Fundamentalism teaches us that God is much like a military general; a hard-nose who loves us, but loves us somewhat reluctantly (When you Really get down to how fundamentalism represents God). In general, the system hinges on Biblical Literalism and Substitutionary Atonement. God loved us so much that he sent a law-based religious system of sacrifice. When that failed, God loved us so much that he sent the Lamb of all lambs to die for our sins in the same way unblemished lambs of old did. So, God's love (grace) is not enough on its own; it needs a religious system to help it do what it falls short of. We get to accept it or reject it; God loves us so much that He places our eternal fate in our hands, so fundamentalism says.
I wholeheartedly believe that in Jesus, God breathed on the human race. As the early church developed, it had the task of interpreting and explaining God's Pneuma (that's greek for "breath" and "spirit"), which they had experienced in Jesus. Now, what God did originated outside of time and space, therefore, when God acted within time and space, the activity was "layered," so to speak. It covered the basis on different levels at the same time. I believe the theory of Substitutionary Atonement is certainly in the New Testament, but served as a tool to aid the Jews in making a transition out of core beliefs cemented in their psyche that were founded upon the sacrificial system and the law. They needed to transition from that, into a grace-based trust in God's love for them; not in the external system that had gotten so deeply imbedded within them. The meaning the church attributed to Jesus' death served that purpose. However, Biblical Literalism, in our day, has come to the conclusion that Substitutionary Atonement is a literal, or "scientific" truth in the broadest sense of the word. I believe this is false. It presupposes that God was angry toward us and needed help forgiving, so he made a way for himself to be able to forgive. God never held a grudge to begin with. The whole system short-changes the Covenant Love of God something fierce and the whole church is suffering from an inability to stretch its inner being to enter into a new understanding of how deep, wide, broad and long the Agape love of God is toward us. God’s love for us is the heart of our atonement. The primary way it is fleshed out in the crucifixion is by showing how deeply depraved our carnal order of life is; our understanding of power, government and ourselves. It shows us our depravity; individually, socially, culturally, politically, religiously... This approach to atonement is consistent with Jesus message of the Kingdom of God.
2006-12-05
14:10:37
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