16 Comments

Excellent, Mike! Thanks for this. Have you read Crisp yet? He has some very keen insights. See my https://inchristus.com/2020/02/27/oliver-crisp-on-approaching-the-atonement/

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Michael F. Bird

This has to be the best thing I've ever read on PSA... thank you.

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Nov 24, 2021Liked by Michael F. Bird

That was very informative.

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agreed, the correct atonement theory is all of them at once since they are all in scripture and don't contradict each other. PSA isn't the only atonement theory that has problems if you don't understand the trinity btw. I think moral influence theory also deflates without a trinity. A God who sits there on a priveledged throne wondering why we can't get our act together and sends their child to be tortured and die so we can admire his good example and do the same is a very different God to one that takes off their privelege, does good at great personal cost even to death and even has to learn what it is like to have to depend on God and trust Him.

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Given your understanding, does God ever 'punish' a Christian's sinful behaviour, ie after conversion?

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Nuance. Definitely. Just leave out the punishment. Consequences if you like but there’s no word for punishment in the Bible particularly where the author is God. Humans punish. God takes on the consequences. I’ll put my money on Job’s final refusal to be the referee.

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The trinitarian requirement makes Jesus complicit in his own offering (John 10.18) in the same way that Abraham and Isaac went up the hill 'together' (Gen 22). Without the willingness of the Son, some would be somewhat right to condemn the child abuse.

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This was really helpful Michael. I never could understand the "child abuse"stance. It's as if the Trinty didn't exist!

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Mike, thanks for this post. its been useful in kickstarting some thinking for something I have to write in the new year. Cheers.

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Why am I just now discovering this sub stack? This is the kind of nuance I’m looking for in these discussions. Thank you!

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First, as a 61-year-old with a family history of prostate cancer, I do a double-take every time I see "PSA" in this context.

To the point, I was not aware PSA theology had become emphasized to that extent. At the same time, for whatever reason, it is the only Atonement theology I ever hear taught. Other views are not derided, they are ignored.

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Another commenter mentioned the western obsession with law and legal language, which leads to a question that came to my mind: I’m sure I’ve read Orthodox theologians/thinkers somewhere (was it Ware? Jersak? I can’t remember) say that the Orthodox consider PSA a heretical idea. Am I right on this? And if so, what does that mean for how we approach PSA with a broader/ecumenical eye?

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I think another concern regarding the emphasis on PSA is the western obsession with law and legal language. Instead of seeing God as loving us so as to heal, restore, etc... and have relationship with Him and others, it instead becomes all about the line of legal standing.

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