Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory

531. When the Bible Becomes a Barrier

Mike Parsons

If you do not see the video above, please click here.

Get more from Mike when you join any tier at patreon.com/freedomarc.

Moving Beyond the Need for Proof

When I started this journey, everything for me had to be focused in the Bible because that was what I was brought up with in the evangelical system of thinking. And that was limiting what God was able to show me, which were things beyond the Bible. But because I needed it grounded there, that grounding then was outworked in what I knew. And so I would try to do it myself because I knew and I was confident, well, the Bible says this.

481. Beyond The Pages | Finding Truth Outside the Bible

Now, at that point, I had not gone through deconstruction, and that was still what was framing my relationship with God. But God wanted to take me beyond that, so he had to start weaning me off needing proof, biblical proof, which was where my proof came from, you know, because there were things then he started to show me. Well, if you want biblical proof about this, your understanding of the Bible needs to change because the way you see the Bible now is not going to give you the proof, which is actually the truth. Because you are framing it with a wrong expectation of me.

And I suddenly started to realise that what God was saying to me is, “You do not have to do this yourself. You just let me do it.” So presenting myself as a living sacrifice, as a priest, meant for me I was doing what I needed to do to be a good sacrifice. Whereas actually Jesus my high priest prepares me in my life. But I was doing the preparation.

Trust Jesus Rather Than Knowledge

So every day I would want to go into the tabernacle in heaven and I would want to look into the bronze laver and see a reflection. But what I was looking at was a reflection of my understanding of the Bible. I did not know at that point that Jesus was the Word of God. Of course, I knew it intellectually, but actually the Bible was the word of God. So for me, that is how it was.

403. So you think the ‘Word of God’ is the Bible? Think again!

Therefore being washed by the water of the word was not Jesus doing that. It was me, reading the Bible, who was doing it. So I was actually trying to wash myself. You know, when I was trying to renew my mind, I was using the Bible to try and renew my mind. And all of the things like “the word of God is like a sharp two-edged sword just dividing soul and spirit,” – I was trying to divide my soul and spirit using the Bible to do it.

And actually what Jesus was trying to say is “No, I am the living Word. So trust me, not in your knowledge, because your knowledge will not be enough to do it because you do not know enough, and also some of the things you think you know are not true.”

So it was quite a challenge, you know, to go through that process of him removing the evangelical framework of my thinking to trust him rather than to trust my knowledge. Ultimately that took me through a whole process where I had to accept that I was in control and I was doing it myself. And I was not trying to do a bad thing, but I was still doing it in works, and I was still doing it in the power of my soul, and I was still doing it actually because I trusted myself more than God.

489. Nine Pillars That Shaped (And Shook) My Beliefs

You know, because of the [understanding of the] nature I still had of God who was to be feared, because that was before my understanding of God was deconstructed into unconditional love. So I was still functioning in penal substitutionary atonement and all of those doctrines which were my understanding of framing the Bible. So I was framing the Bible wrongly all of that time.

Surrender, Deconstruction and Trust

So he decided to wean me off the need for biblical truth and biblical proof and show me that a lot of my understanding of what I thought was true based on the Bible was not true because it was based in a false system of belief based around a god who is not actually who God is.

So you go through seasons, and it is not always easy if we do not surrender. So what I have learned to do is just surrender and trust. If it seems to be a season of inactivity, it is okay: I trust you, and I trust you enough that if there is anything you want me to do, then you will show me. And when this season changes, then I will actually sense and feel something has shifted and now something else is happening.

But it is not an easy process when you are conditioned. And I was certainly conditioned. And I had to go through a lot of deconstruction. And I had to surrender to trust God before that deconstruction could really take place. You know, there was a degree where I had experiences that challenged some of the things I believed about God, but that was not sufficient at that point without a surrendering of my soul’s need to understand and to know and effectively to be in control.

501. Deconstructing Beliefs: A Journey to Authentic Faith

So God took me through a whole process of softening me up, preparing me, a lot of refining experiences of going into fire and going into being soaked and getting ready for the most difficult thing that ever happened when I got to the point where I had to surrender my right and need to know to just trust him. And that was such a hard thing back in 2012. But since then, my relationship with God, my understanding of who God is, my understanding of who I am has been totally transformed because I now know God at a completely different level.

So go for it, you know, go for resting. And it does not mean that you cannot say to God, okay, if you want to tell me what is going on or show me what you are doing, I am open. But that is not the driving force behind what you do when you engage God. Because there is no problem, God is quite happy for us to talk to him and ask him questions, but he is quite at liberty not to give us the answer if he does not want to. And we have to accept that there is a reason for that, whatever it might be. That is what we have to trust God in, the process.

If you enjoy these videos, would you please take a moment to like, comment, and subscribe? It really does help. Thank you very much.

492. Evangelicalism Unravelled: The Fall of ‘Sola Scriptura’

Mike Parsons –

No video showing? Please click here.

They didn’t believe it in the early church. There was no penal
substitutionary atonement. The atonement, or what Jesus did on the cross, was Christus Victor, mostly. Christ victorious over what? Our lost identity, our death, over everything. A very different view of what Jesus did.

But Protestantism very quickly picked up on penal substitutionary atonement and it became the cornerstone of Calvinism and lots of other streams of thought. When that got removed, and when that evangelical pillar crumbled, all the other pillars started to wobble.

