Marginal Christianity

Well, pretty much everything, we’ve discovered. Imperial domination of our lives reduces us to a simulacra, a parody of the life God intends for his creatures. It robs us of our energy, strength, creativity, and power rendering us somnambulent unparticipants in our living. Joy restores all that to us and for us. It is a gift of God that often unexpectedly lays hold of us and reorients our lives back to their true north. This paragraph at the beginning of 1 Peter says it well: 3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4  and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5  who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6  In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7...

http://howardsnyder.seedbed.com/2014/03/25/atonement-theory-and-atonement-fact-part-ii/ Posted on March 25, 2014 by Howard Snyder Way back in May 2013 I posted a Seedbed blog on atonement and promised a Part II. Since then people have been asking: When? Well, here it is. The focus here is on a few specific biblical texts, but this is part of an ongoing larger discussion. (The original blog is here: http://howardsnyder.seedbed.com/2013/05/25/atonement- theory -and-atonement-fact-part-i/). Atonement is woven all through Scripture. It is part of the large story of rescue, redemption, covenant, and the promise of creation restored that runs throughout the Bible and that centers above all in Jesus Christ . There is of course an Old Testament theology of atonement, culminating in the great Day of Atonement. However my focus here in Part II is on some familiar New Testament passages that are and often cited when discussing God’s work through Jesus Christ in providing ato...