(s). 

Although there are elements of this understanding in the Hebrew 
scriptures, unlike other religions it is certainly not the main 
purpose of the Israelite sacrificial system. The vocabulary of 
Propitiation is sometimes employed in the NT, especially in the 
KJV, and even in the Book of Common Prayer of 1662, but this is 
a distortion. The idea of ‘the wrath of God being 
propitiated by the sacrifice of Christ’ is absent from the 
NT (although some people try very hard to read this concept into 
the NT). Rather, it is God in Christ who reconciles the world 
to himself (2Corinthians 5:19).

Redemption, Reconciliation and Propitiation are three different 
words which are used in some versions of the Bible and in some 
expressions of Christian theology to express the same truth, 
namely that God has taken action in Christ to restore a loving 
relationship between humanity and God. The challenge of the 
Cross is for human beings to respond by conforming our own 
lives to the will of God by expressing that same love towards 
God and each other.

cheers
N+