Why Is the Notion of Penal Substitution So Controversial?

[Moderator] One of the aims of your book is to give defense to the notion of penal substitution,   and I wanted to ask why do you think that  doctrine is so controversial, because   it seems to me that people really get concerned about this. And I want to read about an older   quote. This is from George Smeaton; he said this all the way back in 1870, so in the 19th century   this doctrine was also very controversial, and he said, "The question of divine wrath is at present   the great point in debate on the subject of the atonement." And I'm curious, do you think that a   discomfort with the idea of divine wrath is still a major factor in why penal substitution and other   related objective models of the atonement can be so controversial, or what do you think is causing   this to be so controversial? [Craig] I think that is one factor but not the only one, and perhaps   not even the most important one. Smeaton wrote during the heyday of classical liberal theology,   and the emphasis of liberal theology was that God doesn't need to be reconciled to human beings.   God stands with open arms ready to forgive and to embrace. Rather, it is human beings that need to   be reconciled to God, and biblically speaking  there's some justification for this. Whenever   reconciliation is used in the New Testament, it is the plea for human beings to be reconciled to God,   but that ignores the equally clear teaching that God is wrathful about sin, that he hates sin,   and that he sides with the victims of injustice and abuse and violence and so forth. If God were   emotionally indifferent to the victims of  suffering, what sort of God would that be?   And I think that the contemporary aversion  to divine wrath is the lingering vestige of   classical liberal theology. I think that although liberal theology has been largely eclipsed,   that is one of its central elements that has  persisted today, so that theologians think that   reconciliation needs to come entirely from  the human side and nothing from the divine   side. And so the wrath of God is denied,  despite the good biblical teaching on that.

Channel: drcraigvideos

Views: 13,952

Keywords: William Lane Craig, Christianity, Theology, Apologetics, Philosophy, Doctrine, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, History, Theism, World, Bible, Man, Humanity, Mankind, Logic, Cross, Salvation, Death, Penal Substitution, Christus Victor, Atonement, Gavin Ortlund

Id: taseA5Ui2gQ

Length: 2min 57sec (177 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021