Part 6 - Theories of the Atonement: Ransom Theory
The Ransom theory of the atonement is one that has its roots in some of the earliest church fathers. Erickson agreed stating, "The theory with the greatest claim to having been the standard view in the early history of the church is probably the so-called ransom theory."[1] This theory declares that the atonement was primarily a means of ransoming humanity from the clutches of Satan.
Early proponents of the ransom theory were Origen and Gregory of Nyssa. Elmer Towns explained, "Endorsed by early apologists such as Origen and Augustine, and even contemporary authors C. S. Lewis, J. R. Tolkien, and the Seventh-day Adventists, simply stated this view contends that Christ's death was a ransom
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paid to Satan for the purpose of delivering mankind from any indebtedness to the devil."[2] He continued, "However, Satan, due to his lack of omniscience, was deceived by the apparent humanity of Christ. Upon His resurrection, Christ stripped Satan's authority over death and ascended to Heaven triumphant."[3] Though proponents such as Origen utilized the Scripture from Mark 10:45 and its parallel passage in Matthew 20:28, Wayne Grudem stated, "This theory finds no direct confirmation in Scripture and has few supporters in the history of the church."[4] Utilizing the Scriptures in Mark and Matthew as proof texts for the position of the ransom theory, is in this author's view, erroneous.
While Jesus did say that He came to give His life as a ransom to many, He did not intend to give it as a ransom to …show more content…
Satan. The primary strength of the Ransom theory is its understanding that there is a ransom to be paid. It rightly assumes that Christ's death was mad as a ransom for the sins of mankind. The Ransom theory also rightly propounds that God is just and cannot bear the sins of mankind. Because of this, a ransom must be made. Gregory of Nyssa was a champion of this emphasizing God's justice. However, for its strengths, the Ransom theory is undone by its weaknesses. Primary among its weaknesses is its misrepresented understanding of to whom ransom is paid. Because the Ransom theory explains that ransom is paid to Satan rather than to God, it fails in this regard. As emphasized earlier, Christ's death was a ransom of sorts, but it was paid to God for the sins of mankind and not to Satan. Because God is just, and because He cannot bear sin, a ransom had to be made. This ransom was made to Him, however, and not to Satan. This fits nicely with the penal substitution theory in which Christ's death was on behalf of the sins of mankind and effectively ransomed mankind by substituting Himself for mankind. The Ransom theory is also undone by its insistence that God deceived Satan.
With this emphasis, it appears to make God look as if He were enjoying deceiving the great deceiver by hiding the deity of Christ. Erickson quoted Gregory of Nyssa stating, "The Deity was hidden under the veil of our nature, so that, as the ravenous fish, the hook of the Deity might be gulped down along with the bait of flesh."[5] Gregory of Nyssa even went so far as to justify his view of God's deception of Satan which suggests that the end result justifies the means. The Ransom theory fails in its attempt to explain the atonement of Christ. A view that is similar in many ways to the Ransom theory is the Christus Victor theory and will be analyzed in Part
7. __________________________ References [1] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1998), 810. [2] Elmer Towns, Theology for Today (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008), 232. [3] Ibid. [4] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994, Kindle e-book), 581. [5] Gregory of Nyssa, Great Catechism, 22, quoted in Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1998), 811.
In "The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense", why does the author believe maldistribution of punishment in itself does not make the death penalty unjust?
“Faith and hope cannot be separated. Genuine faith in Christ implies a firm confidence that our future is secure (Heb. 11:1, Romans 15:13). This essential oneness of faith and hope helps us grasp why faith always “works through love.” (Pastor John Piper, desiringGod.org) Ransom, in his first encounters with them, distrusts the Hrossa and Sorns, suspecting their intentions. Later, he realized that their only intent was to show him brotherly love. Through this he realized that the nature of humans was bent, and that in a world untouched by Satan, or “the bent one”, people would always greet each other with brotherly love. Before his time on Malacandra, Ransom had love, but he grew in understanding on Malacandra. Before, he was willing to help the boy that Weston and Devine were trying to abduct. Later, it’s talked about that man loves humanity, and it’s agreed that most humans share this love. But it’s seen through all of Ransom’s interactions with the Malacandrians that humanity is lacking in brotherly love.
... Ransom ties all of his experiences on Malacandra together and learns that trivial aspects of life should not be feared (153). Instead of fearing life and death, mankind should fear ignorance and inequality (imbalance). Through this mere statement, Ransom proved his understanding that through the use of morality, a greater understanding of life (especially fear) may be attained.
Since atonement theories are based on one’s interpretation of Scripture, as a result there is a vast amount of differing opinions throughout sects of Christianity. Theories can be split into two categories, subjective theories and objective theories. The former focuses on the humans response to the divine, while the latter focuses on what God has done and has to do. During Bach’s time, Lutheran orthodoxy, which focused on objective theories, and Lutheran pietism, which focused on subjective theories, were at odds with each other. One can view Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion as a successful attempt to bridge the two.
Lemann’s Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War gives the reader an account of events, many of which are violent, just after the end of the Civil War. On the surface, Lemann spends great time documenting the violence faced by southern blacks and the life of Adelbert Ames. However, the backdrop is more complex and deals with the changing environment in the United States. Most importantly, the need of the United States needed to integrate four million former slaves into society. Lemann states the purpose of this book is to answer the question “what kinds of lives black people might live in the South now depended on the freed slaves’ organizing abilities and on the reliability of their voting rights” (xi). The subtitle, The Last Battle of the Civil War, correctly states that although the Civil War had officially ended the battle stilled raged physically, politically, and through public sentiment.