So sola scriptura was the second pillar. Well, without evangelicalism holding it up, that went over, which is why it changed my whole view about the Bible, the way I see the Bible, and the Bible being ‘the word of God’ and all that stuff: “It’s got to be in the Bible!” and all the challenge that came
with that, because God totally took me to task over it.

363. Deconstructing the Pillars of Your Mind

299. PSA Sounds Nothing Like Jesus! (Penal Substitutionary Atonement [1])

403. So you think the ‘Word of God’ is the Bible? Think again!

304. Wrath is not the solution | Penal Substitutionary Atonement [2]

Mike Parsons

Problem two with penal substitutionary atonement theory is that it makes a wrathful violence the solution to everything. PSA claims that God’s justice will not allow Him to just forgive sin; instead, His wrath must be poured out – on an innocent, in this case, Jesus – and His justice be satisfied so He can forgive the guilty (us). And again, that concept presents God as a completely violent and wrathful Being, when He is love. He’s not anger. He’s not wrath. He’s not violence. He’s love.

That is the second real, big, giant problem with the theory of atonement – and the the word ‘atonement’ really just means ‘why Jesus died on the cross’ – ‘what He was doing on the cross’ – it makes wrathful violence the solution to all our problems: in short, violence is actually the answer. Well we know that can’t be true because of Jesus’ teaching, and Jesus’ life, and everything He represented. PSA claims that God must violently punish to satisfy His justice. Now, we can counter that by saying if God had to use violence to solve the problem, we elevate violence as a viable solution for people’s problems. “If God did it, then why can’t I do it?”

That actually is why people can justify the Crusades, and all sorts of persecution of people, and ‘salvation by the sword’, and all that type of thing that happened in the past because they were coming from an Old Testament perspective. And God wasn’t even that God in the Old Testament, because He’s the same, He never changes: He has always been love.

Their view of him was wrong and Jesus came to truly reveal what God was fully like. Even when Peter used a sword to cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear, what did Jesus do? He didn’t commend Peter for violently cutting off his ear, he put his ear back and healed him. Very clearly, the pictures and some of the illustrations that use the terminology of a sword coming to divide were examples of division, nothing to do with violence.

Another claim of PSA is that God punished Jesus on the cross as an expression of His wrath. Again I think we can counter that – the idea of God using violence directly contradicts the ethics taught and lived by Jesus, who is God. There is not one instance where Jesus who is God suggests this in His teaching, especially The Sermon on the Mount. Therefore it contradicts the core of Jesus’ teaching, which is to show mercy, to love our enemies and to never use violence to solve anything.

I think mercy triumphs over man’s desire and need for justice, for sacrifice for offering, and all the other things we have created in our own forms of religion.

Key takeaway

According to PSA, violence is actually the answer. Yet this directly contradicts the ethics lived and taught by Jesus.

This is part of an occasional series taken from ‘The Chariot of Ascension‘: in which Mike began to discuss 7 problems with PSA (as identified by Bryan Finley).

299. PSA Sounds Nothing Like Jesus! (Penal Substitutionary Atonement [1])

Mike Parsons

Penal substitutionary atonement refers to the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners. God imputed the guilt of our sins to Christ, and he, in our place, bore the punishment that we deserve (Theopedia).

Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) Theory faces a significant challenge when we consider it in the light of Jesus’ life and teachings. There is a stark disparity between PSA and the person of Jesus, who is the incarnation of God and the very image of the Father. PSA appears to align with the Old Testament perception of God from a Hebrew standpoint rather than embracing the New Testament revelation embodied by Jesus.

PSA’s assertion that God cannot be in the presence of sin (due to His holiness) may resonate with evangelical doctrine. But in that case, none of us could be in God’s presence and He would not be able to even look at us. The idea that God turns His back on the world is nonsensical. And if God could not be in the presence of sin, then surely Jesus could not be either? And yet He spent time around prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners!

PSA also says that God cannot forgive sin without some form of punishment, contradicting Jesus’ consistent demonstration of unconditional forgiveness. Even on the cross, when He was undergoing punishment (by men, not by God) Jesus forgave without demanding punishment for anyone: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” PSA argues that God’s standard of justice is higher than ours and demands payment. In reality, it is we who demand payment, in the religious systems we have created.

Jesus challenged prevailing Hebrew notions of justice rooted in violence and retribution. He urged a shift from an “eye for an eye” mentality to a radical perspective of love, turning the other cheek and extending kindness to enemies. Genuine forgiveness harbours no resentment against enemies; and God, in His mercy, holds nothing against mankind. Let us allow the discrepancy between PSA and Jesus’ person and teachings to prompt a critical re-evaluation of our theological perspectives, to ensure we are aligning with the profound love and forgiveness exemplified by Jesus, even if this challenges the preconceived notions deeply ingrained in our theological traditions.

To be continued…
This is intended to be an occasional series on PSA theory.
The video above is taken from a longer one already available on YouTube:
Discover the Chariot of Ascension | Unconditional Love (18)

H/T Bryan Finley

Key takeaway

Love and forgiveness: God, in His mercy, holds nothing against us – and never has. Let’s ensure we are aligning with His profound love and forgiveness as exemplified by Jesus, even if this challenges our preconceived religious notions.