{"id":27205,"date":"2015-04-04T02:23:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T01:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/?p=27205"},"modified":"2018-02-16T14:54:17","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T14:54:17","slug":"questions-for-christians-and-other-theists-part-3-the-atonement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/questions-for-christians-and-other-theists-part-3-the-atonement\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions for Christians and other theists, part 3: The Atonement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cruc.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-27206\" src=\"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cruc-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"cruc\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cruc-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cruc-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cruc-500x281.jpg 500w, http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/cruc.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This weekend, millions of Christians will express gratitude to Jesus Christ for saving them through his sacrifice. \u00a0Few of them will be asking the obvious follow-up question: &#8220;How does that work, exactly?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s Christianity&#8217;s dirty secret:\u00a0<em>No one has a good explanation of how atonement works.\u00a0<\/em>There is no consensus among Christians, and none of the theories offered actually make sense.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll describe the most widely accepted theories here in the OP. We can dissect them in the comments.<\/p>\n<p><b>1. The Ransom Theory<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Humanity sold itself to Satan via the Fall, and Jesus buys us back through his sacrifice. Another version of the theory has the ransom being paid to God the Father.<\/p>\n<p><b>2. The Satisfaction Theory<\/b><\/p>\n<p>God was dishonored by humanity&#8217;s rebellion, and only the obedience of Christ in sacrificing himself could restore God&#8217;s honor.<\/p>\n<p><b>3. The Penal Substitution Theory<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Jesus is punished in our place.<\/p>\n<p><b>4. The <i>Christus Victor<\/i> Theory<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Through his death and resurrection, Jesus defeats the powers of death, sin and evil that hold humanity in thrall.<\/p>\n<p>Christians, let us know which theory of atonement you subscribe to. If none of the above, please summarize your own view in your comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend, millions of Christians will express gratitude to Jesus Christ for saving them through his sacrifice. \u00a0Few of them will be asking the obvious follow-up question: &#8220;How does that work, exactly?&#8221; Here&#8217;s Christianity&#8217;s dirty secret:\u00a0No one has a good &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/questions-for-christians-and-other-theists-part-3-the-atonement\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}