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List of Those Who've Held Atonement Views other than PSA

Jerome

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
How about we start with SBC Founder W.B. Johnson, who held instead to the moral government view.



From the 2009 official history of SBTS regarding the creation of the seminary's Abstract of Principles in the 1850s:

Southern Baptist Seminary 1859-2009

"there was one other view prevailing among Southern Baptists...a 'moral government' view of Christ's death....Two prominent Southern Baptists held this view, William B. Johnson and Edwin Mims, Boyce's predecessor at Furman."

In drafting the Abstract, Basil Manley sought "to accommodate the moral government view."



More on the Southern Baptist Convention's founding president W.B. Johnson's moral government view:

books.google.com/books?id=N7NLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA150

"For example, within his sermon, Eternal Misery the Desert of the Sinner, he refers, on several occasions, to God as being the 'Moral Governor of the Universe', in a manner similar to Hugo Grotius(1583-1645)."



"Love Characteristic of the Deity," a sermon by SBC Founder W.B. Johnson, from the Founders 'Ministries' website, details his moral government, love-centered view:

web.archive.org/web/20120209210017/http://www.founders.org/library/sermons/johnson.html

"Taking this view of the atonement then, it will evidently appear, that the love of God is the procuring cause of the atonement....it represents him as an amiable Father, and infinitely benevolent moral Governor"
 

JonC

Moderator
Moderator
Outside of the SBC William Barclay held to Recapitulation, C.S. Lewis to a Christus Victor model, T.F. Torrance to what he referred to as "total substitution", Jonathan Edwards (Jr.) to the Governmental theory, William Tyndale to Scapegoat theory (within the substitution model but not PSA), Denny Weaver to Christus Victor in a non-violent atonement (Mennonite), Charles Finney to Government Theory....just to mention a few.
 

Rebel1

Active Member
George Fox, founder of the Quakers, held to Christus Victor. I had a document which concluded that but can't locate it right now.
 

Earth Wind and Fire

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Outside of the SBC William Barclay held to Recapitulation, C.S. Lewis to a Christus Victor model, T.F. Torrance to what he referred to as "total substitution", Jonathan Edwards (Jr.) to the Governmental theory, William Tyndale to Scapegoat theory (within the substitution model but not PSA), Denny Weaver to Christus Victor in a non-violent atonement (Mennonite), Charles Finney to Government Theory....just to mention a few.
How about John Gill?
 

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
PCUSA holds, I think, to the 'Moral Influence' theory.
Three or four years ago, PCUSA were compiling a new hymn-book and approached Stuart Townend and Keith Getty to include their hymn, In Christ alone.' However, PCUSA wanted permission to change the lines that read
'And on that cross, as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied.....'

to read
'And on that cross, as Jesus died,
The love of God was magnified....'

But Townend and Getty, after consulting with Alister Begg (who recounted the story at a conference I attended), refused, so PCUSA didn't use the hymn.
 

JonC

Moderator
Moderator
Curtis Freeman (Research Professor of Theology and Baptist studies and Director, Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School) was critical of the SBC resolution affirming PSA objecting to the “location of the ultimate source of the violence of the cross” within that theory.
 

JonC

Moderator
Moderator
Bob Terry (editor of The Alabama Baptist) expressed his opinion in an 8 Aug editorial, affirming divine wrath against sin while objecting to the theory of Penal Substitution.
 

Jerome

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
PCUSA holds, I think, to the 'Moral Influence' theory
Documentation? Please substantiate your claim.
I have the CD of the address by Alister Begg. I suppose I could mail you a copy if you like.
The account by Alistair Begg regarding the hymnal that you posted above could be misleading.

For a better understanding:

sojo.net/articles/presbyterians-stir-theology-debate-rejecting-popular-new-hymn
Committee members had found a version of the hymn with the alternate text in the Celebrating Grace Hymnal, a Baptist hymnal published in 2010. They assumed the songwriters already had agreed to the change. “We had every reason to think that this was an authorized text because it appeared in a recent hymnal,” Bringle said.
The Presbyterians’ new Glory to God hymnal, due out this fall, includes songs such as “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” which talk about substitutionary atonement — the idea that Jesus took the place of sinners on the cross. It also includes songs about God’s wrath
“People think that we’ve taken the wrath of God out of the hymnal,” Bringle said. “That’s not the case. It’s all over the hymnal. The issue was the word ‘satisfied.’” That term was used by the medieval theologian Anselm, who argued that sins offended God’s honor, and someone had to die in order to satisfy his honor.

Anselm's Satisfaction Theory of Atonement
 

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
The account by Alistair Begg regarding the hymnal that you posted above could be misleading.

For a better understanding:

sojo.net/articles/presbyterians-stir-theology-debate-rejecting-popular-new-hymn



Anselm's Satisfaction Theory of Atonement
Alistair Begg is/was Stuart Townend's pastor so he should be closer to events than your account.
I don't really see a difference, whether it's the wrath they objected to or the satisfaction, but if it worries you, ask a mod to delete it; it's not a big deal. :)

BTW, O Sacred Head sore Wounded is an OK hymn, but it says nothing about God's wrath.

Sorry about the spelling; I confused Alistair Begg with Alister McGrath :oops:
 

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
"O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"

4. My burden in Thy Passion,
Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression
Which brought this woe on thee.
I cast me down before Thee,
Wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee;
Redeemer, spurn me not!
How strange these things are! The version I have is rather different:

O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded

Or you might try this one:

O Sacred Head Now Wounded - HymnSite.com - United Methodist Hymnal #286

Or this one

O sacred head sore wounded - HymnsWithoutWords

None of them seem to have the verse you quote.
 

Rebel1

Active Member
Bob Terry (editor of The Alabama Baptist) expressed his opinion in an 8 Aug editorial, affirming divine wrath against sin while objecting to the theory of Penal Substitution.

And he got a lot of flack for that, as I recall.
 
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