The human experience is riddled with unpalatable truths that we discover as we journey through life. Influencing our values and attitudes by deliberately challenging the reader with humanity’s unpalatable truths, Ian McEwan prompts the reader to consider our own moral compass through the character of Briony Tallis. During the course of ‘Atonement’, McEwan demonstrates that actions and words inevitably have consequences on not only the individual but also those surrounding them. Throughout the three fundamental stages of Briony’s complicated life, her coming of age story has developed in the unpalatable obstacle of atoning for her mistakes. In misunderstanding, Briony appears naive; she thinks she can control aspects of her own world, acting
In the first part of chapter eight of The Epistle to the Romans, Tyndale talks about how there is no damnation for the followers of Jesus Christ. He introduces the reader to the life of a Christian and what you have to do to become one.
Ian McEwan illustrates a profound theme that builds details throughout the novel Atonement, the use of guilt and the quest for atonement are used with in the novel to convey the central dynamic aspect in the novel. McEwan constructs the emotion of guilt that is explored through the main character, Briony Tallis. The transition of child and entering the adult world, focus on the behavior and motivation of the young narrator Briony. Briony writes passages that entail her attempt to wash away her guilt as well find forgiveness for her sins. In which Briony ruined the lives and the happiness of her sister, Cecilia, and her lover Robbie. The reality of the events, attempts to achieve forgiveness for her actions. She is unable to understand the consequences of the actions as a child but grows to develop the understanding of the consequence with age. McEwan exemplifies an emotional novel that alters reality as he amplifies the creative acts of literature. In this essay I will be arguing that, the power of guilt prevents people from moving on from obstacles that hold them in the past.
Punishment/Capital Punishment and the Christian attitude towards it has been a topic that has been and still is being debated today. Punishment, but in particular, Capital Punishment, is a complicated topic to discuss, especially when it comes to Christian attitudes and the ethics towards it. The purpose of this report is for people to have a better understanding of what this Christian attitude is or what these Christian attitudes are towards Punishment/Capital Punishment in relation to Christian ethics. In this report, you will learn about the history of capital punishment, the different Christian groups against Capital Punishment and what the Bible says about it as well, all in relation to Christian ethics.
Jesus, a name known by billions throughout the world. To each, this name means something different; savior, friend, philosopher, prophet, teacher, fraud, fake, liar. Some even believe that He is just an imaginary character from the minds of those who wrote about Him. The Westminster Dictionary of Theology describes apologetics as, "Defense, by argument, of Christian belief against external criticism or against other worldly views" (Apologetics 31-32). Though there are still many mysteries that surround the ongoing debate about Christianity, evidence can now prove some of what Christians took by faith before. Now, more than ever, there is information to prove the existence of this man that walked the earth more than two thousand years ago. Little remains of His life and works except for that which is contained within the pages of the Holy Bible. Throughout the past century alone, there have been numerous discoveries, both scientific and archeological; to further prove the existence of a man called Jesus and reinforce the Bible as a legitimate historical document. The validity of Christianity and Jesus Christ himself has been the center of religious controversy for centuries. Though His identity has not and probably never will be proven, He did exist. This paper will use apologetics to prove this so. Sufficient evidence proves the existence of Jesus and forms a firm basis for Christianity.
This essay is about the novel Atonement. It explores the idea that successful writers create characters with which we can identify. It discusses three different characters from this novel and how true this statement to them.
The concern of the death penalty not only pertains to social problems, but also to biblical aspects as well. Walter Berns states many passages from the Bible that support the death penalty, but after careful research he determines that the passages can be interpreted in many different ways. To read this passage from Genesis someone might think that the death penalty is suppo...
Helen Gardner addresses this notion, claiming how “Satan is, of course, a character in an epic, and he is in no sense the hero of the epic as a whole. But he is a figure of heroic magnitude and heroic energy, and he is developed by Milton with dramatic emphasis and dramatic intensity” (Baker/Helen, 208). Satan is without a doubt the antichrist, or “villain” in the biblical scriptures, however one must take into consideration his alternative and more ambiguous portrayal in Paradise Lost. In this paper, I will analyze Satan’s actions, physical portrayal and speeches in Book I of Paradise Lost, and argue that from the textual evidence, these aspects of Satan are ultimately ambivalent, thus Satan cannot be categorized as either the extreme hero or the extreme villain, but rather as a dramatic figure with both heroic and villainous characteristics. The preliminary depiction of Satan’s actions in Paradise Lost appears after Milton describes God, his kingdom of heaven, and his children Adam and Eve.... ...
“There is nothing between you and Hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up,” a quote from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, explains the thoughts and beliefs of the time. Many pieces of literature from the same time period tend to have similar themes. Sin and redemption are the common themes that appear to be most redundant. This is shown mostly through the works entitled, The Crucible, The Minister’s Black Veil, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and Redemption.
Repentance in general refers to that act of remorsefulness or regretting from what you have done. In the bible, repentance has been greatly covered in both the Old and the New Testament. The New Testament has a total of twenty seven books with some of them touching on the repentance as a topic. The Old Testament on the other hand contains thirty nine books with some of them covering repentance as a topic in different ways. The bible teaches various topical issues using people and events. Repentance has continued developing in the old and the New Testament because of the difference in the way various writers were inspired to cover the topic. The Old Testament books were written before the New Testament and it refers to the historic times before